


Zoorangers

by Bionichute



Category: Super Sentai Series, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crossover, Gen, Monster of the Week, Science Fiction, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2018-09-17 06:45:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 43
Words: 729,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9310037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bionichute/pseuds/Bionichute
Summary: Evil is rising. A group of mysterious, otherworldly monsters begin attacking Zootopia, and Nick and Judy find themselves as the only ones who can stop it. Using powers from another world, they must defeat the monsters, and protect not just the city, but two universes! Join them as they make new allies, and unravel the mystery behind an ancient evil. Features monsters and characters from across Super Sentai history, as well as many OCs. Updates weekly.





	1. The Awakening

He awoke.

Where was he? Looking around, all he saw was black, with vaguely grey structures. Some sort of cave? His eyes adjusted to the darkness rather quickly, and he noticed that, while it looked like a cave, it was clearly artificial.

Stalagmites and stalactites hung from the ceiling, but instead of rough rock, they were smooth, clearly made of metal. As he walked forward, his steps caused a metallic clang. The path forward was unlit, dark as…

Dark as himself.

Memories suddenly flooded back into his mind, training, betrayal, and finally, his own death.

His name is Kyuemon Gengetsu, also known as Kyuemon Izayoi, son of the evil Yokai Warlord Kibaoni Gengetsu. His plan to revive his father, and fulfill his plans to control the world, had backfired at the last second, resulting in his defeat by the ninja heroes, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger.

Was this Hell?

He walked down the metallic cavern, only his thoughts to keep him company. It felt like years had passed, until he heard a voice.

"'Allo 'allo 'allo!" The voice, sounding both cheery and somewhat smug, came from behind the Yokai.

He swiftly spun around, catching sight of the mysterious voice. It came from a human, wearing a grey trench coat, and silver goggles, one lens having a strange symbol painted on it. With a smirk on his face he walked towards Kyuemon, who backed away.

"Who are you?" He asked calmly.

"I am Monsieur Enter, and who, in return, are you?"

"Kyuemon…" He paused for a second. "Izayoi."

"Ah, I'm guessing you're the final arrival, hmm?" Enter presumed, gesturing with his hands as his final word trailed.

"What?" Kyuemon said, calm, but surprised. "There are other here?"

"Oui oui, follow me…" He said cheerfully, as he strolled past the yellow clad Yokai. "And I'll take you to them." His tone suddenly turned dark with his final words.

Kyuemon followed the mysterious man down the cave.

It felt like hours before they reached their destination. As they got closer, Kyuemon noticed some peculiarities. The deeper they got the more obvious the artificiality of the cave became, as gears, tubes, and many other machinery became common.

At some points he swore he saw people running around, just out of his view.

Eventually, they reached a large room, the first opening in the whole corridor. There was around a half-circle of room in it, with six other tunnels branching out from it. Partway through the room, there sat a large cylinder, with a bright, red energy pulsing through it.

Kyuemon could swear it was watching them.

But most interestingly, there was a table in the middle of the room, with a strange, moving, black and blue bioluminescent pattern, and six chairs surrounding it, 4 of them occupied.

In one sat a black and red creature, resembling a biker and an insect at the same time. What could have been a leather jacket, or perhaps his skin, hung open only around his chest area, and what looked like zippers outlined him, even where it wouldn't make sense. His head looked like a biker helmet, but it was very clearly his actual head, and was colored both black and red. His legs were crossed, one resting on the table, and he fiddled with a pair of pistols, spinning them around, but never firing them.

The second seat had a stranger being, a white and purple monster, half his suit white, half purple, with a single horn protruding from his forehead. He had a short blonde bob cut hanging from his otherwise inhuman head, and his head, legs, and chest were had strange oval markings in a variety of colors. He sat awkwardly, hanging off the chair, seemingly out of boredom. In front of him was a crude drawing, with a knife stabbed into it.

The third seat held a being that was hard to clarify as being a human, as he wore a large suit of armor, decorated with ornate golden dragons, covering his chest, head, legs, and arms. The most notable part was the chest plate, which consisted of many dragon heads formed into a triangle. The only part that broke its golden sheen was the face, with a large red cross that shone brightly. He sat calmly, perhaps too calmly, and immediately set his eyes onto Kyuemon.

The final seat hosted an obviously inorganic being, some form of robot that was also colored gold, or at least, was colored gold, as it had turned into more of a rusted, dirty color. His body was decorated with a number of nuts and bolts, which formed a bit of unevenness in the shoulders, as they consisted of two completely different designs. The bolts sticking out of the side of his head, and his general build reminded Kyuemon of someone from his past, but he couldn't remember who. He also sat calmly, but had an obvious edge to him that the dragon armor creature didn't have.

"I'd say introductions are in order?" Enter said to the strange group, who all quickly turned to face the Yokai and the human.

"Sambash." The being in the first chair replied, quickly looking away from the two to go back to fiddling with his guns.

"Duke Org, Yabaiba, nice to meet ya!" The jester-like creature called out next, waving his hands at Kyuemon.

"Long." The armored one said quietly, finally removing his sight from Kyuemon.

"Land Pollution Minister, Yogostein!" The robot yelled out, pounding his chest with his hand.

Kyuemon stepped forward, "I am Kyuemon Izayoi." He said to the gathering.

He and Enter walked towards the table, and took the two remaining seats, an awkward silence falling among them. As they sat down, the table's pattern changed, turning into a pure red, and the few lights in the room dimmed, turning all eyes to the cylinder on the other side of the room.

A hellacious noise filled the room, coming from the cylinder, causing it light up even brighter than before, while the noise was a mix of mechanical grinding and agonized screaming. The sheer volume of the scream, sent a shockwave through the room, causing everyone at the table to flinch, but only Kyuemon was pushed by the shockwave.

Then, it began to speak.

" **I AM THE OMNIPOTENT** " it yelled, pulsing with every word it cried. A wave of fear fell upon the group, aside from Long and Enter, who remained calm.

" **I HAVE BROUGHT YOU BACK FROM YOUR GRAVES** " it continued, Kyuemon looked around, everyone here was supposed to be dead.

" **YOU WILL SERVE ME IN MY REVENGE, AND IF YOU DO, I WILL REWARD YOU ALL AS WELL, WITH A SECOND CHANCE, AND YOUR OWN REVENGE AGAINST THOSE WHO KILLED YOU** "

"That sounds like a great deal!" Yabaiba yelled cheerfully, "You can definitely count me in."

"HAH!" Yogostein let out, standing up, "Yeah, like Go-Onger would let us cause an trouble!" He continued, mockingly.

"You mean Gaoranger, right?" Yabaiba replied, confused.

"Who?" The robotic general questioned back.

"Sorry, I think you mean Gingaman." Sambash said, turning to Yabaiba.

"What are you…" Yabaiba tried to continue, only for the conversation to be interrupted by a pulse of energy from The Omnipotent.

" **QUIET** "

The three quickly returned to sitting in their seats, and looking at the powerful being, in clear terror.

" **ALL SIX OF YOU WERE DEFEATED BY A GROUP OF HEROES COLLECTIVELY KNOWN AS SUPER SENTAI, BUT YOU HAVE NO REASON TO FEAR THEM ANY MORE** "

The table flashed, revealing a city, with clear blue skies, and lush fields surrounding it. Kyuemon noticed that Yogostein retched when he saw it.

" **I HAVE TAKEN YOU TO AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE, A WORLD WHERE SUPER SENTAI HAS NEVER EXISTED** "

A brief pause gave the six time to think, but it was quickly interrupted when The Omnipotence began to speak again.

" **AND ALL I ASK OF YOU IS TO DESTROY THIS WORTHLESS CITY** "

"That's it?" Long apathetically replied, "One city and you'll give us freedom and revenge? How boring."

"Yeah, I've destroyed entire dimensions!" Yogostein boasted, "But one city is small pickings for our revenges to be complete."

"Like I said, I'm definitely in." Yabaiba repeated.

"I guess I could, probably be pretty fun."Sambash stated.

"What's the catch?" Enter coldly asked.

This caught the attention of the others, but before any more questions could be asked, another pulse shook the room.

" **THIS WORLD IS FAR DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE YOU KNOW…** "

Attention was again drawn to table-monitor, as the far out shot of the city quickly zoomed in, showing the streets, revealing the seemingly normal city to be something truly strange to the already strange group of individuals.

Instead of humans doing as they would normally, walking, driving cars, they were replaced by a large variety of different animals. From elephants to mice, all walking on two legs, wearing clothing.

Yabaiba jumped out of his seat, Sambash and Yogostein grew visibly angry, and Long leaned in closer, his interest piqued.

"What!? Animals!? This is bad!" Yabaiba yelled in frustration.

"Interesting," Enter stated, "An alternate timeline where animals evolved into the dominant species instead of humans."

Kyuemon turned and looked at the suspicious human, "How, exactly, do you know that?" he questioned.

"It's best to not answer that." He replied, his expression suddenly turning dark.

" **ENTER IS CORRECT, THIS IS AN ALTERNATE WORLD, WHERE WILDLIFE DEFEATED HUMANITY IN THE RACE OF EVOLUTION** "

"Uh, 'scuse me, but…" Yabaiba awkwardly interjected, "But I've had enough animals for a lifetime, and I have some… place I need to be." He finished as he nervously turned to exit the room.

"Me too!" Yogostein followed, "I have… gears…. To grind." He lied.

A pulse of energy shook the room, as the two retreaters fell to the floor, clutching their heads and yelling in pain.

" **THIS IS NOT A REQUEST, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU BACK, AND CAN JUST AS EASILY RETURN YOU TO OBLIVION** "

Another pulse of energy burst forward, and the two slowly got back to their feet and returned to their seats.

"So," Enter started, "I take it we all have issues with animals?"

Everyone at the table either nodded or grunted in agreement – Aside from Kyuemon, who sat there quietly.

"I'm fine with this," Sambash announced, "They're defenseless, and it's like getting revenge on those Sentai teams that killed us!"

"It does seem interesting." Long coldly stated.

"NOW, LET US GET TO BUSINESS" The Omnipotence yelled, pulsing with energy. "I HAVE SPEARATED YOU INTO THREE DIFFERENT TEAMS."

" **ENTER, KYUEMON** " He yelled, causing the two to stand up, " **YOU ARE THE ESPIONAGE TEAM, YOU WILL BLEND INTO THE CITY AND GATHER INTEL, BUT I WILL ALLOW YOU TO CAUSE CHAOS AS YOU SEE FIT** "

" **YABAIBA, YOGOSTEIN** " Those two were the next to stand up, "Y **OU ARE THE MECHANICAL TEAM, YOU WILL USE THE WORLD'S OWN CREATIONS AGAINST THEM TO CAUSE CHAOS** "

"Wait wh-" Yabaiba tried to say, before being interrupted by another energy pulse.

" **FINALLY, SAMBASH AND LONG** " The last two villains stood up, " **YOU TWO ARE THE DESTRUCTION TEAM, AND WILL USE THE WORLD'S INHABITANTS TO DESTROY THEM** "

"Wait," Yogostein perplexed, "How are we supposed to cause any destruction OR chaos without our armies!?"

A booming laugh resounded through the chamber, with many pulses of energy shaking the standing villains.

" **I HAVE SUPPLIED YOU WELL, DO NOT WORRY** "

Suddenly, in a burst of red energy, an object appeared in each of the villain's hands. Kyuemon was now holding a shuriken, Enter held a credit card-like object, Yabaiba carried a large spike, Yogostein a small gear, Sambash a token shaped like an insect, and Long a small statue in the shape of a mantis.

" **WITH THESE,** " The omnipotent explained, " **YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RESURRECT MINIONS FROM YOUR PAST** "

"Wow, that's pretty amazing!" Yabaiba excitedly stated.

" **THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS PITIFUL WORLD…** " The Omnipotent boasted, " **HAS BEGUN!** "

Another round of laughter shook the chamber, but this time, the six villains joined in the laughter as well.


	2. Special Assignments

It had been a few years since Zootopia's local heroes, Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde, had managed to stop a major conspiracy that threatened the city. In that time, they had grown closer, both as partners at the ZPD, and as friends.

The day was March 11th, 2019, and the two were patrolling in downtown Zootopia, a standard at this point in their careers, and even more standard by this point was not a lot actually happening. At the very most, the two would come across some gangs of teenagers doing very minor offenses, like spray painting or, god forbid, littering.

Needless to say, Nick was getting pretty bored of it.

"Don't you ever find this boring, Carrots?" The fox asked suddenly, flicking up his aviator sunglasses.

"Maybe, sometimes." The rabbit responded as she continued driving down the street.

"Don't you wish something interesting would happen?" He continued, turning to his partner.

"Not at all." She also responded, quite calmly.

The fox's expression turned to confusion, him staring dumbfounded at his partner, as she stopped at a red light.

She in turn locked eyes with her partner. "Well, when nothing's going on, that means that the city's at peace," The light turned green, and she stepped on the gas, turning her gaze back to the road, "And that's exactly what I signed on to do."

"I guess, but…" The fox placed his sunglasses back on his head, and looked out the window solemnly. "It's not really what I signed on for."

"Don't worry, Nick, I'm sure there'll be a bank heist, or a hostage situation sometime soon." She tried to comfort her solemn partner.

Little did the two know, that high above them, on the rooftop of a building just a block away from their car, a strange figure watched them through a pair of binoculars. Setting the goggles away, the figure pulls out a strange cellphone.

"The targets are in sight," It spoke into the phone, "I'll begin the operation immediately." It then set the phone away, and stepped backwards, disappearing into a burst of black energy.

* * *

A few hours later, the two had arrived back at ZPD Headquarters, ready to end their day and head back home. All Judy needed to do was head for her desk and write the report for today, which would be quick, since all they did was stop a group of kids from spraying bad words on the side of a building.

At least, it should have been quick.

As she made it to her desk, something there caught her eye, the sunset's light glimmering on a small metallic object in front of her desktop computer.

"What the..."

She got a closer look at it once she sat down in her chair, it was some sort of business card, made of black plastic, which caused the light to reflect of it. Judy tried to keep the sun out of her eyes with her hand as she examined it more. It was almost entirely black, aside from a white stripe going through it, the letters S, P, and D located in the top left corner, and some odd kind of police logo, featuring a strange canine-like head, located on the bottom right.

She flipped it over to the other side, but instead of any sort of identification, it was a white sheet with a message written on it, in clear typeface, meaning it was, most likely, printed and not actually written.

It was addressed to her and Nick.

Before she could read the rest, she rushed down to the break room, where the fox was enjoying a cup of coffee in one of the room's few over-sized couches. This was around the only time the two could get any time in the room, due to them being the smallest officers, and usually not getting any couch spaces. Besides, it's not like Judy would want a break.

He spied his partner rushing into the room, shuffling off the large couch and placing it on the coffee table in front of it.

"Record time on that report, Carrots," He jokingly stated, "Guess we're heading home now?"

"No, not yet, I found..." She uneasily walked over to her partner, and pulled out the card, and shoved it in his face. "This thing on my desk."

"What is that, a business card?" He questioned, pushing down the rabbit's arm.

"It's some kind of note, and it's addressed to us!" She checked the card over again,before continuing. "It's from... some kind of police organization, but I've never seen the emblem before."

"Well, what's the note say?" The fox queried, grabbing his cup of coffee back off the table, obviously he'd have time to finish it.

"It says..." She flipped the card over and began reading it. "To Judy C. Hopps and Nick P. Wilde. It is urgent that you visit behind the ZPD Police Headquarters at 11 PM tonight. I have a very important message to tell you, in secret, signed D.K."

"So a shady meetup behind the police station in about..." He checked his phone for the time. "Five hours. Sounds fun." He replied sarcastically.

"Do you think we should? It's from some form of police force, and I doubt they'd do anything illegal at the Headquarters itself, considering it has cameras everywhere." Judy thought out loud, trying to rationalize it. "But, it could be fake, and something could happen to us, or..."

"I say we do it." Nick said between a sip of coffee. "What's the point in being a cop if you don't have any trouble to get into?"

"Nick, that's not what..." She stopped herself and sighed, there's no way she'd be able to reason with him. "Alright, we'll go, just make sure to bring something to defend ourselves, alright."

"Got it, boss." The fox joked, causing Judy's look of worry to turn into one of bemusement.

"So, what are gonna do for the next 5 hours?"

* * *

5 hours had passed, the two had mostly just played on their phones while they waited. Judy had spent her time looking up anything about the logo and letters that were on the card, but she couldn't come up with anything at all. Nick, meanwhile, mostly checked his Tweeter feed and played a few games he had downloaded.

Eventually, the two had to leave the station, the security guards had started to come in, so they waited out in the cruiser for the remainder of the time.

"Alright," Nick eventually said, with a slight yawn, "It's 10:55, I think we should head 'round back now."

Judy nodded, as they both put their stun guns in the holders on their hips, they had managed to grab them before leaving the station, and left the police car to head to the back of the station.

"You find anything on this 'SPD', Carrots?" Nick asked.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing." She sighed, and began to shrug, "Nothing about the logo or the acronym."

The two turned around the corner of the building, and reached the back, where the dumpster and fire exits were located. The dumpster was full, as one would expect when you group a bunch of large, rowdy animals in one building for most of the day.

The clock on Judy's phone struck 11, and from around the other corner of the building, a figure emerged.

The first thing that caught Judy's eye was the head of the animal, which almost exactly matched the logo on the card, and was even more obviously some type of canine... but Judy wasn't entirely sure exactly what kind it was. The closest it came was a wolf, but she had never seen a wolf that looked like it before.

The second thing she noticed was the size of the animal, standing up straight it was around as tall as a gazelle, larger than nay canine's she had ever seen. Then, she noticed it's legs,which were, again, unlike any she had seen before, with large, clawed feet, and completely straight legs, unlike the digitigraded legs on every other canine.

The figure turned to them, the moonlight catching it's eyes, briefly making it look incredibly threatening as it stood there. Eventually, it walked forward, revealing itself more clearly to the two officers.

The figure was quite clearly male, and dressed in a long coat, which was colored black, with red and white highlighting, similar to how the card was formatted. The right side of the coat's hanging bit had those letters again, SPD, while the logo was embroidered on the right side of his chest.

Judy had also noticed that the claws she had only seen in the dark looked less like normal, grown claws, and more like metal claws, with a hint of the metal trailing up his legs. His hands were relatively normal looking, covered with black and blue gloves.

However, the head was where it began to get weird again. His head had multiple distinct fur colors, the lower part covered in white fur, while the upper half was covered in strange blue fur, each of which were separated with black fur that ran all the way around his face.

The creature got closer, and the two officers backed away, reaching for their stun guns.

"Do not worry." It spoke, in a deep, commanding voice, "I am not here to harm you." It soon got on one knee, kneeling to make eye contact with them.

"My name is Doggie Kruger," He introduced, "I'm the chief of the SPD, or Special Police Department." He pulled out a strange mechanical device, again marked with SPD, and pressed a button on the top, causing it to flip open and reveal a badge, which was similar to the logo on the card, but gold, and with extra wig details, and five triangles above it.

"So, you're the one who left this card?" Judy asked calmly, edging her arm away from the stun gun. The badge gave her a sense of calm, this guy was probably official.

Nick soon did the same, and asked a question to the strange wolf, "So, what exactly did you want to talk to us about?"

Kruger got back up on both legs, and began to answer, "The SPD has chosen you to test out some experimental weaponry that we have created." He pulled out a large, steel briefcase. Whatever he was talking about was in there.

"What!?" Judy yelled, but before she could continue, Kruger began again.

"This isn't a request, Officer Hopps. You two are the only possible candidates for this, so at the very least you can take them and consider." His voice suddenly sounded even sterner than it had before, nearly emulating Bogo's "contained anger" voice.

He tossed the briefcase to Nick, who, while managing to catch it, stumbled backwards and flat onto his back, the briefcase's weight crushing him.

"Officer Hopps," Kruger began to ask, looking the rabbit directly in the eye, "You're here to protect and serve, correct?"

"Uh, yes, sir." She nervously answered. Briefly, she turned to Nick, who was still striggling to get the briefcase off of him.

"Well, you have more people counting on you now than you could ever imagine. I hope you know what to do." Kruger cryptically stated, confusing the bunny officer.

"Uh, little HELP HERE!?" a voice from beside her yelled. Breaking from Kruger's stare, she turned to see Nick, still trapped under the briefcase.

"Oh gosh, sorry Nick!" She rushed over to help him, grabbing the handle and pushing it a slight bit off Nick, giving him just enough room to move his hand under it. The damn thing was heavy, so it took their combined strength to actually push it off.

"Took you a while, but, thanks, Carrots." Nick said to her, catching his breath between words.

He looked up, and looked around confused for a second, which caught Hopps' eye.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Where'd Kruger go?"

She looked around, and it was true, Kruger had completely vanished.

"Weird." Nick said as he finished looking around, "So, should we just take this thing back home, or...?"

"We'll check what's inside tomorrow, after work." Judy answered.

Nick grabbed the briefcase's handle, dragging it across the ground as they returned to their cruiser, the only one still parked.

However, high atop the police station, a familiar figure watched them drive away through binoculars.

Pulling out a cellphone, it began to talk into it, "Mission accomplished, Kruger out."

* * *

Judy and Nick had been sharing an apartment for the last two years, since Nick was basically considered homeless before he had joined the force, and needed a place to stay. He had only planned to stay for a few months, but the months had turned into a year and a half at this point. Judy had suspected a few reasons for why he had stayed, but he payed half the rent, so she didn't entirely mind.

What she did mind was the messes he usually made, but that's for another time.

It was a rather nice apartment, large enough for two people, a small kitchen, a living space, and most importantly, two bedrooms. Judy had remembered what the fox said when he found out, "You're loss."

The two had gotten into a good routine, Judy would wake up Nick, they'd eat breakfast, get ready, and then head out to the station to start their day.

Today would go about the same, but it would be their last truly peaceful morning for a long while.

As the two ate breakfast together, Judy having a small carrot salad, while Nick had blueberry waffles, Nick began to converse.

"So, did you have a bad sleep last night?"

"Yeah, last night was..." She searched for a word to describe it, as she shuffled a carrot around with her fork, "Strange?"

"Mmm." The fox mumbled, his mouth full of waffles. He swallowed and continued, "What kind of weapons do you think are in there?" he finished, staring at the briefcase on the counter.

"I'm not sure I want to find out." Judy replied, refusing to look at the briefcase. "Why would they pick us to test weapons, anyway? You'd think they'd have some of the big guys test it."

There was a brief silence, but it was quickly broken as Nick walked over to the briefcase.

"Can we-"

"No, Nick." Judy cut him off before he could finish. "At least, not before we get more info on those SPD guys."

"Alright, alright." The fox begrudgingly complied. He looked at the stove, as the green numbers blinked. 4:30.

"Hey, Carrots, it's time to go to work now." He told her.

Soon enough, the two were off on another day of police work.

* * *

The morning had, again, gone as normal, Bogo handed out relatively simple assignments to the officers during roll call, mostly just patrol work, and a few minor investigations. it was a very slow period for the entire precinct.

After roll call was finished however, Hopps had a few questions for Bogo, who she quickly approached once Nick and the otehr had left the room.

"Uh, Chief." She nervously asked the large buffalo in front of her, his back turned to her.

"What is it, Hopps?" He asked apathetically, as he usually had when she asked anything.

"Have you ever heard of the Special Police Department?"

Bogo's ears perked, and he turned around to talk to her face to face.

"The Special Police Department, hmm?" He chuckled, " You mean one of the worst wastes of tax dollars in Zootopia's history?"

Judy's nose twitched in confusion, "What... what do you mean, sir? What was the Special Police Department?"

The buffalo took a seat from a nearby set of desks, clearly this was going to take a bit. "Back in the 70s, there was a strange phenomenon around alien invasions and visitations, mostly caused by an influx of movies. The Mayor at the time clearly feell for it too, since he set up a sort of makeshift police squad that was formed to protect cities from aliens."

"Sir, that sounds crazy."

"Oh, it was, the whole thing lasted about a year before it was disbanded, it ruined the economy for a bit too." He got up from his seat, "What made you ask about that, Hopps?"

"Oh, noth-nothing. Just, y'know... wondering." Hopps awkwardly tried to excuse.

Bogo looked at her, unconvinced, but then snorted and headed off. Soon, after a bit of confusion, Judy headed out as well.

She made it to the cruiser, where her partner was waiting, sunglasses covering his eyes, and sipping from a cup of coffee.

"What took you so long, Carrots?" Wilde asked sarcastically.

"I got some interesting info about the SPD from Bogo." Judy answered, opening the car and getting into the drivers seat.

"Ooh, lay it on me." Nick replied back, getting a big grin on his muzzle.

Doing as requested, she laid it on him. "Well, for one, the Special Police Department doesn't exist anymore, and hasn't existed since the 70s."

"You know you didn't have to ask the chief about that, right?" Nick said, pulling out his phone. "Coulda just looked it up online. Which I already did."

Judy facepawed, groaning. She felt like an idiot.

"I found something interesting too, look at this," He held his phone up to her, which displayed an image.

The image was of a logo, depicting the planet Earth, with several stereotypical UFOs hovering around it, and a faceless feline dressed up in police garb holding a strange looking gun. Below the Earth it said Special Police Department.

"The logo that Kruger guy had wasn't even the correct logo for what he was claiming to be." He pulled the phone back and scrolled to another page, "And if you think that's suspicious, check this out, there's absolute no record of Doggie Kruger ever existing, the only Krugers listed in the records are a family of pigs!"

The mysteries were pilling up in Judy's brain, she couldn't even think with all the strange things going on involving this Kruger guy.

"So..." She gasped out as she managed to wrap her head around the situation, "That guy was potentially some crazy mammal claiming to be an officer, and also gave us a false name?"

"I suppose, yeah." Nick answered back.

"Then we should turn that briefcase in as evidence and file a report on him!" She loudly stated.

"Actually, Carrots, I'm gonna say we should open it."

Judy stared dumbfounded at the fox. Why would he want to open a potentially dangerous object that was given to them by a crazy mammal?

"Alright, one..." He held up his index finger, before reaching behind the seat and... pulling out the briefcase.

"YOU BROUGHT IT HERE!?" Judy screamed at him in frustration.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Judy." He said as he placed the briefcase on his lap. "See, this is millitary grade quality here." He knocked on the briefcase, causing a loud metallic sound. It was definitely meant to withstand damage.

"Second," He held up a second finger, "He not only knew our names, he also knew where we work, and knew what desk you sat at. The guy's got connections, obviously, and messing with an animal with resources and connections is ALWAYS a bad idea in my book."

"So, what's your point?" Judy asked Nick, confused.

"Basically, if we don't want to be killed in our sleep, I'd say it would be best to open this thing and check out these 'weapons'." He calmly answered, using air quotes when needed.

"I..." She stopped herself, and took a deep breath. "Alright, fine, we'll open it now." She said, trying not to be angry with the fox's blatant misconduct.

"Alright, let's crack this nut open!" Nick said excitedly, searching for how to open the briefcase. He suddenly stopped for a second, and looked at the top of it. "Wonder what that stands for." He asked.

Judy leaned over to get a look at what Nick had found. On the top of the briefcase was a large, engraved V shape, along with a strange stylized animal face. It didn't match the logo that Kruger was wearing. Another lie to add to the pile.

With a loud click, the briefcase swung open, revealing the mysterious weapons Judy had been worried about, and Nick had been intrigued by.

"Oh thank god." Judy let out a sigh of relief as a disappointed frown came across Nick's muzzle.

"These are the secret, untested weapons?" He asked himself.

In the briefcase, there was simple two strange wristwatch like devices, oval in shape, and both colored a drab grey. The face of the watch-thing had two eye-like holes, while the middle was dominated by a nose-like button that pushed out from the otherwise flat surface.

"Well, we really got duped, huh?" Judy said with relief, jabbing her elbow into her agitated partner's side.

Nick pulled out one of the watches, which even came with a watch-like strap. Nick looked at it in disappointment.

"There's gotta be..." He angrily said, placing the watch on his wrist, which it fit perfectly, "Something to these, right?"

His question was answered a few seconds later, as the watch began glowing a bright red, and shaking rapidly, producing a horribly loud shriek. Nick tried to hold his arm still, but he could feel a burning sensation where the watch was, which was causing him even more discomfort.

"Judy, what's happening!?" He yelled to his partner over the loud sounds the thing was making.

"How should I know!?" The rabbit responded back, pulling down her ears to try and escape the noise.

A few second later, the noises, lights, burning, and shaking had all stopped, and Nick rubbed his eyes to help make them less blurry. He looked down at the watch, and noticed it had changed. Instead of a gray, it was now colored a dark red, and had two short, pointed bits sticking out of it now, and with the eye-like holes and the nose button, it now resembled a fox's head instead of a watch, much like the one seen on the briefcase.

"Holy..." Hopps yelled, rubbing her eyes as well, and turning to her partner, "Are you okay, Nick?"

"Yeah, I'm..." The fox paused, taking a deep breath, and looking at the wrist-device again, "I'm fine, just a bit shaken up."

Judy looked at the watch, just noticing it had completely changed, "What happened to your wrist... thing?" She asked.

"How do you expect me to know, Judy!?" He snapped, "It just kind of happened!"

"Calm down, Nick." She tried to help the fox calm down, "Just take some deep breaths for a second." Which the fox complied to.

"Now, try taking it off."

Nick turned his wrist over, trying to find where he had latched the strap onto, only to find that there was no way to separate it. He then tried to tug it off, it would probably go around his paw... but to no avail, the thing wouldn't budge.

"It won't come off." Nick said to his partner, trying not to panic.

"This isn't time for joking around, Nick. Take it off." Judy demanded.

Nick stuck his wrist in front of her, "You try to take it off, Carrots." He demanded back.

Judy groaned, and attempted to take the device off as well, only to find that, no matter what she did, pulling it, twisting it, it just wouldn't move.

"Alright, not joking about that." She panted, "So, you have a suspicious device stuck to your arm, what are we supposed to do?"

Nick shrugged, but noticed something on it.

"Hey, does that look like a button to you?" He asked, pointing towards the nose-shaped bit.

"I suppose it could be?" Judy guessed, shrugging, "Maybe pressing it will do... something?"

Nick nodded, and then lightly pressed the button in, causing... nothing to happen.

"Well, it was worth a-"

Suddenly, the eyes on the device lit up a brilliant blue, distancing itself from the device's new red coloring. The lights soon merged together, forming the shape of a familiar figure, Doggie Kruger.

"Hello, officers." The hologram said to the two, who stared at it with intrigue.

"What you are about to hear might surprise and disturb you, but I guarantee you, it is one-hundred percent the truth, as I swear on my duty as an officer." Kruger said, crossing his heart as he finished.

"While it was unfortunate that I had to lie to you to get you to take these, I can now tell you the truth. I am not a part of the Special Police Department, but instead a member of Special Police Dekaranger." He continued, pulling out the strange device from earlier.

"Special Police what!?" Nick said loudly to his partner.

Suddenly, the hologram turned to Nick, "I'll get to that in a second, Wilde." It said sternly.

"I don't think this is a pre-recorded message, Nick." Judy said worriedly to the freaked out fox.

"Indeed it isn't, Hopps. As of right now, I am communicating with you from another universe. While I could get into specifics, it would be best for you to learn those later. All you two need to know is that a group of criminals and villains has managed to escape to your universe, and plan to destroy it." He finished.

"Sorry, but this sounds absolutely insane." Nick said to the small, glowing figure. "Alternate universes? Where are you getting this from?" He laughed.

"Trust me, Wilde, this is no joke. If the predictions are correct, they will begin the invasion of your city in a matter of hours. Without those devices, your world has no defense against them." Kruger stated, absolutely seriously.

He turned to Judy, and looked her directly in the eyes, "Judy, last night I asked you why you became a police officer, correct?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, it's because I wanted to help everyone in the city." She answered nervously.

"If you want to continue that mission, you will also put on the device." He demanded.

"But..." Judy asked, quizzically, "We're both officers, right? Why would I need some special weapon to deal with criminals? Wouldn't it be better to use brains, and not brawn?"

"Sometimes, Hopps..." The hologram broke eye contact with her, and clutched one of his paws, "Sometimes normal people can't deal with things like this. Now put on the device. Remember, the code word is 'Zoo On'." The hologram vanished, finishing with that cryptic statement.

She looked over to Nick, who reached down to grab the toppled briefcase, and pulled up the other device.

Judy took a deep breath, and strapped it onto her wrist. This time, she felt what Nick had before, the loud noise, the painful burning, and finally the glowing, which was a deep shade of blue this time instead of red.

Soon, it was over, and the device was stuck to her wrist as well. It had also changed, while still looking similar to Nick's, it was colored blue, and had two large rabbit ears replacing the shorter fox ears.

"So, what do we do now?" Nick asked her.

Judy sighed, "Patrol duty." She said wistfully, grabbing the steering wheel and stepping on the gas.

Soon, the two were off.

* * *

Kyuemon looked from atop a building. The thought of a world without humans both intrigued and disturbed him. The sight of all these creatures walking on two legs was strange, even though Kyuemon had been involved in some strange events on his own.

He continued to watch, noticing a few shops below where he stood, obviously some sort of shopping district, but the one that caught his eye the most was the hardware store nearby. It reminded him of a long time ago.

However, the nostalgia was cut short when the tapping of footsteps was heard behind him.

He quickly turned, seeing Enter, hands in the pockets of his long coat, goggles over his eyes, and wearing a smug look on his face.

"What are you doing here." Kyuemon sternly questioned the human.

"Well, we are a team, are we not? You'd expect us to work together as well." He answered, putting on a look of faux-confusion.

"I don't work with others that well." Kyuemon said, turning back to the street.

"Neither do I." Enter responded back, turning serious very suddenly.

Something had bugged Kyuemon about Enter, ever since they met only a few hours ago. He looked human, but he didn't seem human. He seemed at the same time cold and emotionless, but also eccentric and manic, and both could show themselves within only a single sentence. It was beginning to bug him.

Kyuemon turned back to the "human", who he knew was still there by the piercing feeling his stare was giving, "I have a question, are you actually a human?"

Enter burst into uproarious laughter, before quickly calming down, "I am an Avatar created by Vagrass, designed to infiltrate the human world and destroy them." He explained, coldly.

"So, you're some kind of robot?" Kyuemon continued questioning.

"Oui oui, isn't it magnifique?" He responded, turning back to his flamboyant personality.

Kyuemon chuckled, "I don't suppose you'll do any infiltration here, especially not in that form."

"Non, non! The WONDERFUL Omnipotent has given me something special." He boasted.

He snapped his fingers, causing a ring of red energy, which resembled a mass of ones and zeroes, to form around him, and in only a few seconds, disappear, revealing that Enter's human form had been replaced by that of an anthropomorphic cheetah.

It was obviously still Enter, he still stood tall and lean, with his long coat nearly reaching the ground, his goggles still covering his eyes, and his spiky hair still remaining.

"It seems our new master is fond of irony." He said to himself.

Kyuemon stepped back in amazement, "What an amazing ability, Enter." He complimented. "How, exactly, did you come across it?"

The newly feline Enter stepped forward, already comfortable on his new legs, "As 'some kind of robot'," Enter mocked, "I am very easilly able to adapt new abilities, which is what the Omnipotence granted to me." He explained, snapping his fingers and returning to human form.

"Now, what bout you?" He in return asked the yokai, "How do you think you're going to get any info looking like that?"

Kyuemon scoffed, "I'm not here to gather info, I'm here to cause as much destruction as I can." Kyuemon said as he turned back to the street again.

"Well, good luck with that, mon chèri, I have some important things to learn about this universe." He said, finishing by snapping his fingers, returning his cheetah mode, and then leaping to the next building over.

Kyuemon took one more glance at the strange character he was partnered up with, before turning back to the street for the last time.

"Well, I suppose it's time that we get started." Kyuemon said to himself, "Arise, Jukkarage!" he yelled, causing eight different springs of red energy to appear around him, which soon summoned his faithful stone soldiers.

They leaped down the building, with a crash.

* * *

It had been a few hours since Nick and Judy had left for patrol, with the thoughts of Kruger's words still hanging in their minds, it made for a very uneasy ride, even though, much like yesterday, nothing had actually happened, especially since they had been stuck at a red light for five minutes. But once again, Nick was the one who started up a conversation after a period of nothing much.

"What do you think these things actually are, Judy?" He asked, not in his usual carefree way, but in a more somber tone.

"I... I don't know, Nick." She admitted. "Maybe it's some sort of... space weapon?" She tried to answer, grasping at straws.

"That's a pretty out there answer for you, Carrots." He joked, "But I guess we won't learn until we turn them on, huh?"

"Nick, it's probably not best to do that in the car." She scolded.

"Yeah, I know, but Kruger said we'd need them today, and we don't actually know how to turn them on." He responded, shuffling back into his seat.

"He did give us the code word," She pointed out, "'Zoo On' or something weird like that."

"Is that even proper grammar?" The fox questioned, fiddling with the device on his arm.

"Not really, but it's what he said the code word to activate it was, and I don't think we should go around questioning inter-dimensional space cops."

Suddenly, a call on the police radio blurted through the speakers, "This is Officer Rhinowitz, we've got an assault in progress on Bovine Avenue, requesting all-" There was a brief pause, as a loud explosion ad a scream could be heard through the speakers, "Requesting all officers!" The rhino finished, panic striking his voice.

"This is Officer Hopps, we'll be right there!" She said into the microphone.

"Why would they need all officers on an assault?" Nick asked.

"Nick, did you not hear the explosion? I think there's something going on." Judy responded, determination filling her voice.

Nick pulled out his phone and opened the GPS app, "Aw great, Bovine Avenue's on the other side of Downtown." He bemoaned, "Finally something interesting happens, and we're gonna miss it!"

"Bovine Avenue?" She asked, looking at her partner with determination, "I know a short cut there."

Suddenly, Judy put the sirens on, causing most of the cars to shift to the side of the road, letting her speed through.

Soon, the pair were closing in on Bovine Avenue, still speeding their way along. It turns out Judy's short cut was just driving really fast. On the way there they had noticed several ambulances driving past, and smoke rising from the general direction of the road.

* * *

Then there was another loud noise.

"Christ, is this an assault or a terrorist attack!?" Nick yelled.

They had finally reached the street, and Judy made an incredibly sharp turn to make it in, nearly launching the fox out of his seat.

What they saw made their hearts sink.

Around thirteen wrecked police cars, maybe eighty or so injured mammals, some awake, some unconscious in the ground. Judy had to quickly stop when she noticed she was rushing right into a makeshift police barricade, with eight cars lined up from building to building, and every officer in the precinct lined behind them, some laying down, bloody and bruised, and some still standing tall.

Of most important note was Chief Bogo, holding a megaphone, presumably in an attempt to talk with whoever had started this chaos.

The two skid to a halt, and rushed out of the car and into the ranks of their fellow officers.

"Chief!" Hopps yelled to the large buffalo.

"Hopps, good timing, we've kind of gotten ourselves into a mess." The chief answered, with a to the point tone.

"No kiddin'!" Wilde replied, "How many officers do we have down?"

"Around ten, including Rhinowitz." The Cheif answered.

"Okay, what exactly is going on here?" Hopps questioned.

"How should I know?" The buffalo responded, irritated, "Why don't you try asking the psychopathic fox over there?"

Judy was a bit confused, so she went to one of the police cars and hopped onto the outer lining of one, giving her just enough of a boost to peek over it.

Well, it certainly... looked like a fox, kinda. The face was very fox-like, but looked fake, plastic, like a theater mask. Much like Kruger, Judy had never seen a fox this big before, and it wore strange purple and yellow robes, decorated with barbaric looking tiger designs.

The person just stood there, not even paying attention to the police. But then, something else gained Hopps' attention; The group the creature seemed to be allied with. These things didn't even look organic, they looked like stone, and their skin seemed to be made of tiled floor, and not any type of normal skin. They didn't even appear to have faces, but they did carry large blades.

Judy hopped down from the car, and grabbed Nick by his arm, walking them out of hearing of the other cops.

"Okay, we have a situation." Judy said to her partner.

"I think that's pretty obvious, Carrots." He sarcastically responded, clutching his right arm from the rabbit's surprising grip, "Wish I could have seen what this fox looked like. Probably wasn't as handsome as me."

"That thing wasn't a fox." Judy quietly yelled, pointing in the direction of the chaos. "Bogo was just trying to apply something he knew to whatever that... thing is."

Nick looked at her, obviously confused, but intrigued by what the rabbit was getting at.

"I... I think it's one of those criminals Kruger warned us about." The rabbit finally blurted out.

The realization finally dawned on Nick's face, as a sly grin grew on his muzzle, "So what you're saying is that we use these new weapons to kick some bad guy butt, right?" he cheerfully asked.

"Kruger said to keep this a secret, remember? We can't just use..." She paused, looking at the device locked onto her wrist, "Whatever these things are in front of everyone!"

"So, what, we just get everyone out of here, and make ourselves sitting ducks while we try to use the weapons?"

Judy looked around, and she noticed one of the buildings, "I've got an idea." She quickly stated, running behind the closest building, with the confused fox following behind her.

"We'll use the fire escape to get to the top of the building, and we'll figure out how to use them from up there!" She excitedly told her partner, pointing to the top of a fairly nondescript apartment building.

"I guess that works?" The fox said, accepting his partner's strange plan.

Judy quickly rushed below the fire escape's ladder, and, using all of her leg muscles, leaped up, grabbing the first bar and pulling the ladder down to their level.

"Hurry up!" She yelled to her partner as she began to climb, getting him to rush over and start climbing as well.

With the sudden burst of adrenaline, the two made it to the top of the building in what felt like a minute or two. Looking over the side, they spotted the weird creature, Judy even spotting Nick's face contort when he got a look at it.

"Yeah, definitely NOT a fox." He admitted, "Now, lets try to get these things working."

They both looked nervously at the devices that gripped their wrists. There was only one button, and they both knew the bizarre code, but what would happen if they didn't do it exactly right? Something devastating could happen!

Nick looked at his equally nervous partner. He needed to make her feel brave about this.

"I'll go first." He gulped.

"No, Nick, we can do this to-" She was interrupted by the fox stepping forward, ignoring her plea.

Taking a large breath, nick raised his arm high up into the air, as far as he could manage it, and then slammed it down, yelling out the code he had made fun of only 40 minutes ago.

"ZOO ON!"

Suddenly, a large burst of red light surrounded him, not as bright as when he had put it on, but still bright enough for the rabbit to have to shade her eyes a she backed away. The light swirled around her partner, as loud, wild animal noises permeated from it.

"NICK!" She yelled in fear.

In only a matter of seconds, the light had finished, and what was standing there looked... different.

It still retained the shape of a fox, but was also covered in what looked like loose spandex, with white gloves and boots tipping the hands and feet. The spandex even seemed to cover the tail, which swished back and forth. But what was most interesting was the head, which looked like a helmet, stretching out across the fox-like muzzle, and even covering the ears. A large visor covered the general area where the eyes would be, as well, forming a jagged pattern.

"N-Nick?" The rabbit nervously stepped forward towards the strange being.

"What the?" It said, looking at it's hands, tail, and other parts of the body. "What in the world happened to me?" It finished, and Judy recognized that it was definitely Nick's voice.

"Is that what these things do?" Judy questioned, looking down at her own, "Is this some kind of weird... super suit?"

"I dunno, Carrots," The suited Nick said, "But it feels... really good." He continued, clenching his fists, "Like, I feel really powerful now!"

Judy, again, took in a deep breath, "I guess it's my turn to go now, hmm?" She asked, knowing the answer.

"Do as you please, Judy."

Judy also raised her hand into the air, and also slammed it down onto the button, yelling out the ridiculous code as she did.

"ZOO ON!"

The same for what happened to Nick happened to Judy, as she was surrounded by blue energy, that swirled and produced strange noises. Soon enough, standing there was Judy, dressed in a suit much like Nick's.

Her's, despite retaining a lot of the same details, had a vastly different helmet, which covered her ears, and didn't expand far from her face. He tail was also covered in the suit, which she quickly realized wasn't some sort of spandex, it felt different, more spacious.

"Gotta say," Nick said, hand on chin, "Blue is definitely your color."

He couldn't see, but he knew she rolled her eyes at his remark.

"So, what are we supposed to do now, plan maker?" He asked.

"Well," She tried to answer from behind her new helmet, "Considering we don't entirely know how to work these, I say we go down there and... fight them?"

"Sounds good to me," Nick said with a burst of confidence, "But we gotta have a flashy entrance."

"What do you-" It soon became apparent what he meant, as he backed away, and then ran at full speed forward, leaping off the side of the building.

"NICK!" She yelled, but realized it was fruitless, and leaped off as well, following his lead.

To perhaps only Judy's surprise, the fall didn't kill them, and only resulted in the ground cracking as soon as they landed.

"Whatta rush!" Nick yelled out.

This caught the attention of the fox-masked creature standing before them.

It let out a loud laugh as it turned to them, causing the duo to shudder a bit, and began to speak, "Well, isn't this interesting? I thought there weren't supposed to be any of you here."

"Well," Nick replied back, pointing at the monster, "We don't know what that means, but we're gonna kick your butt!"

"Hmm, can't have that this early, can we?" The creature remarked to itself, as it then materialized a small, metallic, star shaped object in its hand, "I suppose I'll give you a taste o what's to come, before I kill you, that is."

Behind the fox monster was a hardware store, with a large, blue chainsaw displayed in the window. Quickly, it threw the object at the store, without even turning around. With a loud crash, the glass was shattered, and the object pierced the chainsaw, causing a burst of purple smoke to come from it.

"I suppose I should give introductions before you die." It said calmly, "I am Izayoi Kyuemon, one of the bringers of this universe's end. And what, exactly, do you two call yourselves?"

Judy looked around, looking for something to reply with, but the only thing she could notice were the dozens of officers watching from behind a wall of police cars, some with obvious fear on their face, some with confusion, and some with what looked like excitement.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" She finally blurted out. What a lame comeback, she thought to herself.

"I suppose it, doesn't matter, you'll be noting but dirt by the time he's done with you." Kyuemon turned to the smashed window, still billowing with smoke.

The two saw something the struck a bit of fear into their hearts, two glowing yellow eyes, rising from the smoke, much, much larger than either of them. The smoke burst, revealing that where there was once a normal chainsaw instead stood a monster.

Nearly entirely metallic, with white and blue parts, and a strangely weasel like head. It stood tall on two legs, much unlike a small weasel, but what frightened them the most was the hands, each armed with a chainsaw blade that curved downwards.

"Let me introduce you to Kamaitachi," The fox-thing said, still no emotion in his voice, "the first of my Yokai Monsters, and the last you'll ever see." With one last disturbing laugh, Kyuemon vanished in a burst of purple smoke.

With Kyuemon gone, the large mechanical weasel stepped down from the window it was created on, it's piercing yellow eyes staring directly at the two armor clad heroes. Quickly, he was surrounded by the stone-like creatures, more than there were before, and all of them began moving towards the two cops.

"What are we supposed to do here, Blue?" Nick asked his partner, nervously.

"Uh, I suppose we just have to..." She tried to answer, herself still terrified of these strange monsters, but she felt a sudden burst of determination rise up in her heart as she stared at them.

"Guess we just have to FIGHT THEM!" She yelled, rushing forward toward the mob of monsters. As soon as she did, the monster began to charge forward as well.

"Blue, wait!" Nick yelled to his partner.

Only a few meters into her sprint, Judy found herself lifting off the ground, leaping into a massive jump, one of the highest and longest she had ever seen, let alone performed, which she quickly turned into a flying kick, landing her foot directly onto one of the stone creatures.

Using her momentum, she jumped directly off the monster's featureless face, launching herself back, and knocking over at least four of the monsters onto their backs. She landed gracefully, putting up her dukes, rearing for more.

"Wow..." The fox muttered to himself, "Better not let her steal the whole show!" A sudden burst of bravery plunging through his body, Nick wound up his arm and rushed forward into the fray.

His rush also lead into a leap, but due to him not having the same leg strength, it was, while still impressive for a fox, not as impressive as Judy's. However, he managed to reach up to the face of one of the stone monsters, and with a spectacular spin, he hit it in the head with his armored tail, causing the thing to drop it's weapon and topple over.

He quickly backed up next to his partner, the two daring the monsters to get them.

"Heh," The weasel thing stepped forward, pushing aside two of the eight remaining stone soldiers, "You guys might think you're string against these chumps, but let me, the great Kamaitachi, show you TRUE fear!"

Suddenly, the revving of chainsaws filled the air, as the two blades attached to the weasel's arms began to spin around, "WIND CUTTER!" it yelled, slicing first with it's left, and then with it's right.

In almost a blink of an eye, Nick and Judy instinctively jumped out of the way, as two bursts of wind fired towards them, and while they were nearly invisible, they cut through the pavement, and continued behind them, going right through the building the two were standing on less than five minutes ago.

As the two looked back at the building, a faint cross-shaped mark began to slowly get more prominent, and soon enough, the entire structure began to collapse under it's own weight, turning into nothing but a pile of rubble.

The two gawked at what had just happened, as they heard the chuckling of the creature behind them, who they slowly turned towards.

"Hah! Guess I'm stronger than I remember!" The Kamaitachi laughed to itself, not noticing the anger brewing in the two heroes standing before him.

"You..." The red fox clenched his fists, barely containing his fury at this monster, "You just ruined people's lives!" He yelled, perhaps the angriest Judy had ever seen him, "People lived there, and now they have..." He clenched his fists again, his rage turning into sorrow, "Nowhere to go."

"You expect me to CARE!?" The monstrous weasel responded back, "Get 'em!" It yelled to the stone warriors, causing the eight remaining to rush forward towards the fox.

"You're gonna pay, you monster." Nick growled, reaching behind him, and suddenly finding himself pulling out a sword.

Judy briefly caught a glimpse of it, it was shaped like a fox's tail, complete with a brown tip, but thin enough to act as the blade of a sword, and with a very small handle, just large enough for Nick to wrap one paw around.

Before she could registered what had just happened, Nick rushed towards the monsters.

"RED!" She yelled to her partner, reaching out, trying to stop him.

Soon enough, Nick was in the fray of monsters, using his new sword to nearly effortlessly slice through four of the eight soldiers, causing them to burst into puffs of purple smoke. Soon after, Nick was locked, sword to chainsaw, with the mechanical monster.

Judy patted herself, searching for some kind of weapon to use, like what Nick had pulled out in an almost instinctive manner. She searched, and suddenly felt something materialize in her paws. She pulled her paws out from behind her, and looked what she was now holding.

Two small objects, obviously some form of dagger, but shaped and colored like carrots, and the handles shaped like cartoonish leaves. The sight of this made her groan. She couldn't "admire" them for long, as a shadow cast over her.

Hopps looked up from her weapons, to find one of the soldiers glaring down at her, it's weapon raised and ready to strike the rabbit. However, as quick as she could, she jabbed one of the carrot knives into the thing's stomach, and before Judy could realize what she had done, the monster was gone in a puff of smoke.

Judy spun the blades around in her paws, she had never handled knives like this before, so she had no idea how she did it so effortlessly, and then dashed forward to the three remaining stone monsters. Quickly, mid-dash, she threw her daggers into two of them, and then performed a leaping kick on the last one, all three vanishing.

Only a few feet away, Nick and the weasel continued sparring, his smooth sword clashing against the monster's many bladed chainsaws, sparks bursting every time they hit.

"Hah!" It laughed to his face, "You two really are just rookies!" In a flash, Nick found himself flung back by the monster, who was clearly only toying with them at this point.

"AIR CUTTER!" It yelled again, the chainsaws revving, and two familiar bursts of wind quickly gliding towards the fox, who held out his blade, which managed to somehow block the bursts that had previously cut down a building. Pushing with both arms, the fox stepped forward, slicing the air in half, creating multiple explosions behind him as the bursts launched harmlessly to the ground behind him.

Judy watched on, amazed by what her partner just did, despite him not even seeming to realize, as he ran straight back towards the Kamaitachi. Seeing her partner so determined, Judy decided to rush towards the monster as well, both blades in paw. Despite being farther away from the monster, Judy's light physique and fast feet got her there first, where she struck the monster, currently only looking at the red fox, directly in the back wit both of her daggers.

"AUGH!" It yelled in pain, turning around to face the rabbit who had just harmed him. Soon enough, though, another burst of pain flashed through his mid section, sparks scattering from the wound.

The fox that he had ignored for a second had slashed through him with that sword, the pain was immense, but all he could see in front of him was the two heroes, standing side by side, weapons clutched in their hands as they defiantly looked at him.

Rage filled it's eyes, as it began slicing at the two, chopping directly through the concrete as they swiftly dodged every strike it attempted, and with every dodge came yet another injury, as they sliced the weasel whenever it was vulnerable, keeping a close distance. Its anger was building, and the two could see it's previously yellow eyes turn to dark red.

"I'm done playin' around!" It yelled, beginning to rev up it's saws once again, "You two half-pints are gonna get SHREDDED TO PIECES!"

Without warning, the weasel began flinging its arms around shooting off dozens of air bursts, a swarm of them attempting to slice the two to bits. Luckily, they could feel their instincts tell them when to get out of the way, as they nimbly dodged each slice.

"How is this happening!? There's only two of you this time!" The monster was beginning to panic, teetering back from the shock of these two animals managing to evade every attack he made.

As quickly as it could, it rushed back towards the two, striking at them again and again, this time much more sloppily, which they responded to with even more hits and blocks, it was clearly beginning to break down.

With a slash from Nick's sword, the monster was knocked backwards, struggling to stand, but still managing to stay up. That was, until it heard a loud cry.

"HEADS UP!"

The rabbit had jumped up, and boosted herself off the fox's head, annoying him, an then threw her daggers straight into the creature's face, causing an explosion that knocked it down.

"Let's finish this." Nick said with a snarl, raising his sword up above his head.

He then moved it counter-clockwise, gripping the handle as hard as he could. Suddenly, the blade burst into flames, not seeming to bother the fox, but startling Judy, and causing her to jump out of the way quickly as he suddenly swung it forward.

The flames caused the sword to extend, easily up to twelve, fourteen feet ahead of them, far surpassing the distance that the monster laid from them, it attempting to get up as it closed in.

"FOX FIRE SLASH!"

With a deft burst of light, the elongated flame sword cleaved through the monster, it suddenly returning to normal size.

Somehow, the monster was still alive, as it staggered forward, "I can't lose! Not again! You two..." The Kamaitachi pointed towards the two, before teetering over into a fall, "You two aren't even ninjas!" With that last message, the finally fell over, creating a large explosion.

From the explosion came two things, the first being the chainsaw, which smashed onto the ground, turning from a tool to a bunch of broken parts. The second, was the small metal object that Kyuemon had thrown before, which landed with a clink against the street.

Seconds after, the explosion had left behind only a small fire, confirming the monster's demise.

With a loud sigh, the fox fell to his knees, exhausted from the action. Shortly after, the rabbit did as well. Neither could even say a word, they could only hear each other's tired breath. However, another sound from far away broke their ears, causing them to sit up and look down the street.

It was the sound of cheering, clapping, celebration. In the ruckus, they had forgotten about the entire police squad that was observing them.

"You guys rock!"

"Are they super heroes?"

"That was awesome!"

"ARREST THEM!"

The last of these cheers came froma rather angry buffalo, Chief Bogo to be exact, who yelled from his megaphone, directly into a few other officers' ears. Quickly, the two heroes burst from their sitting position and ran off, using the last of their adrenaline to carry them behind a building, a very angry buffalo right behind them.

From behind the building, the two fiddled with the devices on their wrists, attempting to get them to turn off, as they heard the clopping of Bogo's hooves heading directly towards them.

"Blue, how do we get these things off!?" The fox yelled to his partner, shaking the device in a hurried attempt to figure it out.

"Just try hitting the button!"

"Oh yeah, I guess that was pretty obvious."

They both hit the buttons, causing a burst of red and blue energy to surround them, leaving them back in their police uniforms, stunned about what had just happened.

Luckily for them, Bogo had not seen the bursts, as he just rounded the corner, alongside officers Fangmeyer, a wolf, and Marshall, a koala. What they saw when they turned were two very frazzled officers, staring at them.

"Wilde! Hopps!" The buffalo yelled at the two, causing them to stand to attention, "Where were you two!? Did you see the two criminals that ran through here!?"

"Criminals? Whaaaat criminals?" Nick stepped forward, attempting to gain back his composure, "Only two... officers of the law, back here!" It was clearly failing.

"Chief," The wolf asked his boss, "Why exactly are those two criminals anyway?"

"Yeah, they did kind of save us." The koala added.

"Property damage, vigilantism, and murder." He responded back to the two, with obvious frustration.

Murder? The word rung heavy in Hopps' ears, that... thing... was going to kill many mammals, it was out of self-defense... right?

The chief turned back to the two dazed officers, "What happened to you two, anyway? You look like you just ran a marathon. Through Hell."

The two didn't look good, alright, they looked sweaty, out of breath, and their fur was standing up, and ruffled.

"Well, uh..." Nick scratched his head, trying to come up with an answer.

Judy brushed herself off, and then stepped forward, standing in for the confused Nick, "Those... things, that attacked those people, freaked us out really bad, so we ran and hid."

Bogo looked them in the eye, and snorted, "Reasonable, under the strange cirumstances, but this is going on your records." He said sternly, "And you two are positively, absolutely, one hundred percent sure that you didn't see any multicolored weirdos run through here?"

"Swear on my badge!" She crossed the police badge on her chest with her finger, Nick soon following after.

"Yep, only us two, panicking behind this building." Nick continued.

"Alright." Bogo snorted, "Fangmeyer, Marshall!" He turned to the two officers, "Tell everyone else to search the area for those two." The two officers nodded, and then rushed out in front of the building.

"You two," Bogo said, turning back to Nick and Judy, "Go back to headquarters. Whatever actually happened to you isn't making you helpful in this search." He finished, placing his hooves against his temples.

"Got it, Chief!" The two said in unison.

* * *

It was only a few seconds after the two had returned to the cruiser that Nick decided to speak up.

"'Cowering in fear behind a building', huh?" He said strapping into to his seat.

"It's the best I could do!" She responded, also buckling in, "Besides, I didn't see you coming up with anything better."

"Wait, better thought," The fox continued, not phased by his partner's words, "What the hell just happened?"

"I'm not sure." Judy quietly said, stepping on the gas.

"Did we turn into super heroes for a bit there, or am I misremembering?"

"I think we did, Nick." Judy said, much louder, "I didn't know you could fight like that."

"Except I can't, Carrots." He responded rather upfront, "And last time I checked, neither could you."

Judy quickly pulled over, she'd require full attention to discuss the current events, "Wait, were you also just kind of doing things..."

"Instinctively?" They said at the same time, looking directly at each other.

"Yeah, I guess you could say my body was kind of moving on it's own, huh?" The fox said, leaning back in his seat.

"You got really intense for a bit there, Nick, what happened?" She asked.

"What?"

"When, when the monster thing destroyed the building, you got really intense. You didn't calm down until after we turned back."

"To be honest," The fox answered, slinking down into his seat, placing his hand on his forehead, "Most of it after that was kind of a blurr, I don't really remember anything until after it exploded."

"Strange." Judy said, mostly to herself, "Also, why did you keep calling me 'Blue'?"

"Why did you keep calling me 'Red'?" He asked back.

The two continued to talk about all the strange events that had just occurred, with no knowledge that they were being watched from the top of a nearby building, by a tan cheetah in a pair of strange goggles.

"Well, isn't this interesting."


	3. All Creatures Great and Small

"So you're saying that you've already taken care of any problems we'd have here?" The jester asked the masked fox.

"Indeed, I have." Kyuemon said back to Yabaiba. Earlier, a few hours ago, Kyuemon's plans of causing chaos had been complicated by the sudden appearance of two Rangers, who he had sent a monster to deal with quickly.

"There were only two of them?" The biker monster questioned, fiddling with his gun, "Heh, this place really is lame."

"They probably didn't even put up a fight!" The machine man laughed, clinking his spear against the ground.

The four villains, minus Long, who still sat at the table, unphased, broke into laughter. This world was theirs, and with any real threat out of the way, it would be very simple to destroy it.

"Shame we didn't get to fight them, though." Sambash said to himself out loud.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Said a voice from the nearby entrance.

All four turned from their cheering, and looked towards the entrance. It was Enter, returned to his human-like form, slowly walking forward, carrying what looked like a USB stick.

"Monsieur Kyuemon, are you entirely sure that's what happened?" He spoke directly to him, giving a piercing stare.

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

"Your monster was destroyed by those two Rangers, idiot."

The room went dead, the only movement being for all of the villains, including the apathetic Long, to look at the fox, who had just previously been boasting his undenied victory.

"But-" The Yokai was interrupted by Enter, who's tone turned from dour to upbeat.

"The good news about this is," He said, holding up the USB stick, "I've figured out who our two mystery Rangers are."

Suddenly, Enter had pulled out a silver laptop, with a long cord attached to it, ending in some sort of strange chip. He placed the chip against the table, and inserted the USB stick into the computer.

Suddenly, with a brief electrical burst, the table's screen glowed green, and two holographic images appeared. One was a small rabbit-creature, while the other resembled a fox. Having seen the two Rangers from before, Kyuemon could tell that they were definitely the same.

"Introducing a Madame Judy Hopps, and a Monsieur Nick Wilde, two police officers at this city's police department." Enter announced.

There was silence.

"Your monster got beaten by a rabbit?" Yabaiba said, breaking the silence.

There was a quiet round of giggling from the jester, robot, and biker, which quickly stopped when Kyuemon gave them a threatening glare.

"Now, now, I wouldn't take something like this lightly." Enter assured them, "The fact that these two, on their own, managed to defeat a monster that previously took five Rangers to beat, says something about their power."

"What does that mean?" Sambash asked.

With a metallic clink, Yogostein stepped forward, "What it means is that these two are somehow as strong as a full Sentai." He explained, "Perhaps it's something to do with their transformation devices."

"Bong bong!" Enter yelled cheerfully, pointing towards the robot, "We're dealing with very powerful enemies here, I say we need to come up with a plan to defeat them, quickly."

With the sound of armor clanging, they all turned to Long, who was now standing up from his chair, the first activity he had done in hours.

"Get rid of them, so early?" He questioned, "That would be dreadfully droll."

"But they're endangering the plan!" Yogostein yelled back to him, "If we don't destroy them, we won't be able to return to our world!"

"I don't exactly care." Long stated, incredibly directly, "This world, and those two, are far more interesting than anything on our Earth." He finished, heading towards the exit.

"Where exactly are you going?" Questioned Enter.

"I'm gonna go cause some chaos, isn't it obvious?" He turned his head to almost face Enter, holding up the small statue he was gifted earlier. With that, Long disappeared in a burst of flames.

There was stunned silence from the entire room. The fact that Long, a creature who appeared completely apathetic to the current situation, had done anything was enough to surprise them.

"What's that guy's deal, anyway?" Questioned Sambash.

"Seems like he's got a real chip on his shoulder." Yabaiba added.

Enter took a deep, aggravated breath. Clearly his plan was going to have to wait.

* * *

A day later, and the two officers were still bothered by what had happened the previous day.

With time to actually think about it, they realized how ridiculous this situation was, and, in turn, how terrifying it appeared to be. If something like that happened again, would they have to keep fighting those monsters? How dangerous would this be, exactly?

The apartment had been quiet for the whole night, but the two had obviously been restless. During the night, Judy had heard Nick pacing around in his room, and the rabbit herself had barely gotten any sleep last night. She spent the whole night wondering if she really was some kind of murderer.

When the two got up, it wasn't any better, the morning breakfast was quiet for the most part, the two barely touching either of their meals.

"Nick, do you think that Kruger guy is really from another dimension?" The rabbit asked the fox.

"I'd say he's just a weirdo pulling our leg, but the stuff that happened yesterday was..." Nick tried to complete his answer.

The room fell quiet again, the two obviously uncomfortable with talking about it.

In a short time, the two were ready and off to work, the unease still not lifting as they left the apartment's parking lot.

* * *

"Alright, everyone," Bogo said to the room of police officers in front of him, which was only half full, as the events of the past day had resulted in a large chunk of them being hospitalized, "I want you all searching for these three..." He finished, pressing a button on the remote he held, causing three blurry pictures that Nick and Judy recognized to flash on the whiteboard.

One was of the strange fox creature that had created the monster from the day before, and the other two were pictures of them in those strange suits they had fought in.

"But," He continued, "We also have reports of multiple assaults from across the city, and the description of the attacker matches our runaway vigilantes, so, we'll have everyone split into groups, and search for him. I've already sent you all the eye-witness sketch of the animal."

Judy quickly pulled out her phone to check her e-mails, and sure enough there was an email with the sketch... which looked nothing like either of them, instead depicting some kind of tall, knight thing instead of them. She let out a small sigh of relief.

"So, groups..." Just as Bogo was about to finish his statement, there was a knock on the door, and suddenly Clawhauser was peeking through.

"Uh, sir..." The chubby cheetah said meekly.

"What is it, Clawhauser?" The Chief snorted, "We're in the middle of assignments."

"Um, the mayor's here. He wants to talk to you, and he's REALLY mad."

Bogo's eyes opened wide, slamming the checklist he was holding onto his podium, as he then stormed out of the room, nearly pushing Clawhauser out of the way.

Sure enough, in the middle of the lobby stood Mayor Lionheart, impatiently looking at his wristwatch, waiting for Bogo to show up.

"Hello, Mayor Lionheart," Bogo greeted the lion, "What a pleasure to see you here."

"Cut the politeness, Bogo, because I'm not giving any to you today." The lion snapped back at the buffalo, "What the hell happened yesterday!? How did an entire street get almost entirely destroyed!?"

"Well, you see-"

"I know what happened, Bogo." Lionheart cut him off, sticking one of his claws directly into his snout, "What I mean is, why didn't you do anything to stop those criminals!? Your entire force stood around watching as millions of dollars in property damage was caused!"

"How did you know about that?" Bogo questioned.

"Do you really expect something like that to not get coverage on the news?" Lionheart responded, as Bogo internally facepawed.

"Well, Mayor, I was just about to send my officers to search the city for the criminals, before you arrived." Bogo tried to state calmly, but with anger still apaprent in his voice.

"If you don't figure out where those two went by the end of the day, you'll be sorry."

The lion stomped his way out of the building, as Bogo took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. The week had just started and already he was reaching his limit.

He walked back into the roll call room, and finished giving out assignments to the officers, more annoyed than he had been when he exited.

* * *

Judy and Nick had been assigned to Tundra Town, where a few reports of the attacker had been reported. Obviously it wasn't them, but their job stated they still had to ask questions. But of course, all replies ended up being some variation of "No", as it had seemed all the witnesses had already been at the police station.

"Hey, Carrots," Nick asked as they rounded a corner, "Isn't it funny how the entire precinct's basically out looking for us?"

"I wouldn't exactly call that funny, Nick." She replied back, before almost tripping on a loose piece of ice.

"Careful there, cottontail." Nick said, helping his partner adjust herself.

"Y'know, this whole thing might go a lot smoother if we knew what this attacker's MO was." Nick continued.

"What?" Judy questioned.

"I mean, he's gotta have some sort of MO going on. Generally random assaults don't just happen."

"So, you mean like, there's specific people he's targeting?"

"Maybe!" The fox shrugged, :If we could meet the witnesses then maybe it would be easy to figure out."

"Wait, why didn't we get to see any of the witnesses?" Judy asked herself.

"Bogo seemed pretty rushed, maybe he didn't have to have witnesses see anyone." Nick guessed, rubbing his paws for warmth.

Judy quickly stopped in her tracks, and turned around quickly, nearly falling over, and running back the way they came.

"C'MON!" She yelled to her partner.

"Wh-" Nick was briefly confused, but the realization hit him quickly, "Oh yeah, duh, the witnesses!" He conked himself on the head, and quickly followed after his partner as she ran back to the car, which was parked a few blocks away.

* * *

They quickly returned to the station, and dashed to Clawhauser's desk in the middle of the lobby.

"Clawhauser!" Judy said, out of breath, "We need to speak to one of the witnesses in this assault case!"

"Sorry, Judy, but we kinda let them all go a few hours ago." The cheetah told her, disappointedly.

Judy's ears drooped, but Nick suddenly stepped in, "Do you at least have names for them?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, I could give you a list-" The cheetah tried to say before being cut off by the energetic rabbit.

"No, no no! We just need one name!" She said.

"Uh, alrighty." The cheetah said nervously, as he searched up the witnesses on his desktop. He quickly jotted down something on a note card, and handed it to the bunny.

"Here's the name and address of one of the witnesses." Clawhouser explained.

"Thanks! We owe you one." Nick replied, grabbing the card from the rabbit.

The two rushed back out the door, waving bye to their friend as they left, and practically leaped into the cruiser.

"Alright, so we have..." Nick looked at the note card closely, "Victoria Lupina, at 150, Oxenfree Drive, Downtown."

"Alright, got it." Judy said as she stepped on the gas, speeding the cruiser away.

* * *

Oxenfree street wasn't exactly what you'd call a pretty street, it was clearly one of the shadier parts of downtown. As they drove past they noticed the buildings, most of which were in disrepair, and the streets were full of litter. Basically what you'd picture when you hear "slum".

They stopped in front of a dingy apartment, marked 150. It looked like a worse version of Judy's old apartment, the front windows broken, and graffiti on every side. It was a mess.

Stepping in to the building itself, it wasn't much better. Roaches swarmed around, there was dirt basically fused to the floorboards due to years of neglect, and the smell of cigarettes floated through the air, which were mostly coming from a surly old sheep sitting at the counter.

"Um, hello." Judy said to the smoking sheep, who was busy not paying attention to them, mostly playing on her phone.

"Whaddya want?" She rudely replied, still not looking up from her phone.

"We're looking for a Ms. Lupina? Is she in?" Hopps asked, politely.

"Room 314, third floor." She replied, still not looking at the officers.

"Uh, thanks."

The two officers walked to the elevator, only get interrupted.

"Elevator's broken." The sheep told them.

"Guess we just have to use the stairs." Nick said, shrugging.

It took a while, but the two eventually made it to the third floor, not after trying to avoid some cockroaches, and dealing with some very unpleasant smells. Again, the hallways were not very well kept, the worst thing of note being the unusual stains on the carpeting.

"Why would anyone want to live here?" Nick asked.

"It's probably really cheap." Judy responded.

"I'd rather be homeless again than stay here." Nick said, causing the rabbit to look at him quizzically.

"There's her apartment, 314." Judy said, having finally reached the end of the hallway.

She knocked on the worn door, it clinking against both the hinges and the lock.

"Who's there!?" A female voice cried from the other side.

"It's Officers Hopps and Wilde, we're here to talk to you about the assault you saw last night." Judy said calmly to the woman on the other side of the door.

Quickly, she heard the sound of locks clinking, many, many locks. The door creaked open, and a middle-aged fox stuck her head out. She eyed the two officers, presumably making sure they were officers, and then ducked back into the apartment, before finally opening the door.

"Oh, come on in!" She said. She was dressed in very casual clothes, obviously not prepared for any visitors, but she invited them into her apartment anyway.

The apartment was much cleaner than the outside, in fact, it looked like a much higher class apartment than the cheap one it appeared to be from the outside. There was enough space for a bedroom, and a living room, and the place was meticulously cleaned.

"Sorry if the place is a bit of a mess, I wasn't expecting any guests today." She said, sounding a bit manic, "Please, take a seat, Officers." She continued, going to the kitchen and pulling out a chair at a very small dining table.

The two complied, thanking the fox for her hospitality, and took their seats at the table. Soon, the fox walked over and sat down herself, holding a cup of coffee.

"Ms. Lupina, we want to know what exactly happened when you were assaulted last night." Nick said, very bluntly.

Her hands were visibly shaking, the coffee swaying in her cup.

"Nick!" Hopps whisper yelled to her partner, "You can't just go right to a traumatizing event like that!"

"Oh no, it wasn't traumatizing," Lupina said, "It was just... very startling."

"So, what happened?" Nick asked

"I was on my way home from work, I'm a housekeeper, so it was very late, maybe around... ten-thirty?" She said, Judy making sure to take notes in her notepad.

"So, I was walking home, there was no one else around, and I heard a... a noise, it was a bunny, like you, Officer." She turned to Judy, who was still taking notes, but paying incredible attention.

"It was coming from an alley, so when I turned to look there was this... thing, standing there, holding the bunny by his neck." She continued.

"Was it strangling him?" Judy questioned.

"No, it was more like a very firm grip," She stated, "But after a minute, it dropped the bunny, and turned around. I tried to avoid being seen, but it saw me."

"I was petrified, I couldn't even run, and then it came up and grabbed me by the neck too." her voice was beginning to crack, clearly this event did hurt her somehow, "It lifted me up and stared at me, and then it dropped me, and when I looked up, there was nothing there. I could smell something burning, though."

"What did this... thing, look like, exactly?" Nick asked.

"It was around eight feet tall, I'd say, and it looked like some kind of knight? It was wearing golden armor, with weird, lizard decorations all over it. It didn't have a face, just this... horrible red glare."

"Nick, that matches up with the sketch they sent us." Judy said to her partner.

"Hmm." He nodded to her, "Is there anything else that you'd like to note?"

"Yes, it said something before it vanished, it was, uh..." She thought to herself for a second.

"'You're not the one'. That's all I have."

"Thank you, Ms. Lupina. We'd actually like to ask you a favor." Nick said, causing Judy to look up from her notes, a bit confused.

"We want you to take us to where you saw this 'knight'." He said, Judy understood what he was getting at, they'd go to the sight and search for any clues.

"A-alright, I just need to get ready first, I'll be down in a few minutes, you can go wait for me." She said.

Soon, the two were outside, waiting for her to come down. This is, of course, when Nick decided to spark a conversation.

"I didn't realize that sketch was accurate," He said, "I thought it was just a really bad drawing of what we were supposed to look like when we were in those suits."

"Yeah, I didn't know what it was supposed to be either." Judy replied with a bit of a laugh, but a thought suddenly crossed her head, "What if it's another one of those monsters?"

"It could very well be that, Carrots."

They heard steps from inside the building, and soon enough, Lupina was there, standing next to them. She hadn't exactly changed much, but it seemed like she at least had a shower before leaving.

"Alright, let's get going." She said, rather halfhearted.

Soon the three were strapped into the police cruiser, and were off.

* * *

It certainly was an alley, exactly what you'd expect from a slum, dumpster, trash littering the ground, one hundred percent definitely an alleyway.

"So, this is where it happened?" Judy asked Lupina.

"Yes, right..." She turned and pointed to just behind the dumpster that was leaning against the building next to it.

Nick walked over to the spot, and leaned down, and then took a smell, which he quickly regretted, clutching his nose.

After a bit of choking, he managed to say something, "Ugh, yep, definitely some kind of fire here. Seems like the smell of the fire mixed with the smell of the garbage."

"That's very odd." Judy said, writing in her note pad. She looked up, and hopped to the middle of the alley, looking down on the ground, "Rabbit hairs!" She cried, picking up a few strands of white-grey fur.

"So, how exactly is this gonna help with the investigation?" The female fox asked the officers, who quickly glanced at each other.

What exactly was this going to help with? They already knew that none of the witnesses were killed, and Lupina's description lined up with the sketch they had already gotten. In all their pretend detectiving, they hadn't gotten anywhere.

"Uh..." They both groaned.

"I guess we got so wrapped up in this excitement that we forgot to ask anything actually important, huh." Nick said dryly.

"Alright Lupina," Judy said, her ears drooping a bit, "We were trying to find out what exactly this guy was trying to accomplish, but I suppose we kind of overshot it."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"We mean like," Nick continued, "What kind of people this guy was after."

"That's easy, he was only attacking foxes and rabbits. Weren't you two there when they gathered in all the witnesses?" She chuckled, with the two officers going wide-eyed, "It was like a farm in there."

They felt like idiots.

"Well, that's pretty helpful information, Lupina," Nick said, trying to regain some composure, "Do you want us to drive you home, or..." He paused, looking around.

"Do you guys smell something burning?"

The burning smell became more apparent, as even Judy's much weaker nose was able to pick it up after a few seconds. Was there a fire? What was...

"FOUND YOU."

From behind them came a very intimidating voice, alongside the sound of fire crackling. While they couldn't see the person himself, they could see Lupina, who's eyes widened as she tried to step back.

They turned around, and sure enough, there was the figure Lupina had described, gold armor and all. They didn't realize how piercing his red, eyeless stare would have been.

"I didn't expect it to take this long to find you," The figure said, "Guess I misjudged how similar all of you animals look."

"Who are you!?" Judy yeleld to the monster.

"I am the Infinity Dragon, Long." He introduced, "I've been wanting to meet people like you for years."

"Question," Nick said calmly, raising his hand and stepping forward, "Do you know a, uh, Kooeymon?"

"You mean Kyuemon?" Long said back to the fox, "You could consider us partners."

"Well, do you know what happened to his last partner?" Jud boasted, crossing her arms.

"Yes, and I know who you two are, so there's no point in playing games anymore." Long coldly stated, suddenly flinging a fast fireball at them.

"GET DOWN!" Nick dived for Lupina, getting her out of the way of the surprisingly large blast of fire the fireball had created. With that, Lupina was knocked out.

Nick and Judy banded back together, holding up their wrists devices.

"YES! DO IT!" Long yelled to the two, spreading his arms, "GIVE ME THE CHALLENGE I HAVE BEEN WAITING 10 LONG YEARS FOR!"

"You want it!? You're gonna get it!" Judy yelled to the armored beast.

"ZOO ON!" The two yelled, slamming their hands onto the buttons, transforming them into their armor-clad alter egos.

The two charged at Long, their weapons suddenly appearing in their hands.

"Weapons, hmm?" Long mocked.

As soon as the two started attempting to strike him, they found every strike being blocked effortlessly by the dragon, every slice of Nick's sword caugh and turned against him, and every stab by Judy knocked away fro his armored hide.

Inn a quick flash of flaming fists, they found themselves knocked towards the opposite walls of the buildings, rubble surrounding them as they slid to the ground. All the while, Long hadn't moved from where he stood.

"Maybe I overestimated you." He glanced at the two, currently trying to get up from their injuries, "Perhaps I'll play fair this one time." He stretched his arms out, leaving himself vulnerable.

"GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT!"

"You asked for it!" Nick yelled, as the two closed in from both sides of the dragon, as they sliced his midsection with their weapons, causing a massive amount of sparks to burst from both sides of him.

They turned back to him, expecting to see him lying on the ground, but instead, the armored dragon was still standing proud.

"What the-" Judy said quietly.

"I guess I did, hmm." Long said to himself, "Clearly you two aren't ready to confront me one on one, shame, it would have been entertaining."

Long stepped forward, ignoring the two stunned heroes, walking towards the unconscious fox on the ground. He picked up her limp body, and stared at it for a second, before pulling out something.

"But you know what, I'll leave you two a special gift..." He held up the small object, which Judy recognized as some sort of small statue, looking specifically like a parying mantis.

With a swift motion, Long slammed the statue onto the fox's forehead, where it disappeared into her, causing her to let out an awful screech of pain. Long then dropped her to the ground, letting it writhe in pain for a few seconds.

Soon enough, the body on the ground started glowing, shifting into a nearly unrecognizable shape, growing and twisting, with horrible crunching sounds emanating with each movement. Soon, where there was once a fox, there was now a monster.

The monster, appropriately to the statue, resembled a mantis, with two large, orange shoulder pads resembling a mantis' eyes, and its arms ending in two long scythes, which, much like the previous monster, were lined with sharp blades. Even it's head was tipped with many, many sharp looking protrusions.

"Mantis Fist Master, Makirika!" It cried, it's voice not resembling Lupina's in any way, and performing an odd pose.

"I think you could use some extra company, too." Long laughed to himself, snapping his fingers.

Soon enough, the ground began to shake, as four sets of hands broke through the solid concrete ground, and slowly crawled their way out.

These new creatures looked like nothing the two had ever seen before, not like any mammal, or even possible an animal wearing a costume. The only parts of them uncovered were their hands and the bottoms of their faces, which had an eerie smooth, pale quality to them, like corpses. They wore brown shirts, with what appeared to be black undercoat. On their chest was a strange symbol, presumably not meaning anything, especially not to the two officers.

"What did you do to her!?" Judy yelled at the armored monster.

"Heh, who knows? Maybe if you destroy him, you'll find out." He told them mockingly, "But what if you do something you regret? How will you feel then?" He snapped his fingers, and disappeared into a burst of flame.

"Blue, what did he mean by that?" Nick asked his partner, who was equally confused.

"Rinshi!" The mantis creature yelled, causing the four undead monsters to begin hopping towards them. Literally hopping, as they jumped up and down, carrying long spears in both of their hands as they pointed them forwards.

"Okay, first things first," Judy stated, rearing her blades, "Get rid of the dead meat first."

The two rushed towards the four spear-carrying things, pulling out their weapons once again to attack them. They were a lot faster than they looked, as Nick tried to slice one, but it quickly blocked with its spear, stopping the sword entirely in its tracks, but the thing wasn't strong enough to completely turn the swipe back onto the fox.

Judy, meanwhile, was having a much easier time, as when the thing attempted to block, she swung underneath the spear with her second dagger, jabbing it into the thing's stomach.

It dropped the spear and toddled backwards, disappearing, much like the stone creatures from before, into a burst of smoke, this time black.

Seeing her partner struggling, Judy swiftly leaped over to the Rinshi he was dealing with, striking it with both of her knives, knocking it backwards, destroying it as well.

"These guys," Nick said with a puff, "Definitely fast, but not nearly as tough."

It was true, they took a lot less damage before being destroyed than the ones from the other day, but their speed became apparent, as the two remaining Rinshi hopped over to them, and very quickly jabbed their spears into where the two stood, with the heroes only managing to get out of the way just in time.

"Let's deal with these two chumps together." Judy said to her partner, who nodded in agreement.

The two rushed at the monsters, each facing a different one, but both standing back to back, both locked weapon to weapon with the one they had chosen to fight. As the four clashed, Nick gave Judy a sign, tapping her on the back with his tail.

On that cue, she leaped from her own fight, directly into the air, spinning around, and threw her one of her daggers directly into the Rinshi's face, instantly defeating it. Meanwhile, a split second after Judy had begun her jump, Nick had quickly ducked away from the Rinshi he was fighting, sliding his sword across the ground, and slashing at the monster behind him's feet, causing it to topple over and explode into black smoke.

After that spectacular feat, the two banded back together, facing the human turned monster before them, their weapons bared.

"Guess that was kinda impressive." It mocked, "But is it as impressive as this?"

The monster began moaning, crossing its arms, pointing the blades at the end of them outwards, "MANTIS ARTS..."

"HILL-CUTTING FIST!"

With that cry, the beast swung it's arms outward again, causing a what sounded like a sonic boom, as a large burst of air to be produced, which traveled forward so quickly that the two barely managed to duck under it.

When they looked up from their close cut, they turned around, seeing not only the building behind them begin to crumble, but the two next to them as well.

"HAH!" It laughed, "Impressed by my Mantis-Fist Style?"

"Well..." Nick murmured, "The guy from yesterday kinda did that too."

"What!?" The mantis cried in disbelief.

"I mean," Judy continued, "Yours was a lot more impressive, it's just not something, y'know, new."

They could tell the insect was getting angry, "How could somebody steal my fighting style!?" He looked up, his composure suddenly regained as he stared into the two with his beady red eyes.

"You two'll pay for insulting me!" It yelled to them, pointing to them with its large bladed hands.

"Oh!" Judy exclaimed, "Wait, before we fight, can I ask you a question?" She pulled out a otepad and pen.

"What!?" Both the monster and Nick cried.

"Yeah, yesterday the fox guy called his monster a, uh..." She said, thinking, "A Yohkee? Yohkay?"

"You mean a Yokai?" The mantis corrected her.

"Yeah, that, and I was wondering," She continued, "Are you also a Yokai?"

"Once a cop, always a cop, huh Blue?" Nick joked.

The thing grunted in disbelief, before answering her question reluctantly "I am a Predatory Beast Man!" He attempted to boast, "A master of Wild Ki, able to covert my own energy into fathomless power! I trained for years in order to be a master of the Mantis Fist!"

"Wait, but you were made, like, 10 minutes ago." Nick questioned, crossing his arms, "How can you have trained for years when you've barely existed?"

"MANTIS FLASH-CUT!" The thing, clearly tired of the questions, abruptly leaped forward, swinging his blade-arm in their general direction.

The two dodged, but the resulting slice into the earth created a quite clearly visible crack in the concrete, even larger than the clean slices the weasel monster had made from before.

"Alright, clearly you don't want to go onto the final round." Nick quipped to the beast, wiping some dust off his suit, before dashing towards the monster with his sword.

The sword and organic blades crashed, with the monster knocking Nick away, before rushing back to the fox himself, only to get a quick slice on the back from Judy.

"So, you wanna do it like this, huh?" It mocked, as it swiftly twisted and turned, striking both of them at the same time with different arms, causing them to spark and be thrown back in pain.

Nick covered his arm, checking to see if there was any wound, fortunately there wasn't, which means he had time for a joke.

"If it makes you feel better, you are stronger than the guy from before." He jokingly complimented, getting to his feet, "Not by much, but still."

The mantis roared in anger, and, compared to his rather precise movements from before, sloppily charged at the fox, who managed to dodge out of the way as he slammed his blade-arm into the ground, creating another large crack.

Nick slid over to his partner, who was also managing to get up, and seemed displeased with him.

"Red, what are you doing!?" She questioned.

"Relax, Blue, I figured out this guy's deal." He calmly said, watching the mantis try to get his arm out of the ground, "He's got a fragile ego, he's getting more sloppy as we insult him." He explained, "His Mantis whatever style also better at close quarters combat, so if we get him out somewhere open, we might have an easier time."

"Wow, Red, didn't know you were a combat expert." Judy said, impressed.

"Oh, I'm not, I'm just really good at observing things," He continued, "Not like this guy is super hard to figure out."

After a bit of struggling, the mantis had finally gotten unstuck from the ground, and turned around to face the two.

"Right now, I say we better get that plan started." She said to the fox, as they began to run out of the alleyway.

"What!?" The mantis yelled, watching the two run away, "Come back, cowards!" As they exited the alley and ran, the mantis leaped into the air, landing on a nearby building.

The two continued running as the mantis monster quickly jumped from the roof, and slammed into the street beside them.

"HILL-SPLITTING FIST!" It cried again, performing another, much weaker, version of it's slicing attack, which the two, again, barely managed to avoid as they continued running.

"So, Mr. Strategy," Jusy asked between breaths, "Where are we headed?"

"There's a park nearby," Nick panted, "If we can get there, it'll be easier to beat him."

"A park!?" Judy yelled, nearly stopping in hr tracks, before realizing her life was depending on her swift motion, "What about the people there!?"

"Yeah, that could be a problem."

They continued running towards the park, Makirika still leaping after them and attempting to cut them down with his attacks. Eventually, after a few blocks, they had made it.

It was certainly a fairly normal park, a small playground, and a large water fountain in the middle of it, shaped like a pig holding an urn, which sprayed water forward. Of course, the main problem was the large amount of animals that were there, including many children.

Judy ran forward to the fountain, and leaped on top of it, taking a deep breath, "EVERYONE!" She yelled out, perhaps the loudest she could, which caught the attention of a number of mammals, "YOU ARE ALL IN DANGER! EVACUATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY!"

In return, a number of animals stared at her, judging, perhaps for her climbing onto the fountain, or perhaps for her... strange outfit. Either way, it was apparent nobody was believing her.

Her heart sunk, as she hopped down from the fountain. However, her ears perked when she heard a loud crash.

Turning around, there was Makirika, who had landed on, and subsequently crushed, a bench, "She's right, you fools!" He yelled to the surrounding animals, who were now beginning to panic.

"MANTIS FLASH-CUT!"

In a quick motion, the mantis leaped forward towards the fountain, and sliced with one of his blade hands, chopping the pig statue cleanly in two, causing it to crumble, and water to begin spewing out.

This had gotten most of the animal's attention, and they were now running off in fear.

Nick stepped up to the mantis, his sword drawn, "You know, I thought you were a praying mantis, not a grasshopper."

"Hah, I eat grasshoppers for breakfast." It laughed, slicing multiple times at the fox, who blocked every slice with his sword, before they entered a stalemate.

As they struggled, Makirika leaned in to the fox, close enough to hear the thing's deep breathing, "Literally." It whispered menacingly.

Suddenly, the mantis felt a sharp pain it his back, breaking his struggle with the fox, who struck him in the stomach with his blade.

Makirika turned around, seeing the rabbit, twirling her daggers, "Huh, didn't know you were a cannibal." She quipped to the angry insect.

The mantis began to charge at the rabbit, only for another sharp pain to strike his back, the fox hitting him with his sword.

The mantis growled, looking back to the fox, and then back to the rabbit, "CRAP!" It yelled, before hopping off, gaining some distance from the two.

He wasn't exactly build for two on one combat, if he kept this up, he would be destroyed quickly. That wouldn't do, he had just come back to life. He needed something to distract them with...

What did his boss say before he left?

"I say we finish this now!" Nick yelled, pulling his sword above his head, ready to perform his finishing move.

"WAIT!" The mantis yelled, as Nick began to lower his sword, stopping him, and confusing the two heroes.

"Are you two sure you want to do that?" The mantis laughed.

"Uh, yeah, pretty sure." Nick nonchalantly answered.

"Well," The insect continued, "I am currently using your friend as a vessel." He tapped on his chest with his blade-hand, indicating to something inside him.

"If you destroy me, what will happen to her?" It asked, gesturing towards them, "What if, when you kill me, you kill her as well?"

This stopped the two dead in their tracks.

"Do you two really want the death of an innocent on your hands?" It asked.

Judy nervously stepped backwards, the word from the other day ringing in her ears, murder, if she killed this monster, she would be a murderer, wouldn't she. She nearly collapsed under her own thoughts.

Nick just stared forward, his fists trembling, clearly enraged at what the monster had just said.

"MMM!" The insect moaned in pleasure, "The fear... the despair... I can feel my power growing!" An unearthly purple energy began to surround him, swirling and whipping around, before absorbing into the creature's body.

"RINSHI! RISE!" He cried. Suddenly, the ground shook, as dozens of hands began to burst from the ground, revealing an army of the undead minions, who began hopping up in down.

"See you suckers later!" The insect mocked to the two, leaping away from the park, as the army of Rinshi hopped off on their own, following their master.

"Blue, we need to go after them." Nick said to his partner, anger rising in his voice. No response.

"Blue?"

He turned around, his partner was laying on the ground, motionless. There was the faint sound of crying.

"Judy?"

* * *

It was a few hours later, and the two officers had returned to their apartment. Nick had to call in to headquarters, making up an excuse about how they had gotten into a chase that had ended with Judy being injured, and they had to return home.

Somehow, it worked. The station was having a bit of a confused day, after all.

Not that the mood in the apartment was any better, Judy had gone into her room, and promptly begun having a panic attack. Nick couldn't really do anything, he wasn't particularly good with supporting people, and this was the first time he had seen her actively break down, so he did the only thing he could think of.

Watch TV.

Specifically, the news, and it wasn't a very pretty sight. Reports on Makirika's rampage were everywhere, and it was horrific.

The monster was destroying building left and right, no remorse in it's actions. The police were trying to do something about it, but it had about as well as the other day, even worse, maybe, due to how many officers were missing due to yesterday's events.

This entire thing was turning out to be a real mess.

He needed to do something. THEY needed to do something. What was happening was their fault in a way. Maybe it was his fault, he was the one who brought Lupina along, basically the reason why the monster was even here.

Great, now he was feeling depressed.

He switched the TV off, and headed for Judy's bedroom door, which he knocked on.

"Judy?" He asked softly from in front of the door. No response.

"How you doing?" He sighed, still no response from her.

He twisted the knob, it was unlocked at least, so he peeked into the room. it was, thankfully, clean, Hopps was never one to mess up her room, even under stress. The only thing unchanged from the night before was a large blanket covered lump laying in the middle of her bed.

He walked into the room, and poked the lump, which groaned at him. At least she was still alive. He sat on the edge of the bed, putting his paw over her her, trying to comfort her.

"Judy," He said solemnly to his wrapped up partner, "It's getting really bad out there, I think we need to..."

She let out another groan, trying to shake his paw away from her. He lifted it away himself, not wanting to bother her that much.

"I don't want to hurt anyone." She squeaked.

"I know, but..." Nick tried to come up with the right words, "But, if we don't who knows how many more people will die?"

This didn't help, as she curled up even more beneath the blankets.

He sighed, nothing he said was going to help.

"Alright," He said, standing up from the bed, "II'll go deal with this myself."

The rabbit finally stuck her head out from the blankets, "What!?" She exclaimed, turning to her partner, who was leaving the room.

"This entire thing is my fault, I'm going to go deal with it." He said, an air of seriousness in his voice, "You just stay here, I don't want you to feel any worse."

"But-" Before she could finish, the fox had dashed out of the apartment.

She sighed, and went into the living room, switching the TV on to the news.

* * *

"MANTIS FLASH-CUT!" The monster yelled, leaping towards a building. In a brief moment, the building was sliced in two, collapsing to the ground.

The mantis landed, looking at his handiwork, "These animals are so lame!" He boasted, "Can't even come up with something good to fight!"

He turned, looking across the plaza he had invaded, most of the buildings were totaled, but he was most impressed at the number of mammals running from his army of Rinshi, panic and fear emanating from them, which Makirika could feel absorbing into his body.

"Mmmm," He moaned, "At least they give me a good meal."

However, in the blink of an eye, a lighting fast burst of flame struck the area in front of him, destroying a large amount of the Rinshi he had summoned.

"Why don't you chew on this?" A voice yelled to him.

It was the fox from before, "I thought you would have packed it in by now!" The mantis responded back, "Clearly this is too much for you two."

Then he noticed something. There was only one there, the rabbit was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh ho," He chuckled, "Looks like your partner couldn't take it, huh?"

"Just you and me," Nick snarled to the monster, "One on one, mammal a... mantis... thing."

"You really need to work on your jokes." The mantis told him.

"Look, I'm trying, alright!?

The fox charged towards the monster, gripping his blade tight in his paws. With a swing, he struck the mantis in the stomach, which barely phased it, as Nick felt a quick strike to his stomach, knocking him away.

The fox stopped his landing by jabbing his blade into the ground, causing it to spark and leave a deep cut in the ground.

Gaining his equilibrium back, the fox rushed at the monster once again.

* * *

"An interesting development seems to have appeared at the site of the attack." The reporter, a porcupine, said from his helicopter, the camera shifting from his face to the plaza, where two small figures were fighting.

Judy gripped to the couch, she was hoping it wasn't who she thought it was.

It zoomed in, and it was definitely who she thought it was.

"It appears that some... masked hero has arrived to try and defeat this monster!" The reporter continued, as the camera focused in on Nick and the monster fighting.

He was having trouble, as Nick himself had said earlier, Makirika was made for one on one combat, he was ignoring one of the few strategic things he had come up with for the monster.

It was even worse when the other monsters were there, as they kept distracting him from the main monster itself, who who would use that as a chance to strike.

It was looking bad, and Judy was feeling very tense. Watching her partner get knocked around like that, it brought her to a boiling point.

She jumped down from the couch, and headed for the door, but something on the ground, right by the door, caught her attention.

It was an envelope, but the design matched the card from the other day. It had the SPD logo embroidered on it, and the only things breaking up the black of it were the white and red lines going across it.

She picked it up, and felt it in her paws, there was an object in there, it was thick, but also flat. There was a message on the back of it, "Use These. - D.K." is all it read.

She went to the table, and grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer, and cut the letter open, and dumped it onto the table.

It wasn't one object, but two objects, resembling metal tags, but without the chains, but they were also different colors, red and blue, and both showed, instead of names and information, drawings of what looked like motorcycles. She flipped them over, revealing a series of tabs, different on both of them.

Something else also came out as well. A sheet of paper, folded up into fours, which depicted what appeared to be instructions for the tags, written in script that she had never seen before, it appeared to be a language.

The page showed a paw sticking the tag into her device, and then pressing the button, which appeared to summon a bike, somehow.

She looked at the small tag, confused by its existence, before stuffing it into her pocket. She then checked the device, and sure enough, there was a small hole, just large enough to fit the tag in, guess she and Nick just never noticed it.

She grabbed the blue tag, putting it in her pocket, before she rushed out the door, and around to the back.

Catching her breath from her quick sprint, she pulled the tag out of her pocket and looked at it again. She could probably trust Kruger, he seemed to have good intentions, but...

How exactly would this work?

"Guess I don't really have a choice." She stuck the tag into device, and then slammed the button with her fist.

The eyes on the device began to glow a bright blue, as loud animal noises began to play from it. Suddenly, the device began to yell out.

"ROAR OF THE WILD!  
ROAR OF THE ENGINE!  
DO YOU HEAR IT?  
USAGIDER!"

She opened her eyes from the suddenly light, and standing in front of her, as she should've expected, was a motorcycle, around her size.

It was blue, of course, and had a stylized rabbit head on the front, with the ears forming the handles, and a tail forming the back of the seat, two paws grasping onto the wheels on the front, and two gripping the back wheels.

She hopped onto it, noticing it didn't have a revving engine, it seemed you just needed to hold the gas to get it moving.

Judy was ready, she supposed, so she yelled the code word, and slammed the button, transforming into her armored form. She held the gas, and was off towards the plaza she saw on the news.

* * *

Back at the plaza, Nick was still fighting the monsters. The Rinshi were surrounding him, his energy was being drained every second.

Maybe he shouldn't have ran here.

The monster laughed at him, as he began to collapse from exhaustion, the Rinshi beginning to surround him prepping their spears. This was it, he was gonna die here, without being able to say goodbye to all the people he cared about, like...

Well, he didn't really have many people in his life, did he?

Either way, dying was gonna suck a whole lot, especially under the current circumstances, filled with anger, regret, awful feelings that probably wouldn't do him well in the afterlife.

Suddenly, he heard a noise. A motorcycle?

It caught the monster's attention too, as they turned to see who it was. This distraction gave Nick a chance to strike back, he grabbed his sword, and spun around, slicing the ring of Rinshis in their legs destroying them.

He then saw what was getting their attention.

It was Hopps, riding a strange motorcycle, charging towards an army of Rinshi slowly hopping towards her. Quickly, she pushed one of the handle, causing the bike to skid, before she quickly leaped off, the bike crashing into the group of Rinshi, destroying them, with Hopps landing safely in front of the bike.

Makirika looked at the rabbit, standing so proudly. He was going to crush that spirit.

"Heh, I thought you'd lost your nerve, bunny rabbit." The mantis mocked.

"Hey, Insect," She said to the beast, ignoring his insult.

The bug grunted, letting the rabbit have her word before he made his final strike.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked, sudden compassion filling her voice, "Why are you destroying everything? What's the point?"

"The point!?" The mantis yelled with anger, "The point is none of your concern, rodent!"

"Why keep doing it, though!?" She yelled back, "You could be anything here, but you choose to destroy any chances you have!"

The monster looked at her, his stare piercing her heart, "I keep doing it, rabbit..." He paused.

There was a long silence, suddenly broken by the mantis chuckling to himself.

"BECAUSE ITS FUN!" Suddenly, the monster sliced forward, shooting a burst of air. Quickly, Judy dodged, only for the burst to continue upwards behind her, striking the corner of a nearby building, causing it to fall off.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Judy said sadly, standing back up.

"So, rabbit, I'll give you two options." He said to the rabbit, who continued staring at the ground.

"Option one," It said, holding up one of his blades, "You fight me, and kill the innocent, little civilian inside."

Judy clutched her fist.

"Option two," It continued, holding up its other claw, "You leave, and I kill your friend over there." It gestured to Nick, who was currently trying to fend off a group of Rinshi.

Judy continued staring at the ground, her fists clenched with anger. The mantis laughed to himself. He had her on the ropes.

"Well, what'll it be, bunny?"

"I choose..." She whispered, the mantis walked closer to hear.

"Spit it out!" It yelled at her.

"I choose neither!"

Quickly, Judy tossed both of her knives at the mantis, lodging them directly in its chest, knocking it back.

"What!?" It screamed in disbelief, "I thought I had you broken!"

"Something as awful as you doesn't deserve to be in this city." She scolded, "So, I'm gonna save Lupina, and Red, whether you like it or not!"

The mantis rose, roaring, causing the knives to free themselves from its chest, "How, exactly, do you expect to do that!?" It yelled.

"I dunno, but I'm gonna."

She rushed towards the monster, grabbing her daggers off the ground, and sliding under his legs, and then quickly turning around, slashing the beast's legs, causing it to yell in pain. After, she began running towards her partner in danger.

"Don't worry Red, I'm coming!" She yelled to him.

She jumped into the air, aiming herself towards two Rinshi that were closing in on the fox, and then dived into them knives first, causing them to explode into dark smoke.

The fox sighed in relief, "Thanks for the rescue, Blue," He thanked, "Coulda come sooner, though."

She gave him a glare, which pierced through her helmet.

"Sorry, bad joke." He apologized, still catching his breath, "Alright, lets go finish these guys off."

"Hang on," Judy interrupted, reaching behind her, pulling out one of the tags from before, "Use this."

"What is this, some kinda tag?" He took it from her, and stared at it, "Not really my fashion sense."

"Listen," She said, frustrated, "Put it in the wrist thingy, and slam the button."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot." Nick said with some reluctance, sliding the tag into the hole in the device he had just noticed, and then slamming the button.

A bright flash, jungle noises, and finally, a shrill call in somewhat garbled english.

"ROAR OF THE WILD!  
ROAR OF THE ENGINE!  
CAN YOU HEAR IT?  
KITSUNIDER!"

He opened his eyes, and sure enough, a motorcycle, much like the one Judy had ridden in on, but this one red, and more shaped like a fox.

"So, what do I do with this?" He asked.

"Use it to defeat those hopping weirdos," She explained, "This fight's gonna be personal." She finished, gripping her daggers, looking at the mantis monster.

"Alright, Bunny Commando." He joked, hopping onto the cycle, starting it up.

He drove off, pulling out his sword as he did. Driving directly into the middle of a group of Rinshi, he pressed the brake, causing the bike to spin around as he stuck his sword out, destroying an entire group of them in only a few seconds.

"Yeah, I gues sthis is pretty cool." He drove off again, ready to go deal with the few remaining zombies.

"Damn Rinshi!" The mantis yelled, watching his minions get slaughtered, "You guys are even more worthless than I remember!"

"The only worthless thing here," A voice said from behind him, he turned around, seeing the blue rabbit, "IS YOU!" She yelled at him.

The mantis laughed, "Let's get this over with already." He put up his blades, and the two charged at each other.

The two clashed, both of Judy's knives to both of Makirika's blade-arms, Judy managing to successfully push them out of the way, and then jabbing her knives into the monster's stomach as many times as she possibly could, before jumping upwards, slicing him with both blades as she went up, the creature sparking and writhing as she did.

Finally, she kicked the mantis in the face with both of her large rabbit feet, causing the dazzed monster to fly back farther than it reasonably should have, landing on its back and struggling to get up.

The monster grunted as it got up, "Are you a Rabbit Fist Master?" The insect asked, "I've never seen someone who wasn't use knives like that!"

"Nope!" She answered cheerfully, "Never used a knife like that a day in my life." She charged back at the bug, preparing to strike again.

Realizing this, Makirika lifted his arm, " MANTIS FLASH-CUT!" In an abrupt motion, he swung it down, attempting to cut the rabbit in half, only for her to deftly dodge out of the way.

As soon as the realization hit the beast, he felt a swift kick to his side, launching him off again. The rabbit had gained more spirit than ever before, it was humiliating!

"You know," Judy said to the mantis, throwing her dagger upwards and catching it, "I think you need a declawing!"

Quickly, she threw both of her daggers, directly into Makirika's prized blades, which soon fell to the ground with a loud clink.

He lifted his hands up, seeing them now end with unimposing stumps, before a flash of pain stirred in him, "MY HANDS!" It yelled in agonizing pain, "MY PRECIOUS HANDS!"

"Time to finish this!" Judy yelled, racing over to get her daggers from the now rather unthreatening monster.

She slid away from the bug as it attempted to strike at her as she ran past and grabbed her blades.

"FULL MOON SLICE!" She yelled, an echo emanating from her voice.

Judy began spinning around, quickly turning into a whirling tornado, with blades instead of wind. She began approaching the beast at in incredibly fast rate, barely giving Makirika enough time to move, before she sliced directly through his midsection.

She stopped, and turned around to admire her handiwork as the creature stumbled around.

It was laughing.

"YOU FAILED, RABBIT!" It yelled, pointing to her with his stump hand, "YOU COULDN'T SAVE THEM BOTH! YOU'RE A..." It slowed down, "A... a... grrk!"

The creature began to bubble, its skin rippling, causing it obvious pain, and soon enough a large bubble began forming on it's chest.

"No...!" It quietly stated, as the bubble burst open, causing a small fox to fly out from it at very high speeds.

Sure enough, Nick sped by on his bike, managing to stop the fox from landing on the concrete and getting even more hurt. Unfortunately, he blocked her with his body, causing him, and the bike, to topple to the ground, with a young fox laying on top of them.

"Ugh, that was a bad idea." He groaned.

Judy looked to the safe, alive civilian, and then back to the monster, who stared on in disbelief.

"What am I?" She said to the fidgeting mantis, "I'm a hero."

She turned around, as the bug fell to the ground, exploding into a large ball of fire, the only remnant being the small mantis statue, which flew from it and fell to the ground, cracking in two.

Judy rushed over to the unconscious fox, who was currently laying on top of a struggling Nick.

"Blue, help me get her off." He said weakly, "She's heavier than she looks."

"Good thing you didn't say that while she was awake." Judy retorted back.

"Har har."

Judy helped lift the unconscious Lupina back to her her feet, Nick holding her up as the rabbit attempted to wake her up.

"Lupina? You can open your eyes now," She said softly, "Everything's fine now."

The fox wearily opened her eyes, "Whuh? Huh?" She said, confused, "Where am I? Who are you?" She stumbled from the fox that was holding her, and turned to both of them.

Judy was a bit flummoxed with the question, they didn't really have any answers to it.

"We're, uh..."

"Wait!" Lupina interrupted, excitedly, "Are you two Zoo Rangers?"

"What?" The two said to each other.

"You two look EXACTLY like this show I used to watch when I was a kid!" She continued.

Before they could continue, a loud sound pierced their ears, the sound of a helicopter landing.

"HOLD IT!" Yelled the porcupine reporter, as he and his tapir cameraman exited the chopper, walking up to the two.

"Charles Spiketon, reporter for ZNN," He stated, the tapir focusing his camera uncomfortably close on the two heroes.

"How does it feel having saved the whole of Zootopia from a horrible monster!?" The intense porcupine posed to the rabbit, sticking a microphone in her face.

"Uh, well-" Judy was quickly interrupted, with Nick taking control of the mike.

"Well, Charles," He said smoothly, putting on a faux-deep voice, "It feels pretty good! Nothing starts a day like destroying an evil monster, y'know?"

"Well, I personally wouldn't," The porcupine started, "But that was an amazing feat of action and skill from you both! Is there anything we can call you by?"

Lupina quickly grabbed the mike from the reporter, who looked fairly offended by this abrupt action, "They're the Zoo Rangers!" She answered.

She gave the remote back to Nick, who tried to continue from where she left off, "Uh, yeah, we're the Zoo Rangers, and we have to return to our..." He paused for a second, "Secret underground base, in case there are any other monster attacks."

He lifted up the knocked over motorcycle, and then hopped on, "Come on, Blue," he said to his stunned partner, still putting on the deeper voice, "We have to go."

Judy shook her head, trying to parse what had just happened, "Give me a second," She ran over to where her bike was parked, currently surrounded by a dozen burnt marks from the Rinshi it had destroyed, "Just gotta get my bike."

As she got on her bike, she noticed something. Mammals of all kinds, revealing themselves after all the commotion. They began cheering. For them. This made Judy's heart flutter, as she drove her cycle over to her partner's.

"Alright, Red, let's go." She said proudly, as they drove off, hundreds of animals cheering for them as they did.

* * *

A few hours later, and the two were back at their apartment, watching the news.

"A truly strange event has happened today in Zootopia," Said the moose anchor, "After a bizarre series of attacks by a large, bug-like creature of unknown origins, two equally mysterious heroes arrived, and managed to defeat it before it could cause any real harm."

"People have started calling these two the 'Zoo Rangers'," Continued the snow leopard anchor, "After the children's show from the mid-nineties, of which they suspiciously resemble."

"Think there might be any legal disputes over this, Joanna?" The moose followed up.

"After seeing that, I wouldn't want to get on their bad side, Peter." the leopard answered.

"Either way, Zootopia seems to have a genuine pair of Superheroes protecting it!" The moose stated, "And we look forward to seeing them in action."

The TV switched off, and Judy looked next to her to see Nick smiling, perhaps the largest he'd ever smiled in his life.

"You hear that, Carrots?" He turned to her, looking her directly in the eyes, clearly overly excited, "They called us Superheroes!" His eyes were nearly shining.

"I mean, we are, but..." Hopps leaned back into the sofa, she felt that something was wrong, "I didn't want to get this stuff out there like this."

"You mean you wanted us to be like The Bat," Nick guessed, "Secret, spoken of only in the whispers of criminals?"

"That would have been preferrable to us getting media attention immediately." She admitted.

"Where'd the fun in that be, Carrots?" The fox smugly said, "It'd be like if Super Mammal had to hide himself, when you're dealing with powerful monsters like that Mamakaraka guy, it's hard to keep secret!"

"Nick, I didn't know you knew so much about comics." Judy mused.

"Hey, I was a kid once too, y'know." He answered back.

She chuckled at his enthusiasm, this was the happiest she'd seen him since the day he became a cop.

"Oh yeah, I kinda told Bogo that you had an injury, so we're probably not going to work tomorrow." The fox admitted.

"WHAT!?"

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the station itself, Bogo was sitting in his office, doing the loads and loads of paperwork he had accumulated from the last two days alone. Buildings in ruins, tons of officers hospitalized, three criminals on the run, it was turning into a real wreck of a week.

So, as a bit of a break, he decided to turn on the radio.

"A truly strange event has happened today in Zootopia," the voice on the radio crackled, "After a bizarre series of attacks by a large, bug-like creature of unknown origins, two equally mysterious heroes arrived,"

"What?" The buffalo said to himself, it couldn't be, were those two from the other day being considered heroes now? Or were there even MORE vigilantes than he had assumed.

He slammed his head on his desk, causing some paper to fly around, as he turned the radio off.

Suddenly, a knock at the door.

Bogo lifted his head up, "Come in." He said, anger rising in his voice.

The door opened wide, it was Mayor Lionheart. Just what he needed.

"Bogo, how's the hunt for those two masked vigilante's coming along?" The lion questioned.

"Not well, Mayor, after today, we barely have any officers left to-" The buffalo was quickly interrupted by the lion.

"Well, if you don't manage to find out who those two are soon, you're going to be in trouble!" He roared.

"Yes, yes, I know-" Again, interrupted.

"No, you don't! I need you to find those two, fast!" The lion slammed his hands against the table.

"Yes, they've been causing a lot of trouble recently, we'll arrest them-" For a third time, interrupted by the Mayor.

"Arrest them!?" He said, flabbergasted, "You're not going to arrest them!"

The buffalo looked at the lion with a mix of confusion and irritation.

"I need you to find out WHO they are, so I can thank them for saving the city!" He explained to the police chief, "It'll be a great boost to both morale, and publicity!"

The buffalo snorted and sighed at the same time, "Alright, Lionheart, we'll get on it as soon as possible." Bogo said, absolutely defeated.

"Good," The lion said, exiting the room, "And don't forget, do it fast!" He slammed the door.

The buffalo sighed, and slumped into his seat, only to be surprised when the door opened up again, revealing Lionheart, again.

"Remember, I'll have your job if you don't do this soon!" He reiterated, slamming the door again.

Bogo slumped back down into his chair, placing his hooves against his face and sighing.

What in the world was happening?

* * *

The sound of metal clanged along the metallic ground, as Long returned to the base, greeted by the 5 other strange creatures he was now working with.

Clearly, they had saw what Makirika had accomplished, as they looked on at him with both disbelief and awe.

"Hey, man," Yabaiba said cheerfully, giving him the thumbs up, "You did pretty good out there!"

"Eh," Sambash grunted, "I could have done better."

"I doubt that." Long stated coldly, causing the punk creature to scoff at him.

Long sat down at his seat, suddenly feeling a cold air behind him, which, while he noticed, didn't entirely feel.

"That was an admirable outing," The voice behind him said, clearly Kyuemon, "The way your monster manipulated them was close to working." He complimented.

Long didn't reply.

"But," he said, placing a hand on the dragon warrior's shoulder, "Makirika didn't cause that much destruction, did he? He mostly just destroyed a plaza, how simple."

"Better than you did, fox." Long replied.

Kyuemon backed off, offended, only to hear some chuckling coming from beside him.

"He's got a point, your monster did way less than dragon boy's did." Yabaiba mocked.

"How dare you, you-" Kyuemon was quickly interrupted, as a pulse of energy shook the room.

" **ENOUGH** " It cried.

" **LONG** " Another pulse shot through the room, shaking everyone but Long himself, " **YOUR MONSTER PERFORMED EXCELLENTLY, AND BROUGHT IN ENOUGH CHAOTIC ENERGY THAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO WORK ON THE NEXT PHASE OF THE PLAN** "

"Thank you, Omnipotence, but I was simply doing what I felt like." Long admitted.

" **KYUEMON** " The pulse shocked the room again, this time causing Kyuemon to nearly fall over, "Y **OUR MONSTER, ON THE OTHER HAND, PERFORMED POORLY, AND BARELY BROUGHT IN ANY ENERGY** "

"But, your Omnipotence-"

" **QUIET** " The fox Yokai quieted immediately, " **I AM BEGINNING TO WONDER IF BRINGING YOU BACK WAS TRULY SUCH A GOOD IDEA, IF YOU PERFORM AS MISERABLY AS THAT, I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DESTROY YOU FOR GOOD** "

Kyuemon grunted, "It won't happen again, your Omnipotence." The fox walked away, the other villains, minus Long and Yogostein, who had mysteriously vanished, laughing at his embarrassment.

However, someone watched him from the corner, not mocking or deriding him. Enter stood, looking at the Yokai, smiling.

"He could be useful."


	4. Fire in the Sky

Kyuemon looked off on the horizon, the city glimmering with lights during the night. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, but it was some kind of mountain which overlooked Zootopia, which seemed to come just short of the city's largest skyscraper.

He had been standing there for hours, ever since he was humiliated by Long. How could he have been so careless with Kamaitachi? Perhaps the years of death caused him to become sloppy with his plans, or perhaps the sight of those ridiculous Rangers made him too cocky.

Either way, it was a defeat, and a rather bad one too.

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" It said, causing Kyuemon to turn around abruptly. It was Enter, in his human form, gesturing to the fox with that smug smile.

"What do you want, Enter?" Kyuemon questioned, trying not to sound angry.

"Not much," He said, "I just thought you might like to get a higher standing with our new Master."

This piqued Kyuemon's interest. It was certainly something he'd have to do if he wanted to stay alive.

"I'm listening." The Yokai replied.

"Good, now here's what you need to do," Enter walked over to where the fox was standing, pointing towards the city, "Yogostein is preparing a plan, and I want you to distract those two Rangers while he does."

"That's it?" Kyuemon questioned, feeling a bit insulted, "You want me to go to the city, just so I can be humiliated, while you wait for someone else's plan to start?" He scoffed the human, "No thanks."

"I don't mean distract them with a fight, Mon Amie, I mean distract them... some other way." Enter clarified.

Kyuemon's interest picked up again, "What, exactly, do you mean by that?" He asked.

"You are a ninja, are you not?" Enter posed, "A master of illusion?"

"Indeed, I am." Kyuemon answered, a bit reluctantly. He could tell what Enter was getting at, and it bothered him. He could tell that, somehow, Enter had seen through his lie.

"Perhaps, then, you could trick those two into a distraction, hmm?" Enter turned to look at the fox.

"I suppose you won't leave until I accept." Kyuemon said, irritated, "Then I have no choice, I'll do it."

"Good," Enter enthused, "Make Monsieur Omnipotence proud, Kibaoni."

The last word made Kyuemon turn, drawing his sword, ready to strike the false human, only to find that he had disappeared. Kyuemon turned back to the city, looking at it as the moon reached the top of the sky.

Kyuemon then vanished in a burst of dark energy.

* * *

He slammed his foot against the roof of the building, this place was making him angry just looking around it.

Not a single factory in sight, no smoke stacks billowing out the wonderful toxins he loved, no exhaust coming from any of the cars. He should have assumed that animals would be better at taking care of their precious environment than humans, but this was ridiculous.

"BAH!" The robot yelled, looking to the skyline, "I say it's time to dirty this place up." He turned around, facing a familiar monster.

"Incinerator Banki, do you understand the plan?" he asked the strange robotic creature, who responded with a rather awkward salute, considering how low on its body it's head was.

"I understand, Master Yogostein!" It said to him.

"I'll reiterate anyway, just to make sure you know," Yogostein said, not exactly trusting the machine, "You are to eat as many objects as possible, and create the largest cloud of smog you possibly can, before the sun rises." He circled behind the Banki Beast, "Got it?"

"Uh, yes, sir." The furnace answered wearily.

"Good. THEN GET GOING!" With a swift smack from Yogostein's spear, the beast was flung off of the building, landing fast first on the concrete below.

The machine got up, and looked around, he was on the street, it was dark, and there was nobody around. Perfect, he could get the plan into motion quickly with this current setting. It was a rather nice looking street, though, lined with houses, not apartments.

"Best to go for the easy targets first." He said as he spied a garbage can sitting in front of one of the nearby houses.

He stomped across the lawn, instantly killing the grass he stepped on. Taking the lid off of the can, he saw exactly what he had hoped, rotten, stinking garbage. A perfect ingredient for noxious smoke.

"Thanks for the food!" He thanked, placing his hands together and bowing, before grabbing a handful of the garbage.

The orange panels above his head slid open, revealing a burning fire. Carelessly, the monster began throwing the contents of the garbage can into the hole, and in only a few minutes, the garbage can was nearly emptied.

"Alright," It said to itself, walking t the middle of the lawn, "Smoke, ON!" The incinerator clenched itself, as suddenly a large burst of noxious gas spewed from the four pipes on its head, which violently drifted across the street, before going into the air, creating a small, whirling cloud of smoke, barely noticeable on the night sky.

He looked at the lawn he was standing, the grass was now all dead, and so was the lawn next to it, as well as any piece of greenery on the entire street. He admired his work, his smoke wasn't this powerful last time.

"This plan's gonna go perfectly." He said to himself.

* * *

Judy had slept in, the excitement and action of the previous day had left her absolutely exhausted. Normally, she would be panicking, but due to some clever words from Nick the other day, they wouldn't have to go to the station, due to him lying about an injury she had gotten. Unfortunately, this also meant she couldn't leave the apartment,

She had been awake for maybe half an hour, thinking about how much her life had changed in only two days. He mind raced with thoughts about how there were apparently more than one of these weird monsters, how they were now known public figures, how they'd really, really have to hide their identities if they didn't want the press trying to harass them.

But most importantly, she thought about her actions the other day. Yes, she managed to defeat the monster, and save Lupina, but... she still didn't feel right having to kill, well, anything really, even though she had a feeling there really wasn't any other choice. That thought alone brought her dread.

She rolled over in her bed, spying her alarm clock in the corner of her eye. Ten AM, she should probably get up.

She drowsily flumped out of bed, and was about to head for the kitchen, when she heard noises coming from the living room.

She peaked past the corner of her bedroom, seeing Nick sitting on the sofa, a small bowl of blueberries on his lap, which he was eating like popcorn. The noises were coming from the TV. He was watching television.

"What are you doing?" She asked, yawning.

"Important research." He answered between mouthfuls of blueberries, eyes still glued to the TV.

"I doubt that." She sighed, heading to the kitchen.

He swallowed, "No, seriously, I'm doing something important." He paused the TV, and gestured for her to come over, "Look at this."

She sighed, and walked over, looking at the screen. She wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to be looking at, it was definitely an old show, considering how degraded the film looked, but the paused screen only showed, a small group of animals, each one dressed in a very specific color, standing a round a very 90s looking building.

"Okay, what am I supposed to get from this?" She asked, a bit annoyed.

"Alright, bad time to pause it, but this is the show Lupina was talking about!" he said excitedly, gesturing to the TV screen.

"You mean that Zoo Rangers show?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Nick enthused, "The whole show's on PetFlix, and It's uncanny how similar it is to what we've been doing, but there ARE a few differences you might find..." He paused, "Interesting, maybe?"

"Alright, slick," She said, sitting next to the fox on the couch, "Lay it on me."

"Alright, basic plot summary," He started, placing the remote down, "Five teens get recruited by a giant floating head to save the world from aliens. There's the first difference." He pointed out to the rabbit.

"What, that we weren't recruited by a floating head?" She questioned.

"No, the difference is that there's five of them compared to us only having two." He corrected.

"Alright, I don't really get why that's important." Hopps said, the point was kind of trivial.

"Okay, yes, it isn't super important," Nick sarcastically replied, "But, what if it means there's three more of these Ranger guys running around the city, and we just haven't found them yet?" He posed.

"Well, if there were, after yesterday they probably would have let us known they exist." Judy reasoned.

He looked at her, a bit disappointed that his theory got shot down so quickly, but he continued, "Alright, so, every time they defeat a monster, this guy with a gun shows up, and he makes them turn into giant monsters."

"What." Judy responded flatly.

"Yes, it's weird, but whenever a monster turns into a giant, they call in their giant robot to fight it!" The fox excitedly told the rabbit, "What if we have giant robots?"

She looked at him quizzically. She wasn't really aware that he got this excited over superhero stuff, it was weird to see him so happy, considering Nick was calm and collected most of the time.

"Calm down, Nick, it's just a TV show." She told him, putting it rather simply.

He took a deep breath, "Yeah, I guess you're right." He admitted, finally attempting to calm down, "But, this is shockingly close to our lives right now, what if there's some connection?"

"I doubt it, Nick." She admitted, hopping down from the couch, and heading over to the window.

She flicked open the drapes, taking a look outside. It was unusually dark for being sor late in the day, the clouds were nearly pitch black, nearly blotting out the sun.

"Ugh, the weather's really bad today." Judy bemused.

"Wow," Nick said, looking out the window, "It's even worse than it was when I woke up."

Judy paused and looked at her partner, "How long have you been up?" She asked.

"Almost seven hours, Carrots."

She sighed, "Go back to bed, Nick."

"I've been up for too long, Carrots, I can't." He admitted, "Good thing we're not going anywhere today."

She sighed once again. What a strange morning.

"So, we're stuck in the apartment for the day, what should we do?"

"Wanna watch Zoo Rangers?"

* * *

Despite the strange weather, the mammals of Zootopia were still out, doing their daily business. For instance, the people visiting Boarsten Market, a small outdoor market, lined with fancy clothing shops, and cafes.

A lot of animals were spending their time and money at the market, but their day of leisure was about to be disrupted by something unusual.

"UGATZ!" A strange voice yelled, "Get me as much food as possible! Destroy whatever you have to!"

Suddenly, a group of strange creature's attacks, nothing like any of the animals there had ever seen. A group of bronze and white creatures that moved, and sounded, like machines, which promptly started tearing up the shops, gathering small objects in their arms, while also taking time to attack innocent passersby.

The group of robots waddled back over to who had commanded them, another, much stranger beast, resembling a furnace, but with a very large, exaggerated face located on its chest area, and instead of a head, it had the opening to a furnace, which could slide open.

They dumped the objects into a pile at the monster's feat, food splatting, metal clanging, a cacophony of noises that didn't seem to bother the robot.

"Good work," It said to the Ugutz, "Now, it's time to chow down!" It promptly began scarfing the objects that laid around him into the furnace opening, causing them to burn up inside of the monster's stomach.

Soon enough, the objects were all gone, chairs, umbrellas, sandwiches, only traces of them left as the monster patted his stomach.

"Alright, time for the next blast!" It clenched up, causing another large burst of smoke to expel itself from the creature's horn-like pipes, the smog flooding the market, before drifting into the air.

The fumes were incredibly strong, almost instantly knocking out any mammal with an above average sniffer, and taking a very short time to knock out any remaining.

"Hah, that was a good one." The furnace laughed to itself.

"INCINERATOR BANKI!" A familiar voice yelled, causing the machine to stop its celebration.

It turned around, it was his boss, Yogostein.

"Oh! Master Yogostein, what are you doing here?" It asked, trying to hide its fear, worried that the golden general was angry with him.

"I'm amazed at how well of a job you've been doing, honestly." Yogostein said, clacking his spear against the ground.

"O-oh, thank you, sir!" The incinerator thanked.

"But, you need to hurry up, it'll only be a few more hours before out plan has to go into action." He told the furnace.

"Alright, sir!" He paused for a second, scratching his face, "What is the plan anyway?"

"When the Swirling Evil Cloud Of Noxious Death reaches maximum pollution capacity, I will lower it down to ground level, causing a massive amount of chaos, definitely destroying this city in the process!" Yogostein explained.

The monster nodded, "Got it, boss! I'll get back to work immediately!" It saluted at him, and started to head off.

"What the-!?" Yogostein yelled, looking behind him.

"What is it, sir?" The furnace asked his boss, tilting over to see what he was looking at, which was... nothing.

"Uh," Yogostein muttered, "I was just kind of expecting them to show up by now."

"Who?"

"No one!" He yelled at the furnace, getting directly into his face, nearly knocking the machine over, "Don't jinx it. Go finish the mission, you have until five PM."

The incinerator got to his feet, "Yessir!" He abruptly finished, running off, a pack of Ugutz following him.

Yogostein sighed in relief, "I figured they would have figured out something was going on by now, strange."

* * *

Two PM, Nick and Judy had spent a couple hours marathoning Zoo Rangers. She could tell Nick was enjoying it, but she was kind of struggling to see the appeal of it. It was obviously just a children's show designed to sell toys, there wasn't much else, the writing was cheesy, and the acting was bad. But, Nick was still enjoying it, and she didn't want to make him upset.

Suddenly, a knock on the door. Nick quickly paused the TV, as Judy got up to check who it was.

Judy creaked the door open, "Hello?" She wearily greeted.

It was a fox, a strange looking one, young, perhaps 18, with dark yellow fur covering most of his visible body, but with pale-yellow fur covering his face, and strange red marks under his eyes. The fox also wore some strange clothes, a yellow and black hoodie with a tiger stripe pattern on it, and a pair of baggy black and purple pants.

"Uh, is this the apartment of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps?" He meekly asked, with what appeared to be as light accent, one Hopps didn't recognize.

"Yeah, it, uh..." She paused, this seemed weird, "It is."

She noticed that he was holding a notepad. Was he a journalist? He didn't look like one, so maybe he was an undercover journalist? His nervous tone suggested otherwise, however.

"Uh," The fox mumbled, "You two are my heroes."

Judy's heart started to race. Had this fox figured out who they were, or was it for a different reason? Maybe they were his police heroes, not Superhero heroes?

"I came here to get your autographs, can I..." He paused, shuffling around awkwardly, "Can I come in?"

"Um, sure." Judy answered, also a bit awkwardly, "What's your name, anyway?" She asked, opening the door.

"Kyle Izanami," He answered, before bowing, "Thank you for inviting me in."

"That's a strange last name." Judy stated, "Are you foreign?"

"Oh, my father was, he moved here from overseas." He answered, scraping his feet off on the mat.

"Judy, who's that?" Nick worriedly asked, staring from the couch.

"This is Kyle, Nick, he's our guest." She calmly answered, "Don't be rude." She suddenly turned dark, staring at the fox.

"You know, you're way too friendly, Carrots." He jokingly retorted, "I probably woulda shooed the tyke away."

Kyle looked a bit dejected, and turned for the door, "Oh, if I'm interrupting something, I could come back later."

"No! No, no, please, stay for a bit, you weren't interrupting anything." Judy turned to glare at Nick, who sunk back into the couch, without breaking eye contact with the rather angry bunny.

Kyle sat down at the kitchen table, Nick getting up to make a "formal greeting", while Judy prepared a drink for their guest.

"Y'know," Nick started, "It's pretty rude to go to someone's house to get their autographs."

Kyle looked a bit upset, but Hopps came over, holding a cup of coffee, "Personally, I think it's very sweet that someone would come all this way to get our autographs." She said, putting the coffee in front of Kyle.

"Thank you," Kyle thanked, "Uh, for the coffee, and the kind words."

Hopps sat down, at the side of the table next to Nick, "So," She asked, a bit nervously, "Why did you call us your 'Heroes'?"

"Well," Kyle started, "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to help people, but nobody really trusted me because I was a Predator. Everyone I tried to help looked at me like I was a monster, and others mocked me because I wasn't acting like I was supposed to."

He took a sip from his coffee, shuddering a bit, apparently he wasn't used to the taste.

"Is there something wrong with the coffee?" Judy asked.

"No, no." Kyle swallowed, "I just don't drink… coffee, that much."

"Anyway," He continued, "When you," He looked at Nick, who's ears perked up, "When you joined the ZPD, it was all over the place, it made me feel like I could be somebody, y'know. Help people."

Judy saw something change in Nick, previously he had a look of disinterest at this kit who claimed to be a fan, but when Kyle told his story, Nick's expression had changed to intrigue. It must've struck a chord with him.

"Alright, kid," Nick started, a bit of smugness in his voice, "We'll give you our autographs, but…"

He paused, as a look of worry grew on Kyle's face.

"You gotta hang out with us first." He finished.

Kyle's expression changed from worry to excitement, while Judy looked at her partner in amazement, surprised the fox would ever be so nice to anyone.

"Seriously!?" Kyle shouted in disbelief.

"Hey, we weren't doing anything today," He continued, "Might as well have a surprise guest over for a bit."

So, the three had a visit, talking about their lives, the events that led to Nick becoming a cop, and even enjoyed some pizza. By the time it was over, nearly three hours had passed.

"Oh," Kyle said, a bit surprised, "What time is it?" He asked, "I forgot to bring my phone."

Judy glanced at the clock hanging from the wall, "Four Forty, why do you ask?"

Kyle quickly got up, and bowed, "I'm sorry, but I promised I'd be home at five!" He apologized, and then pulled out his notepad, "Can you two please sign this?"

They did, and the fox said his goodbyes, rushing out the door.

"I've never seen you so friendly towards… anyone besides me, Nick." Judy told her partner.

"Yeah, don't expect any more of that any time soon." He replied with a smirk, crossing his arms.

However, just outside the door, Kyle was still there, his eyes beginning to glow an eerie yellow, before he disappeared in a burst of dark energy.

* * *

Meanwhile, On the top of a roof, overlooking the duo's apartment, stood a tan cheetah, dressed in a long coat, a pair of goggles over his eyes, which let him see inside of the two's small apartment.

As the yellow fox left, he removed the goggles, and turned around. Sure enough, in a burst of darkness, Kyuemon had appeared.

"Bravo, Mon Amie," He congratulated the Yokai, removing his feline disguise, returning to his human-looking form, "I had no idea you were such a master of improv."

"I'm not," The fox coldly stated. For once, Enter had a genuine look of confusion on his face.

"Then, what exactly do you call that?" He asked.

Kyuemon chuckled, "Simple," In a puff of smoke, Kyuemon had turned into the fox that had been visiting the two cops only moments before, "This body is dead. He died four years ago in an assault."

Enter stared at the fox, still confused.

"I used a Copy Ninjitsu to copy his wandering spirit," The fox continued, "Which allowed me to copy his body and memories."

Enter was beginning to understand, "Hm," He laughed, "That's what I should have expected from a Yokai ninja." He turned around, looking back at the building, seeing the rabbit and fox go about, unaware what had just happened.

"So everything you told them was true, huh?" He asked the fox, who had returned to his Yokai form.

"To a point." Kyuemon answered.

"I feel we can make more use of this than just as a distraction, Mon Amie."

"What do you mean?" Kyuemon asked, flatly, but with a hint of interest.

Enter let out an uproarious laugh.

* * *

"This should be the last meal before it's finished!" The robot yelled to itself, reclining in a chair on top of a roof, as its minions brought it more objects to eat.

It stared up at the giant cloud it had created, which covered the city from inch to inch what a wonderful work of pollution.

"INCINERATOR BANKI!" A loud, commanding voice yelled, causing the furnace to topple over.

"Y-yes, Master Yogostein, Sir?" It said in a hurry as it got up and saluted.

"It's almost time, you lazy steam dryer," He yelled to his minion, hitting him with his spear, "Get back to work!"

"I'm almost done!" It pleaded, "Give me a second and I'll finish the SECOND!"

It stumbled over to the pile of objects the Ugutz had gathered, beginning to toss them into its furnace hole. In only a few seconds, the pile was gone.

"FINAL SMOKE EXPULSION!" It yelled, clenching once again, causing a large burst of smoke to be released from his pipes, which floated into the air, fusing with the swirling cloud.

The swirling cloud began to writhe, causing Yogostein to let out a maniacal laugh, as he walked to Incinerator Banki.

"Good job," He congratulated the furnace monster, "But there's still one part left…"

Quickly, Yogostein ripped open a panel on the back of the Incinerator Banki, and pulled out a small device, resembling a remote control, and slammed it inside of him.

"Ack!" The burner yelled, "What was that!?"

"That device I installed into you is timed to go off in around five minutes, five PM on the dot," He explained, "It's designed to attract the multiple compounds of the smoke you create, meaning the SECOND will travel to the ground level as long as you STAY on the ground level!"

"Wow, sir," The Banki said in awe, "You're such a genius."

"I know." The mechanical monster boasted, "NOW GET GOING!" He pushed the furnace, knocking him off the rather large building, causing it land with a loud clank against the ground.

"Only a few seconds remaining." Yogostein said to himself, watching the cloud.

Soon, the cloud began crackling with energy, the sound of thunder striking as well.

"YES!" Yogostein yelled proudly, "Soon, the SECOND will descend upon this wretched city, and turn it into a noxious, filthy wreck!"

He was still watching.

"Any second now." He said to himself, less excitedly.

It was definitely moving, but it was barely noticeable to the naked eye, it hadn't even reached the tip of the central tower, which Yogostein measured it was only a few meters above.

He looked over the building, seeing Incinerator Banki laying on the ground.

"Hey, uh," he called down to the robot, "This might take a while. Go do something else while it lowers!"

Quickly, the Banki Beast got up, looking up at his boss, "Got it!"

"UGUTZ!" He cried, throwing several nuts and bolts onto the ground.

The nuts and bolts quickly reformed themselves into around a dozen of the robotic soldiers.

"Let's go make some trouble while we wait, shall we?" He told his minions, who raised their arms, ready to go.

* * *

Five ten PM.

It had only been a short time since Kyle had left the apartment, andthe two were cleaning up, in only a few hours they had to go to bed, they were definitely heading back to work tomorrow.

"You sure we can't weasel out of another day, Carrots?" Nick jokingly asked the rabbit, who was cleaning up in the kitchen, while the fox relaxed on the couch.

"No," She said sternly, "And I'd really appreciate it if you helped clean up, for once."

"Hey, don't look at me," He said, "I already readied up the uniforms, I've done my part."

She let out an annoyed sigh at the lazy fox, when suddenly they heard a loud noise from outside, shocking them both, and causing Judy to drop the glass she was carrying, it shattering against the ground.

"What was that!?" Judy yelled, the fox getting to his feet and looking out the window, his ears drooping.

"Uh, Carrots, we miiiight have a problem."

Judy ignored the glass, and rushed to the window, looking out herself. What she saw was what looked like the storm cloud from earlier in the day, but it was crackling with unnatural looking lightning, and glowing a menacing purple.

She quickly leaped over to the TV, turning it to ZNN, where it displayed the porcupine from the other day, standing in the middle of a ruined city block.

"-stressing turn of events, our series of reports about the strange monster attacks, and the mysterious, unnatural black cloud, have all culminated in, what very well could be, the end of Zootopia."

The camera focused on the black cloud above, before quickly going down, showing a strange monster, which walked towards the reporter.

"Oh god n-" It cut off, it seeming like the cameraman had dropped the camera, and cut to a technical issues screen.

Judy turned to Nick, who stared at her with his jaws open, like he was about to say something.

"Let's watch a children's show all day," Judy said, doing her best impression of Nick, "Nothing bad will happen!"

"You're blaming this on me?!" Nick yelled, "How was I supposed to know there was a monster running around!?"

"Well, if you had been watching the news instead of Zoo Rangers..." She answered back, sounding rather angry.

"Alright, whatever," He said, dismissing her words, "Either way, we have to go stop that monster before it does..." He paused, a look of confusion on his face, "Whatever its planning on doing with that cloud."

"Alright," Judy said, pulling out the motorcycle tag, "Let's get going."

* * *

The furnace monster laughed to itself, watching the animals it was terrorizing run, not realizing they didn't really have anywhere safe to run to, since, in a short time, the evil smoke would descend on them, wiping everyone in the city out.

He looked up at the cloud. Barely just passed the top of the central tower.

Alright, maybe not a short time, but soon.

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of an engine, turning around to see two motorcycles heading towards him.

The riders leaped off of their bikes, jumping straight towards him. In a split second, he felt the full brunt of two kicks, and two motorcycles, slamming into him, knocking him away.

The monster grunted as he got up, staring at the two new, but somehow familiar, costumed characters in front of him.

"You!" It yelled, pointing at the two, "My boss warned me about you two."

"Well, he didn't warn you enough." Nick said, drawing his sword, as Judy drew her daggers.

Judy quickly glanced at the monster, looking a bit confused, and then lowered her weapons.

"Okay, so," She said to herself, "The first monster was a weasel, and the second one was a praying mantis."

She turned to the monster, which neither looked organic, or like an animal, "So what the heck are you?"

"What?" The monster also looked confused, "Well, I'm-" He was quickly interrupted by a booming voice from above them.

"He is a Barbaric Banki Beast," Looking up, they saw another inorganic looking monster, colored a dull gold, wearing what looked like a cape made out of a trash bag, and wielding an over-sized, jagged spear, "And I, if you're wondering, am Land Pollution Minister Yogostein!" He announced, before leaping down from the rooftop he was standing on.

He landed with a thud, continuing his thought, "Though, without the Sky and Water Ministers, I guess I'm just the Pollution Minister now." Yogostein walked over to the monster, and hit it on the back with his spear, "This is Incinerator Banki, he is a robotic monster designed to cause pollution, which you filthy animals seem to lack the concept of."

"We know what pollution is," Nick corrected, "We just got rid of it a long time ago, really wasn't that hard."

"Shut it!" He yelled at the fox, clanking his spear against the ground, "You environmentally conscious types make me sick!"

"Wait," Judy yelled, stepping between Nick and the golden robot, "So, you're the third 'main villain' type we've run into," She continued, looking at Yogostein, "How many are there?"

"Well, considering you'll all be dead soon, I suppose I can tell you..." He paused, clinking his spear against the ground, "There are exactly six of us, and it seems you've met my associates, Kyuemon and Long, correct?"

They turned to each other. They were only half done even meeting these villainous weirdos, who knows how long this entire thing could go on for if they kept running away.

"I said," Yogostein asked again, a hint of smugness in his voice, "Isn't that correct, Miss Judy Hopps, and Mister Nick Wilde?"

At the exact same time, the two's hearts dropped, it was visible even in front of the masks, as they stepped back, clearly unprepared for something like that to happen.

Nick stepped forward again, trying to regain composure, "Hopps? Wilde? Who are those?" He tried to sound confused, but ended up sounding more suspicious, he sighed and drooped down, realizing it wasn't working. "You're not buying this, are you?"

"Not for a second, fox." Yogostein said, "Anyway, in only a few..." He looked upwards at the cloud, "Hours, my Super Evil Cloud of Noxious Death will descend upon you all, suffocating the entire city!" he boasted, letting out a laugh.

"What!?" Judy yelled, pulling her weapons back up, "You're gonna kill everything with that cloud!?"

"Yeah!" The furnace monster yelled, patting his stomach area, "And the only way to stop it is to defeat me!"

Yogostein clanked the incinerator on the back of the head with his spear again, "Idiot! You just put the plan in jeopardy!" The furnace monster covered his mouth, realizing his mistake.

"But, sir," The monster pleaded, "I can take them, they're rattled enough as it is!"

"Whatever, just make sure they don't scrap you!" He yelled at the monster, "UGUTZ!" He yelled, throwing a bunch of nuts and bolts to the ground, which formed into a group of bronze and white robots, each carrying a small club weapon.

"Don't let those two get near Incinerator Banki!" Yogostein yelled to the foot soldiers, before disappearing into a puff of inky black smoke.

"Hah!" The monster laughed, stepping in front of the weaker robots, "You two better be careful around fire, because you're gonna get BURNED!" With that last word, two giant fireballs shot from the pipes on the monster's head, directly towards them.

the two jumped out of the way, as the fireballs hit the ground, causing two massive explosions to burst from where they hit.

"Well," Nick said, getting to his feet, drawing his sword out, "You better be able to take the heat!"

He rushed forward, towards the furnace monster, and slashed his sword into it.

Unfortunately, this didn't exactly go as Nick had planned, as, instead of slicing into the monster, the sword simply made a loud clang sound, causing the fox to shake from the vibrations it caused.

The monster looked the fox directly in the eye, "Seriously?" It said in disbelief, before kicking the fox away, causing him to land next to his blue partner.

"That's the best you can do?" The furnace asked, shrugging, "When Yogostein said you were trouble, I thought he meant actual trouble, not pest trouble."

"Alright," Judy said as her dazed partner got up, "Our weapons won't work against the big guy, but what about the small guys?"

She readied her daggers, and dashed at a group of the Ugutz, jumping upwards, and striking four of them with her knives. It appeared the Ugutz were made of much lighter metal, as she sliced right through them, causing visible tears in their metal flesh, which made their inner machinery visible.

She called over to Nick, "Alright! We can take these guys at least!"

"Got it!" Nick yelled back, rushing towards the mob of mechanical men.

He sliced his sword directly into one's neck, causing it's robotic head to fly off and hit the ground with a metallic clunk.

Again, this didn't go exactly as planned.

Instead of disappearing, or falling over, the mechanical robot instead decided to attack the fox, even without it's head. Nick managed to block it before it hit, but this left a big question in his mind.

"Blue?" He yelled, struggling with the robot, "How are we gonna beat these guys?"

He looked over to his partner, who was also struggling with a few of the Ugutz, having more trouble than he was, actually, since she was significantly smaller, and was dealing with four of them at the same time.

She hopped back, away from her opponents, and turned to look at her partner, struggling on his own.

"I think we need to make a tactical retreat, Red!" She yelled, trying not to sound scared.

"That's a good idea!" Nick said, himself backing away from his headless opponent.

They both turned to their bikes, currently parked in the middle of the road, and rushed to them, driving off and away from this seemingly unwinnable fight.

"COWARDS!" The burner yelled at the fleeing heroes, before turning to the Ugutz, one of which was pickig up it's own severed head, "Come on, lets go make trouble somewhere else."

He looked back at the cloud, it was significantly lower than the last time he looked, maybe around a third of the way down the central tower.

"We got time."

* * *

They arrived back at the apartment, silence filling the room. They couldn't beat those monsters, their weapons just weren't enough for their robotic bodies.

Nick continued to look out the window, watching the cloud slowly descend into the city. It had already reached some of the taller builders that weren't the central tower, it wasn't looking good.

Judy, meanwhile sat on the couch, her face in her paws, devastated by the fact they couldn't beat this monster. Had they already failed only three days into their superhero career?

"Judy," Nick asked solemnly, "What are we supposed to do? How can we save everyone?"

"I don't know, Nick." She said flatly, muffled by her paws.

It didn't seem like anyone knew exactly what was going on, besides the monsters themselves, and her and Nick. There was no evacuation alert, presumably because the Mayor simply believed it was just a weird cloud, and not something that was being used to bring destruction. Who knew at this point.

"This is a disaster." She said quietly to herself.

Suddenly, a knock at the door

"We're not accepting any more autographs today." Nick yelled to the door, sarcastically.

The knock got louder, turning into a pound.

"Alright!" Nick yelled, causing the pounding to stop.

He opened the door, there was nobody there, "What the..." He paused, noticing something large on the ground. A suitcase, like the one they received from Kruger.

"Uh, Judy?" He said, turning back to his distraught partner, "We might have the solution to our problem."

She looked up, and bounded over to the door, lifting up the suitcase, bringing it to the dinner table.

Quickly, she snapped it open, revealing the contents.

Inside were what she would definitely call weapons. One large, red gun, designed with a fox's head as the barrel. To most mammals, it would be a pistol, but in the paws of who she suspected it was for, it would easily require two paws to carry.

There were two other weapons, small blue pistols, perfect for her to carry. They resembled rabbit ears, of course, but there were also two more of the tags put into the briefcase as well, this time with markings resembling each color's respective gun.

Nick lifted the big gun out effortlessly, seemed it only looked heavy, and Judy picked up the twin guns.

"So," Nick asked, looking down the sights of his new, big gun, "You think these things have the firepower to blast through that robot?"

Judy twirled one of her guns on her fingers, "I would say probably."

"Should we test them out?" Nick asked.

"No." Judy objected, "No shooting in the house."

* * *

In all honesty, the rampaging was getting kind of boring for our incinerator monster. He was going for hours, and the cloud was still only halfway down, this was taking a lot longer than he had hoped.

At this point, he wished someone like the Go-Ongers would show up, so at the very least something interesting would happen. Maybe those Rangers he scared off earlier would come back, but that seemed unlikely.

Then he spied something, what looked like a child, stumbling around, crying out for its parents, some kind of... cat? Dog? He wasn't good at telling animals apart, but he was good at killing them.

"You're gonna get smoked, brat!" It yelled at the crying child, approaching it menacingly, his size easily dwarfing the... was it a pig?

Suddenly, a loud noise, a sharp pain in the back, and explosions.

"What the?" The Banki yelled turning to face whoever had just shot him. It wa sthe two rangers from before, holding stuff he didn't see them with before, they looked like guns.

Suddenly, the fox pointed his rather large blaster at him, and fired, causing another explosion directly on the furnace's face, launching him backwards, over the crying child, and into the wall behind him.

Judy ran over to the child, a wolf cub, "It's okay," She said, trying to calm him, "But you really need to run away from here as fast as you can!" The cub obliged, and ran away from the site as fast as his little legs could carry him.

The broiler got up, locking eyes with his foes, "So you're back for round two, huh?" It mocked, "And I see you got some new toys, too! Think they're strong enough to dent me?"

"Strong enough to shut your mouth!" Nick yelled, pulling out the tag that matched his gun, slipping it into the slot at the top of the blaster.

He pulled the trigger, causing the eyes on the gun to light up, as it emitted the jungle noises that the wrist device had when they summoned the bikes, as well as the same voice.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

Sure enough, a massive blast of fire shot from the gun, directly into the incinerator's strange face, causing a massive explosion that ended up knocking it directly through the brick wall of the building behind it.

The furnace robot stepped out from the ruined wall, parts of it on fire, which it tried to put it quickly, "Yikes!" It yelled, patting down a flame on it's arm, "That's hot, even for me!"

"Wow," Nick said proudly, holding the gun in both arms, "This thing's pretty powerful!"

"Let's try mine out." Judy said, pulling out her tag. This time, she stuck the tag in the hole in the side of one of the guns. She looked at the other, noticing that it also had a hole, designed to fit the other side of the tag.

So, she stuck the other gun onto the other side of the tag, it fit perfectly, and she pulled the triggers, causing, again, the jungle noises and voice.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

The trigger pulled, a current of energy gathered between the two guns, forming a ball of energy, which quickly shot out, turning into what looked like a blade made of lasers, piercing the strange symbol located on the incinerator's chest.

It yelled in pain, grasping at the wound, removing it's hands revealed that the blast had cut a hole clean through his armor, revealing it's mechanical insides.

"Alright, Red," She said to her partner, pulling her daggers out, "That's where we hit him!" Nick pulled out his sword, nodding.

The two rushed at the monster, who was still reeling from the pain, striking him in the stomach at the exact same time, again launching him backwards, this time destroying the plywood wall on the inside of the building.

"I can't fight in these conditions!" The furnace bot yelled to himself, scrambling to get up. He looked around, trying to find something.

What he saw was good enough, a shelf covered in metal picture frames, each depicting a family of some animal he couldn't recognize.

He rushed over, opening his furnace hole, and began tossing each of the pictures into it. When they were all gone, he walked back out to greet the two meddlesome Rangers, patting his stomach.

"You two are gonna love this!" He yelled to them, who looked on in confusion as the beast began clenching and groaning.

Soon enough, the furnace had turned entirely red, as it seemed it was boiling something inside of itself. Then, they looked in horror, as the wound they had just caused began to heal, metal growing over where it had once been.

The monster laughed, rubbing its now restored symbol, "As long as my furnace still burns, I can absorb metals into my body and heal ANY wounds!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Judy yelled, her anger surprising Nick.

"TAKE THIS!" The robot yelled, shooting off two fireballs from his pipes at the Rangers, who jumped out of the way, and ran off behind a car.

"So, this guy's basically invincible, huh?" Nick asked, clearly worried.

"Looks like it..." Judy said, looking up at the central tower, which the cloud was now nearly to the bottom of, "And we're running out of time!"

"We need something to, I dunno..." Nick said, thinking, "Cool him down, but where could we..." Suddenly, Nick's ears perked up, he figured it out.

"The Rainforest District."

"What about it?" Judy asked, a bit confused.

"There's the sprinkler system there, right?" He continued, "It goes off every thirty minutes, but the water is still pressurized while it isn't going!"

The realization dawned on Judy too, "If we can get him to the Rainforest District, we can use the water there to put him out, and finish him off!"

"Exactly!" Nick shouted.

"Now," Judy mused, "We just need to trick him into going there..." She paused for a second, thinking, "The western station, the train there always goes through the Rainforest, right?"

"So, if we get him onto the train," Nick said, finishing her thought, "Then we can get him there easily!"

"He won't go willingly..." She said, and then looked at Nick, "Think you can pull some of your charms off behind that mask, Red?"

"I can do better than that," He chuckled, pulling out the motorcycle tag, "I can pull some anti-charms."

With the loud sound of the device, Nick rode off on the Kitsunider, approaching the furnace and driving circles around him for a few second, trying to catch every detail he could of the monster.

"What is this!?" It yelled at the motorcycle bound fox, who skidded off, and parked a few feet in front of the monster.

He pretended to sniff the air, and made a disgusted motion at the monster, "Yuck!" He yelled, catching the monster's attention, "What's that awful smell? It's like if you mixed trash with a burning fire!" He yelled obnoxiously, trying to goad the monster into responding, "Oh wait, it's just you!" He gestured to the furnace, hoping to get it angry enough to chase after them.

"Thanks, I pride myself on my noxious fumes!" The Incinerator said proudly to the fox.

Strike one.

Nick scratched his head, he thought that one would work, but he didn't account that a pollution monster would probably be proud of how bad it smelled.

"Hmm." Nick tried to think of another one, "Who uses incinerators anymore, anyway?" He said out loud, shrugging, "Everyone uses heaters now, incinerators are too big and clunky to keep around."

This did seem to anger the robot a bit, but not enough, as it responded in a surprisingly calm manner, "Actually," It said, raising its finger, "Incinerators can be used for many things, did you know that the government still uses incinerators to burn sensitive documents? It doesn't have to involve heating to be useful!"

Strike two.

He was kind of out of ideas, at least, until the revving of an engine was heard, and Hopps drove over on the Usagider, parking her slightly shorter bike next to the fox's.

"HEY! UGLY!" She yelled to the robot, who looked at her, a bit annoyed, "YOUR FACE IS STUPID!"

"WHAT!?" The furnace yelled, enraged, "My face is a marvel of engineering! You'll pay for that insult!"

"If you wanna fight us, you better catch us!" Hopps yelled back, as the two started the bikes and drove off.

The Banki glanced around quickly, looking to see if there was anything it could use to catch up with the jerks who had insulted his face. Indeed, there was, a regular sized bicycle, the pedal kind, sitting in front of one of the nearby buildings.

The furnace grabbed it, and hopped on, beginning to pedal with all his might. Surprisingly, in only a few moments, he was nearly caught up with the two motorcycles.

Judy glanced back, seeing the ridiculous sight of this menacing robot riding a bicycle, and somehow managing to almost keep up with them.

"This is absolutely ridiculous." She said to her partner, who was close enough to hear her.

"What do you expect," He said, "The guy's a literal robot, of course he has the strength to keep up."

Judy sighed, keeping her eyes on the road. The train station was only a few minutes away at this point, and the cloud was getting closer and closer to the ground.

* * *

The two skidded to a halt in front of the station, at nearly the exact same time. They stared up at it, it was a bit run down, but the station had been in use for decades, and the city had really never had enough time to truly renovate it.

Judy looked to her side, seeing the monster riding towards them on it's bicycle. Quickly she hopped off, and began taunting it

"COME GET US, WEIRDO!" She yelled, hoping the monster could hear her. It most likely did, as the furnace began pedaling even harder.

"Ready to do this?" Nick asked his partner, who nodded in response, as they rushed into the station, the monster shortly following them after parking his stolen bike.

"EVERYONE" Judy yelled running towards the nearest train, "GET OUT OF HERE!"

There was panic, especially after somebody yelled "monster!" Probably not the ordered evacuation Judy had wanted, but they really did not have time.

The two reached the nearest train, a large orange, liner, as they saw the incinerator robot, walking towards them, pushing civilians out of the way as he tromped towards the two heroes who had insulted his face.

The two ran into the train car, seeing it was nearly full, "EVERYONE!" Nick yelled, "Move to the next car over, some stuff is going to be going down in this one!"

It seemed the people listened to the fox, and most of them made their way to the second car of the train, which was now absolutely packed with animals. The two took a seat on the train's sizable seats, waiting for their "guest" to arrive.

Sure enough, he did, but before the monster could attack, he got distracted by the train itself, "Wow, this is the most spacious train I've ever been on!" It admired, "Usually my head scrapes against the top, but here it doesn't even reach!"

"Well," Judy said, "It is designed to house a variety of different animals, some of which can be… large."

"That's pretty neat!" He said, taking a seat next to the two, "Hey, wait a second…"

The incinerator got up, turning to the two costumed heroes, "I'm supposed to be fighting you two!"

Quickly, Nick and Judy got up, standing on their seats, having pulled out their weapons, ready for the fight. Suddenly, the train started to move, nearly knocking the three of their feet.

"I say we need some more passengers," The monster said, pulling out a pile of nuts and bolts, throwing them in the air, "UGUTZ!"

Suddenly, a bunch of the robots from before appeared, around 5 of them, ready to fight the two Rangers.

"I say we test out our new gear!" Nick said, pulling out his large blaster, Judy pulling out her blasters and spinning them around.

They aimed at the robots, Nick firing a large, powerful shot at one of the Ugutz, blasting a large hole straight through it, causing the robot to fall over.

Judy, however, blasted two of the Ugutz right in the head with both of her blasters, cleaving them in two, causing them to collapse into each other and fall to the ground.

The two remaining robots looked at each other, and ran behind the more powerful robot, deciding cowering in fear was better than actually fighting the two.

"What?!" The incinerator yelled to the two cowering Ugutz, "Stop hiding, and fight them!" It pushed both of the robots directly in front of the two Rangers, who blasted them nearly instantly, turning them to scrap.

"Hah!" The robot laughed, "If you think that's all I got…" He paused, reaching around his body, trying to find something, before realizing he had no bolts left to spare to summon his minions, "Then you'd be right!"

The two leaped from their seats, pulling out their melee weapons, striking the monster directly in his ugly face, knocking him backwards onto the other side of the car.

"FIREBALLS!" It yelled, shooting two fireballs at the two, them quickly dodging out of the way, only barely avoiding the explosion it caused, revealing the giant hole it had created.

Looking out, they realized they were passing through the Rainforest District, it was time to get to part two of the plan.

"Ready, Red?" Judy asked, her partner nodding.

They quickly circled around the robot, jumping on the seats behind it, and whacking him in the back with both of their weapons, causing it to stumble forward, but not out of the hole it had created. To solve this, the two jumped off of the seats, both of them kicking the monster directly in his face, causing him to finally be pushed out of the car, letting out a scream as he did. A few moments after, the two jumped out after him.

The robot landed on the wet ground with a splat, while the two Rangers managed to land on a tree that was rather close to the ground, sliding off its large, tropical leaves and onto the ground safely.

The monster stood up, with trouble, spitting the dirt out of its mouth, literally steaming as the moisture on him quickly turned to vapors, "Gravity's just not my friend today." He lamented.

He turned to the two, it suddenly starting to rain, giving the moment a dramatic feel to them.

The furnace looked up, he saw the cloud, finally having reached a point where it could visibly be seen rotting off the tallest trees in the rainforest.

"You two are too late!" It yelled at them, "Any second, the SECOND will bring about your demises!"

Nick looked up. It wasn't rain, it was a sprinkler, there was one nearby. He glanced around, trying to spot the pillar it was stationed on. He saw it, behind the monster, rising high above it. Nick glanced to Judy, who nodded, she must have seen it as well.

"Alright," Nick whispered to her, "You distract him, I'll blast it open." He saw her glance at him, about to say something, but he quickly interrupted, knowing exactly what she was going to say, "My gun is bigger, it'll make the bigger hole, you're quicker, you can avoid him easier."

She sighed, and nodded, accepting the plan, before running up to the monster, striking him with her daggers, directly in his face.

"Your face is still ugly!" She yelled as she leaped back from the monster, who growled at her, stepping closer, leaving a large footprint in the mud.

Nick rushed behind the monster, who was completely ignoring him, and pulled out his gun, aiming it at the pillar.

"You have absolutely awful manners, rabbit!" The furnace yelled indignantly, "Do you know what you should say when you insult someone?"

"Yeah, I do." She said smugly.

A loud explosion from behind him, the monster turned around to see what had happened, hearing the rabbit say two words.

"Pool's open."

An incredibly fast burst of water sprayed the monster directly in the face, it gurgling in pain as it just kept spraying and spraying him, not stopping. Soon, the rain subsided, and the water finally stopped shooting directly into his face.

He grunted, turning around, seeing the two heroes looking directly at him, their weapons drawn.

YOU TWO ARE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" It yelled, "FIREBALL!"

Nothing happened.

"FIREBALL!" It yelled again.

Again, nothing.

"Fireball?" It said wearily, noticing that, instead of a large fireball shooting form his pipes, there was instead a small stream of water trickling from them.

"What the!?" The monster said bewildered, "You turned me into a water pump!"

"Looks like you finally decided to…" He paused, "COOL DOWN!" He joked, nudging Judy in the arm.

She looked at him, shaking her head, "Let's just finish this."

Suddenly, their weapons began glowing, "What the?" Judy said to herself.

"Wait," Nick said, "I think I know what to do." Quickly, he placed the sword onto the bottom of his gun, where it clipped on perfectly, now resembling an overly large bayonet.

"Oh!" Judy said excitedly, "I get it!" She pulled out one of her guns, and one of her daggers, she placed the dagger on the side of the gun, then pulling out the other two, combining them as well, making so that she had two guns with large knives sticking off the side.

"We gotta join them together!" Nick said aloud to his partner, who nodded, and placed her guns onto the side of his, causing them to fuse together perfectly.

"Ack," Nick grunted, struggling to lift the gun up, "Okay, now it's heavy. Little help, Blue?"

"Sure thing!" She obliged, grabbing onto the bottom of the gun, lifting it up, helping to aim it at the monster.

Nick pulled out the tag for his blaster, placing it in the slot on the gun, "Let's do this!" he yelled, pulling the trigger.

The gun fired a massive beam, which flew directly into the incinerator monster's face, leaving it with only a few last words.

"LOOKS LIKE I GOT BURNED!"

As soon as the beam hit the monster, it curved upwards, lifting the monster up off the ground, and into the sky, shooting him right through the cloud, and up past even the central tower, where an absolutely massive explosion occurred.

The two stared up, the massive bazooka suddenly disassembling into its parts. The cloud dissipated, surprisingly quickly, considering its size.

Judy dropped down into the mud, sighing in relief, as Nick continued to look upwards in awe. His eyes widened. Something was falling from the explosion.

It was falling towards them.

"LOOK OUT!" he yelled, grabbing his partner from the dirt, leaping out of the way as the object crashed directly where they were standing.

It looked like a furnace, only horribly crushed from the distance it had fallen. Soon after, a second object fell on top of it, a small silver gear, clinking against the furnace as it splatted into the mud.

Nick reached over to look at the mud covered gear, only to feel a swift smack to his gut.

"Excuse me!" A familiar gruff voice yelled at him, "That's MINE!"

It was Yogostein, he had smacked Nick away with his spear, and then picked up the gear, "Hmm, this might be useful later." He said to himself, looking at the gear.

"HEY!" Judy yelled, getting to her feet, "Removing evidence from a crime scene is illegal!"

"Yeah," Nick joined in, crossing his arms, "And so is excessive pollution, assaulting an officer, assault in general, AND inciting a panic!"

"Why do you think I'd care!?" Yogostein yelled to them, both confused and angry at them, before disappearing into a puff of inky black smoke.

Judy growled, "I'm SO going to arrest all of those guys!" She stomped her foot on the ground, causing mud to spray on their suits.

Nick shook his leg, attempting to get the mud off of his leg, "I think it's time we head back, Blue."

* * *

The two arrived back home, their normal outfits perfectly clean, since all the dirt had only gotten on their super suits, which seemed to vanish every time they untransformed from them.

"Well," Nick said, relaxing back on the couch after all that running around, "That was an eventful day, huh, Carrots?" He yawned.

"Yeah," She replied, also deciding to sit on the couch, "Wonder if any of this was on the news?" She asked, flipping the TV back on.

Sure enough, the report was a live feed of a public announcement from Lionheart, seemingly rushed, due to the only thing on the stage being an undecorated pedestal.

"As I had predicted, this entire problem was solved by our new city heroes!" He announced proudly, "They prevented any casualties, and managed to get rid of that awful storm cloud."

"Is this why you didn't order an immediate evacuation, Mayor Lionheart? You predicted that there was no need?" The reporter held the microphone up for the lion to answer.

"Indeed! There was no reason to worry, none at all." He answered, "I would personally like to thank these Zoo Rangers for their heroics, but since we don't know who they are, I'll just say, thank you."

Judy flipped off the TV, chuckling to herself, "Least we're being appreciated, right Nick?" She didn't get a response, "Nick?"

She turned, seeing her partner, completely passed out, and snoring loudly.

She laughed to herself, "That's what happens when you stay up too late." She got up and headed to her room, turning around to see her partner, who had fell on his side shortly after she got up, "Good night, Nick."

* * *

Yogostein appeared in a puff of smoke, holding the gear he used to create Incinerator Banki, "That plan was a bust." He grunted to himself, taking his seat at the table.

"Sounds pretty rough" Sambash said, placing his gloved hand on Yogostein's shoulder, "Getting your ass kicked by some woodland animals, I mean." He took a swig from a bottle of whiskey.

"Don't talk to me about." He shoved the biker back, and placed his hands on his face, "The boss probably think's I'm a failure."

"Heh," Sambash laughed to himself, "I know that feeling. Hey, want some?" He offered the bottle to the distraught robot, he grabbed it and started gulping it down.

Yogostein sighed, placing the bottle down in front of him, "Thank you, Sambash." He politely said, still sounding depressed, "It's nice to know there's another alcohol aficionado here."

"Hey, don't make it sound so fancy." The biker said, taking a seat next to the robot.

Yogostein looked up from his depression, noticing that nobody else was around, "Where is everyone?" He asked Sambash.

"The fox guy and the human are off doing something, the samurai is off sulking somewhere, and I have no idea where that clown dude is." Sambash answered, placing his feet on the table.

"I'm under here!" A shrill voice yelled.

The two looked under the table, sure enough, Yabaiba was relaxing underneath it.

"How are you supposed to be my partner!?" The robot yelled at him.

Yabaiba shrugged, "I dunno." He answered simply.

The two looked up from the table, Yogostein grabbing the bottle once again, and swigging down more of it.

Suddenly, a pulse shook the room, signaling that their master was ready to speak.

" **YOGOSTEIN, YOU HAVE PERFORMED WELL** " It echoed.

"Wh-what!?" Yogostein responded in amazement, "Really!?"

" **INDEED, YOU BROUGHT MASS PANIC TO THE CITY, ENOUGH FOR ME TO BEGIN PHASE TWO OF THE OPERATION** " It continued.

"Great!" Sambash said, pulling out his guns, "That mean I can go make a mess?"

Another pulse hit, causing the biker to drop his guns, "NO" The Omnipotence yelled, " **THIS WILL TAKE TIME, NO CHAOS WILL BE CAUSED DURING THE UPGRADE PERIOD** "

"Shit." Sambash said to himself, sitting down.

How long was this gonna take?

* * *

Kruger stepped down from the train's steps, stepping into the strange world his new partner lived in. He looked around, nothing for miles. He had called him earlier to discuss important matters, he could at least be there waiting for him.

"There you are, DekaMaster." A voice behind him said.

He turned around, finding the train he was on only moments ago to have vanished, replaced by a figure, his partner.

"Please, just call me Kruger. You wanted to speak with me?" Kruger asked the figure, "It seemed… rather urgent."

"Indeed, it is." The figure stepped forward, its cape blowing in a non-existent breeze, "I fear our enemies might be getting stronger. I think it's time for them to learn."

Kruger's ears perked, as he stepped towards his partner, "But what if they aren't ready?" He asked, "What if their world isn't ready?"

"This is the only way their worlds will survive, so they must be ready." The figure continued, sounding upset, "Tell the Director to pick them up in around a week, I need to finish preparing." He pulled out two cards in his gloved hand, handing them to Kruger.

The cards displayed pictures, one showed the two heroes from the other world, Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde. The other displayed a symbol, resembling a cross and bones, with the skull replaced by what looked like stylized key.

Kruger sighed, "I'll get on it, Akared." He looked up from the cards, the train was waiting for him. He stepped in, and it drove off.


	5. What's a Sentai?

It had been a week.

They'd been sitting around the base for a week, waiting for the Omnipotence to finish whatever he was actually doing in his glass tube, and Sambash was getting just a tad impatient. According to the current date, it had been over twenty years since he was killed, and he wasn't waiting any longer to cause some trouble.

Kyuemon and Enter got to do stuff outside of the base, why couldn't he?

The only upside was that he had made friends with Yogostein, despite their relatively different personalities, the two bonded over their love of alcoholic beverages. As a sign of friendship, Yogostein even made the biker a brand new motorcycle.

But even with a new friend, Sambash was finding it fairly difficult to keep calm during this quiet period.

Tonight was the last night.

He made his way to the exit of the lair, grasping onto the insect-like token he had been given by his new tube headed master in one hand, leading the bike forward with his other.

He got on the bike and revved the engine. Shit, this baby roared like a lion, just like he liked 'em.

"What's all the racket out here?" A shrill voice yelled from behind him.

It was Yabaiba, walking into the main part of the lair, most likely having been woken from his sleep by the bike's engine.

He looked the biker up and down, "What are you doing, Sambash?" He asked, skipping forward to check out the motorcycle, "You going for a joyride?"

"Guess you could say that." Sambash answered, indignantly, "You got a problem with that?"

"I couldn't care less," The clown admitted, his eyes still looking at the bike, before he turned to the inactive tube on the other side of the room, "But I dunno 'bout the boss man."

"At this point," Sambash said, "I don't give a shit what that tube-brain says, I've had enough of being cooped up in places, I need to go cause some mayhem."

"Well," Yabaiba said, walking away, "If you end up being uncreated, don't blame it on me!"

Sambash chuckled, and turned back to the exit of the lair, revving the engine again, and speeding off out of the tunnel.

Yogostein said he put something special in the bike, he just needed to hit the red button on the handle. So he did.

The cycle began to shake a bit, and then let out a burst of energy, knocking the bike into the sky. However, it didn't come down, instead being suspended in the air.

He revved the engine again, causing the bike to begin speeding off, this time through the air.

A flying bike, that robot was a genius.

He flew off into the night, ready to wreak some havoc.

* * *

It had been a week since any strange events had happened in Zootopia, no monsters, just normal, everyday things, and the previous day had been surprisingly relaxed for the two cops. They had even seen Kyle again while out on patrol, stopping for a bit to talk to him. On top of that, Bogo was also a lot more relaxed than usual as well, overall a strange, but good day, and the two had returned to their apartment, ready for another, normal day.

This would not be the case for a very, very long time.

The two had gone to sleep, but in the wee hours of the morning, strange noises began pouring through the apartment. Loud noises, noises loud enough to wake the rabbit from her peaceful slumber.

When she first woke up, she just thought it was a train pulling into the station. She tried to cover her ears and go back to bed, but to no avail, as somehow the train sounds kept getting louder. Then she realized something.

They didn't live near a train station. Where were these train noises coming from, and why did they sound so close?

She got up from bed, still dressed in her pajamas, and opened her curtain. What she saw was definitely surprising.

She couldn't exactly tell what it was, but it was big, and red, and floating directly outside of the apartment, it had to be floating since they were on the third floor, there was no way it could be standing on something.

There was also a window, but it was too high up for her to see out of. She could, however, some kind of figure quickly pass by the window, perhaps not trying to be seen.

She HAD to be dreaming, so she pinched herself.

She could tell by the sharp bit of pain that she definitely was not dreaming.

She unlocked the window, and peered out, looking to her left, she saw the thing end, it was shaped like a train, an old train, but a train nonetheless. She looked to her right and oh god it kept going.

She couldn't see all the way down, but she could see at least two other train cars, one colored a vibrant blue, and the other a very loud yellow.

Suddenly, it's horn blew, causing the rabbit to cover her ears in pain. A loud voice then seemed to appear from nowhere.

"NOW WAITING FOR OUR SPECIAL GUESTS! NOW WAITING FOR OUR SPECIAL GUESTS!"

Oh god, did it mean them?

She rushed out of the room, and into Nick's perpetually messy room, hopping up on his bed in order to shake the fox from his sleep.

"Nick!" She quietly yelled, shaking the fox, "Nick, get up!"

The fox yawned in response, mumbling in his sleep, "Five more minutes, please..."

"No! Get up now!" She shook the fox harder, getting him to finally wake up.

"Augh!" He yelled, pushing the rabbit off of him, knocking her off the bed, "Oh gosh! Sorry Judy!" He apologized.

"No, no," She said, rubbing her head, "It's okay. how did you sleep through all the noise?" She asked.

"What noise?" He asked. Then he heard it, the sound of a train's whistle blowing, "Oh, that noise." The realization suddenly hit him, "Wait, why is there a train so close to our apartment?"

"Why don't you go and find out!?" She said, gesturing out the door.

The fox walked out, over to the window, and pulled back the drapes, seeing the train floating in front of their home.

"Well," He said to himself, "That's not something you see every day." He turned back to his partner, "What's it doing here?"

Judy hopped forward, standing next to her partner in order to look out the window, "I don't know." She said, noticing a door on the train, directly facing the window they were looking out of.

It slid open, revealing something, well, odd, to say the least.

It appeared to be a puppet, they could tell by the arm coming out of its bottom, and going off to the left of the door, blue in color, wearing what looked like a small vest, and a large light attached to its head. It looked like an animal, but the two hadn't seen anything exactly like it before.

Even stranger, it appeared to be yelling at them, but they couldn't hear what it was saying because of the window.

"I think it wants us to open the window." Judy said to her partner, a bit worried.

"I recommend not opening the window for the weird puppet." Nick stated.

"I agree, let's just ignore it."

They closed the drapes, and pretended to have never seen or made eye contact with the puppet.

Suddenly, a different loud voice filled the house, this one obnoxious and shrill, coming from the open window in Judy's room.

"WHEN WE SAID SPECIAL GUESTS, WE MEANT YOU TWO IDIOTS!"

The volume of the voice made both of them cover their ears. Nick strutted over to the window, pulling back the drapes and unlocking it.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" He yelled to the puppet, who was still, uh, "standing" there.

"You two need to get on this train, right now!" It yelled back to him, in the same voice the announcement a few seconds ago had.

"How do you expect us to do that!?" Nick shouted back, "You're like, a meter away from us, and we're about fifty feet above ground!"

The puppet ducked back in, as suddenly, a flat piece of metal sprung from just under the door, slamming directly into the side of the building, just under the window, creating visible cracks on the other side of the wall, meaning it was pretty well lodged in there.

The puppet returned, "Use that, doofuses!" It yelled back, causing Nick to promptly shut his mouth.

Judy peered out the window too, and asked a question, "Can we get changed first?" The two were both in their sleepwear, not really fit for travel, regardless of what they were travelling on.

"There's no time!" It answered, "You have to get on NOW!"

The two accepted, they didn't seem to have much of a choice in the matter of things right now, so they climbed out the window, onto the distressingly high metal walkway.

Nick was the first to attempt it, but as soon as he set foot on it, he turned around to face the rabbit at the window, "How about you go first, Carrots? Ladies first, after all."

"Then you'll have no problem with it, then." She answered back, sarcastically, causing the fox to look at her, unamused.

"Alright," The fox took a deep breath, "Don't look down, just walk forward."

It took a bit, with several nervous pauses, most caused because of the cold wind that blew into the under-dressed fox, but he eventually made it to the door, waiting for his partner on the other side.

Judy hopped out of the window, her smaller size making it slightly more comfortable to walk across, meaning she had much less of an issue than the fox. She made it over much faster.

"Didn't know you were afraid of heights, Slick." She joked, hopping up into the train car.

"I'm not." He insisted, also stepping into the train.

The metallic walkway quickly retracted into the train itself, and the door shuttered behind them as they entered.

* * *

The train car was strange, like nothing they had seen before. For one, it was almost entirely white, the floor and walls being incredibly shiny, the only color being the red of the seats, and the linings of the tables.

The second thing that was odd was the tables.

On one side of the car, there were standard train seats, but on the other, were small booths, with a table between each seat. This wasn't some express train, this was a first class weird, floating train.

"Welcome," Said a calm voice from behind them, "To the Rainbow Line."

They turned around, seeing something arguably stranger than the rest of the train. It was a tall creature, significantly larger than both of them, but not really resembling anything they had seen before, but they could tell it was completely furless.

Of course, the strangest part was the large, obviously fake rabbit head covering it's face. It was pink, and had a similar light to the puppet's head on top of it. Speaking of, the puppet from before also sat on the creature's right hand.

Nick slicked his hand across his face, obviously confused by what was going on, "Alright... whatever you are," He started, "I have a few questions about what's happening."

The creature began to speak, interrupting the fox before he could ask any questions, "I am The Director, the person who runs the Rainbow Line, and your current conductor, he Rainbow Line itself is a magical railway that can cross dimensions, I know exactly why you are here, but cannot tell you, and this," The thing said, pointing it's strange elongated paw towards the puppet, "Is Ticket, my co-conductor, he is not a puppet."

"I'm not a puppet!" Ticket yelled at them, a very clearly different voice coming from him.

Nick was about to speak up, perhaps to object to the Director guessing what he was going to ask, but paused and thought, "No, that actually answers everything, thank you." He said, stepping back, "But are you SURE that thing isn't a puppet?" He asked, pointing towards the not-puppet.

"I'm not a puppet!" Ticket yelled.

"He's not a puppet." The Director calmly said, both speaking in unison, confirming that he was, indeed, not a puppet, or at least, not a normal one.

"Why did you need us on here so urgently? Is there something going on?" Judy spoke up, after staying quiet for a few minutes, due to her being weirded out by the rabbit headed creature.

"Nothing incredibly urgent," The Director admitted, "We just need to keep schedule, is all."

The Director began walking towards the door, which presumably led to the controls, "You two relax here," He said, turning to the two, "We'll be starting our trip in a few minutes." he finished, stepping through the door.

The two looked around at the strange train car, deciding to sit at one of the booths, facing each other. The seats were a bit too big for them, clearly not designed for creatures of their smaller stature, seemingly more made for animals of the Director's size.

"You know, Carrots," Nick admitted, "I was kind of hoping we were done with this weirdness."

"Me too, actually." She admitted herself, she kind of wished it had gone back to normal after the stress of their last monster encounter.

Suddenly, they heard what sounded like bell ringing, which gave way to the original, loud announcement voice

"NOW LEAVING FLOTS FLATS! NOW LEAVING FLOTS FLATS!" It chimed, stating the name of their apartment building.

Suddenly, Ticket's voice chimed in, "To our new passengers," he started, sounding both smug and professional, "You'll probably want to hold onto something!"

They felt the train start to move forward.

"Why would we need to hold onto something?" Nick thought aloud, "It's a train, they don't move very fast."

Suddenly, the two felt the train shift, going from horizontal movement, to very gradually moving to vertical.

"Oh, that's why." Nick gulped, the two of them gripping as hard as they could to the velvet lining of the seats.

It didn't work, as the train was soon going fully upwards, causing Nick to topple into the table, and Judy to slam back into her seat.

The two groaned at the sudden altitude change, before feeling the train shift again, Oh COME ON!" The rabbit yelled, as gravity started causing them to skid downwards. They were going upside-down.

The two grabbed onto the bottom of the tables as they fully went upside-down, hanging loosely from the table at what they could guess was the top of a loop.

Then the train shifted once again, this time heading downward, this time much more abruptly, as Judy's face slammed into the table, and Nick's back into the seat. Eventually, the train righted itself, causing Nick to fall to the ground, and leaving Judy laying face first of the table, both of them groaning in pain.

The door on the other side slid open again, and the Director walked out, and over to their seats, not seeming to notice that they were in pain.

"Sorry for the bumpy start" He apologized, "The rest of the ride should be smooth sailing."

Nick dropped his feet to the ground, and unsteadily rose, rubbing his stomach, "Ugh…" He groaned, "Okay, what exactly was that?" he asked, trying not to sound rude, but definitely coming across as it.

"In order to straighten ourselves out, we had to do a loop." The Director simply explained, "Do you mind if I have a seat here?" He asked the fox.

Hopps sat up from her face full of table, "Shouldn't you be driving the train?" She asked as she hopped back down to her seat.

"We have it set to autopilot." He explained, sitting down on the other side of the table, Nick joining Hopps on her side, "Besides, I have things I would like to discuss with you two."

"Like what?" The fox asked, settling into the large seat.

"I may have given you a brief explanation of what exactly is going on, but you two are still very much confused." He stated, "I would like to make you feel less confused, by explaining just what the Rainbow Line is."

"Uh, alright." The rabbit said, a bit confused, "What is this 'Rainbow Line'?"

"The Rainbow Line is a magical train that can travel through dimensions." He reiterated, but before either one could tell him he already said that, he continued, "It is powered by one of the most powerful forces in the known universes."

There was a bit of silence, as if the Director was waiting for one of them to guess, but the two just stared at him in confusion.

"And that would be…?" Nick said, trying to get him to continue.

Suddenly, the hand with Ticket on it was directly in their faces, the not-a-puppet looking at them directly with his emotionless eyes.

"IMAAAAAAAGINATION!" It yelled.

Ticket pulled back, leaving the animals rather confused.

"What?" Nick asked, confused, "How can imagination power something like this?" He got up, and started tapping on the floor with his foot, "This is tangible, there's no way I'm imagining this, right?"

"You probably want to stop talking like that." Ticket said to him, not sounding worried at all.

"What?" The fox said, as he blinked. Suddenly, there was nothing around him. He could still see Judy, the Director, and Ticket, but they were sitting in the middle of thin air.

He was standing in the middle of thin air, too.

He looked down, he saw what appeared to be the ocean, and behind him he could see the skyline of Zootopia as the moon shone down on it. He began screaming.

"Nick!?" Judy yelled, what was he seeing? She hopped over to him, "Nick, what's wrong!?" She grabbed her partner's hand, trying to comfort him, "Are you okay?"

He was still screaming.

"You need to imagine something." The Director calmly explained to the fox.

"Like what!?" He yelled at the bunny-headed creature, in a panic.

"Literally anything!" The puppet yelled at him, "Close your eyes and think of something!"

So he did, he went to his happy place, as Judy gripped his paw, trying to help him.

He opened his eyes, and the train was back.

"Alright, okay," He panted, "Everything's fine, everything's okay now."

Judy sighed in relief as she looked at her shaken partner, and then slowly lead him back to their seat.

"So," Judy asked the disturbed fox, "What did you imagine?"

"Nothing." He said quickly and simply, his face turning a bit of a red. Well, redder.

"Peh," Ticket grunted, "Adults are so fickle to work with!"

The Director raised his hand, and flicked Ticket right in the head, causing the puppet to flinch in pain.

"I'm sorry about my associate." He apologized, Ticket grunting in annoyance.

"What does he mean by that?" Judy asked, "Do you two not work with adults much?"

"No, it's not that," The Director explained, "Adults don't have the same power of imagination as children do, and only those with a powerful imagination can see the Rainbow Line."

"That's what happened to fox face there," Ticket said, attempting to point to Nick with his stubby puppet arms, "He lacked imagination for a second, and then he couldn't see the train!"

"Seriously?" The fox responded, bewildered at the concept of this imagination train.

"Oh yes, I forgot," The Director said, ignoring Nick, "If you two get famished, we can get you any refreshment you want, on the house for our special guests."

"Yeah, any food you can imagine!" Ticket announced, causing the Director to push him under the table.

"Anything we can imagine?" Nick said, thinking.

"Anything you can imagine within reason." The Director corrected.

"Oh." The fox said, a bit disappointed, Judy turning to give him an odd look.

"Anyway," The Director began, "Normally I don't use the Rainbow Line for dimension hopping, and it takes a lot of energy," He explained, "But…" He was interrupted by the door on the other side of the car opening, "Ah, here comes your meals."

"But we didn't order anything." Judy stated.

"But you thought of what you wanted, didn't you?" The Director responded.

Pushing a small trolley with two trays on it, both covered by a cloche, out came yet another weird being, purple in color, resembling more of a robot, but with a definite feminine vibe. She didn't have a visible face, only a flat visor resembling a heart, with a pair of lips underneath it, and what looked like a large spoiler rising from her head.

"Oh my!" She exclaimed, as she parked the trolley next to them, she clasped her hands together, staring at the two animals, "You two are SO adorable!"

Judy looked a bit perturbed at this statement, "Seeing as you're a robot from another dimension," She began to explain, "You probably didn't know that saying something like that to a bunny is kind of…" She gestured awkwardly.

"Oh gosh, I'm really sorry!" She apologized, setting the two trays in front of them, "Hopefully these will make up for me being so rude."

She removed the cloche, revealing the two meals. For Judy it was a surprisingly fancy carrot salad, sprinkled with a few berried. For Nick, it was a rather standard blueberry pie, nothing noticeably odd about it, aside from it looking unusually delicious.

They realized that it was really early in the morning, and the two were starved, so they began to eat the meals, which tasted as good as they looked.

"Thanks for the food, um…" Judy tried to thank the robot, realizing they didn't know her name.

"My name's Wagon!" She said cheerfully, "I'm glad you're enjoying the meal!" She pushed the trolly back out the other door, leaving the two to their food.

"Wagon is the caretaker of the Rainbow Line," The Director explained, "She does most of the chores here."

"What were you saying before, though?" Judy asked, pausing her breakfast.

"Oh, yes," The Director had remembered what he was going to say before Wagon had arrived, "Yes, I don't usually use the Rainbow Line to move between dimensions this often, but someone even more powerful than I requested that I work with him, so I really couldn't refuse."

"Who hired you?" The rabbit asked.

"You'll be meeting him soon enough." The Director ominously said, "Anyway, I assume you met our last special guest?"

"Yeah," Continued Ticket, "Big dog lookin' guy, way too serious for his own good."

"Doggie Kruger?" Judy guessed, causing the Director to nod, confirming her guess, "Yeah, we met him, he kept giving us new stuff, I don't know why."

"Oh, that was one of the best blueberry pies I've ever had." Nick stated, placing his fork down on the plate, patting his stomach.

He saw that Judy hadn't entirely finished her salad, and spied a loose blueberry on the side of the plate, which he reached for, trying not get the rabbit to notice, but she did, and quickly smacked his paw down, causing him to wince in pain.

Suddenly the announcer began to speak.

"NOW ENTERING THE DIMENSIONAL RIFT! PLEASE DO NOT LOOK OUT THE WINDOW IN EXACTLY TEN SECONDS."

"What does that mean-" The fox had tried to ask, his question quickly answered.

A magnificently bright light began to shine through the windows, causing everything to go white.

It was quickly over, as the announcer began to speak again.

"WE HAVE NOW ARRIVED IN THE DIMENSIONAL RIFT! IT IS SAFE TO LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS AGAIN."

"Augh!" Nick yelled, rubbing his eyes, "I think I've gone blind!"

"Ugh, me too!" Judy said.

"Quit complaining," Ticket said, "It'll be gone in a few seconds."

Soon enough, after a bit of blinking, the two's sight returned, but they were still in pain.

"What's happening?" Judy asked, she felt like every time something was starting to make sense, something even stranger would happen.

"Take a look outside." The Director said, pointing to the window.

Judy hopped up on the table in order to get a look, Nick climbed up a few seconds later.

What they saw was both beautiful and terrifying.

A swirling void, constructed of what appeared to be nothing but lights, thousands of colors shining at once, it made Nick gag, as he had to quickly stop looking at it, while Judy stared on in wonder.

She turned back, facing the Director, "Where…" She paused trying to catch her thoughts, "Where are we?"

Ticket began laughing, "You can't just poof into a different dimension!" He explained.

"Yes," The Director continued, "This is a Dimensional Rift, it lets us travel between the different worlds."

"Wait," Nick stopped him, "Other worlds, you mean like…" He stuttered, trying to find a way to describe it, "You mean like, the place Kruger comes from? A world different from ours?" He hadn't realized exactly what was happening until this very moment, despite how many times the Director had brought it up.

"Yes." The Director answered flatly.

Nick sat down on the other side of the car, he was dazed, the brunt of what was happening hitting him like a rock directly to his stomach.

"The realization of multiple universe usually hits hard, if you need a bathroom, there's one in the third car." The Director politely explained.

"Thanks." Nick said, getting up and rushing to the bathroom.

Judy sat there, stunned at what she had learned.

* * *

It had been about an hour since they had entered the rift, the Director and Ticket had returned to the controls, leaving the two mammals to sit there in silence, thinking about the fact that they had just learned about the existence of parallel universes.

This should have been an amazing moment, which was technically true, it had amazed them, but it also left a horrible, existential hole in their stomachs. How much of what they did mattered, after all, when an infinite number of worlds could exist?

The two didn't talk to each other, or even glance at each other. It was very distressing.

Suddenly, the announcer began speaking.

"NOW ARRIVING IN THE RED WORLD! NOW ARRIVING IN THE RED WORLD!"

"Well," Nick said, finally breaking the silence, "That's not ominous or anything."

"PLEASE DO NOT LOOK OUT THE WINDOW~"

"OH COME ON NOT AGA-" Another flash, nearly blinding the two again, "AUGH!" Nick yelled in pain.

WE HAVE ARRIVED IN THE RED WORLD, CURRENT TIME; UNKNOWN DAY, UNKNOWN MONTH, YEAR, FORTY AGR!" The announcer cried as the train ground to a halt.

The Director and Ticket walked into the car again, seeing the two animals writhing in pain, "We have arrived at our destination, and please be careful when leaving the train." He told them.

After the two had regained their site, they stepped out of the train, walking down a small ramp, which retracted when both of them reached the bottom.

Ticket began yelling, "THE TRAIN WILL NOW BE LEAVING! PLEASE STAND BEHIND THE LINE!" The door shutting once he finished.

There was no line to stand behind, so the two instinctively jumped backwards when it began making noise. Soon, the train started moving, flying off into the sky, and disappearing.

"Did they just abandon us?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Judy answered, bewildered, "I think they did."

They both looked around, observing the place around them.

Well, "place" might be too strong of a word.

The ground was solid, but in every direction all they could see was black, the only thing breaking it up being the red fog that permeated the world, as well as the red stars in the sky, seeming to be the only source of light. The place stretched as far as they could see, it was disorienting to even look around.

"What is this place?" Judy asked, disturbed by the endless red void.

"I wish I knew, Judy," Nick tried to answer, "I wish I knew."

"I can help you with that." Sounded a powerful voice from behind them.

They turned around, seeing a figure step out from the inky blackness surrounding them. It was a furless creature like the Director, but this time clad entirely in a red suit, broken up by a belt, which was designed to look like four crosses, clashing together, and a symbol on his chest, the V symbol that was engraved on the briefcase they received the devices, but with a large number forty above it.

A short cape hung from the cowl around it's neck, which blew in a nonexistent wind. It's head, like the Director's was covered with an object, this time a helmet, much like the ones the two wore whenever they transformed. Despite the helmet having a large, red visor, they couldn't exactly tell if there was anyone behind it. The middle of the visor, again, had the V symbol, while just under the visor was a silver mouth, which looked like it was molded into the helmet itself.

"And you would be?" Nick asked the suspicious being.

"I..." The being placed its hand on its chest, letting off a certain intensity the two had never felt before, "Am AkaRed."

The two looked at him in silence, "Was that..." Nick looked at Judy, who looked back at Nick, "Was that supposed to mean something to us?"

Without missing a beat, AkaRed began to speak, "I am the one who has gifted you your new powers," He turned around, his cape spinning in the wind, "But there is more for you both to learn, danger is looming, and you are to discover something you could never have imagined. Follow me."

He started walking, and the two cops looked to each other shrugging. They didn't exactly have a choice, they were trapped in this weird dimension, and this guy seemed odd, but still trustworthy.

So, they followed him into the void.

* * *

"Heh." He laughed to himself, pulling his gun out, firing it at a nearby building, the wall crumbling to pieces, revealing a host of terrified mammalian creatures behind it.

"Yartots!" Sambash pointed towards the group of mammals, "Get them!" He snapped his fingers, summoning in a group of strange, pirate like creatures, dressed in green stripped pants and bandannas, with strange orange skin and what looked like drawn on eyes, each holding odd cutlasses.

As the Yartots ran forward, Sambash turned around, looking at the destruction he had managed to cause in only a few short hours. Hundreds of the sailor monsters running around, chasing, injuring, killing the citizens of this dreadfully bright city.

They were all running, running like, uh...

Well, you know.

Sambash holstered his gun, and pulled out the insect token, looking at it, "I think it's time to kick this up a notch."

He looked around searching for something, and he spotted it, a sheep, running for his life, away from all the destruction he was causing.

Sambash quickly raised his gun and fired, creating an explosion of sparks in front of the sheep, who froze in place, seeing the monster approaching him, knees shaking in fear.

The biker crouched down, making eye contact with the terrified sheep, "Hey, you." He said, staring into the sheep's eyes, "You wanna kill some people?" He asked, the sheep shaking his head, terrified of the monster before him.

He held up the insect token, "Oh well, you're gonna." He slammed the insect token onto the sheep's chest, causing it to absorb under it's wool and into it's skin.

The sheep frantically hooved at his chest, as he could tell something was wrong. Soon, a strange goo started emanating from the sheep's skin, it yelling in fear as it was covered in the substance, which soon hardened into a cocoon-like object.

"Shit, that's nasty." Sambash said, standing up as the cocoon grew larger, around as large as himself.

It burst open, covering Sambash, and most of the street surrounding the cocoon, in a thick green goo, revealing a very familiar face to Sambash. A scorpion-like monster wearing a leather jacket and pants, one of his arms ending in a normal hand, the other ending in a massive claw.

It slicked back it's hair-like protrusion and walked towards Sambash, who was trying to get the goo off of him.

"Hey boss, long time no see!" He greeted his old boss.

"Kolshizer! Nice to see you too, man." Sambash returned, the two fist-bumping, "You ready to go wreck some shit?"

"Hell yeah, I am!" The scorpion yelled, pulling out his rather large pistol, decorated with golden chains, and firing at a building, causing it to explode, causing both of them to laugh, walking off to cause a ruckus.

* * *

They had been walking for what felt like hours, they weren't even sure they were going anywhere considering the complete barrenness of this place.

"Hey, red guy," Nick asked, a bit impatiently, to the masked figure walking in front of them, "Are we actually going anywhere, or are we just walking in circles?"

AkaRed suddenly stopped, "We are here." He said.

They looked around, it was still just the endless void of smoke and lights. Where were they supposed to be?

"Excuse me," Nick said, getting surprisingly angry at the creature standing there, "We're in the literal MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!"

They heard AkaRed let out a small chuckle, before raising his arms, causing the ground to shake as he did. A large stone stage appeared from the ground, directly in front of the red being. The bottom was lined with steps leading up to the flat surface, and a back wall decorated with that same V symbol.

AkaRed then turned his head to the right, raising his right arm as well, causing another large stone structure to rise, resembling steps, four in total, each with five statues of similarly costumed heroes on each step, totaling to twenty. He then turned to the left, and raised his left hand, causing another, similar, stone structure to appear, this one set up the exact same, but with twenty different statues on it.

The two stared in awe at the large structure that had appeared, as AkaRed stepped onto the stage.

"Forty years ago," AkaRed said calmly, his voice somehow magnifying to a much louder volume, "The Earth was ravaged by evil."

He raised his hand again, causing a burst of black smoke to cover the stage, which cleared to reveal a large, white monster, with a black cross for a head, surrounded by four entirely black monsters, the only details being white rims around where the eyes should be, and white on the helmets. AkaRed had also disappeared from the stage during the smoke, but his voice continued to be heard.

"The evil Black Cross Army planned to take over the world," In a puff of white smoke, a floating model of the Earth appeared, which the white monster grabbed and lifted up, letting out a silent laugh, "The Black Cross King had wiped out the world's largest government agency, EAGLE, the world was in his complete grasp."

"However," The voice boomed, as five bursts of smoke appeared from behind the monsters, red, blue, green, yellow, and pink. Five figures jumped in and began fighting each of the monsters, four going for the identical black ones, and the red figure fighting the large white monster.

"The heroes the world needed had arrived," The five heroic figures each hit the monsters with rather simple moves, causing them all to burst into smoke, as they leaped into the middle of the stage, performing a group pose, "The first Super Sentai, Secret Sentai Goranger!"

The five disappeared suddenly in bursts of multicolored smoke, with a larger red burst overtaking the multi-color ones, AkaRed stepping through it.

"Over the next thirty nine years, the heroic warriors of the Super Sentai teams have protected the Earth from evil threats of all kind." AkaRed stepped to the edge looking at the two mammals, and then pointed to them, "And as of now, that includes you two."

"What!?" They both said, shocked at what the being had just said.

AkaRed nodded, "Yes, you two are part of the newest team in this long legacy, Zyuman Sentai..." He raised his arm into the air, pointing towards the darkened sky, "ZOORANGER!" Another burst of smoke, this time red, blue, and yellow, appeared from behind him.

"Well," Nick said sarcastically, "At least we have a name now." Judy shushed him in response.

AkaRed stepped back, "You are now the next in a long line of animal based Super Sentai teams, such as the Hundred Beast Sentai, Gaoranger, defenders of nature!" He raised his hand, causing another explosion of smoke, causing one of the statues to disappear from the steps, and reappear on the stage, this statue having a helmet resembling a feline creature, maybe a lion.

"The Starbeast Sentai, Gingaman!" Another explosion, a second statue appeared, this one also resembling a feline creature, but not in the same kind as the last one "Warriors of the Earth!" AkaRed continued.

"SpecOps Sentai, Go-Busters!" Third explosion, another statue, this one looking like a creature they hadn't seen before, but the helmet had a large pair of what looked like glasses, "The heroes who sacrificed everything!"

"Beast-Fist Sentai, Gekiranger!" Another statue appeared, this one having a helmet resembling a stylized rhinoceros, "The disciplined kung-fu masters!"

"And finally, Engine Sentai, Go-Onger!" A final statue appeared, this one having a helmet resembling a cartoonish bear, "The high-speed heroes! All of them, in some way, have contributed to your powers." AkaRed explained, "But, there is one last thing for you to learn. Come."

He gestured for the two to come up the stairs. The two followed, not exactly having much of a choice in the matter. A sword then materialized in AkaRed's hand, the hilt having a red feathered design, and a strange medallion in the middle.

"Kneel." Akared demanded, causing the two animals to look at each other nervously. What, exactly, was he going to do?

The two still knelt before the red creature, nervous sweat trailing down their fur as he raised the blade.

Quickly, AkaRed lowered the sword, first tapping Nick on the shoulder with it, "I christen you," A red light suddenly began emanating from Nick's wrist device, "ZooRed, Champion of the Sun."

"Uh, alright." Nick said nervously.

He walked over to Judy next, and placed the sword on her shoulder, this time a blue light coming from her device, "And I christen you, ZooBlue, Defender of the Moon."

She looked at her device, "Do you know what, exactly, these things are?" She asked.

"Yeah," Nick continued, "The briefcase we got it in had your logo plastered on it, so you probably have something to do with them."

"Correct," AkaRed answered, "I created those Changers, they are called the Zoolizers."

"Wait," Judy said before he could continue, "You're the one who made these things? You're the reason we're in this whole mess?"

"Yeah, it was kind of a dick move just throw this big important responsibility on us out of nowhere!" Nick continued, anger rising.

"Well, then," AkaRed started, "I give you a choice. Quit your duties, or continue. Take your time, and come back when you have reached a decision."

The stone structures began lowering, leaving the two surrounded by the void again, with only AkaRed as a marker for where they were. The two walked away from him, there was definitely some physical ground, as they gained visible space from him.

"Alright, Carrots," Nick began, "Are we giving this up or not? Because I'm ready to pack it in."

Judy thought, she wasn't entirely sure. She took a look at the Zoolizer, or whatever the red creature had called it, "But those monsters, Nick," She paused, looking up at the fox, who had gained a look of slight agitation on his muzzle, "They're still out there, we might be the only ones who can do anything about them."

She looked him in the eye, intensely, turning the fox's expression into one of guilt, "We're police officers." She stated seriously, "Our job is to protect and serve, this is like that on the next level."

Nick sighed, "Fine, we'll keep doing it." He turned to the red figure, standing still several meters away, "HEY!" He yelled, "WE'RE NOT GONNA QUIT!"

AkaRed began walking forward, suddenly appearing in front of the two in only a few seconds, much shorter than it should have actually taken him.

"I knew you would say that." He said, "You two were the perfect candidates, after all. The two perfect heroes of your world."

"What do you mean?" Judy asked.

"Judy Hopps, you are by far one of the bravest people in your city," He explained, leaning down to rest his hand on her shoulder, "Challenging expectations, and living your dreams to the fullest. It take's a special person to live as they want."

"Oh, uh," She stumbled, awkwardly trying to parse the words, "Thank you?"

He turned to Nick, looking him in the eye, "And you, Nicholas Wilde," He began, "Are also an incredible person, changing your life for what you considered the better, a tough decision you took with pride."

"I'm incredible, huh?" Nick said to himself, feeling a bit egotistical.

AkaRed then pulled out a small box, plain white in color, handing it to Judy, "What's this?" She asked.

"A present." He said, standing up, "Use it only in dire circumstances." She tried to open the box, but it was completely locked shut somehow, despite there being no lock on it.

"As a final note," He began again, "There are two more you've yet to find, search for them, do not let evil get ahold of them, or else your world will be doomed."

"What?" Nick asked, confused.

"The train has arrived," AkaRed said, the sounds of a train coming from behind them, Nick and Judy turning around to see the Rainbow line had returned, "I might not see you two again, so remember, the strength of a hero comes not from his powers, but from his heart."

The two turned back from the train, AkaRed had completely vanished. The doors on the train car slid open, and the walkway lowered.

"What was that all about?" Nick asked the rabbit, absolutely confused.

"I only got like half of what that guy was talking about, but I THINK," She tried to answer, "We're not going to be done with this weird stuff for a very long time."

"Well," Nick sighed, "That's a shame." The two turned to the Rainbow Line, and walked inside.

How could this day get any weirder?

* * *

Answer, what was waiting for them on the Rainbow Line

As soon as they had gotten on, they noticed another weird creature sitting on one of the seats, this one silver and black in color, dressed in what looked like a somewhat streamlined version of a stereotypical pirates outfit, a coat gripped to a black undercoat by a yellow belt, with a large collar. The helmet's top half made it look like a bandanna, with an anchor shaped pattern, while the bottom half resemble a kerchief around it's mouth, leaving only a golden visor, which quickly turned to their direction.

"OH MY GOD!" It enthusiastically exclaimed, standing up, gesturing to the two in an exaggerated manner, before walking over to them, slowly crouching as he got closer, "You two are Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde!"

He grasped both of their paws in his over-sized ones, shaking them up and down wildly, almost taking the much smaller mammals off their feet.

He stopped, as the two shaken animals attempted to get back to their feet, "Nice to know we have another fan." Nick groaned sarcastically.

Judy shook her head, and looked at the silver creature in front of him, "Who are you?" She asked, getting rather annoyed by all the new, strange faces she was meeting.

He stood up, "Me?" he pointed at himself, and then slicked his hand across the back of his head, "I'm the spectacular sixth member of Pirate Sentai, Gokaiger! I am..." He raised his hand, "Gooooookai..." He slowly lowered his hand as he said this, and then spun around a full 360 degrees, and then threw his hands out, "SILVER!" he finished.

The two looked at him, dumbfounded, "Can you, maybe," Nick started, "Repeat that, without the theatrics?"

He sighed, placing his hands on his waist, "Aw man, I'd been wanting to do that for years." He then began to explain, more clearly, "My name is Gai Ikari! As the sixth member of Gokaiger, they call me..." He struck an over the top pose, "GokaiSilver!"

"I mean, that was slightly less dramatic." Nick critiqued, "But I at least got what you were saying."

"Wait a second," Judy thought, "How do you know who we are?"

"Uh..." He tried to search for the words, "Well I saw you in..." Suddenly he heard a door slide open on the other side of the train car.

He glanced over, the two mammals hadn't seemed to notice. The Director was standing behind the door, Ticket on his hand, he was staring at Gai. The Director made a quick circular motion around Ticket's neck, and then pulled up on an invisible rope, causing Ticket to go into a faux-limp state.

Silver had gotten the message.

"I heard about you two from the, uh," He seemed worried, quickly glancing back at the door, "From the Director, he told me all about you!"

"Oooooooh." The two said, seemingly accepting his nervous response.

"So," GokaiSilver began, trying to move away from the conversation, "What are you guys doing in this... place?"

Nick walked over to one of the seats, explaining, "The rabbit head dude brought us here," He got up onto the seat, trying to make himself comfortable, "Then we met this weird red guy, who, I dunno, tried to explain something to us?" He looked at the rabbit, "That is what happened, right?"

She shrugged, she wasn't really sure what AkaRed had been going on about either.

"Red guy..." Silver placed his hand on his chin, thinking, he quickly clapped his hands, "Did he have a big gold V on his head?" He asked, making a V shape on his forehead.

"Uh, yeah, he did." Nick answered back.

"You guys met AkaRed!?" He yelled excitedly, looking back and fourth between the two mammals.

"You know him?" Judy asked, looking up at the tall being.

"Yeah!" Silver answered back, ecstatic, "He was a good friend of my captain!"

"Captain?" Nick asked, "What are you, a pirate?"

"Uh, yeah?" Gai shrugged sarcastically, "What else do I look like? Some kind of... super, mega ranger?"

"What an oddly specific answer." Nick sarcastically replied back.

Judy and Silver walked over, both sitting next to Nick, as the train began to move.

"So, AkaRed wanted to explain something to you?" GokaiSilver asked.

"Yeah, he told us about, uh..." Judy snapped her fingers, trying to wrap her head around what the red creature had said before, "Super heroes? Protecting Earth? Something like that."

Gai clapped his hands, "He must have been trying to explain Super Sentai to you!" He extatically stated, "Don't worry if you didn't get it, he's not that great at explaining things, I can make it more clear for you!"

Before they could object, he got up, and began posing, "Super Sentai!" He began to explain, "Forty teams of five to six heroic people, defending the Earth from all kinds of threats, the heroes of the Earth loved by all!"

He looked at them, proudly, "Do you get it now?" he asked.

"Not really." They both said in unison.

"Hmm." Silver sighed, "I guess it's hard to understand without seeing it."

"Well, he kept calling us one of those." Judy said, causing the silver-clad creature to double take.

"You guys are part of a Sentai!?" He bent over slightly, pointing at both of them, "Seriously!?"

Suddenly, before they could explain further, the announcer sounded off.

"NOW ENTERING THE DIMENSIONAL RIFT! PLEASE DO NOT LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS!"

The two shut their eyes tight, as the flash echoed through the train. Hearing a scream, they opened their eyes, looking down to see the silver hero lying on the ground, covering his visor in pain.

"I THOUGHT THE SUIT WOULD HELP THIS TIME!" He yelled in pain.

"Not exactly the brightest coin in the chest, huh?" Nick joked, looking at the rabbit next to him, who nudged him with her arm.

Quickly, GokaiSilver stood up, turning back to the two mammals, "You guys are part of a Sentai!?" He reiterated.

"Uh, I suppose we are." Nick said, holding up the Zoolizer, causing Silver to grab onto his wrist examining the device.

"Amazing!" He said to the fox, "Whaddya call them?" He asked, staring the fox in his eyes.

"Well," Judy began, Nick pulling his arm back from the weird creature grabbing onto his arm, "AkaRed called it a Zoolizer."

"Cool!" Silver yelled, "What's your Sentai team named called?" He asked, enthusiasm striking his voice.

"Zyumen Sentai Zooranger," Nick said, enunciating the words awkwardly, "That's what I heard, anyway."

"Awesome!" Gai complimented, "Can you guys transform for me?" He asked, "Please?"

The two shrugged, seeing no reason not to. The hopped down from the high seats, and stood in front of the silver being, who watched them intently.

They raised their paws, and slammed them down onto the device's button, creating a burst of light that transformed them into their Zooranger forms, the red and blue armor they hadn't found themselves wearing for a while.

Gokai Silver stared at them, seemingly expecting something else, "Was that it?" he asked, a bit disappointed.

"Were you expecting something else?" Judy asked, a bit confused.

"Well," Silver began to explain, "A Sentai transformation isn't the same without the introduction!"

"What does that mean?" Nick asked from behind his helmet, indignantly.

"Whenever I transform," Silver said, "I do that pose I did before, it's to introduce yourself to the enemy, and make them feel threatened by you powerful confidence!"

"Yeah, well," Nick began hitting the button again to untransform into his nightwear, "That's stupid."

"It's not stupid!" Silver yelled back, feeling insulted, "It's cool, and it's a tradition!" He paused in thought for a few seconds, "I Know! I'll help you come up with a pose and a roll call!" He announced to the two animals.

"No." Nick said, crossing his arms.

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" Silver said, trying to get him to agree.

"I say we at least try, Nick." Judy said to her partner, still transformed into her armored form, placing her paw on his shoulder.

Nick let out a large groan, "Fiiiiine." He said apathetically, pushing Judy's paw off his shoulder, "We'll do your dumb pose 'training'." He finally agreed.

"Great!" Silver said enthusiastically, clapping his gloved hands together and rubbing them, "We got a few hours so let's get to work!"

And so they did. The training was surprisingly lighter than Nick was probably expecting, not exactly requiring any amazing flexibility. The hardest part was the two having to get used to calling themselves by "ZooRed" and "ZooBlue", which were their apparent codenames while transformed. Using real names was probably taboo for a reason.

After a few hours, the three settled on an... appropriate pose, you could say, and decided to take a break, as they would be returning home in only a short while, according to what the announcer had said.

"I never asked," GokaiSilver said, sitting in front of the two mammals sitting in the booth, "How long have you two been a Sentai? Did you just become one, or has it been a while?" He asked.

"We've been one for about a week and a half, I'd say." Judy answered, "It was really only for three days, technically."

"Wait, have you two already fought monsters?" Silver asked, looking them back and forth, "What did they look like?"

"Well," Nick began, adjusting forward in his seat, "One was some kind of knight, dressed in gold armor, covered in weird lizards."

"The Eternal Dragon, Long!?" He stood up in amazement, "You guys met Long!?"

"I think that's what he called himself, certainly ringing a bell." Nick stated, "Guy kicked our asses like it was nothing, amazing that we even survived."

"Taking an attack from Long, at such an early stage in your Sentai history..." He paused in amazement, "You two must be amazingly strong!"

Judy rubbed her neck, feeling flattered, "Well, I guess, but..." Nick nudged her with his elbow.

"Don't let it get to your head, Carrots." He jokingly told her, before continuing, "There was also this big, gold robot guy."

Hopps nodded, "Really obsessed with pollution," She continued for the fox, "There was also this fox guy, wearing a weird mask."

Silver thought to himself, "A gold robot, obsessed with pollution..." He smacked his fist into his palm, "Land Pollution Minister Yogostein? You met him too!?" He leaned back, letting out a loud groan, "I never got to meet any of the classic villains! Aside from Ryuwon." He mused to himself.

"Who?" the rabbit asked.

"Oh, uh," Silver stumbled a bit, "No one you would know, dragon lord guy from way back."

GokaiSilver leaned back in his seat, thinking once again, "Fox mask guy..." He shrugged, "I don't know who that is!" He announced, "Haven't really been keeping track of any Sentai villains after I left Earth."

"Wait, what?" Nick questioned, surprised.

"Oh yeah, I'm a Space Pirate, didn't I tell you?" He answered.

"You just said 'pirate', that doesn't usually make someone think of space." Nick sarcastically replied.

"Oh, I guess that's true." He rubbed his head, realizing the confusion he probably caused, but moved on to another topic quickly, "So, looks like somebody has revived a bunch of old Sentai villains to fight you two."

He got up, and walked into the middle of the car, arms crossed, thinking about something, before Judy began talking, "When we fought that Yogostein guy, he said something about there being five more generals, six total."

Silver turned around, looking at them intently, "You already met three of them, right? Who could the other three be..." But before he could begin to think, the announcer chimed in.

"NOW ENTERING ZOO WORLD! DO NOT LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS!"

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Nick yelled, the three passengers quickly shutting their eyes tight as the light flashed.

"Oh thank god." Nick said to himself, he had closed his eyes just in time, and managed to avoid the horrible, burning pain.

"WE ARE NOW IN ZOO WORLD! CURRENT TIME; THREE FIFTY THREE PM, MARCH 21st, 2019!"

"ONE FIFTY THREE PM!?" Judy yelled in a panic, realizing she hadn't shown up to work at all today.

She hopped off her seat, and began pacing, terrified by her first true missed day. What if she was fired for this? What if her and Nick were both fired?

She didn't exactly have time to think about it, as a sudden, familiar noise filled the car. A pop song, sung by Gazelle. It was her phone, she had slipped it into her pocket before they left.

She pulled it out, looking at the address.

Oh god it was her parents.

"Can everyone be quiet for a bit, please?" She asked, trying to cover the sound with her paw Silver and Nick both nodded, they probably realized how awkward this would be. She hopped up to a seat on the other side of the car, and pressed answer.

The faces of her two parents appeared on the phone, and Judy was surprised to see them looking utterly distraught for a brief moment, as they suddenly beamed with joy as they saw her face.

"Heeeeey, guys." She greeted, awkwardly, her heart racing, "How's it going-"

Before she could finish her parents quickly interrupted her, "Oh thank god, you're okay!" Her mother said, voice hoarse, had she been... crying?

"You had us more worried than you could've imagined, Jude!" Her father sighed in relief, "Where were you all day?"

"What?" Judy asked, confused, "What do you mean?"

"Early in the morning, 'round six, your boss called us." Her father began to explain.

"He said that none of the calls or e-mail to your phone were even connecting," Her mother continued, "He had no idea where you could've gone."

"And, and," He father stuttered, "When we tried to call you, we couldn't connect to you either! We were about to give up!"

"Well," Judy said softly, trying to comfort her parents, "Everything's fine, I'm safe and sound."

"Thank goodness," Her father beamed, "We thought something might've happened to you in all the commotion happening in the city."

"What!?" She yelled, startling the two rabbits on the screen, "What's happening in Zootopia?"

"There's some kind of terrorist attack going on!" Her mother explained, "It's absolutely awful, some kind of real monster is going around blowing up buildings!"

"Hey! That sounds like-" Gokai Silver tried to say, getting shushed by Nick in the process.

"Who was that?" Judy's dad asked, hearing the unfamiliar voice, "That didn't sound like Nick. Where are you?"

"I'm, uh…" She paused, trying to come up with a plausible excuse, "On… a train! I'm on a train." She tried not to put on a suspicious smile, but she could tell it came off as that, causing a bit of an awkward silence.

Suddenly, the door slid open, and in walked Wagon, with a cart of refreshments, "Lunch is served!" She yelled cheerfully.

GokaiSilver looked over at her, letting out an over the top yell, "Are you Wagon, one of the people who helped ToQger!?" He asked enthusiastically.

"I sure am, mister!" She answered.

Silver suddenly pulled out a notepad, and shuffled over to her, "Can I have your autograph?" He asked, bowing, offering her the notepad and a pen.

"Oh, I didn't realize there was a fan on board!" She cheerfully admitted, grabbing the pen Silver had offered.

Before she could sign, or before Judy, her parents, or Nick could even get in a word, the door on the other side opened, a shrill voice screaming, as The Director came in, seemingly being dragged along by the screeching puppet on his hand.

"NO AUTOGRAPHS DURING WORK HOURS!" He screeched at the silver hero, startling both him and Wagon, causing them to step back.

"Why not!?" Silver asked, a bit angry at the puppet.

"Autographs promote egotism, which in turn invites laziness." The Director reluctantly explained, not even looking at the two.

"SO NO AUTOGRAPHS!" The puppet screeched again.

"I was gonna ask for your autograph next, monkey boy," GokaiSilver announced rather angrily, "But now I don't think I want it!"

"I wouldn't have signed anything for you anyway, you silver nerd!" The monkey puppet insulted back.

All Judy could do was stare at her phone with an awkward look, as her stunned and baffled parents listened in to the argument.

Seeing Judy's awkward face, Nick realized he had to stop the argument, and hopped down from his seat, walking over to the bickering hero and puppet.

He coughed loudly, getting the two's attention, "My friend over there is in the middle of an important phone call, so if you could-" Before he could finish, the puppet lowered down into his face.

"Stay out of this, fox!" He yelled, "This is between me and the dorkus over there!"

"Hey!" Silver yelled in offense.

"Why can't you just let him get the autograph?" Nick asked, "It's really not a big deal, Wagon will get back to work once she finishes!"

"Yeah, it's not every day you get to meet someone like this!" Silver announced, clearly making the puppet more and more agitated.

"IT'S AGAINST REGULATIONS!" Ticket yelled at the top of his lungs, causing everyone besides the Director to wince.

In a quick burst of anger, Ticket leaped off of the Director's hand, directly into Nick's face, knocking him down. The puppet writhed and wriggled, attempting to harm the fox.

"Ticket!" The Director yelled, the most emotion he'd shown all day, "Calm down, get off of him!"

Judy looked back at her phone, seeing her parent's horrified faces, "Well it was fun talking to you I have to go save Nick from a puppet okay love you bye!" She said as fast as she could, quickly hanging up, just as her father opened his mouth.

She quickly hopped down from the seat, rushing over to her struggling partner, and tried to grasp onto the wiggly puppet. Eventually, after a bit of struggling, she managed to grab it, and flung Ticket into the air, where he landed directly onto the Director's hand.

He quickly covered up Ticket's mouth, "I am very sorry for Ticket's attitude, he gets like this sometimes." He apologized, "Please, Gai, have Wagon's autograph if you so wish."

"Really?" Gai said in amazement, "Thank you, Mr. Director!"

"Excuse me, Director?" Judy interrupted, the Director turning to her, "Do you know when we'll return to Zootopia, by any chance?"

"Around fifteen minutes, why do you ask, Ms. Hopps?" He wondered.

Nick got up, grunting, "Well," He began, "According to Carrots' parents, it sounds like there's some problems happening."

"To me, it sounded like a monster attack!" Silver stated, "We need to get these two back there quickly!"

Judy and Nick nodded to each other, Judy beginning to say something, before her phone began ringing again. She looked at the number.

Oh shit, it was Chief Bogo.

"Okay, this call is actually really important," Judy announced, "I need everyone to stay absolutely quiet."

She answered it, placed the phone next to her ear, and braced herself for the Chief's loud, loud voice.

"OFFICER HOPPS!" The voice on the phone yelled. It was even louder than normal.

"Heeeeeey, Chief." She nervously said back, "You're probably wondering where I was, huh?" She chuckled.

"Actually, I'm wondering where you AND Officer Wilde were!" He yelled over the phone, loud enough for everyone in the car to hear.

"He's here with me, sir." Judy said, she looked at Nick, "He can tell you what happened to us!"

Nick's jaw dropped in disbelief, before she handed him the phone, almost forcefully.

"Good luck." She whispered, Nick returning an angry glance to her.

"Hey Chief Bogo, how's it going?" He said coolly, but with a nervous look on his face, "Would you believe me if I told you that we were kidnapped by a magic space train, and traveled to a different dimension?"

Judy looked at him, absolutely stunned.

He quickly cuffed his hand over the phone, "Why did you think I had an excuse for this!?" He whispered angrily at the rabbit.

He placed the phone back to his ear, hearing the end of Bogo's frustrated grunts, "Listen, Wilde, I don't have time for this." Despite being quieter, Nick knew that meant the chief was absolutely furious, "Zootopia is having a major crisis right now," Nick gestured for the rabbit to come over and listen, which she did, leaning in close to the phone.

"One of those… monsters, is attacking the city, and the Mayor's publicity stunt heroes haven't shown up to do anything about it," He explained, "We have every possible officer and SWAT member trying to do something, so you two being missing is a problem."

"We'll be there in five minutes sir, we just have to reach our stop." Nick said, trying to reassure the miffed buffalo, before hanging up.

"'The Mayor's publicity stunt heroes', huh?" Nick said to himself, "I've been called worse things before."

* * *

"NOW APPROACHING COOL ENTRANCE STOP! NOW APPROACHING COOL ENTRANCE STOP!" The announcer boomed.

"Oh, we're here already!" Judy said in relief, turning to the Director, GokaiSilver, Ticket, and Wagon, "Well, it was nice meeting you all! I hope we… see each other again?"

"I don't." Nick muttered to himself as he headed towards the door.

"Not exactly." The Director announced, "GokaiSilver here will be assisting you today."

"I will!? Awesome!" Silver yelled in joy.

"He will!?" The two mammals yelled in shock.

The train stopped, the door sliding open, letting in a burst of cold air.

"What the…?" Nick said, shivering, as he went to check the outside, which caused his eyes to widen, "Uh, Judy? We might have a problem."

She walked over to the door as well, also shuddering, and looked outside. She saw the city from high above, they were maybe two, three hundred meters in the air, looking down at the city from the sky, and while they were still far away, they could see most of downtown in disarray.

She turned to the Director, "C-couldn't you get us a bit closer?" She asked, stuttering from the cold.

"You said you wanted to get here quickly," Ticket answered, "This was the closest stop!"

"I w-wouldn't exactly call this a stop'." Nick replied, also bothered by the cold.

"Are you telling us that we have to JUMP down!?" Judy yelled in disbelief, the Director and Ticket nodding in response.

"Don't worry 'bout it!" Silver said, approaching the door, winding up his arms, "Just transform and you'll make it!" He then jumped out of the train, screaming in joy.

The two looked out the door, at the silver speck quickly falling to the earth, "Well, when in Rome. ZOO ON!" Nick yelled as he slammed the button on the Zoolizer, turning into ZooRed, and jumping out the window.

"Nick!" Judy yelled as she watched him fall as well, "Ugh, guess I don't have a choice, do I?" She groaned, before yelling out the code word, turning into ZooBlue, and also jumping out.

On the ground, Sambash was enjoying the carnage he had created, "Heh, the boss is gonna love me for this!" He said proudly, turning to Kolshizer, who had just finished blowing up a building, "Whaddya think, bro? Isn't it wonderful?"

"I dunno, boss," Kolshizer said, "I'm not in a good position to complain, but isn't this getting a bit boring?"

Sambash thought to himself, scratching his head with the tip of his gun, "Hm, I guess it kinda is." He admitted, "Usually Gingaman woulda shown up by now."

Suddenly, there was a large crash behind them, both the scorpion and the biker turning around to see what had caused it.

A weird black and silver guy, knees shaking looked like a Ranger from the good old days, cracks on the ground surrounding them.

He groaned in pain, "That's REALLY bad on your knees!" He quickly straightened out, and looked directly at the two monsters, "Hey, monsters! We're here to stop you!"

"Yeah?" Sambash chuckled, "You and what Sentai?"

Two figures fell down from the sky, landing much less gracefully than the silver one, both of them landing directly on their faces.

"Uh, this one." The silver guy answered back, as the two other Rangers got up, rubbing their animal faces in pain.

"Oh, it's you two." Sambash said, recognizing the two, much smaller, Rangers, "Who's the silver guy?"

"I AM!" Silver raised his hand, "GOOOOOOOKAI…" He lowered his hand as he prolonged the word, before spinning around, splaying his arms out, "SILVER!" He finished.

"Interestin'." Sambash said to himself, as a long, awkward silence filled the air, "Well, you two gonna introduce yourselves?" Sambash spoke up, waving his gun at the two animal rangers.

"Oh, uh…" Nick said awkwardly, realizing this wasn't going to start until they did something, "Well, I'm ZooRed, and this is-"

A gunshot fired at the fox's feet, causing a burst of sparks to explode from under him, knocking him back.

Sambash pulled his smoking gun back down, "Too boring. Gimme something unique." He demanded.

"Guys!" GokaiSilver said, coming to a realization, "Do the poses we practiced!"

"Seriously?" Nick groaned, crossing his arms, "Those were embarrassing."

"C'mon, Nick, we don't really have much of a choice." Judy said to the fox, trying to get him to go along with it.

"Fiiiine." He moaned, preparing himself.

He took a deep breath, and yelled out "CHAMPION OF THE SUN!" He quickly knelt down, scratching the ground, before leaping up and spinning around, splaying his arms as he landed, "ZOORED!"

"Woo!" He yelled after finishing the pose, pumping his arms, "That's actually really invigorating!"

"Alright," Hopps said, stepping up, preparing her pose, "My turn!"

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON!" She yelled, jumping up into the air, performing several fast front-flips in place, before landing down, where she shifted her right foot back, as well as pulling her right arm back, left arm outwards in a palm open stance, "ZOOBLUE!"

"Alright!" Sambash yelled, clapping, "Now THAT'S an introduction!"

"Oh, thank you!" Judy started, "We spent a while practicing them and-" Quickly a gun shot hit her feet, knocking her back with a burst of sparks.

"Time for my introduction!" The biker twirled his smoking gun, "Name's Sambash, Gun Boss Sambash." He gestured to the scorpion creature, who stepped forward, running his claw over his hair-thing, "And this is my good friend Kolshizer, we're here to kill you, and everything you love."

"Wait," GokaiSilver stepped forward, "You're Sambash?" He questioned, excitedly.

"What!? Do you know me!?" Sambash questioned, pointing his gun at the silver hero.

"You totally are!" He announced, "This guy was the first big bad guy Gingaman fought!" He then pointed to Kolshizer, "And that's the first monster they ever destroyed!" He said, obvious enthusiasm in his voice, "I'm in the presence of Sentai history here!"

"Wow, am I really that famous?" Kolshizer asked himself, again stroking his hair.

"Not really." Silver said, causing the scorpion to trip over himself, "You were kind of a joke." Gai turned to the two animal rangers, "He went down to one guy, isn't that lame?" The two chuckled in response.

Sambash turned to the scorpion, who looked away awkwardly in response, "Seriously, dude? One guy?" He said in disbelief.

"W-whatever!" Kolshizer yelled, stepping forward and pulling out his gun, "I'm stronger than ever before, it'll take a lot more than that to stop me, baby!" He fired his gun at GokaiSilver, landing a direct hit on his chest, causing him to fall over.

"GAI!" Judy yelled in a panic, rushing over to his fallen body, "Are you okay!?"

He coughed and shook his head in response, quickly sitting up, nearly knocking the rabbit over, "Of course I am!" Silver said to her, getting up, "It's gonna take a lot more than some boring gun to stop GokaiSilver!" He yelled proudly, pounding his chest.

"Gokai Spear!" He yelled, pulling out a large, golden trident from out of nowhere, spinning it around, before rushing towards the scorpion, but instead of attacking Kolshizer, Silver simply pushed him out of the way, running towards Sambash.

"What the-?" Sambash yelled in surprise, before being jabbed in the gut with the trident, knocking him backwards.

"Zoorangers!" Gai turned back to the two animals, as Kolshizer got up, "I don't really wanna insult you, but Sambash might be too strong for you right now!"

"I feel like he just insulted us." Nick said, crossing his arms.

"He might be right, though, Long and Yogostein were obviously stronger than both of us." Judy rationalized, looking at the masked fox.

"Yeah," Nick said, "But the only thing Sammy over there has is a gun, not really that much of a threat."

"Hey, uh..." Kolshizer said, trying to get the attention of the two, only to be ignored.

"Well, the monster could get away while all three of us were fighting him," Judy replied back, "That would be a problem."

"HEY!" Kolshizer yelled again, "Big scorpion biker over here, looking for a fight!"

"Yeah give us a minute, bud," Nick said, not even looking at the scorpion, "Anyway-" He was interrupted by a gun shot hitting their feet.

"I'M NOT GONNA BE IGNORED ANYMORE!" Kolshizer yelled, rushing towards the two, who pulled out their weapons.

He slammed his claw into the ground, the two dodging out of the way from it, ZooBlue rolling out of the way, using her blasters to shoot the monster in the side. Kolshizer winced in the pain, as ZooRed pulled out his blade, slashing into the scorpion's side. He pulled out his gun, shooting the two rangers, causing them to flinch from the blast,but still standing firm.

"Hmm, maybe I do need some help." Kolshizer said to himself, pulling out a handful of golden coins in his normal hand, "YARTOTS!" He yelled, throwing the coins on the ground, causing them to spread out.

The coins glowed, and shifted into the shape of six of the pirate like monsters, each wielding a strange red and green cutlass, "Geddem!" The scorpion ordered, gesturing for the Yartots to attack them.

"Ugh, what are those things?" ZooRed asked, locking blades with one of them.

"I dunno, but they sure are, uh," ZooBlue jabbed one of them with her daggers, causing it to turn into a pile of orange dust, "Ugly is the politest way I can put it."

Meanwhile, GokaiSilver and Sambash were staring down each other, Sambash quickly pulling out his gun and firing at the Gokaiger, who knocked the blast away with his spear, and then rushed forward, slashing the biker monster multiple times, causing shocks of pain with each slash, and knocking Sambash backwards.

"Maybe you should get a melee weapon, dude." Gokai Silver suggested, "Normal guns really don't mean much to Sentai Rangers, have you ever tried a sword?"

"Swords are for losers!" Sambash yelled, firing five shots rapidly at the silver hero, who only managed to block a few of them, stumbling backwards, "I think I know how to deal with you!" Sambash announced, pulling out two hands overflowing with golden coins, throwing them up in the air.

The coins landed everywhere, and suddenly transformed into an army of Yartots, around fifty or so, who all started to swarm GokaiSilver, who tried to fend them all off the best he could, taking out a handful before being swarmed.

"GUYS!" He yelled, waving his hand above the crowd of pirates, attempting to get the attention of the Zoorangers, who were currently locked in combat with Kolshizer and his own Yartots, "LITTLE HELP HERE!"

Red turned to him, quickly getting a face-full of claw, Kolshizer punching him while he was distracted. He rubbed his face in pain, and then got up and sprinted over to his partner, locked in combat with a Yartot, "I think Silver needs our help, Blue!" He quickly drew his sword, defending himself from a sudden sword swipe from behind him.

"I can see that, Red!" She yelled, jabbing the Yartot with her daggers, causing it to disintegrate, "But we're kind of in our own mess here!"

"I got a plan!" He said, knocking the Yartot away, and pulling out one of the tags, causing Blue to realize the plan.

The two popped their respective tags into the Zoolizers, causing them to light up and emit the jungle noises.

"ROAR OF THE WILD!

ROAR OF THE ENGINE!

DO YOU HEAR IT?

USAGIDER!

KITSUNIDER!"

In a burst of light, the two drove through the few remaining Yartots on their motorcycles, destroying them, and then driving to the large group of pirates attacking Gokai Silver, driving around them in circles.

"PHASE TWO OF THE PLAN!" Red yelled over to Blue, pulling out the large fox-shaped gun, as well as the corresponding tag, which he placed into it, again, causing it to emit noises.

"BRING THE HEAT!

BURNING HEART!

BOOM BOOM!

VICKSCANNON!"

The cannon fired a large blast of fire, nearly knocking the bike over, destroying most of the Yartots on one side of Silver, nearly hitting the Gokaiger himself, but allowing him to defeat the few remaining, and escape.

"Thanks guys!" He thanked them, giving the two the thumbs up, before running off to fight Sambash, who had been watching the entire ordeal.

"Guess this is what I should have expected from a Sentai!" He yelled, frustrated, blasting GokaiSilver with his gun as he ran towards the biker, only for the hero to block it.

"Alright, Gun Boss!" Silver stopped in place, a few meters away from Sambash, "You want a gun fight? I can give you a gun fight!"

He flipped his trident around, sliding the handle part of it inward, and then folding two of the spear bits downward, "Gokai Spear, Gun Mode!" He announced, before blasting the biker with it, causing Sambash to flinch backwards.

Back with the Zoorangers, the two rode their bikes towards the scorpion biker creature, who attempted to shoot the bikes with his gun, only for all his shots to miss. Red pulled out his sword, slashing the monster with it as he drove past. Blue, however, skidded her bike to a halt, jumping off of it and pulling out her blaster's tag, forming the dual gun, which emitted more noise.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!

SLICING THE SKY!

CHANBARA BAN!

RABBLASTERS!"

The blaster shot a sharp blaster of energy at Kolshizer, going directly through his stomach, causing him to kneel down in pain.

Sambash saw this as him and GokaiSilver continued their erratic duel, him ducking behind a piece of rubble to collect his thought, "Shit, looks like we're in trouble..." He said to himself, "Need to get outta here, but..." He looked up, seeing the perfect opportunity for an escape.

A bridge, not that far away, directly going over a small river, "Heh, perfect." The Gun Boss said to himself, as he fired a blast at it, creating a large hole directly over the river.

All three of them turned to the bridge, seeing a car hanging loosely from the ledge, Silver turned as Sambash got up from his shield, "You!" He yelled, furious at the monster's act.

"You better go save those innocent, soon to be dead animals, huh?" He mocked, pulling out a black coin, throwing it to the ground. It quickly morphed into a classic American motorcycle, a chopper, "We're getting out of here!"

He got on the bike, and it began floating, then dashed towards the damaged scorpion, who used his remaining strength to leap onto the back of it, with barely any room on the bike, "SEE YOU LOSERS LATER!" Kolshizer yelled down to the three heroes, who had gathered to see them fly off.

Red stamped his foot down, looking up at the sky, and then to the bridge, "What are we supposed to do!?" He asked, frustrated.

"We save those people." Blue confidently announced.

"Alright, I knew you two were heroes!" Silver excitedly said, "I got a plan." He shifted the gun back into a trident, and then ran towards the bridge, the two Zoorangers following behind him.

"Alright, so," He started, standing directly in front of the bridge, which was easily too high for any of them to reach, by around fifty feet, "You guys are pretty small and light, right?"

"I dunno, you should see Blue here at the Christmas party," He joked, causing Blue to give him a quick, angry glance, "I dunno how she packs it all in!"

"Now's not the time for jokes!" She yelled angrily, and a bit embarrassed.

"That's not what I meant!" GokaiSilver said, "I mean, I'm going to launch you up to the bridge, it'll be faster!"

"That sounds remarkably stupid and dangerous," Nick announced, doubtful at the plan, "But we don't exactly have much of a choice right now."

Silver held the trident forward, preparing it for the plan, "Just jump on!" he told them.

Blue hopped on first, causing the trident to bend downwards a bit, before Silver flung it upwards, launching the rabbit upwards, high enough to reach the top of the bridge.

Then it was Red's turn, he caused it to bend down even more, and he he was launched, the fox barely managed to make it, having to grasp onto the edge and climb up.

The two looked down at the silver figure standing far below them, "WHAT ABOUT YOU?" Blue yelled down to him, "HOW ARE YOU GONNA GET UP?"

"I DON'T NEED TO!" Silver yelled back up, "YOU GUYS CAN DO IT ON YOUR OWN, I KNOW YOU CAN!" He gave the thumbs up, but wasn't entirely sure they saw it.

"You heard the... thing." Red said, turning to his partner, "Let's save some lives!"

The two hopped down from the wall, onto the main part of the bridge, directly next to the hole Sambash had created, car still hanging precariously from it. It was a fairly normal looking car, black, but in it was a leopard family, a father, a mother, and two kids, all of them crowded into the back, attempting to balance the car backwards.

One of the kids, about seven years old by the looks of it, saw the two Zoorangers standing behind the car, and while they couldn't hear him say anything, they could tell the kid was telling his family about them, as they all turned to look at them.

"Don't worry!" Blue yelled to them, "We'll get you out safely!" She wasn't entirely sure they could hear her.

"Okay," Red began to ask, "How are we going to do that?"

He was right, they didn't exactly have any way to move this car back onto the road, at least, not with anything they currently had available.

"Uh, well, we need a rope." Blue said, hastily trying to come up with a plan.

"We don't HAVE a rope, Blue." Nick said, indignantly.

She was feeling incredible stressed at the situation, as she desperately searched her mind for an idea, which suddenly hit her, "Red!" She yelled, "Can I see your sword for a minute?"

"Sure." He said, pulling the sword out and handing it to her, "Don't really see how that will help."

She gripped the handle, and then gripped the, surprisingly dull feeling, blade, and pulled them apart, revealing that the blade was held in place by a tight wire inside the hilt.

"I knew it!" She announced.

"Whoa, my sword can do that?" Red asked, surprised at the discovery.

"Remember when you did that super cool, flame sword attack on the weasel guy back when we first became Zoorangers?" She asked hastily, running up to the car, and jabbing the sword into it's rear.

"Yeah, what's your point?" Nick asked, a bit confused at what she was getting at.

"Well," She began explaining, "When you did that, the wire connected to the sword actually stretched out because of the wire, that's how you hit it from so far away!" She pulled the hilt towards the fox, and handed it to him.

"Wait, you thought of that, that quickly?" He asked, surprised at this strange coincidence, and she simply nodded in response.

"You think you get the rest of the plan, Slick?" She asked.

The fox looked at the car, and at the hilt, then back to the rabbit, and despite the mask on his face, she could tell he was smiling.

"'Course I do, Blue." He pulled out the motorcycle tag, and slipped it in, summoning the bike, which he hopped on, still holding the sword's hilt.

He zoomed off on the bike, it coming to a stop after a few meters, as the cycle struggled to bring the car up.

"C'mon..." The fox said to himself, looking back at the car as the bike's tires let out an awful screech.

Eventually, the car moved, he was actually managing to pull it up! In a few minutes the car was entirely back on the bridge. The family quickly got out of the car, and walked up to the two heroes.

"Thank you for saving us, Zoo Rangers!" The younger of the kids said cheerily to them.

"No, uh," Red replied, his heart racing, "No problem!"

"Please, is there anything we can do to thank you?" The father leopard asked.

"All you need to thank us," Blue stated, "Is go home, and stay safe. It's dangerous out right now."

The father nodded, and gathered the rest of the family into the car, which was miraculously still working, and drove off, around the hole.

"That was amazing!" A familiar voice said from behind them, the two looking to see GokaiSilver, "You guys are really real Sentai heroes now!"

The two looked around, making sure no one was around, and untransformed, exhausted from the fight.

"We..." Judy tried to say, catching her breath, "We need to find Sambash, before he does anything else."

"Hold it, Fluff." Nick said, grabbing her shoulder, "We don't know where he went, and I, personally, have some questions for you, Mister." He pointed to Silver, who looked a bit confused, "So, I say we go back and rest for a bit."

"Good idea, Nick." Judy said, her heart still racing, "Let's head home."

"Ooh, do you guys have a secret base?" GokaiSilver asked, as they began to walk home.

* * *

Sambash tromped into the main hall of the base, his head hanging low. Yogostein and Yabaiba were sitting around the table, looking towards him when he entered with Kolshizer.

"So, guessing it didn't go well, huh?" Yabaiba jested to the biker, who walked overly in a silent rage.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Sambash yelled, kicking a chair over.

"Whoa, sounds like it went REALLY bad." Yabaiba responded, looking over to Yogostein.

"There's a THIRD ONE now!" Sambash yelled, kicking the chair again.

"What do you mean, Sambash?" Yogostein asked, calmly.

"He means," Kolshizer answered, sitting down at a chair, as his boss continued to kick another one in frustration, "There's a third Ranger, when there were only supposed to be two!"

"What!?" The robot and the clown yelled in unison.

"So," Yabaiba started, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair, "You snuck out against the boss' orders, got your ass kicked, and have to tell him there's a third one now?" He said to the angry biker, "Man, you're gonna get unexisted for sure!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Sambash yelled, pulling his gun out and firing it at the clown, but it only managing to hit the table, the explosion causing Yabaiba to fall over in his chair.

Suddenly, a pulse shook the room, only startling the three villains, but causing Kolshizer to fall out of his seat in surprise.

"QUIET" The Omnipotence boomed.

"Boss," Sambash nervously tried to explain to the powerful being, "It was just taking too long for you to finish, and I was-" He was interrupted by yet another pulse.

"I SAID" The omnipotence reiterated, his voice growing louder, "QUIET"

Sambash understood, and shut his mouth.

"PHASE TWO HAS BEEN COMPLETED" It began, it's voice lowering, "AND YOU, SAMBASH, HAVE PROVIDED ME AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO TEST IT"

"What!?" Sambash said, surprised, "Seriously?"

He felt something appearing in his hand, which he opened to look at. A small metal object, red in color, with an odd shape. It had two horns coming out of the top, with a smaller one in the middle, and two ones coming out of the middle, larger than the ones on the top, going upwards alongside the other three, and finally, a second small jagged bit coming out of the bottom.

"What's this?" Sambash asked his boss.

" **PETRIFIED CHAOS** " It explained, " **A SOLID VERSION OF THE CHAOS ENERGY YOUR MONSTER HAS GATHERED, USING IT ON YOUR MONSTER WILL GRANT IT EVEN MORE POWER** "

Sambash turned to look at Kolshizer, who was just getting up, "Whoa, seriously?" The scorpion asked, "I wanna try it!"

" **FEEL FREE TO USE IT ON YOUR MONSTER, SAMBASH** " The omnipotence announced, " **IT APPEARS IT NEEDS IT** "

"Heh, sure thing, boss." The biker said, walking over to the scorpion monster, quickly jabbing it into Kolshizer's chest.

The thing disappeared into the monster, who began to glow an eerie red color, "I feel weird..." He nervously said, clutching his chest with his non-claw hand.

Quickly, a large scar appeared on his chest carapace, in the shape of the Petrified Chaos Badge, as Kolshizer began screaming in horrible pain, the three villains watching in awe as the scorpion began to change.

His neck elongated, and his shade-like visor grew off of his face, gaining more sunglasses like points, turning completely red in color, and his hair-like protrusion growing slightly longer. He also bulked up a lot, but a strange growth began to appear from his back, which burst open to reveal a large, scorpion-like tail, with a large stinger at the end. Finally, his normal hand began crusting over, turning into a second large claw.

"THIS FEELS AMAZING!" The monster announced, amazed by his new power, "I feel like a million Zagin!"

"Remarkable..." Yogostein stated, walking over to examine the powered-up monster, "A bodily transformation, to adapt to the increase in power!"

" **INTRODUCING** " The Omnipotence began, " **CHAOS MODE, THE ULTIMATE FORM OF YOUR MONSTERS** "

Sambash walked up to the newly improved chaos scorpion, and hit him in the shoulder, "Alright, Chaos bro," He began, "Let's go see what you've got!"

The two exited, ready for another round of chaos.

* * *

The three had made it back to the apartment, managing to sneak Silver into the room, which was nearly too small for him. He had to duck down a bit in order to actually fit, without his head hitting the ceiling .

"When you guys said home..." Silver began, before bumping his head on the roof, "I was expecting something a lot more impressive!"

"Yeah, we'd totally have a secret base living on an average salary." Nick replied sarcastically, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"Please, Gai," Judy said politely, "Take a seat. You don't want to keep bumping your head, right?"

"Thank you, Judy!" He said, shuffling over the comparatively small couch, and sitting down on it, his body nearly taking up the entire thing.

"So, uh," Nick began, a bit awkwardly, "I generally don't like bringing up the 'elephant in the room', but Gai..." He turned to the silver creature sitting on his couch, who in turn looked at the fox, "What exactly... ARE you?"

"Alright, I knew this was gonna be brought up," Silver said, preparing, "Do you two know what a... a primate is?"

"Primates went extinct thirty five million years ago." Judy answered, "Every animal knows that."

"Well, in MY universe, primates DIDN'T go extinct!" He continued, "We evolved into humans, and became the dominant species of Earth."

"Dominants species?" Nick asked, a bit confused, "What about all the other animals?"

"Well, uh," GokaiSilver paused, rubbing his neck as he tried to think of a simple way to explain it, "Basically, um, no other animals evolved to become sentient."

"What?" Judy said, a bit disgusted at the thought, "So, there's no other animals to talk to besides... whatever you look like under there? That sounds awful."

"Actually, it's basically the same as this place, only a bit less... diverse?" He tried to think of a better way to explain it, but really couldn't.

"Second question," Nick began, raising up two of his fingers, "Why don't you take off your super suit?"

"That's a lot less awkward to explain!" GokaiSilver said in relief, "Basically, I don't even know if I can survive in this universe's atmosphere. If I untransformed, I could die." He started circling his face with his finger, "Also, my face could probably cause mass panic if I walked around."

"I guess that makes sense, in a weird, Star Trek kind of way." Nick admitted to himself.

"Hey! Can I ask you guys some questions now?" Silver asked enthusiastically.

"Uh, I guess?" Judy said, looking to the fox, who nodded.

"Alright!" He excitedly yelled, "Alright, so did only mammals evolve in this universe, or did, like other things like bugs and reptiles evolve too?"

"Bugs didn't evolve, I can tell you that." Nick answered, "They basically make up the fast food industry."

"Cool!" Silver announced, "In my world we use... uh..." He realized how uncomfortable the conversation would get if he explained what a hamburger was, "Nevermind, It's not important!"

"Alright, so," GokaiSilver continued, "What do you guys call your weapons?"

"Uh," Judy thought to herself, "We've just been calling them guns and swords."

"Yeah, do they need names?" Nick questioned.

"Of course they need names!" Silver stood up quickly, hitting his head on the roof, grunting in pain, then leaning back down as he shuffled to them, "How can your weapons not have names?"

"Well," Judy said, "The Zoolizers yell stuff out whenever we put these tags into them." She held up one of the tags, which Silver grabbed to look at.

"Wow! I know what we can call these!" He announced, staring at the blue tag.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

"ZooTags!"

"Oh." The both said, in relative disappointment. It was better than nothing, though.

"Yeah, I heard your Zoolizers make the noises too, they sounded familiar..." he thought for a second, before continuing, "But yeah, they DEFINITELY yelled out names for you bikes and guns!"

"Really?" Nick said, a bit surprised, "I couldn't understand a thing they said."

"Yeah, it really just sounded like gibberish." Judy agreed.

"No, it was definitely in English!" He paused, realizing something was off with that statement, "It was understandable, at least!"

"Well, if you can understand it," Nick started, a bit smugly, "Then what did they say?"

"Well, it called your bikes the Usagider and the Kitsunider!" He told them.

"That still sounds like gibberish." Judy admitted, shaking her head.

"It makes sense where I come from, alright?" He attempted to explain, before continuing, "Anyway, the guns are called the Rabblaster and the Vickscannon!"

"Okay," Nick admitted, "Rabblaster makes sense, but 'Vickscannon'?"

"Yeah, he's not a female fox." Judy said.

"It's just a pun, alright?" GokaiSilver explained, a bit frustrated, "You don't need to be getting mad at puns!"

"So, what do you think the sword and daggers are called?" Judy asked the silver human.

"I dunno," Silver said, doing his best to shrug, "Why don't you two come up with the names?"

Nick leaned back in his chair, thinking, "How about.." He leapt out of his chair, and began swinging an invisible sword, "Foxfire Blade!"

"That's good! How bout you, Judy?" Silver asked.

Judy placed her paw on her chin, taking a second to think, "What about the Crescent Cutters?"

"More like Carrot Cutters." Nick joked, nudging her in the shoulder. She returned this with a firm slap to the back, "Ouch! Sorry." He apologized.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The two mammals look at each other, still wearing their sleepwear, and then looked at the strange creature that was in their home.

Judy ran to the door, and peaked through the peephole to see a familliar fox. It was Kyle.

"You can come in, in a second!" She yelled, rushing over to Gai, 'Alright, you need to hide somewhere." She whispered to him, the silver hero nodding in response, "Nick, get some clothes." She ordered the fox, who also nodded.

She lead the Human over to the storage closet, which, when opened, revealed it was definitely too small to fit him, "This might be a problem." She sighed, leading Silver over to her room, "You just stay in there for, like, ten minutes, alright?" She explained, "And don't make any noise. Or touch anything." The Gokaiger nodded in response, as he awkwardly fit through the door.

"Alright, I got the clothes." Nick said, rushing up to the rabbit with an armful of folded laundry.

The two quickly took turns changing in the bathroom, and soon were fully dressed in their casual outfits.

Judy opened the door, letting the yellow fox in, who bowed, thanking her.

"I'm sorry for interrupting anything," Kyle apologized, "But I wanted to check if you two were okay, today's been crazy, huh?"

"Yeah," Judy began, a bit awkwardly, "Definitely... strange." She turned around, beginning to invite Kyle in.

"Time Stall Ninjitsu." The fox whispered to himself, eyes glowing yellow, performing a quick series of hand motions. The entire room froze in place, gaining a sickly purple aura.

"Spirit Walk Ninjitsu." He again whispered, performing a different series of hand motions. This time, a large, black energy spirit appeared from the fox's body, and began to move towards the bedroom door, which it phased through.

The spirit looked towards the silver ranger, sitting on a fairly small bed, for his size at least. "Interesting..." The spirit whispered, before performing another series of hand gestures, "Mind's Eye Copy Ninjitsu."

In a flash, the spirit found itself back in the fox's body, holding a photo in his hand that wasn't there before, which he quickly stuffed into his pants pocket.

"Anyway, do you want to come in?" Judy finished, unaware of what had just happened.

"No thanks," Kyle began, "I just wanted to see if you two were okay. I have somewhere I need to be, anyway."

A loud beeping noise started resounding throughout the apartment, as well as a red and blue light flashing from the two mammal's wrist devices.

"Oh, your alarms are going off, I guess you have somewhere to go too?" Kyle nervously chuckled, "Don't want to keep you two, I'll go now." He finished, and shut the door, he could still hear the beeping on the other side.

The two quickly went into a panic, trying to get the Zoolizers to quiet down, "What's it doing, Carrots!?" Nick yelled at the rabbit, who shook her head in response, also trying to get it to be silent.

Suddenly, GokaiSilver burst through the bedroom door, "I know what that means!" He yelled, "There's a monster attacking! We have to go stop it!"

"It wasn't doing this before!" Judy yelled, confused at why it had just started. Would've been useful a week ago.

"Maybe when that AkaRed guy christened us, he also gave us this alarm?" Nick tried to rationalize.

"Either way, we have a city to save!" Silver yelled, excitedly, "LET'S GOOOOOOOOO!"

He burst through the apartment door, and ran down the hallway, the two mammals attempting to stay close behind.

* * *

"You ready for round two, Kolshizer?" Sambash asked, turning to the newly powered up scorpion monster.

"Sure am, Boss!" He answered, doing some shadow boxing with his new claw hands, "Let's see what this new bod can do!"

He stepped forward, aiming his sights on a nearby building, his stinger rearing up as he readied. The stinger quickly fired out several blasts of energy in rapid succession, disintegrating parts of the building, causing it to collapse.

Sambash clapped in approval, "Man, that was great!" He complimented.

"Aw shucks, Boss!" Kolshizer said, flattered, rubbing his neck with his claw.

"I'm gonna head back to base, if those Zooranger guys show up," He slammed his fist against his palm, "Crush them. See ya!"

He got onto the bike, and flew off, leaving the scorpion alone to ravage the city himself, "Guess I should get started!" He said to himself.

"Not before we stop you!" A familiar male voice said from behind him, causing the scorpion to turn around.

The three rangers from before were standing there, the voice from before coming from the red, fox one.

"Well, you haven't started," He corrected, "But we're still gonna stop you!"

"Wait," GokaiSilver announced, stepping forward, examining the monster, "That doesn't look like Kolshizer."

The two examined the monster themselves. It was similar, but very different, "Huh, guess it isn't the same guy." Judy guessed.

"Wrong!" The scorpion monster yelled, "I'm the new and improved Kolshizer, baby!" He stroked his hair, and continued, "I'm not that wimpy Kolshizer no more, I'm CHAOS KOLSHIZER!"

Quickly, the scorpion reared his tail, and fired several energy blasts at the three rangers, causing them to fly backwards, hitting the ground

"He got an upgrade!?" Red said in disbelief, trying to get up, "Seriously?"

"Look like it." Blue replied, also trying to get up.

GokaiSilver got up much easier, "I've fought way more powerful guys than you!" He yelled, pulling out his Gokai Spear, "Lets do this!" He rushed towards the chaos monster.

"Not so fast, you silver sucker!" Kolshizer yelled as Gai ran towards him. He quickly punched forward, launching one of his claws, attached to his arm by a chain, towards the ranger, which hit him directly on the chest, launching GokaiSilver backwards.

He landed near the two other rangers, who had just gotten up, with a thud, "Ugh, maybe this won't be that easy..." Silver mumbled to himself, the monster beginning to walk towards them.

"Let's get him, Blue!" ZooRed yelled, pulling out the Foxfire Blade.

"Got it!" ZooBlue replied back, twirling her Crescent Cutters.

Red rushed towards the monster, slashing him a few times, and then cutting directly through him. Blue followed up next, stabbing the monster in the stomach a few times, and then leaping up and slashing his face, before launching off by kicking him.

"Hm." Kolshizer grunted, tapping his stomach, "I feel like that should have hurt."

"Oh COME ON!" Red yelled, completely baffled they hadn't managed to do anything to him.

"Let's pull out the big guns!" Blue yelled, "RABBLASTERS!" She pulled out her twin blasters spinning them around.

"VICKSCANNON!" Red yelled pulling the large cannon out.

The two aimed their blasters, and fired rapidly at both sides of the monster, causing a cloud of sparks to surround them.

"That all you got?" Kolshizer mocked, clearing away the cloud of dust, "That barely even stung!"

"Alright, wise guy..." Red said, frustrated at the creature, who turned around to look at the fox, "Why don't you try some of THIS?" He pulled out the Vickscannon's ZooTag, and stuck it in, causing the cannon to shoot a massive burst of fire at the monster, actually managing to make the scorpion stumble back in pain.

Before he could say anything, he heard noises from the other side of him, and soon found himself being pierced by the Rabblaster's laser blade blast, slicing directly through him.

"Hrk!" Kolshizer grunted, maybe he shouldn't have gotten so cocky.

"Alright, you punks!" He yelled, aggitated at the two animals rangers, "I've got more tricks up my chitinous sleeves!"

With a clang, both of the monster's claws fell to the ground, golden chains connecting both of them. He quickly began lashing them around, incredibly skillfully, as the claws cut right through buildings, trees, and other objects they probably shouldn't be able to.

The two Zoorangers managed to dodge each swing just as skillfully though, jumping, ducking, and sliding under them.

After a few seconds of relentless thrashing, the claws retracted, and the two Zoorangers were standing next to each other. Kolshizer quickly turned to them, firing several blasts from his stinger, which the two jumped out of the way of just in time.

He suddenly felt several sharp pains in his back, it felt like multiple gunshots.

Turning around, he saw the silver one, holding what looked like the spear from earlier folded up into a gun.

"Shouldn't have counted me out so early, lobster face!" He yelled, pulling out a small, silver key, "I'm gonna finish this before it even starts!"

He popped the key into a hole on the spear, causing a familiar voice to shout out.

"FIIIIIINAL WAAAAVE!"

Silver leaped into the air, holding the spear, and rearing it back in a very awkward, but powerful looking, pose.

"GOKAI SHOOTING STAR!" He yelled, throwing the spear directly at the monster, causing it to travel at blistering speeds through it's chest.

A massive explosion enveloped the scorpion monster, covering it in flames.

"YES!" Silver yelled enthusiastically, "The silver spotlight's on me once again!" he turned to see the two mammals, staring at him in awe, "Oh, sorry, did I steal the attention from you two?"

"No, it's just..." Blue began.

"It was very, very impressive." Red finished for her.

"NOT IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH!"

Suddenly, two claws flung through the flames, hitting Silver directly on the chest, knocking him away again.

Kolshizer stepped out of the fire, his claws retracting into his arm stumps, and began laughing.

"What!?" Silver screamed in disbelief, "No monster has ever survived the Gokai Shooting Star!"

"Guess you're lookin' at the first!" Kolshizer mocked, shooting energy blasts from his tail.

Each blast hit the three, knocking them down "What are we supposed to do!?" Silver grunted, pounding the ground with his fist.

"Well," Blue started, "From what I've learned, getting rid of a monster's powers is a good place to start!"

Red nodded in response, "His tail's the most dangerous part right now, "He started explaining, "We need to get rid of it."

She examined the monster, who was just sort of idly waiting around, stroking his hair in an overly confident manner.

"Okay, I have a plan." She stated.

"Already?" Silver asked in disbelief.

She quickly glanced at Red, and made a few quick hand gestures, the fox nodding in approval.

"Alright, Silver!" Blue yelled, placing her feet firmly on the ground, "Let's get him!"

She pulled out her daggers, and ran towards the monster.

"What!? That's not really a plan!" Silver said, confused at the rabbit, before rushing in himself.

"Hah!" The scorpion yelled, rushing forward himself, "You two don't stand a chance!"

Soon, the three were fighting, Kolshizer swiping at the two with all three of his claws, Silver blocking them as they struck. Blue herself had to perform some impressive feats of agility in order to not get hit herself. She looked back, the fox was gone, everything was going to plan.

Soon enough, the scorpion knocked the two backwards, causing them to stumble on their feet. He prepared to blast them with his stinger, but a sudden sharp pain from behind stopped him.

Kolshizer looked behind him, seeing his tail on the ground, smoking, "MY TAIL!" He yelled in rage, seeing the red fox join up with the other two, "I WAS JUST GETTING USED TO IT!"

"I love it when a plan comes together!" Blue said proudly, twirling her knives.

"To be honest, Blue," Red admitted, "I didn't actually get what you told me, I just kinda guessed."

She glanced at him, the fox returning a shrug in response, before she looked away and shook her head, "Dumb fox." She said with a smile from behind the mask.

"Sly bunny." He replied.

"VERY ANGRY SCORPION!" Kolshizer yelled, interrupting their moment.

He pulled out a claw-full of golden coins, and threw them into the air, causing several Yartots to land on the ground.

"You bozos deal with them for a bit!" The scorpion yelled, still in pain.

The crew of pirates rushed towards them, erratically swinging their strange cutlasses. The three moved in, striking the Yartots down with ease, considering how unarmored the foot-soldiers actually were.

"These guys are less threatening than those zombie guys." Red admitted, cutting down the last of the Yartots.

"You have to have something better, right?" Blue asked the scorpion, "That was barely anything!"

"You're right, I DO have something better! YARTOTS!" He yelled, "BRING THE CANNON!"

"The what?" Red asked, confused.

From behind the scorpion, three Yartots had arrived, hauling in an old antique pirate ship cannon. Quickly, two of the pirates grabbed the thrid one, and stuffed him into the cannon, feet first.

Kolshizer walked up to the cannon, and grabbed the rope at the end, "YARTOT LAUNCHER, FIRE!" He yelled, tugging the string.

The cannon let out a loud noise, as the Yartot flew directly towards the three at an amazing speed, managing to slice through all of them with his cutlass.

"Ugh!" Red grunted, falling into a kneeling position, "What a stupid attack!"

He looked back, seeing another Yartot stuffed into the cannon, "FIRING ROUND TWO!" The scorpion yelled, tugging the string, which launched the Yartot towards them with a boom.

"Not so fast!" Silver yelled, getting to his feet quickly. He pulled out the Gokai Spear, and slashed right through the oncoming Yartot, causing it to disintegrate.

"Shit!" Kolshizer yelled, looking at the final Yartot, which he promptly grabbed and stuffed into the cannon himself.

"FIRING FINAL ROUND!" He tried to yell, only to be interrupted.

"Face my cannon, you bug!" Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired a blast directly at the cannon, causing it to explode, knocking the scorpion off his feet.

"I say it's time we finished this!" Blue yelled, pulling out her weapons, Red nodding in return and pulling out his.

They quickly formed them into the large combined form from the week before, the sight of which caused GokaiSilver to cry out, "WOW! You guys have a team bazooka!?" He asked enthusiastically.

"Uh, yeah, I guess that's what this is." Red said, struggling to lift the heavy weapon.

"What's it called? Wait, don't tell me..." Silver thought for a second, "It's called the Zookaizer, isn't it?" He guessed.

Blue helped her fox partner lift the gun, and then turned to the silver weirdo, "Yep, that's definitely what it's called!" She lied.

"Can you guys stop yapping and shoot me already!?" Kolshizer yelled from afar.

"Give us a second!" Silver said to him, not even turning around, "Some people are so rude these days!" He said, "So what's the special attack called? Is it the Animal Kingdom Blast?"

"Yes that's exactly what it's called now GET BEHIND US!" Red yelled, getting a bit annoyed at their current partner's... enthusiasm.

He understood, and got out of the way as they pulled the trigger.

"ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!" He yelled, pumping his fist as the beam fired towards the scorpion.

The beam shot directly through Kolshizer, causing him to scream in pain, but not explode, "Hng! I may be down..." He started, trying to stand up straight, "But I'm not out yet!"

"He survived two different finishers!?" Silver said, baffled, "How are we supposed to take him out!?"

A silver glow began emanating from him, as he pulled out the Gokai Spear, which sparkled with a new power.

"Wait a second..." Silver said to himself as he walked over to the front of the Zookaizer, knocking the Foxfire Blade off of it with his fist.

"Hey!" Red yelled, "What are you doing!?"

"Hold on, I have an idea!" Silver announced, as he folded up the spear into Gun Mode, and then placed it on the bottom of the Zookaizer, where the tip folded up into Spear Mode.

"Alright, let's fire this one together!" He yelled, running to the other side, where he knelt down and helped hold up the gun.

"Uh, alright." Red said a bit nervously, pulling the trigger.

"ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST, EXCITING EDITION!" GokaiSilver yelled.

Instead of a normal beam, however, the spear launched forward, stabbing itself directly through the scorpion, where it latched onto his back.

"What the!?" Kolshizer yelled in surprise, as he felt himself slowly being dragged towards the Zookaizer.

he found himself lodged between the spear and the cannon, which had to be tilted upwards in order to keep the scorpion standing. As Kolshizer struggled to escape, a massive, silver beam fired from the cannon, strong enough to force the scorpion off of his impalement, and into the air, where he landed with an explosion.

"We did it!" Blue yelled, pumping her fist, "Thanks, GokaiSilver!"

"No problem, it's what any ranger would have..." Before he could finish, he turned to the fire created by the explosion, which cleared to reveal Kolshizer's lifeless body laying on the ground.

His chest started to bubble, and eventually burst open, launching a very terrified sheep onto the street, who bleated in terror has he ran away.

The bubbling didn't stop, though, as it quickly melted into a puddle of green goo, with only a small, insect shaped token, and a strange, red badge floating in it.

The two Zoorangers sighed in relief, he was finally beaten.

However, GokaiSilver gained a sudden air of seriousness to him, as he turned around to them.

"I don't think we're done yet."

* * *

"Well, that was a bust!" Sambash yelled, having watched the entire fight on the table screen, Yogostein and Yabaiba joining him as well.

"It appears the increase in power STILL wasn't enough to defeat them!" Yogostein lamented.

"Yeah, and he got his ass kicked too!" Yabaiba joined in.

" **DO NOT WORRY** " The Omnipotence chimed, " **THERE IS STILL ONE MORE PHASE TO GO** "

"What?" Sambash wondered, looking at the screen.

The red badge, the petrified chaos, began to rise into the air, the three rangers looking at it in surprise.

"What's going on?" Blue asked her partner, who just shrugged.

"It can't be!" Silver yelled, as the red object flew into the horizon.

"It can't be." Yogostein said, watching from his chair in the base.

In a burst of red energy, Chaos Kolshizer's visage appeared on the horizon, easily one hundred times bigger than before. The Zoorangers could tell he was actually miles away, directly outside the city.

"What the!?" Red yelled, "Now we have to fight a giant monster!?"

Silver turned to them, "You guys don't have any giant robots, do you?" He asked, the two shaking their heads in response.

"Great, and I don't think I can summon GouZyuJin either!" He exclaimed, rubbing his head, "AkaRed should have prepared for this..."

"Wait!" Blue yelled, as she reached behind her, "What if..." She pulled out the box AkaRed had given them hours before, which began to glow red and blue, and opened up.

Inside were two ZooTags, again, red and blue each, but this time with stylized pictures of a fox and a rabbit on them. They each grabbed their respective tag.

"AkaRed said only to use these in desperate times," She explained, looking the giant monster approaching the city, "And I think these times are desparate enough!"

They plugged the tags into the Zoolizers at the same time, once again causing lights to shine and noises to be made.

"DEFENDERS OF NATURE

ARE YOU SURE?

LOOK UP AND COMBINE!

ZOOSAGI!

ZOOKITSUNE!"

The to looked up from a bright flash, seeing two absolutely massive things standing in front of them. One looked like a large, red, mechanical fox, while the other looked like a blue, mechanical rabbit.

"Introducing your new partners!" Silver exclaimed, turning around and splaying his arms, "ZooSagi and ZooKitsune!"

The two looked up in awe at the massive robots, who in turned looked at them with large, glowing eyes.

"Hi there." Nick said nervously.

Back at the villain base, the three villains were admiring the giant monster that had just been created, ignoring the Zooranger's new discovery.

"Amazing!" Yogostein excitedly said, "You managed to make a monster grow without Suprisium!"

"Without Barban-X?" Sambash exclaimed.

"Without Org Seeds!" Yabaiba joyfully said, "Those things tasted awful!"

" **WHEN A MONSTER REACHES ITS LIMIT, THE PETRIFIED CHAOS USED TO ENHANCE IT WILL REINVIGORATE IT AT ONE HUNDRED TIMES THE SIZE** " The Omnipotence explained.

"Heh!" Sambash laughed, looking at his monster. "The city doesn't have a chance now!"

The four villains laughed, they were victorious.

Kolshizer reared up, preparing his now regrown tail, and shooting blasts at several buildings that were, to his size, only a few meters away. The buildings were nearly eradicated by the strength of the projectiles.

"Oh god!" Blue yelled, seeing the destruction, then turning to Silver, "What are we supposed to do with these!?" She gestured to the big robot animals.

"You gotta ride them!" He explained, "Let me show you!" He gripped Blue by the arm, and leaped up, them finding themselves in a control room.

The room was colored blue, or at least glowed blue, and Blue found herself sitting at a strange control mechanism, shaped like the Zoolizer , but with the ear sections much longer. She felt a pat on the shoulder, and turned to see Silver.

"You just need to wiggle those control sticks, and you'll be good to go!" He said.

So she did, a bit confusedly, but she soon found the giant rabbit leaping to the top of a building, the thing feeling much lighter than it appeared to be, as it didn't crush the building just by landing on it.

It leaped from building to building, as the bunny inside attempted to figure just what exactly she was doing. It kept jumping, until it reached the monster on the outskirts of the city, a large grassy field to be exact. The robot leaped into Kolshizer's face, kicking the scorpion with its large mechanical legs, knocking the monster down.

"What!?" Sambash yelled, seeing the action happen on the table screen, "Is that a Starbeast!?"

"Looks like they've managed to get their hands on a big ol' robot!" Yabaiba exclaimed, reclining back into his chair, "You're in troooouble!"

"PEH!" Sambash dismissed, "It's only gonna be a minor obstacle for my bud down there!"

Back in the city, Red was watching the fight, alongside his giant fox robot. He turned it, gazing into it's piercing red eyes.

"Guess we should probably get in there too, huh?" He said to it, "Just wish I knew how to get in you."

He thought about what Silver had done, he had just leaped up into the robot with Blue, and was suddenly in it. It couldn't be that simple, right?

"Guess I should give it a shot!" He said nervously, preparing himself.

With all his strength, he leaped up into the air, which ended up being far higher than he had expected, the fox frantically flailing his arms and legs in fear.

He closed his eyes, and felt himself land. Opening them, he found himself in a type of cockpit, the room glowing red. In front of him was a large... screen of some sort? Whatever it was, it displayed what was directly outside of the fox robot.

"Guess it was that simple!" He said to himself, laughing.

He gripped onto the controls, two small, pointed nubs, and began wiggling them. The fox robot started to move, running down the street towards the monster in the distance.

The fox was really, really not sure what he was doing, but it seemed to be working!

The mech rushed towards the monster, leaping into the air, and slashing the scorpion with it's blade like tail.

"Hnng!" Kolshizer grunted. "I'm not losing to a bunch of animals again!" He yelled, his voice deeper than before.

"Well guess what!?" Blue yelled at the scorpion. "You're gonna!"

The rabbit robot jumped up into the air again, this time slamming the scorpion with the full force of its body, knocking Kolshizer onto it's back.

"Woohoo!" Silver yelled, patting Blue on the shoulder. "You're a natural, Jude!" He complimented.

"Th-thanks!" She stuttered, feeling flattered, but not entirely sure about what. The robot felt like it was moving by itself more than she was controlling it.

The fox robot quickly ran up to the downed beast, and began scratching it with its claws, claerly causing the monster pain.

"ENOUGH!" Kolshizer yelled, knocking the fox robot backwards, before standing up. "I'm not gonna lose for a fourth time!"

"I say we finish this!" Silver yelled.

"Already!?" Blue questioned. "We haven't managed to pinpoint any weaknesses yet, or-"

She was cut off by another pat to the shoulder. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" Silver said.

She shrugged, and went along with it, wiggling the ear-sticks.

"You ready, partner?" She asked the pilot of the fox mech.

"Sure am!" He replied, not actually sure what he was supposed to be ready for.

However, with a bit of wiggling, the fox mech had leaped up into the air, and began spinning around in place. Shartly after, the rabbit mech had laped up even higher, and did a diving kick towards the spinning fox.

"FOX BALL CUTTER!"GokaiSilver yelled, causing the rabbit ranger to wince from how loud he was.

The kick launched the titular "fox ball" at the scorpion monster, it gaining more speed as it drew closer, quickly setting on fire. It cut directly through Kolshizer, the fox quickly gaining it's equilibrium back as it skid across the ground.

Kolshizer crackled with red energy. "At least I can say..." He stroked his hair, beginning to look uneasy, "I got beaten by two animals this time."

He fell over, and instantly burst into a giant explosion, which quickly dissipated.

Blue watched from her robot in awe at what they had just done. "Wasn't that amazing, Nick!?" She asked, only to get no response. "Nick?"

The fox uneasily climbed up to the control panel, looking like he was going to throw up. "Let's never do that again, alright?" He said, nautiously.

Blue and Silver quietly chuckled at the fox.

The villains, however, were not doing so well.

Sambash clutched his fists, and began to kick another chair around. "GOD DAMNIT!" He yelled, absolutely disappointed in his monster. "Another loss for Sambash!" He said, as he pulled out a flask, taking a swig from it.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Sammy!" Yabaiba said, a bit too cheerfully for the current situation. "We're only at the start of the series, our monsters are gonna get a lot stronger by the end!"

"What the hell are you talking about, you clown!?" Sambash yelled at him.

The clown shrugged in response. "I dunno either!" He stated, reclining so far back into his chair that it fell over.

What the three didn't see was Long, looking in from the outer hallway into the room as the three continued to bicker.

"What idiots."

* * *

The sun was setting on the city, as the three had returned to the apartment to take a bit of a rest. Judy had turned on the TV to see what was happening. It appeared that there was an impromptu meeting with Mayor Lionheart going on.

"Zootopia is the most efficient city in the world!" He explained into a microphone, presumably referring to the buildings that had been destroyed. "We'll be right as rain in a matter of weeks! Besides, given the circumstance, the number of casualties was remarkably low!"

A news crawl appeared on the bottom of the TV screen, stating that, surprisingly, less than four people had managed to be killed by Kolshizer and Sambash.

"Guess he was kind of a real loser." Nick said.

"Anyway, I'd again like to thank our city's new heroes, the Zoo Rangers, for-" The Mayor was cut off by the TV shutting down.

"Man, that guy's a real blowhard." Silver said. The two mammals turned around to see him, crouching behind the couch with the remote in his hand.

"Hey, he was just thanking us." Judy said.

"He's pretty obviously just using you two for publicity." Silver explained. "You don't need media attention to be a Sentai team." He said, trying to stand up tall, only to bump his head against the ceiling.

"it's not about the attention," he continued, rubbing his head, "It's about helping people, y'know?"

"Hey, sometimes it's nice to get a bit of recognition." Nick said, receiving a quick jab to the arm from Judy. "Jokes, Fluff." He said, rubbing his arm.

"Gai's right, though." She said. "I joined the ZPD to help people, not for attention."

"Guess the mayor's always been like that, huh?" Nick sad, turning to his partner.

Judy chuckled to herself, remembering when she first became an officer. She remembered the unwanted bits of media attention she got, which quickly stopped. Popularity is a very fleeting thing, even when they solved the Night Howler case, the publicity stopped as soon as it had started.

Silver looked over at the clock. "Oh, I have to go soon!" He stated.

"What? Already?" Judy asked.

"Rainbow Line's got a busy schedule, and I need to get some food!" He said, patting his stomach. "But before I leave, I wanted to give you two something."

He pulled out a large book, the cover clearly handmade, and handed it to the rabbit.

"It's the Super Sentai Encyclopedia, made it myself!" He proudly stated. "Thought that it might help you two along the way, since I won't be here."

He dropped the book onto the fox, the surprising weight of it nearly crushing him.

"Oops, sorry!" Silver apologized, helping Judy lift the book up off of him.

"Thank you, Gai." Judy said, struggling to carry the book herself. "It's very generous of you to, uh, give us something you made yourself!" She dropped the book onto the floor, where it landed with a loud thud.

"Your welcome!" he said, giving a thumbs up. "I should probably head out now, it'll be a long walk to get to the train stop." He explained, heading towards the door.

"It was nice meeting you, Gai." Judy said as he opened the door.

"Oh uh..." He turned around, looking back awkwardly at the two. "It was... It was nice meeting you two too, Nick, Judy." He looked down, continuing the awkward feel. "It was nice to shine in the silver spotlight again!" He gave a thumbs up, and headed out the door.

"What a weirdo." Nick said, sitting back down in the couch.

"Nick!" Judy yelled, jabbing him in the arm again. "Don't be rude!"

"What? He was a weirdo!" Nick replied back. "A helpful, nice weirdo, but still a weirdo."

There was a bit of an awkward silence, as Judy thought to herself.

"We're never going to see him again, are we?" She asked.

Nick sighed. "Probably not."

* * *

The villain base was a bit of a wreck. The three that had been there were distressed at the defeat they had been handed, and even more distressed at the possibility of a third ranger joining the already powerful other two.

Yogostein slammed a bottle onto the table. "This entire thing's been a disaster so far." He drunkenly stated. "Maybe we should just give up."

"Give up!?" Sambash yelled, getting up, slamming his own bottle onto the table, hard enough to smash it. "I'm not gonna lose again, there's no way I'm giving up!"

The three turned, hearing footsteps entering the room. It was Kyuemon, alongside Enter.

"Bonjour, my failures of teammates!" Enter mockingly greeted.

"Oh great, it's the 'busy' ones." Sambash drunkenly insulted, turning to face them. "Where were you today, out doing something stupid?"

"We were doing our jobs." Kyuemon stated, pulling out a photograph and placing it on the table.

The picture showed the new Silver ranger, sitting on a very small bed. "How'd you get this?" Yabaiba asked, grabbing the picture.

"I have my ways." Kyuemon cryptically explained. "But what's more important is who that new ranger actually is." He stepped aside, letting Enter explain.

"That is GokaiSilver, of the Gokaigers, a completely different Sentai team." He explained.

"But, there aren't supposed to be any other Sentai teams in this universe!" Yogostein yelled, a bit confused.

"Exactly." Enter continued, snatching the picture away from the clown monster. "He's from our universe, which means he was most likely only here for a short while."

"Wait, so..." Sambash began, "We don't have to deal with three rangers now?"

"Exactly." Kyuemon stated. "He lent them his power for today, and today only. We should have nothing to worry about."

The entire room sighed in relief. At least there was one piece of good news for them.

"Of course," Enter began again, "This opens up the possibilities of other rangers from our universe visiting."

The room went quiet again. Everyone in it, besides Enter and Kyuemon, feeling miserable at the events of the day.

"So!" Yabaiba exclaimed, "Who wants to go next?"

* * *

Gai looked around at the grassy field around him, which still had several large footprints made in it from the earlier giant monster fight. He looked to the stars in the sky, exactly like how they were on Earth.

He was feeling a bit homesick.

Soon the piping of a train could be heard, the Rainbow Line quickly descending from the sky, and stopping directly in front of him, the doors sliding open.

The doors closed as he stepped in, untransforming and dropping down into a seat, his stomach growling.

"Maaaaan," He said to himself, ruffling his brown-blonde hair, "Never thought I'd enjoy being out of the suit for once."

The train started to move, taking off into the sky. Soon after, the Director entered the room, with Ticket on his hand.

"It was quite impressive how you managed to keep it a secret, Gai." He said calmly.

"Keep what a secret?" Gai asked, sitting up.

"What those two are in our world." The Director tried to explain.

"I still don't get what you mean." Gai said, a bit awkwardly.

"He means," Ticket began, "He's impressed you managed to not blabber about them being movie characters!"

"Oh!" Gai exclaimed, a bit surprised. "That would have just been awkward, y'know?"

"More than just awkward, Gai." The Director began, "It would have potentially caused them both to have an existential breakdown."

"In other words, not good!" Ticket continued.

"Well," Gai started, "Glad I didn't tell them!"

"How did you see the movie, anyway?" Ticket asked. "You were in the middle of deep space!"

"Oh, that's easy." He started to explain. "We pirated it."

The train disappeared in a flash, disappearing into another dimension.


	6. Any Way the Wind Blows

His feet clopped across the ground as he trotted down the hallway. He wiped his brow, heading further into the darkness. It was after hours, he was supposed to be back home by now. But he couldn't not when they were so close to being finished.

He had been working on the engine for years at this point, it was his creation, his baby. It was so close.

He opened the door, quietly, and sat down in his seat. He looked at the turbine from behind a glass window. It sat there, massive, oval shaped, over normal looking.

He put his safety goggles on and started it up, only the window keeping him safe. The turbine whipped and whirled the wind inside the room with an incredible force, the strongest he had ever seen it. It was beautiful.

He stopped the machine, and laughed to himself, leaning back in his chair.

"Only a bit longer..." He said to himself, "And you'll finally be complete."

He then felt something on his shoulder. A... paw? It didn't feel like any he had ever seen. Cold, clammy, like leather. He turned around, not knowing what to expect.

"Hey, Hoggles." It was a horrible monster, with an unnatural face, a horn coming from it's forehead, and a mouth that didn't move as it spoke.

The pig fell to the ground with a thud, scurrying away from the monster.

"Who..." He paused, not the right question. "What are you?" He finished.

"Relax, Doctor." It said, pulling out a strange looking knife. "I got no business with you, but your turbine over there..." He pointed to the engine with his knife.

The creature walked over and crouched over the horrified pig, "Now that's definitely something I'm interested in."

It stood up, and threw the knife towards the window. It was meant to be bullet proof, but somehow this knife had completely shattered it. The pig watched helplessly as the monster climbed through window and admired the machine.

"Wow," It said, arms crossed. "This thing's pretty big. Might need the cavalry."

It quickly turned around and began yelling, "COME ON IN, BOYS! IT'S TIME TO DO YOUR JOBS!"

Quickly, the door slammed open, and a group of more strange monsters burst in. Each was a dark green, with piercing purple eyes. They were all patting their heads, muttering something inane.

They all stumbled over the control device, and huddled around the turbine. Quickly, they all began lifting it up, the strength of only around ten of them being enough to lift the massive engine.

"Now, how to get it out of here..." The white and purple creature asked itself. It quickly figured it out, raising his finger in realization.

It turned to the wall behind the turbine, and pulled out more knives. In a flash, it had slashed a massive hole in the wall, revealing the outside, and large enough for the turbine to fit through.

"That'll have to do." He said to himself, before turning to the monsters carrying the turbine. "Get going! We don't have a lot of time, y'know?"

The monsters seemed only dimly aware of what the lead monster had said, as it took them a second to get moving. They ran off into the night, the strange robbery completed.

The main monster turned back to the pig, who was now standing, having watched the entire thing. "Thanks for the turbine, Swinton!" It sincerely thanked, saluting the pig before running into the night itself.

It took a second for the pig to realize what exactly had happened, he stared slack jawed at the massive hole that had been cut through several layers of concrete. His creation was just stolen by some ridiculous monsters.

Coming to, he reached for his phone and dialed for the police.

"Hello? I'd like to report a robbery..."

* * *

Meanwhile, at around the exact same time, Judy was staying up late. Way too late, later than she had been up for in nearly three years, even though she was absolutely tired.

She just couldn't stop looking at this book. The one Gai had given them just before he left only a few hours ago.

It was strange, she was learning about the culture of a completely different universe via multi-colored superheroes. She had seen what "humans" had looked like, what the dozens of other Sentai teams had based themselves around.

She had made it through the first three chapters, The History of Sentai, Sentai Teams, and Sentai Robots. She was currently on the fourth chapter, Sentai Villains.

It wasn't entirely interesting to her, she was more one for heroics than for villainy, but the information here would probably end up being useful in the long run.

She was reading it in a haze, her paw rested against her cheek. She was very tired, but she just couldn't stop reading it, even if it was just skimming at this point.

She stopped to look at a picture of one of the villain groups. What looked like a pirate captain, if pirate captains were weird fish goblins, seemed to be the leader. But one figure stood out to her, Sambash, standing amongst a number of other strange figures.

"Heh," She chuckled, still in her tired haze. "What a weirdo..." She mumbled, the memories of the fight from earlier coming back. That weird biker was definitely a character, a violent one, but definitely a character.

Suddenly, a thought struck her, brought on by his visage, and a word in the book.

"Gingaman..."

She flipped back to the page about the Sentai team known as Gingaman. She remembered what she had read a few hours before, they were animal based.

She flipped back to the villain section, and quickly skimmed, just looking at the pictures, looking for something familiar. She saw it, Long, from a week ago.

"Gekiranger." She said to herself, reading the page.

She flipped back, Gekiranger was also animal based.

Her nose twitched, something was going on.

She turned the next page, and saw another familiar monster, Yogostein. This time, the page said he fought Go-Onger, whose page she turned to. Animal based.

She looked at the book, and hopped down from the chair. She walked over to Nick's door, and knocked. No response.

"Should I?" She said to herself, "It is kind of important, but sleep is important too..."

Her sleep-deprived brain told her to open the door and wake her partner up, so she shrugged and entered the room. She walked to the slumbering fox and shook him.

"Augh!" He yelled, leaping from his sleep.

He looked at the rabbit, visibly angry. "Why did you do that?" He asked.

"I think I found something important." She said, "I need you to see this."

Nick sighed, rubbing his paw across his snout, before following the rabbit to the kitchen.

"Okay, so," She started holding up the book, "I found some of the monsters we've met in this book, and there's one really weird connection between them."

"Is it being really ugly?" The fox joked, sitting down at the table, "Because I have a hunch that would connect all of them."

"The connection," She started to explain, "Is that all of them fought against animal based Sentai teams!" She passed the book, turned to the page on Gingaman.

"These are the guys Gai was talking about when we fought the biker dude, right?" Nick asked, examining the page.

"Yeah." Judy answered. "The other two were Long, who fought the Gekirangers, and Yogostein, who fought the Go-Ongers."

Nick placed his paw on his chin, thinking about something. "Gekiranger, Go-Onger..." He said, "I've heard those before."

His eyes widened, and he pounded his free paw against the table. "Those were two of the teams that red guy told us about!"

"Holy smokes, you're right!" Judy said, just realizing. She had thought that AkaRed guy was talking nonsense, and the amount of info from the previous day had caused her to nearly forget about his show.

"There were five he told us about, right?" She asked, the fox nodding in response. "Gekiranger, Go-Onger, Gingaman..." She said to herself, counting them on her fingers.

"Lots of G's, huh?" Nicked joked again.

"Ugh, I just read about all of them!" She facepawed, and snapped her digits, trying to get herself to remember.

She turned back to the book, and turned to the index, glossing over it for any familiar words.

"There they are!" She said excitedly, "Gaoranger and Go-Busters!"

"Gingaman, Gaoranger, Gekiranger, Go-Onger, and Go-Busters..." nick said to himself. They all started with G.

"That must mean..." She realized, "That must mean that all of the main baddies fought these guys!"

"But Yogostein said there were six of them," Nick reminded her, "There's only five teams here."

"Maybe he meant the leader?" She tried to rationalize. She turned to the Go-Busters page, it was very simple, very bare. Obviously Gai hadn't had time to update it. There wasn't even a villain page for the team.

"So, if we're going like that..." Nick continued, "Sambash fought Gingaman, Long fought Gekiranger, Yogostein fought Go-Onger, and that means that Kyuemon guy fought either Gaoranger or Go-Busters."

Judy quickly turned to the Gaoranger villain page, no sign of Kyuemon in the group shot. "Kyuemon probably fought Go-Busters, he's not on the Gaoranger page."

"So, if this pattern keeps up, we'll have seen all the big bads by the next monster attack." Nick guessed. He got up from his seat and headed back to bed, "Anyway, we're gonna have to deal with the chief tomorrow, I suggest you get some rest, Carrots."

She sighed, she was completely exhausted. "I think I will." She said back to him, the fox turning around to give her a smile, which she returned as she headed back to her room.

It was gonna be pretty busy tomorrow, alright.

* * *

They had made it through roll call without Bogo mentioning anything about the previous day. Maybe they were in the clear?

As everyone left to go do their duties, Nick and Judy found themselves the only ones left in the room, with only a very stern buffalo for company.

"Officers Hopps, Wilde..." He started, before stopping to snort.

Nick cringed, he knew what was coming.

"My office, right now." He finished, surprisingly calm. That couldn't mean anything good.

Bogo left the room, shaking his head. The two cops looked at each other in panic.

A few minutes later, they found themselves sitting in Bogo's office. The buffalo stared at them, judgmentally, his eyes piercing.

Bogo sighed, "Why, exactly, did you two manage to miss an entire day of work?" He asked.

"Well, sir..." Judy began trying to think up an excuse, only for Nick to interrupt her.

"Yesterday we saw some suspicious activity going on," He started to explain, "It was an otter, meeting up with someone. Some kind of trade, certainly didn't look legal, so we decided to investigate. Undercover stuff, y'know?"

Bogo snorted, placing his hooves together. "I don't believe you, Wilde."

Nick felt his heart drop.

"But," Bogo started again, "I know it is completely unlike you two to miss a day without a good reason."

He sighed again, "You two are good officers, I just want you to honestly tell me why."

"We really, really wish we could, Chief." Judy said. "But we just... really can't."

The buffalo shook his head again. "That's not the only reason I wanted to talk to you." Bogo started again. "I wanted to talk to you two about a somewhat special assignment."

"Parking duty, I'm guessing." Nick joked, the buffalo and rabbit sighing in reply.

"Last night we got a call from the Zootopia Center of Engineering, a doctor Samuel Hamlet called in a robbery." He explained. "The details are certainly... strange, but you two are clever, maybe you can figure it out."

He wrote the address on a card, and handed it to Judy. "Who knows," He stated, "Maybe this will get you two closer to being detectives."

"Well, thanks for not getting too angry with us, Chief." Nick said. The two headed out the door shortly after, Judy staring at the address.

"Detectives..." She said to herself as they walked through the lobby. "Imagine us, as detectives!" She asked her partner excitedly.

"Don't get too excited, Carrots." He replied, the rabbit calming down a bit in response, "It'll still take a lot more big cases before we get to detective level."

The two exited the station and headed to the car, Judy a bit less excited at the idea. "I guess..." She sighed, before perking up, "But wouldn't it be cool? Independent work, dealing with even larger crimes, it'd be like a noir film!"

"I'd rather not be in a noir film." Nick said as they got into the car, "Not colorful enough, too much smoke."

Judy chuckled as she started up the car, Nick putting his sunglasses on. It'd be nice to have at least one day of normal police work again.

* * *

"Alright, boys!" The clown yelled to the ogre monsters, "Lower her gently!"

With a large crash, the monsters dropped the turbine on top of the roof they were standing on, causing the entire building to shake.

"I said GENTLY you idiots!" He yelled at the barely aware monsters, more preoccupied with saying their names over and over again, "How hard is it to get some good help for once?"

There was a thumping beneath his feet, somebody hitting the ceiling with a broom, or other long object. "KEEP QUIET UP THERE!" A rather angry voice yelled up.

"Sorry!" Yabaiba yelled back down, "Busy trying to concoct an evil plan up here, I'll be finished in a minute!"

He looked back up at the monsters, still just standing there patting their heads. "Somebody go deal with that guy." Yabaiba ordered.

One of the ogres quickly became aware, and climbed down the ladder to the roof. A smash was heard, and lots of screaming, before the monster climbed back up.

"Alright," Yabaiba joyfully said, rubbing his hands, "Let's get this show started!"

He pulled out the gift the Omnipotence gave him a week ago, a weird spike. He looked at it, glossing over it with his hand, and then felt his own horn. They were exactly the same.

He shrugged, "That's weird, probably not a big deal."

He walked to the large engine, and twirled the horn around in his hand. "So, guess I just do this?" He guessed, before jabbing the horn into the side of the turbine.

The entire machine began glowing purple, shaking violently. "You, an object with no free will of its own, yadda yadda yadda," Yabaiba said, not entirely sure why he felt compelled to, "Become a monster and help me wreck stuff!"

The glowing turbine was suddenly entirely purple, quickly beginning to contort and shift into an entirely new shape. The new monster had a large upper torso, made up of several turbines, two making up its eyes, one popping out of the middle of its face, and one coming out of its back. Its right arm was a bladed turbine, and two large, yellow horns grew directly behind its eyes.

"TURRRRRRBINE ORG!" It yelled triumphantly, before noticing the jester monster, "Oh! A one-horn!"

It knelt down in front of Yabaiba, who quickly gripped one of its horns and pulled it up. "No 'One-horn' crap, alright?" He said, "You, me, and those bozos over there are the only Orgs left."

He let go of the Org as it stumbled back, "What? But last time I checked there were still tons of Orgs left!" It said, baffled and confused.

"Yeah, and last time you checked was fifteen years ago." Yabaiba stated, "But we can fix that!"

He stepped towards the confused Org, and tried his best to wrap his arm around him, "You and me, we'll blow this city away!" He proudly stated, "Literally."

"What!?" The turbine monster said, backing away from Yabaiba, "I don't have the strength to blow an entire city away!"

"Oh." Yabaiba muttered, realizing he was probably jumping ahead. There had to be something he could do...

Suddenly, it came to him. "Alright, here's what you're gonna do." He walked over to the monster to explain, "You're gonna create a storm throughout this city, alright? Then in about..." He stopped to look at an invisible watch on his wrist, "Two hours you come back to me and we get to the real plan."

"Uh, alright." The Org said, a bit confused, "I'll try my best!"

The monster turned to look at the cityscape in front of him, and began revving up his internal engines. Quickly, his eyes began spinning, and produced a large burst of wind, visibly causing smaller objects on the ground level to fly away, including a few mice. Quickly, grey clouds covered the once clear sky.

"Wow!" The Org stated in amazement, "I was never this powerful before!"

"I had only the best turbine chosen for you, mate!" Yabaiba proudly explained, "And if you keep at it, you'll get even stronger!"

"Alright, I'm on it boss!" The monster saluted with his turbine hand, and ran off the building. The engines roared, and it quickly flew away.

* * *

"Wow, weather's lookin' pretty bad." Nick said, looking out the window as the continued to drive.

"Is it weird pollution cloud bad, or just normal bad?" Judy jokingly asked.

"Normal bad, looks like we might get a wind storm." He answered back.

"Well, we'll be inside soon enough." She assured, the ZCoE building coming into view.

They pulled into the parking lot, and excited the vehicle, admiring the building's architecture. It certainly looked like a place where new machines would be made, it stood wide and tall, a glass ceiling covering a middle spike between two flat parts of the roof. It was very impressive looking, well made all around.

Well, except for the massive hole in one of the walls.

The two spotted a rotund pig standing by the entrance, who was pacing back and forth nervously, before spying the two cops heading towards him.

"Oh thank goodness!" He said, running up to greet the two. "You two must be the detectives here to investigate!"

"'Detectives' is a strong word," Nick said, shaking the pig's hoof, "We're just cops, Officer Wilde at your service."

"Officer Hopps." Judy said, also shaking the pig's hoof.

"Doctor Samuel Hamlet." The pig greeted, "Come in, i'll show you the crime scene."

He took them into the building, which, despite the size of the place, had absolutely cramped hallways. Hamlet himself could barely fit in them, and anything larger than him would probably end up getting stuck.

He took them into a ruined room, the room the large hole they had seen from the outside led into. They could even see their police cruiser from inside.

"So," Judy asked, a bit baffled, "What exactly happened here?"

"Well," Hamlet began, nervously, "I was working late on a new turbine engine, would have been one of the most powerful engines in the world. Been working on it for years at this point, if it was put into use it could travel from here to Africa in only a few hours!" He continued rambling. "We've spent a lot of money into it, so to just have it stolen like this is..."

"Whoa, slow down there." Nick interrupted, "So, someone stole your million dollar jet engine?"

The pig nodded in response.

"Okay..." Judy asked, a bit confused, "HOW did they steal a massive jet engine?"

"Through the hole." The pig put simply.

"Okay, HOW did they get it through the hole?" She asked, pulling out her notepad.

"That's the strange part about this entire thing." He started, turning to the hole. "They carried it through the hole, out into the street."

"They? Carried? What!?" Nick said, confused at the situation.

"Alright, one step at a time." Judy stated, "What did the perpetrators look like?"

"You've seen those weird monsters that've been attacking the city recently?" Hamlet asked.

The two cops' eyes widened. Suddenly, this was making a bit more sense.

Nick coughed, regaining his composure, "Yeah, we have seen them, hard to miss honestly."

"Well, something that looked an awful lot like one of them stole the engine." Hamlet explained, "This strange purple guy with a horn, and a bunch of these smaller, green monsters."

"Purple, horn..." Judy said to herself, writing it down in her notepad. "Any other distinguishing features?"

"Uh..." Hamlet thought back to the events of the night, "He had yellow eyes, his face looked like a skull, and he had lots of multicolored... things on him. Basically, it looked like nothing I've seen on earth. Kind of like a clown, actually."

She continued writing the description down, but suddenly something hit her. She had seen something like this before. She discretely tugged at the fox's uniform, trying to get his attention.

"What?" He asked quietly.

"I've seen this guy before." She said, looking at her notepad.

The fox seemed to understand, stepping forward. "My partner and I need to have a private conversation out in the hall. Very important, you see." He said, as they went out the door.

The two stood in the hallway and began to quietly talk. "You've seen him before? Where?" Nick asked.

"It was in the book, last night! He was on the Gaoranger page, I think he's one of their villains!" She answered, a bit excited and panicked.

"Then this is our last big bad guy, right?" Nick guessed, a bit happy.

"It must be!" Judy replied back, also sounding a bit happy. They were about to meet the final villain they'd be facing, what would he be like?

The two entered back into the room, a bit more confident. "Dr. Hamlet," Judy announced, "We'll have your jet engine returned to you in no time flat!"

"Oh thank goodness!" The pig sighed in relief, "But, please, please bring it back in one piece! I've spent too much of my life on it to start over!"

"Don't worry, we'll do our best." Nick replied back, the two heading out the door and into the hallway shortly after.

"So, these bad guys make their monsters out of things, right?" Nick asked, the two strolling down the hallway.

"Seems like it." Judy answered, not getting why he was asking.

"And this one stole a massive jet turbine, right?" Nick continued.

"Yes..." Judy was slowly getting what he was getting at.

The two stepped through the door, a sudden large burst of wind hitting them, nearly causing the two to fly off, as well as knocking Nick's shades off his face.

The two looked around, everywhere small objects were blowing around in the wind. This definitely wasn't a normal wind storm.

"Aaaaand we suddenly had a major shift in bad weather, correct?" Nick finished, looking at the rabbit with worry.

Suddenly, their Zoolizers began beeping loudly. There was a monster.

"Oh no."

* * *

"Hah, this new power is great!" The Org laughed to himself as he flew across the sky, creating a massive wind storm below him.

He landed on top of a building, settling down to see the chaos he had created. This strength from the turbine he had been created from was amazing, he had never been this powerful before. Even when he was teamed up with Plugma, he never felt this strong.

He got back up, and stretched his arms, "Well, almost time to meet up with the boss!" He took off into the sky again, trying to find the building he was created on. Wasn't exactly easy, the city was huge, and a lot of the buildings looked the same.

He decided to fly lower, trying to spot Yabaiba. Suddenly, he felt a horrible pain in his side, and found himself falling to the ground. He had been shot by something.

With a crash, he fell face first into a dumpster. It both softened his landing, and made it a whole lot more embarrassing.

"Who did that!?" He screamed, rising from the dumpster. He looked around, and spied two figures. One was red, and holding a large, smoking gun. The other was blue, shorter, and had its arms crossed.

"What the?!" He yelled, climbing out of the dumpster awkwardly, "Gaoranger!?"

He looked at them, they seemed different from the last time he had seen them.

"You look shorter than normal, and where's the other three?" He asked, genuinely confused.

The two looked at each other, obviously confused at what the monster had said. "We're not Gaoranger, dude." The red one said to him, putting away the gun.

"W-what!?" The engine seemed genuinely shocked at this, "You mean there's more than one animal based hero team on this planet!?"

"Wait," The red one stepped forward, rubbing his head, "Did your boss not tell you about where you are?"

The turbine rubbed his head, thinking. He had just guessed it was Earth, but maybe it was another planet? "This is still Earth, right?" It asked.

"Yes, it is." The blue one stated, "But it's also... not? I guess that's how it would be to you."

The turbine was feeling very confused. These rangers clearly weren't human, but what were they? After a brief moment, he realized something.

"I don't care!" He yelled, "Let's just fight!"

It rushed towards the two Zoorangers, swinging his sharp looking turbine hand. The two reared themselves to dodge as it got closer, and quickly jumped out of the way as the monster slammed it's now definitely sharp hand into the ground.

The two pulled out their melee weapons, and sliced him on both sides. The surprise pain caused it to double back and topple over, struggling to get up.

"Wow, this guy's really..." Blue said, staring at the flailing engine monster.

"Pathetic?" Red finished, also staring at the monster.

"I'M NOT PATHETIC!" The monster yelled, a sudden burst of air from behind it launching it back to its feet.

It turned around to face the two rangers, and then shot several violent blasts of wind at them. The wind was powerful enough to completely carve dents in the ground, but the two had managed to quickly get out of the way.

Red leaped at the monster with his sword, slicing him in the face repeatedly before landing. As the Org stumbled back, he felt several sharp pains. He was being stabbed repeatedly by the blue one, who then kicked him, launching the creature out of the alleyway and into the middle of the street.

It got up and looked around, noticing something was off with the suburbia. Instead of the humans he enjoyed terrorizing, it was all walking animals. All of which were currently screaming, and running away.

"You better run, you filthy animals!" He yelled at them, before feeling another pain in his back and toppling over.

The two rangers walked out, Blue holding one of her blasters, which was smoking. They stared at the monster, who was once again struggling to get up.

"I dunno, Red," Blue started, a bit solemnly, "I kind of don't want to destroy this guy."

"Yeah, he really is a pathetic loser, huh?" Said a voice from behind them.

"What was that?" Blue asked turning to her partner.

"That wasn't me." He responded. The two turned around, spotting where the voice had come from.

It was a second monster, one who matched the description Hamlet had given them perfectly. It was twirling a knife as it leaned against the wall of the alley. It laughed, and began walking towards them, pushing the two out of the way as it approached the struggling monster.

"Yeesh, though you would've done better than that." It mocked, crouching down to talk to the grounded monster.

"M-master Yabaiba!" It shrieked in fear, "I'm sorry, I didn't know there were Gaorangers here!"

"Yeah, probably should've warned you about that." He nonchalantly said, gripping one of the ogre's horns to help it back to its feet.

"Anyway, I got presents for you all!" Yabaiba cheerfully stated, specifically looking at the two Zoorangers.

The two looked at him, confused. Red looked at his partner, and began to clarify, "In my years of... illegal activities, I've learned that 'presents' from a bad guy..."

Yabaiba pulled out what looked like a large snail shell, an eye embroidered on the side. He thrust it up into the air, causing a large amount of thick, gooey liquid to splatter onto the ground.

As soon as it hit the ground, it began to bubble. The liquid slowly solidified, growing until it reached around the size of a wolf. Suddenly, all the liquid had turned into an army of disgusting, slimy monsters, each one patting their head and muttering something.

"Usually not a good thing." Red finished, as the two pulled out their weapons.

"Orgettes!" Yabaiba cried, snapping his fingers and pointing towards the two, "GEDDUM!"

The ogre creatures rushed towards them, swinging odd looking club weapons. The two rangers responded by rushing forward with their weapons and fighting the strange creatures.

It was a lot more difficult than they were expecting.

Their weapons did cut into the creatures, letting out some sort of strange goo like substance, but they didn't seem to feel any actual pain, or even flinch. The Orgettes just continued trying to sluggishly slam their clubs into the two's faces.

The Zoorangers were definitely struggling, clubs hitting their backs as they attempted to block attacks from the swarm. Blue managed to jump out of the crowd, but was followed by a few Orgettes. At least she wasn't being attacked from behind, but she managed to hear something interesting as well.

"Well, I'd say that's enough help from me." Yabaiba said, turning to the turbine. "I want you to finish those two rangers off, then meet me at the base." He explained to the monster.

"But, where's the base?" The Org questioned.

"The big, really obvious mountain, got it?"

"A mountain?" She said to herself, still struggling to fend off the Orgettes.

While she wasn't looking, Yabaiba melted into a puddle of goo, which quickly vanished. The turbine monster turned to the distracted rangers, readying a plan.

"I'm gonna blow you suckers away!" He yelled, his internal engine roaring.

A strong just of wind quickly blew in their direction, the two rangers pulling out their weapons and stabbing them into the ground in an attempt to stay grounded. It worked, as the two managed to stay firm on the ground. Didn't work out for the Orgettes, however.

Most of the ogre monsters were knocked backwards, into the alleyway. The each landed with a thick, juicy splat, and instantly burst into piles of goo. Only a few managed to survive, but the walls of the alley were now absolutely covered in potentially dangerous glop.

"Oops!" The turbine whimpered, seeing that it had just taken out most of its help.

"Wow, even when you help from your boss you're still a big screw-up." Red mocked, shaking his head in what appeared to be genuine embarrassment.

"Okay, plan." Blue said, running to her partner, "First we deal with the stragglers, then we focus on the big guy."

Red looked back to the monster, and raised his digit. "We'll be back with you in just one moment." He joked, feigning an apology.

"What!? Don't ignore me!" The turbine yelled at them.

"Operators are standing by!" He yelled, rushing towards the slime covered alleyway.

The remaining Orgettes were attempting to get up, and heard the fox yell, turning to see him. In what he would assume looked like an amazingly cool move, Red slid across the slime using the momentum he gained from the run over. The slide allowed him to drift past each ogre at a fast pace, which he took advantage of by slicing through them as he went by.

One by one, the Orgettes exploded into even more goo, all of which Red had managed to avoid. He skid to a halt on the other side of the alleyway, and turned back to admire his work.

"How was that, Blue?" He asked confidently. "Was that a good slime or what? Those guys never goo what was coming to them!" he laughed confidently at his own jokes, before seeing that his partner was standing in the middle of the alley, covered in the slime.

She sighed, "I hope this stuff isn't toxic. For your sake." They both turned back to the monster.

They heard a roar of wind, and Blue quickly found herself knocked off her feet. In a crash, the two found themselves lying on top of each other in pain. When they realized their position, they both quickly got up, awkwardly ignoring it.

The turbine monster walked up to them, "I'll teach you to not take me seriously!" Quickly, the Org fired out several blasts of wind at them, which Red managed to block each and every one of with his sword.

"Let's just get this over with so we can get back to the case." He said, a bit apathetically.

As soon as Red began to perform his finishing attack, the one from the first day they became rangers, something hit Blue.

"Stop!" She yelled, pushing the fox out of his stance.

"Oof!" He grunted, falling to the ground. "What was that for, Carrots?" He asked, getting up.

"The monster is the turbine we're supposed to be finding, remember!?" She impatiently reminded him.

"Oh, yeah." Red responded. He forgot about it in the middle of the fight.

"If we destroy him, the turbine will ALSO be destroyed!" She continued to explain, even though the fox had gotten the point by now.

"A distraction!" The monster yelled, activating his engines. He let out a burst of wind, nearly knocking the two rangers over. Quickly, it flew into the sky, and over a couple buildings.

The two sighed. "Should we go hunt him down before he causes more trouble?" Red asked, pulling out the Vickscannon.

"No, no." Judy said, untransforming. "We should head back to the car and figure out a plan to prevent the turbine from being destroyed."

Nick untransformed as well, and the two headed back to the car.

* * *

"Mountain, mountain..." The Org said to himself as he drifted across the outskirts of the city, searching for the mountain Yabaiba had told him to go to.

He was gonna be super angry with him, considering he didn't manage to beat the two rangers, AND almost got killed himself. He'd probably keep that to himself.

Soon, he spotted a mountain, the peak of it hanging just below the sun. He lowered down, and landed on a rock. All he needed now was to find an actual entrance. He felt around with his one hand, trying to find a switch, or maybe a button of some kind.

It took a few minutes, but he finally found the entrance. By complete accident, he found his hand slipping through one of the rocks, and his entire body soon fell after. Disguising the entrance as a rock, brilliant magic.

He stumbled down the hall, and soon found himself in a large room, Master Yabaiba and five other creatures he didn't recognize sitting at a table.

"Well, here comes the loser of the day." The biker like one joked.

"Guessing you didn't beat the Zoorangers, huh?" Yabaiba guessed, walking over to the Org.

"Uh..." The monster muttered, trying not to look Yabaiba in the eyes.

"It's not a big deal, honest!" He said, surprisingly cheerfully. He pulled out a small badge, and held it in front of the Org's face.

"Not when we have this." He eerily said, before jabbing it into the monster's side.

The Org began screaming in pain, which quickly turned into a laughter as its body transformed. The eyes on its turbines disappeared, the turbines themselves growing larger and distending themselves from the body. They now resembled over the top shoulder pads than eyes. As the turbines grew, the horns on top of them shifted down the side, curving upwards.

A large, grey lump slowly formed between the two large turbines, a red eye opening up in the middle of it, a strange mockery of a head. His turbine hand shifted, growing plating around it, looking more like a jet engine now. Finally, a red outline of the Chaos Badge appeared on both of the turbine's sides.

It let out a roar of triumph, it felt amazingly powerful now.

"RARGH! This feels amazing!" It yelled, feeling up its new form.

"I'm sure it does," Yabaiba indignant stated, "Now go blow that city away! Literally."

The Org gave a salute with his turbine hand, and started running down the exit hallway. "I will Master Yabaiba!" It yelled back. "I'll make you proud!" It yelled back again, this time turning around completely to wave at him.

"So your monsters are just as weird as you are, huh?" Yogostein joked from his seat.

"Well, I don't like to brag..."

* * *

The two headed back to the cruiser to figure out how to both beat the monster, and save the turbine.

Easier said than done, sadly.

As soon as they had gotten in, the radio started going off. No matter who was calling, it was a bad time, but the two officers had a very, very clear idea of who it was.

The two looked at each other awkwardly, before Judy reached to answer it.

"Officer Hopps, Officer Wilde." As expected, it was the Chief, sounding a lot calmer than they were expecting.

"Chief Bogo, sir," Judy nervously said, "Why are you calling us?"

"I just wanted to know how the case was going." He stated, "Have you found any leads yet?"

"Actually yes, we do have a lead." She said into the transmitter, "We... think that we might, maybe know who it is that stole the turbine."

"Wait, they stole a turbine?" Bogo said, incredulously, "How did they steal a turbine?"

"Uh..." Judy mumbled, trying to think up an explanation, "Through... the wall?"

Despite not being able to visibly see Bogo, the two easily pieced together that he was facepalming.

"Well, you found a lead at least," He said. "That's better than I was expecting..." He tried to say under his breath, not realizing the two had heard it. "Anyway, I also want you two to return to headquarters."

"What!?" The two officers yelled.

"N-no offense, Chief, but we're really close to finding the perp!" Judy tried to argue, the buffalo interrupting her.

"No buts, Hopps." He interrupted, "There's been reports of a monster running about, and with the wind storm going on, I'm calling all officers back to headquarters. For their safety."

Judy sighed, "Alright, we'll be back at headquarters soon." She hung up the transmitter.

"Sucks we can't tell him what's going on, huh?" Nick joked.

"It is weird how all these things connected." Judy said, starting the cruiser up.

"So, we're supposed to be coming up with a plan, right?" Nick reminded her.

"Yeah." She responded, "How are we supposed to save the turbine from being destroyed when we beat the monster?"

"Hmm..." Nick leaned back in thought. "Maybe we could trap him in a small area, and then destroy it?" He proposed, "Then the turbine wouldn't fly up so high and we could stop it."

"I don't think that would work." Judy said, "It would probably just smash against something else instead."

The fox sighed, "I got nothing."

Judy chuckled, "I thought you were good at coming up with plans, Slick Nick."

"Plans, yes, physics puzzles, no." Nick responded back.

"Well, what if we..." Judy began, trying to think and drive at the same time, "What if we catch it in midair?"

"With what?" Nick asked, a bit baffled, "A giant net?"

She awkwardly chuckled to herself, "I guess we really don't have anything to catch it with."

"This is going a bit off topic, but..." Nick sat up, suddenly turning a bit serious, "Have you noticed anything off with the Chief?"

"What do you mean?" Judy asked, a bit confused.

"He's just been acting a bit less..." He spun his hand around, trying to think up the right word, "A bit less Bogo-y than usual."

Judy looked at her partner, an exasperated look on her face.

"Alright, remember when Wolford was three hours late to roll call a few months back?" He asked, trying to spark an example for her.

She laughed, remembering the event. Wolford had somehow slept in, and got lost on the way to the headquarters. Probably one of the worst possible days for anyone in the precinct to have.

"Remember how Bogo put him on record duties for three weeks after that?" Nick continued, "We missed an entire day and got no repercussions, how does that happen?"

Nick was right, it was definitely strange that Bogo hadn't really given them any punishment for the previous day. Normally, he would have put them on a year's worth of record keeping and parking duties, maybe both at the same time even.

"Well, there has been a lot of weird stuff going on." Judy remarked, glancing at her Zoolizer, "Maybe he thinks putting two officers off duty during all this would be a bad idea?"

"I dunno, I think there might be something else going on." Nick suspected.

"Maybe you should ask him when we get back to the HQ." Judy joked as the station came into view.

"Yeah, I'd rather stick my tail in a wood chipper."

Suddenly, a loud beeping noise filled the car, as well as vague red and blue lights. The two recoiled from the awful sound.

"Oh come on, seriously!?" Judy yelled, thinking about how suspicious this would look.

"Well, it's not like we have a choice." Nick said, a bit exhausted.

"But we didn't even come up with a plan!" Judy yelled in a bit of a panic.

"We'll just wing it." Nick said, the car quickly turning from the turn to the station.

* * *

"Let's see what I can do now!" The monster yelled to itself.

He looked around the city block with his singular eye, looking for the perfect target. He found it, an apartment building, a bit derelict, but otherwise intact. It was perfect.

"There we go!" The turbine said, rubbing his turbine hand in joy. "HERE SHE BLOWS!" It yelled, revving up its new turbine engines.

The resulting wind was immensely powerful, the glass of the apartment instantly shattering. Soon, it began to collapse into a pile of rubble, which then began to be thrown into the building behind it. His wind was far more powerful than before, no doubt about it.

The Org laughed to itself, "I can't wait to beat up those- ACK!" A sharp pain in the back quickly stopped its gloating.

It turned around, spotting the rangers he was planning to beat up. "Do you two always shoot people in the back!?" In yelled in a rage.

"Well," Red began, dropping the cannon he was holding down, "Only when someone ignores us."

"You can just say something!"

The two looked at each other, "Nah, I'd rather shoot you." Red said, turning back to the turbine.

"Oh, speaking of," Blue began, "Should we do that roll call thing?"

The fox shrugged, "I don't really want to, but apparently that's a Sentai thing, so I guess we should."

"CHAMPION OF THE SUN, ZOORED!" He yelled, performing a brief pose.

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON, ZOOBLUE!" Blue followed, also doing a short pose.

The two then rushed forward, each wielding their melee weapons. Red went first, leaping into the air and slicing the monster several times with the Foxfire Blade. Blue followed up, leaping off of Red's head in order to get behind the monster and slice him in the back.

"Hey," Blue asked the fox on the other side of the monster, who was busy clashing his sword with it's arm, "Does he look different to you?"

"Yeah, his shoulders are bigger." Red joked, before being knocked backwards by the monster's attacks.

It aimed it's now covered turbine hand towards the ground, which fired a blast of air. The blast launched it upwards, where it landed a few feet away from them.

"Fools!" It yelled at the two, "I am stronger than ever before! I, Chaos Turbine Org, will be your ultimate foe! Your strongest adversary! Your worst nightmare!"

"Apparently his ego got bigger too." Blue snarked at the monster.

"TAKE THIS!" It yelled, energy building up in its horns. The energy soon shot between the horns, which then fired forward as a big bolt of lightning.

The two managed to dodge it, just barely. The bolt left behind a large chunk of cracked, blackened asphalt.

"OR MAYBE YOU'D LIEK SOME OF THIS!?" It yelled again, sticking its turbine arm towards them as it revved up. The turbine shot several blasts of sharp air towards them, which the two managed to once again dodge swiftly.

However, they didn't manage to dodge the explosions that the blasts had created, knocking the Zoorangers off their feet.

"Alright," Red said to himself, struggling to stand up, "He wants to do the blaster thing? We can do that too." He turned to his partner, who was also struggling a bit.

The fox pulled out the Vickscannon, as well as it's matching ZooTag, "You ready to feel the heat?" He said to the monster.

He stuck the tag into the gun, which began to charge up with lights and noises.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

He pulled the trigger, causing a massive fireball to shoot from the cannon, directly at the Org.

"Hah, do you really think that's enough!?" It began revving up its turbines, which quickly produced a powerful wind.

The wind managed to slow down the fireball to a near halt, before beginning to fire it in the opposite direction, directly towards ZooRed.

He let out a small yipe as the massive fireball headed back towards him, quickly jumping out of the way as it hit the ground. The only thing left of where it hit was a large crater.

"Alright," Blue began, running up to her startled partner, "Projectiles, not a good idea." She helped him up, his knees shaking a bit.

"You're telling me!" He yelled to her.

"What are you poor rangers supposed to do now, huh!?" The turbine monster yelled proudly, "You can't even get close to me!"

He was right, he could push them away or get out of any attack they did up close, and counter any projectile they fired at him. Blue tried to think of a plan, something to beat this guy. She could only think of one thing.

"Well, it's not like you can hit us either!"

Insults.

The Org reacted in disbelief, "W-what!? I can totally hit you from this far away!" He attempted to prove his point by firing a bolt of electricity at the two rangers, who managed to swiftly dodge out of the way.

"Face it, Airhead," Red smugly stated, throwing his blade over his shoulder, "We're too fast for even your fastest attacks!"

"Yeah, you'd have to get up close and personal to hurt us!" Blue continued, trying to goad the monster into getting closer.

They had officially entered a stalemate. The monster wasn't sure what to do, it was obviously some sort of trap, but he couldn't exactly do anything to them if he didn't fall for it.

It growled in response, rushing towards the two rangers, swinging his turbine arm.

Soon, the three were locked in close range combat once again. The monster nearly instantly regretting his decision as he found himself being struck by multiple weapons, none of which he could dodge effectively.

"I probably should have thought this through!" The Org panted, as he suddenly felt something jab into his back.

Blue had jabbed her combined blasters into the monster's back, where they were whirring with noise.

"Surprise!"

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

With a squeeze of the trigger, a sharp blast struck through the Org's midsection, causing it to fly off and hit the ground.

The monster struggled to get up from the ground, stumbling over a few times before it finally got up. "This ground stuff really isn't doing it for me." He announced, the sound of his turbines revving filling the air, "Maybe we should CHANGE THINGS UP!"

"BRACE YOURSELF!" Blue yelled to her partner, jabbing her daggers into the ground, the fox quickly following suit with his sword.

The wind whipped and whirled around them, the two struggling to stay on the ground. It was like a tornado versus some really stubborn trees.

"Let's crank it up a notch!" The monster yelled, as the winds suddenly began to get even stronger. Now it was feeling like a hurricane, and the two couldn't hold on any longer.

Their weapons slipped from the ground, as the rangers found themselves being launched high up into the air.

The fox closed his eyes for a few seconds, his heart beating like a drum being played by an overly zealous drummer. He opened his eyes. All he could see was blue and white, the sky and the clouds. He couldn't feel anything below him, and the only thing he could hear was the sound of the wind.

He closed his eyes tightly, and began speaking, "Carrots, can you hear me?" He asked, hoping for a reply.

Surprisingly, he got one.

"I'm here, Red. Don't look down."

"I wasn't planning to." He replied back.

Suddenly, something hit him, knocking the fox away, sending him spinning through the air and forcing him to open his eyes. He briefly caught a sight of what was below him. It was Zootopia, he was miles above of the city, higher than the central tower.

He began to scream.

"I see someone's afraid of heights, huh?" A voice said from below him.

The turbine monster raised up in front of him, staring at the fox directly with his piercing red eye.

Red gripped his sword, and fearfully swung it at the monster, in a near panic. The monster backed away as soon as he started, the fox continuing to swing the blade without realizing he was missing.

"Wow, you're pathetic!" It said to the panicking ranger, following up with a swift punch to the gut with his turbine arm.

He flew back, suddenly spying his partner a few feet above him. "You got an idea, Blue?" He asked, trying not to sound terrified.

"Yeah! You just gotta get him to stop moving around for a second!" She called down to the falling fox.

"What!?" He yelled up in disbelief, "Why do I have to do it!?"

"You'll see!" She answered back, "Just trust me!"

The fox gulped, and took a deep breath. He looked for the monster, and ultimately found him when another blast of air knocked both of the rangers upwards.

Red saw him below them, zipping around the air. There had to be a way to stop him from this far away, right?

Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Hope this still works!" He yelled, pulling out his Foxfire Blade.

He swung it forward, causing the blade to detach from the hilt, still connected by a wire, and fly directly towards the monster. It stabbed itself directly into the Org's chest, which is signified with a loud, horrible scream of pain.

The wire suddenly stiffened, and Red found himself being launched towards the monster. The two connected, causing them both to spin and flip around, the turbine monster ending up as a platform for the fox to stand on.

He looked back up to his partner, who was now holding her daggers. He gave a thumbs up to her, which she visibly nodded to. Obviously, whatever she had planned was ready to go.

She readied her knives, aiming them at the monster's turbine engines. Those were the two things causing them the most trouble. She threw the knives at them, which stabbed into the turbines, causing small explosions.

"MY TURBINES!" It yelled, flailing, "YOU IDIOTS, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

Red's eyes widened, as he tried not to look beneath the monster. "He's right! Do you have a plan for this, Blue!?" He asked, beginning to panic again.

She pulled out a ZooTag, one he couldn't quite make out. She then pointed downwards, headfirst, attempting to get to Red's altitude.

She put the tag in, causing the Zoolizer to light up.

"DEFENDERS OF NATURE  
ARE YOU SURE?  
LOOK UP AND COMBINE!  
ZOOSAGI!"

The large blue rabbit robot from the previous day appeared below them, Blue landing on it safely as it fell down with them.

He got what she was doing. Pulling out his sword from the monster, Red attempted to leap to the robot.

He waved his legs in mid-air, performing a jump he thought was nearly impossible for anyone to perform. He stared back down at the city, anxiety filling him once again.

What was even worse, was that he missed.

Hi heart was going at Mach speed, time slowing down as he reached his paw out to try and grip onto the robot.

A pair of paws suddenly gripped his, flinging him onto the giant mech.

"Thanks, Fluff." He said to his assistant, lying flat on his back.

"No problem." She replied, exhausted, "Let's get in this robot before we crash land."

She hopped over to a small panel on top of the rabbit robot, which slid open. She jumped in, the fox quickly following her in. They both landed in the cockpit of the robot, Red finally able to catch his breath.

"I didn't know you were afraid of heights." Blue joked.

"I'm not." He angrily denied.

She rolled her eyes, and grabbed the odd controls, pulling them backwards. The rabbit robot suddenly flipped upwards, moving it directly above the turbine monster.

"Have a nice fall!" She quipped, jolting the rabbit ear joysticks forward.

ZooSagi jolted its foot forward in a kick, launching the monster of with a loud scream.

"Alright, let's head back to solid ground and finish him off!" Red announced, peering over the rabbit's seat.

She nodded, shifting the controls so that the ZooSagi would go into an even faster fall. Soon, the rabbit landed on the street, with a resounding crash, but neither of the pilots inside feeling anything.

"You know, those were some pretty clever plans, Blue." The fox admitted.

She shrugged, a bit embarrassed. "Those weren't really... plans." She admitted, "I was just kind of... winging it."

"Really?" Red replied, a bit incredulously, "Your 'winging it' plans sure seemed structured."

"Maybe that's just how my mind works, I don't know." She shrugged.

"I mean, summoning the mech was..." He paused, something struck him. "We gotta go beat that guy, now."

"What? But we need..."

"I have one." Red finished for her, "I have a plan."

"Is this a 'winging it' plan or an actual plan?" The rabbit questioned.

"I mean, it's kind of both but..." He paused, the monster was ready to be beaten, and they were busy arguing. "Listen, you just need to trust me on this, alright?" He finished, looking the rabbit directly in the eyes.

She sighed, "Alright, let's go do your plan."

They hopped out of the giant rabbit robot, seeing a smoking crater several yards away from them.

"I hate being presumptuous, but I think we know where he landed." Red joked.

They ran over to the crater, and peered down into it over the side. It was absolutely massive, and in the middle of it was the unmoving body of the monster.

"I think he's already dead." Blue mused.

"He can't be dead, he didn't explode."

The fox swiped up a piece of debris, and hurled it at the monster's body, where it hit with a loud, metallic clunk. It shuddered in response, and attempted to get up.

It moaned in pain, and turned to see the two rangers staring at it from above. "Why did you throw a rock at me!?" It angrily questioned.

"Sorry, we thought you were having a nap in the middle of our fight." Red joked, feigning sympathy. He turned to his partner, pulling out both of his weapons, "Let's finish this."

She followed, pulling out her weapons. Throwing them all in the air, they all combined into the Zookaizer, which landed in their grasps.

Red turned to his partner, who was currently holding the bottom of the barrel, and began to explain his plan, "Alright, as soon as the blast hits that guy, we need to move the cannon upwards, got it?"

"I'm not entirely sure I see how this is going to help us get the turbine back." She replied skeptically.

"It'll work." He assured, "Just trust me."

He pulled the trigger, causing a burst of energy to fire forth at the dazed monster, which began to push it backwards.

"MOVE IT UP!" Red yelled to his partner.

She began pushing the bottom of the barrel upwards, noticing that the blast was still continuing. It was dragging the monster along with it, right up into the air. The Zookaizer was facing directly upwards at this point, something the two were struggling to even do.

Blue was pushing it upwards with her back, and Red was grabbing onto the sides, trying to get it to not go directly into the ground. Hopefully this plan worked.

The Org was being pushed into the air, almost as high as the central tower, screaming all the way. In a quick flash, he felt the beam go right through him. He erupted into a magnificent explosion.

From the ground, the two rangers couldn't see much, but they did see a large white object begin to fall down.

Red quickly plugged a ZooTag into the Zoolizer. A red flash happened, and suddenly ZooKitsune was there.

"Play fetch!" He yelled, pointing towards the turbine.

With a swift leap, the fox robot leaped into the air, and snagged the turbine gently in its metallic jaws.

It landed with a crash, shaking the two rangers, and then gently placed the turbine in front of them.

"So, that was your plan?" Blue questioned.

"Yep." Red proudly replied, "Got it when you summoned your giant robot. Pretty clever, huh?"

"Clever isn't the word I'd use, but it worked." She said, sighing in relief.

Suddenly, they heard a metallic clink behind them. Turning around, they saw the red badge that the monster from the other day had melted into.

Blue hopped over to it, and attempted to grab it. She was met with a sharp bolt of red energy, which knocked her backwards.

"BLUE!" The fox yelled, running over to his injured partner. "Oh god, are you alright?" He asked, holding her up in his arms.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." She replied with a cough, "But what is..."

They both looked at the red badge, which began to float in the air, crackling with a sinister red energy.

"Oh great, not again." Red bemused, helping his partner up.

They watched as the badge flew into the distance, over to the outskirts of the city. In a flash, the monster reappeared, absolutely massive on the horizon.

"YOU CAN'T BLOW ME DOWN THAT EASILY!" It cried, the two being able to hear it from miles away.

"Y'know, I was hoping we wouldn't have to do another big robot fight." Red admitted.

"I think this is just a thing we're going to have to live with." Blue replied back, shaking her head.

The two turned to their massive robot partners, and jumped into their cockpits. They stomped towards the monster at incredible speeds, navigating the road towards it and leaping from roof to roof until they reached the outskirts.

As they reached the monster, the robots looked at the large monster, ZooKitsune letting out what sounded like a mechanical growl. The fox robot leaped at the monster in an attempt to startle it.

"Take this, foxface!" It yelled, activating the turbines. At this size, the strength of the wind was even higher. It blew the fox robot away, directly into a building, which smashed and shattered when it hit.

"RED!" The rabbit yelled, looking into a monitor showing the toppled cockpit. "Are you alright!?" She worriedly asked, the fox nowhere in sight. She got her response with a thumbs up coming from below the control panel.

She sighed in relief, and then turned back to the monster, who was laughing at them. The rabbit mech leaped at it, preparing a flying kick, but it was once again blown away by the monster's turbines, this time sliding across the ground of the outskirt's field.

She groaned, getting up, seeing her partner also getting up on the screen. "So, we can't get near this guy with the robots." She stated, it was pretty plainly obvious. "Do you have a Wilde-patented plan for getting us out of this?" She asked, still shaken up.

He looked around the cockpit in silence, feeling his paw up against the control panel. He was searching for something. After a moment, his face brightened up. At least, she could tell it did under the helmet.

"'Kay, Blue." He began, "You see the hole between the ears on these things?"

She looked between the two joysticks, noticing there was indeed a small slot. "Yeah, I do. What are they for?" She asked.

"Just put the robot's ZooTag into it." He explained, pulling out his own tag and sticking it in.

"Alright…" She said, following along by pulling out the rabbit's ZooTag. She put it in the slot, and suddenly a large button, one much like the button on the Zoolizer, began glowing blue.

"On the count of three…" Red began to explain over the screen, "Hit that button."

They both raised their paws into the air, waiting for the signal.

"One…"

She tensed up a bit, what was he planning?

"THREE!"

In a panic, she hit the button, in almost perfect sync with the fox.

The eyes of the robots began to glow as they leapt to their feet. They leaped into the air and began to change shape.

ZooKitsune's tail separated from its body. Its head then raised, the mouth opening up to reveal a face. Its body split in half and folded out, turning into a pair of arms and a torso. ZooSagi's back then folded out, forming a lower torso and a pair of legs, the waist ending with a rabbit head-like belt. The two then attached, one of the hands gripping onto the tail that had detached, which now resembled a curved sword.

It landed on the ground with a crash. The robot towered above the buildings, reaching the monster in height. Inside of the robot, the two found their cockpits moving upwards, and eventually attaching, back to back. The cockpits circled inside of a large room, both of them managing to see from the robot's eyes at the same time.

"What the…?" The rabbit looked around, stunned at her new surroundings. She turned to look at her partner, who was pumping his fist in excitement.

"Yessssssss." He whispered in excitement, "Giant robot!"

"This is pretty amazing." She admitted, looking at the monster. "How's it feel to fight someone your own size!?" She yelled at the monster.

"Feels like a fair fight!" It yelled back, still sure of itself.

"Well, let's see how fair he thinks this is." Red said to his partner as they both jolted the controls forward.

The robot rushed forward at an incredible speed, and leaped into the air. The monster watched on, stunned and unprepared, as a blade sliced through its chest, knocking it to the ground with an explosion.

The monster groaned as it got up, standing before the robot. "L-lucky shot!" It yelled. "Let's see if this blows your fancy!" It began to rev up the engines again, blowing its harsh wind at the giant mech.

The robot stood firm as the wind clashed against its metallic body. It stepped forward, the monster powering up the turbines as the robot closed in. It still didn't budge as it continued, the Org getting more nervous as it attempted to make the wind stronger, which it found it couldn't do.

"W-what!?" It cried in fear.

The robot was within arm's reach of the monster, looking it directly in the eye. It drew its sword and prepared it for an attack.

"ANIMAL KINGDOM Z-CROSS CUTTER!" The pilots yelled in unison, almost instinctively.

The blade began glowing a series of colors, red, blue, and yellow. In a flash, the blade cut across the upper half of the turbine monster's body, leaving a visible streak of light. It then sliced at a diagonal downwards angle, again leaving a trail of light on the monster's body. A third strike, this one across the monster's midsection. The streaks of light now resembled a large Z. The final strike, the robot stabbed directly through the monster, appearing on the other side of it. A circle enveloped the Z-marking, which then exploded.

The monster grunted as it fell to the ground. "Looks like I'm the one who got blown away!" It cried, before exploding into a massive explosion.

"Wasting his last words on a bad pun." Red said, admiring the explosion, "I hope my last words are as good as that."

Blue laughed in response, as the robot jabbed it's sword into the ground and striking a pose.

"Wait, we need to return the turbine, right?"

* * *

Hamlet was in a bit of a panic. He had been inside since the reports of the wind storm and the monster attacks, but he was far more worried about his invention than his own well-being.

He paced up and down the small hallway, his mind in a clutter about the engine. Was it alright? What exactly did that monster want with it? What if he had stolen it entirely out of spite?

Suddenly, a quake shook the building, nearly knocking the pig into the ceiling. It was coming from outside his testing room.

He rushed in, slamming the door open. What he saw nearly made him faint. His turbine was safely placed back in the room, and a large, robotic fox stood behind it, peering into the hole. In front of the turbine stood two figures, one in red, and one in blue.

"Zoo Rangers!?" He yelled in joyous surprise, "Did you save my engine?"

"Indeed we did, citizen." Red said, putting on his fake, deeper voice.

"But what happened to those two officers?" The pig asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Oh, they, uh…" Blue responded back, not trying to hide her voice. "They helped us find it!"

"Yeah," Red continued, still in his deep voice. "They helped us locate where the monster was, and defeat it!"

"Weird coincidence that it ended up being connected to a monster, huh?"

The pig nodded, "Wow, I can't believe those two knew the Zoorangers!" He admitted. "Guess I shouldn't have worried so much!"

"Enjoy your turbine, Mr. Hamlet." Red finished. "We need to return to our home base." He said, nudging his partner.

The two hopped onto the big fox robot, which turned and began to run off.

The pig walked out of the large hole in the wall, and began waving to the rangers. "Thank you Zoo Rangers! You're my heroes!"

They turned and waved back, before turning back in front of them.

"Nick, can you write today's report?"

* * *

After writing up a rather convincing report on the supposed events of the day, the two returned to their apartment, preparing for the next day.

"That robot was pretty cool, huh?" Nick said, laying down onto the couch.

"It was, I guess." Judy replied back, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion.

"Should we give it a name?" The fox asked. "Everything else we have has a name."

"Hmm."

Judy turned to the Sentai Encyclopedia, still sitting on the table. She hopped up to it, and flipped open to the third chapter; Sentai Robots. She flipped through it, and examined the names of a number of them.

She began to tap her foot on the floor, in thought. She turned a page, and a sudden surge of inspiration came through her mind.

Liveman. Animal based. The robot was named LiveRobo. That was it.

"ZooRobo!" She cried out in triumph.

"That's pretty good, Fluff." Nick admitted, sitting up from the couch. He got up and walked over to her, looking at the book. "Maybe a big plagiaristic, but good."

He then though of something. "Hey, can I see something?" He asked, grabbing the book before Judy could even respond.

He flipped to the villains section, and to the page they were looking at earlier this morning. "Duke Org, Yabaiba." He read aloud.

"What?"

"That guy's name, he didn't introduce himself to us like the other guys." Nick explained.

"He seemed like kind of a doofus too." Judy said. "What was even his plan?"

"Well he does look like a clown, it was probably something dumb."

"You know what was really dumb?" She rhetorically asked, "Him saying where his base was out loud!"

"What." Nick replied flatly, placing the book down.

"You probably didn't hear it over all the monsters, but thanks to my rabbit ears, I heard him!" She said.

"Where did he say the base was?" Nick asked, sounding a bit more serious.

"A mountain, probably one just off the outskirts of the city."

"A mountain… outside the city…" He said to himself, thinking. He pounded his fist into his palm. "Mt. Animalia! Their base is in Mt. Animalia!"

Mt. Animalia was one of the first landmarks discovered when Zootopia was founded. It was incredibly unique, standing higher than should even have been possible for the relatively flat are it rested on. The founders took it as a sign, that anyone could be anything, that even a flat plateau could have a beautiful mountain.

"I mean, that is the only mountain near here."

"Yes, but now we actually know that." He said. "So, when do we go?" He asked, jokingly.

"I suggest we not do that." Judy replied. "Getting to the mountain is a journey on its own, and you know what happens if we manage to find the base?"

"Yes, we go in and get our rears handed to us on a silver platter. I was joking, Carrots."

"Good, I was really hoping you weren't that crazy." She replied in relief.

"The phrase is 'crazy like a fox', not stupid like a fox."

"Well," Judy started, hopping down from her chair, "I say we head to bed soon, in case anything weird happens tomorrow."

She was probably just tired from the lack of sleep she had gotten the night before, but she was right. They had done well today, but the fatigue would eventually catch up with them if they kept staying up late.

"Alright." He chuckled as the rabbit entered her room. "Goodnight, Fluff!"

"Goodnight, Slick!" She yelled from her room, as the fox entered his own room.

A break would be nice after the last few days…

* * *

"Auuuuuuggghhhhh!" Yabaiba let out, slamming his head against the table. "This was supposed to be my big debut, and I blew it!" He quickly sat up. "Heh, blew it. Wind puns." He slammed his head back onto the table and began moaning again.

"Your plan was really dumb, you clown." Sambash told him frankly.

"Mm." Yogostein nodded in agreement, "If you want to succeed, you need to come up with something a bit more… plausible than literally blowing away an entire city."

Yabaiba sat up and pointed at the robot, "Hey, it almost worked!"

"No it didn't." The biker and robot said in accidental unison, which caused the Org to fall back down again.

"Bonjour my compagnons!" A voice said, entering the room.

"Great, here comes the fruit pie." Sambash said. "I'm getting' out of here." He began heading towards the exit as he saw Enter.

"I wouldn't call your plan a complete failure, pitre." Enter admitted, hovering over the Org.

"What?" Yabaiba turned over, the back of his head now resting on the table.

"Your plan helped me figure out how clever those two actually are." He said. "Also, have you two ever considered using the machines you turn into monsters against them?"

"What do you mean?" Yogostein asked.

"Today, those two had trouble defeating your monster because they wanted to save the turbine used to create it." He explained. "I feel you could maybe use that to your… advantages."

"Hmm, never thought about that." Yabaiba said to himself. "That's a pretty good idea, thanks Ember!"

Enter turned to the clown, an unamused look on his face. "It's Enter."

"Whatever."

Enter rolled his eyes, and began heading for the exit. "The Zoorangers need one final test before I can truly judge their abilities." He stepped outside, the moonlight bathing on him.

"Prepare yourselves, Zooranger. I hope you enjoy games."

* * *

It was late at night. Due to the events of the last day, Bogo was working overtime checking on reports. Most of them were pretty open and shut, simple robbers making use of the wind to steal things, mice rescued from falling to their deaths, the usually in a storm.

Then came the one he was regretting.

Officer Hopps and Wilde's report on their rescue of Dr. Hamlet's experimental turbine… as written by Nick Wilde himself.

He could tell something was going on just with that. Hopps wasn't exactly the lying type, but Wilde definitely was. If she got him to write the report, something had to have been covered up. Underestimating their Chief was something they would have to talk about later.

He read over the report a few times. It was a water tight, well written tale about how they had just so happened to meet up with the Zoo Rangers, and that the wind storm, monster, and theft were all connected. It continued with them helping the super heroes figure out a plan to defeat the monster and save the engine.

But a tale was all it was, as far as he was concerned.

They just so happened to meet the super heroes, and all three events happened to be connected. Considering some events, the last part was believable, if not exactly what happened, but the Zoo Rangers aspect bothered him.

There were lots of reports on the Zoo Rangers, but nobody could get a hold of the two cops for the entire day, until they suddenly showed up back at the station.

The buffalo sat there, thinking this over. The two had been acting strange the last few days, the missed days, the obviously bluffed "hurt leg" excuse.

And every time they disappeared, the Zoo Rangers would show up.

The rabbit and the fox.

It suddenly clicked in his mind. It was far too obvious to not gloss over.

He sighed in relief, the Zoo Ranger identity case was off his chest, but another problem struck him almost instantly.

What should he do with them?

The choices were either to arrest them, something the Mayor would get on his tail about, and probably leave him jobless, or to tell the Mayor about them, and have these two heroes dogged by reporters no matter what they were doing.

He snorted.

"I think the Mayor can wait a bit longer to figure it out."

He chose option three.


	7. Ça va, Zoorangers?

March 23rd, 2019

The foreman watched as most of the workers left. Basically every construction team had been put into overtime after the monster attacks had started, the amount of wrecked buildings only seemed to increase every day. It was a real mess, and he hated it.

By the time the bear was ready to leave, it was dark. He left the office and noticed… something.

It was one of the workers, standing on front of the construction site. He was wearing standard equipment, a jumpsuit and a yellow hard hat, but something seemed off. He wasn't doing anything, just staring at a nearby excavator.

"Hey!" The foreman yelled, walking towards the worker. "The day's been over for hours, go home!"

The mammal let out a small laugh in return, and turned around. It was a cheetah, an unusual tan color. He was wearing a decidedly unstandard pair of safety goggles, while in color with a large marking on the right lens.

He had never seen this mammal before in his entire life.

"Who are you!? What are you doing on this site!?" The foreman yelled, walking towards the cheetah. He towered above the intruder, and glared at him.

"I could tell you," The cheetah responded in a silky smooth voice, staring up at the bear. "But you won't be around to tell anyone."

The foreman scoffed, "I've taken down guys three times your size." He crossed his arms, "What are you gonna do to me?"

In a quick flash, the cheetah kicked the foreman directly in the stomach. The force of the kick was incredible, launching the bear all the way back into the office's wall. The metal of it cracked beneath the force of the kick, and his own size.

The bear opened his eyes wearily, looking towards the cheetah as he walked forward. He blinked, and suddenly the intruder was wearing completely different clothes. A scarf, jeans, a shirt and a trench coat. He blinked again, and the cheetah was leaning directly in front of his face.

He lifted the bear up by the neck with a singular paw. The foreman began to feel the air escape his lungs as he began to choke.

"Au Revoir." The cheetah said as the bear passed out.

He dropped him to the ground with a thud. The ex-bear fell to the ground lifelessly.

The cheetah scoffed as he turned away from the corpse, "Organics, so weak."

He walked back towards the excavator, beginning to talk to himself. "An unwelcome intrusion," He said, jumping up into the excavator's cockpit, "But this could work. This could work well."

He pulled a card out, holding it between two of his digits. He jabbed the card into the keyhole, and turned it. The excavator started up, and he drove directly through one of the barriers surrounding the area, into the night.

* * *

One week later…

"It's another lovely day in Zooooootopia!" Shouted a rather excitable radio jockey. "The sun's shining, the sky's blue, and the ground we walk on could destroy us at any moment! Yes, the reported quakes throughout the week continue to get worse and worse, but remember what you learned in school! If the building you're in starts falling apart around you, DUCK AND COVER!" A duck quack began playing.

The radio then quickly turned off, as a fox was getting impatient with it.

"I get that guy's trying to be funny, but it's just kind of…" Nick said to himself, searching for the word.

"Insensitive? Fear mongering? Insulting our intelligence?" Judy responded back, taking a sip of her morning coffee.

"I was gonna say 'stupid', but those work well."

The DJ was right about the quakes, though. They had started early in the week, the first report on Sunday. As the week went by, they kept getting worse and worse. But they never went beyond slight annoyance, they were still basically only tremors at this point.

Overall, there was nothing much to worry about.

The two had a lot more things to worry about, mainly the current murder case they were on.

"Why did you even turn it to that station?" Judy questioned.

"They play good music." Nick answered. "Some of the time, at least."

"I wouldn't call 80s metal 'good music'."

"I have no idea how we live together." Nick stated, shaking his head.

She got up, and headed towards the bathroom. "On the way to the station, we're listening to MY music." She stated.

"Oh great." Nick moaned. "Pop music."

* * *

After a long, agonizing drive with nothing but pop music, the two had arrived at the station. Per the norm, the duo headed to the bullpen, ready for the day.

After roll call, Bogo began to dole out assignments.

"Rhinowitz, Marshall, you two will be assisting Officer Wolford on a series of assaults, if you can really call them that." He flicked on the projector, which displayed several shots of many different wolves, each with a large scar located somewhere on their backs.

A number of officers, including Judy, were taken aback by this. The chief was never good at easing into things.

"In just one night, we've somehow managed to get over three dozen different reports, all from wolves, claiming that they were stabbed by something." He turned to Wolford, who began rubbing his back. "One of these was our own Officer Wolford."

"Every report has been near exact," Bogo began to explain. "A wolf, somewhere dark and alone, is stabbed by some kind of knife. Not a stab that could kill someone, but hard enough to hurt a lot. The wolf turns around, and sees no one there. You three will get on that ASAP."

He continued giving assignments, until eventually finishing with the two smallest officers.

"Hopps, Wilde, you two are, once again, being assigned to the murder of Barry Grizzle." He looked up at the two, and let out a snort. "Good luck with that."

Good luck was right, the case was a complete enigma. Not only were there no witnesses, but there was no evidence either! No footprints, hair follicles, smells, nothing. There had to have been somebody there though, since Grizzle was definitely strangled by someone, but all evidence suggested that he was the only one there.

The two had been stuck with the case for the entire week. They weren't sure why, as they hadn't been able to move it forward at any point during the week.

The two walked out of the station and headed to the car. "Kinda wish we had gotten assigned to the assault case." Nick lamented. "Sounds a heckuva lot easier."

"This isn't a contest, Nick." Judy said, a bit more frustrated than normal. "We've officers, we help people."

"We'd be able to help people a lot more if we could actually get anything on this case." Nick said back. "Face it, Carrots, this case can't be cracked!"

"Neither could the Nighthowler case, and we solved that in two days!" She snapped back as the entered the car.

"Yes, but you actually had leads with that." He responded. "Here we just have a dead bear and a stolen excavator."

"I'm sure something will come up."

As if on cue, her phone began ringing. "Probably my parents." She said as she pulled it out. There wasn't a number on the display, just a single word.

"Bonjour"

The two stared at it in confusion. This wasn't a thing that could happen, was it?

She nervously answered the phone. "Hello?"

"BON, BON, BONJOUR!" The voice on the other side yelled. Judy dropped the phone, and clutched her ears. Somehow her phone had gone into speaker mode, and the resulting yell made her ears pound in pain.

"Bonjour, mademoiselle Hopps, monsieur Wilde." The voice calmed down into a smoother tone.

"Who are you?" Judy asked. "How do you know our names!?"

"Don't get your ears in a twist, Hopps." The voice said. "I know more about you two than even you do."

They looked at each other, confused.

"You'll find out… eventually." Its voice turned ominous, without actually changing the smooth tone. "I would love to tell you who I am, and what happened to Barry Grizzle…"

"You know what happened to Mr. Grizzle?" Judy interrupted.

The voice laughed, "Indeed I do, and I'll tell you all you need to know… but first, I have a question for you."

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"How would you two like to play a little game?"

"Oh, I've seen this movie." Nick joked, a bit nervously.

"Well, it's not like either of you has a real choice." The voice continued. "I have planted three bombs in Tundra Town, Sahara Square, and the Rainforest District."

The officers fell silent, and listened on in shock.

"In around… three hours, they will explode, the force of each bomb being enough to completely vaporize those areas."

They gasped in horror.

"Why would you do something like that!?" Judy yelled at the phone.

"Relax, Carottes." The voice responded back. "It's just a game."

"Screw you, buddy!" Nick yelled back, getting out of the car. "I'm telling the chief about this."

"Uh uh uh!" The phone responded back.

As Nick stepped towards the station, a series of small explosions burst in front of him. The fox was knocked back, slamming against the sidewalk.

"NICK!" Judy yelled in a panic, hopping out of the car to see if he was alright.

"I know everything you two are doing." The voice said as Judy helped the injured fox into the car. "If you tell anyone about the bombs, I will detonate them."

"How do we know you're not bluffing?" Nick coughed out.

"You don't. Do you really want to risk it, Nappe?"

"He's right, Nick." Judy reluctantly said. "It'd be too much of a risk."

Nick snarled in response.

"So, here are the rules." The voice began to explain. "If you can find all three bombs in three hours, I'll tell you some info about Grizzle's death."

"Alright." Judy agreed. "We'll play your little game."

"Excellent!" The voice said, "The game starts right now. Good luck, and au revoir."

The phone's screen turned blood red, a timer appearing on it in dark, black numbers. 2:59.

"Oh shit!" Nick yelled as he picked up the phone.

"Um, alright…" Judy said, her heart starting to beat faster. "I'll go to Tundra Town, you go to Sahara Square, and then we'll meet back up in the Rainforest District."

"Should we take the train, or the bikes?" Nick asked quickly, pulling out one of the ZooTags.

"Bikes are probably quicker." Judy stated, Nick nodding in approval. "Let's try to meet up at the Rainforest in an hour and a half, which will give us enough time to search there."

"Alright, let's go save the city. Again."

The car drove off behind a nearby building, as the sudden roaring of motorcycle engines filled the air. Soon enough, a red and blue figure were driving off in opposite directions.

* * *

Judy sped through the frozen town at the highest speeds she could manage without wiping out. She had been searching for thirty minutes for something, anything, that looked suspicious.

At this point the only suspicious thing was her. A superhero driving around aimlessly was certainly something odd.

"Maybe I should have asked our mystery bomber for some directions." She said to herself. She laughed in response, trying to get herself to cheer up.

Maybe she should go a bit more undercover for the rest of the search, the bike was clearly getting her nowhere.

She took a turn into a nearby frosted alleyway, and untransformed, peeking out to see if anyone saw her. There was nobody around, and she sighed in relief. She stepped out, and began to search a bit more carefully.

As she walked, she saw her first suspicious act.

A caribou, carrying a small box. He was looking around nervously. Definitely something shady going on there.

"Excuse me, sir!" She yelled across the street, making the caribou nearly drop his box.

"W-what do you want?" He asked as she ran up to him.

She held up her badge. "ZPD, I'm going to confiscate your mystery box for a moment."

"Uh, alright." He handed the box to her, which Judy placed on the ground.

She opened it up. It was some kind of machine, with a bowl and a crank. She didn't quite know what it was, but it definitely didn't appear to be a bomb.

"It's a snow-cone maker." The caribou said. "It's my wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I was going to surprise the wife with it."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" She gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth.

"It's fine." The caribou said, picking up the box. "I guess I would've looked pretty shifty, my house is across the street, I was trying to make sure the wife didn't see it." He explained. "What are you looking for, anyway?"

She tried to think up an excuse quickly, she wasn't as good at this as Nick was. "We got reports of some... strange activity going on around here. Have you, uh, seen anything odd today?"

The caribou thought for a second. "There was this shady looking van over by the park. Don't know if that helps."

"Anything helps at this point." She admitted. "I'll check it out, thank you!"

With a nod, she dashed off towards the nearby park. It took a few minutes, but thanks to her rabbit agility, it took shorter than it would have for anyone else.

She caught her breath as she entered the park. It looked normal, a number of families relaxing, children playing in the snowy fields. In the middle was a fountain, with a statue of one of the founders of Zootopia decorated on top of it. A wolf named Herman Trufield. It stood proudly, as nearby mammals continued to admire it.

She walked through the park, trying to find the van the caribou had mentioned. She saw it on the other edge of the park. It was your typical shady van, painted white, and with rust marks covering it. Standing nearby was a polar bear, dressed in a messy uniform.

"How obvious can you get?" Judy said to herself as she headed toward it.

"Excuse me, sir?" She said, looking up at the massive bear.

The bear looked down in response.

"ZPD, would you mind if I check your van for something?"

"Oh, go ahead." The bear said back in a deep voice.

She bounded to the back of the van, and flung the doors open. Inside was a bunch of tools, plungers, screwdrivers. Plumbing equipment, basically. Nothing that looked like a bomb, however.

She sighed, and closed the doors. "I'm sorry for interrupting you, sir." She apologized.

"S'no biggie." Te bear responded, not looking at her. "This kinda thing happens all the time."

"Have you ever thought about getting your van... repaired?" Judy asked.

"Nah, I've had 'er for years, she's got lots of life left in her." He answered, still not looking at the rabbit. "The paint gives it a rustic charm, I feel."

"Why are you parked out here, anyway?" Judy continued to question.

"I was on my way home, when I saw this new statue they put up."

"New statue?" Judy said, a bit befuddled. "But this statue's always been in this park."

"Nah, that's the park a few blocks over."

"So, they just put up this fountain in one night?"

"Certainly looks that way." The bear said. "They got rid of the statue they originally had herem too."

There was something definitely strange about this. She certainly heard anything about new founder statues, and having two of the same so close to each other felt redundant.

"Something's wrong." She said out loud.

As she said that, the wrongness of the situation became even more apparent. Nearly everyone in the park, from the largest adult to the children, turned to their direction, their eyes suddenly turning red.

"What the?" The bear let out as the mammals tromped forward through the snow.

The mammals than began to glow green, being surrounded by what looked like ones and zeroes. In a flash, each of them had changed into an army of identical beings. Sleek purple bodies topped by dark grey shoulder armor, and clearly mechanical heads sporting a red visor. They each carried a double clawed weapon, and continued walking towards the two. The sudden appearance of these monsters scared off a number of actual people in the park.

Judy stepped forward, "You need to get out of here." She stated.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" The bear quickly hopped into his van, and sped off away from the park.

The rabbit stepped towards the gang of robots, "I should've guessed something weird was going on. You guys want a fight, I'll give you a fight."

She slammed the button on the Zoolizer, and transformed into her armored form. She drew her blasters, and shot down the first couple of robots, causing them to vaporize into ones and zeroes.

"This is gonna be a blast!" She yelled, as she pulled out a dagger, a blaster in the other hand. She leaped into the air, and landed on top of one's head, and began blasting a bunch as it struggled.

They dropped like flies, but they seemed to keep coming. She jabbed the knife into the robot footstool's head, and leaped off as it vanished.

She landed on the ground, leaving a mark in the snow. "I'm 'The bomb'!" She quipped. It was fun to do this when Nick wasn't around. He probably would have teased of her for having fun.

She dashed back into the crowd of monsters, and began slicing up the rest of them. In a few short moments, they were all gone.

"Hah, easy!" She laughed to herself. "Maybe a bit… too easy." She turned around, expecting something else to happen. Nothing did, and she sighed in relief.

"Alright, gotta find the bomb." She said to herself. Considering the monsters were surrounding the mysterious, suddenly-appeared-overnight statue, it would probably be the best place to start.

She hopped up the statue, and up onto the top of its head. She tapped it with one of her daggers, producing a metallic clang sound. It was hollow.

"The bomb's in the statue!" She yelled to herself, hopping down from it.

She pulled out her blasters and fired at the hollow figure, causing the entire top-half to be blown off.

"Miiight have been a bit too strong." She nervously said as she hopped back up to the statue.

Sure enough, lying at the bottom of the statue, was a large, oval-shaped, metallic object. She pulled it out and twirled it around in her paws, trying to find an off switch. She then noticed the large red button on top of it.

"Oh come on, seriously?"

She pressed the button, and a loud droning sound flooded the nearby area.

"BOMB DEACTIVATED" said a robotic voice from the device.

She sighed, one of three finished. Then, a pressing concern entered her mind.

"I have to warn Nick."

During the last fight, she was able to talk to him while they were falling through the sky. It seemed to come through the helmets, so maybe…

"Nick?" She asked, placing her hand next to her helmet. "Nick, can you read me?"

Surprisingly, she got an answer.

"Kinda busy right now, Carrots!" She could hear something else going on in the background.

"This is kind of important!" She said. "This isn't a normal bomb threat, this is a monster attack!"

"Yeah, you're about twenty minutes late to that revelation!" He yelled, a clear explosion sounding through the communicator.

"Wait, did you already find the bomb?" She asked, a bit worried and surprised.

"Yeah, deactivated that sucker a while ago, now I'm busy trying not to die!"

"The guys I fought were really easy, why are you having trouble?" She asked.

"Sounds like you got lucky. Listen, I'll meet you in the Rainforest District. If I'm not there, I'm dead. See ya!"

He hung up.

"Dumb fox." She muttered as she prepared to summon her motorcycle. But before she did, she looked across the park, and noticed something missing.

There were only one pair of footprints in the snow, hers.

* * *

Around fifty-five minutes earlier…

As soon as Nick had made it to Sahara Square, he had gone into casual mode. Like a true detective, he began asking around about odd things happening.

So far, his search was coming up empty. It had been a rather normal day in the Sahara, as it had turned out. Not even some of his… seedier informants seemed to be doing anything of note.

So, with nothing to go off of, he had decided to stop off at a diner to take a break.

In spite of the Sahara's manufactured heat, the district had a large number of really fantastic ice cream parlors. It helped with tourism, and the places all did surprisingly well, mostly by distancing themselves from other places.

During his conman days he'd often visit his favorite of the bunch; the Humpback Creamery. They specialized in double servings of different flavors, really great place.

He stepped in through the double doors, looking around. The place was like he remembered it, black and white tile floor, rows of red tables, around the bare minimum you needed for a food service. The counter was made of glass, with a number of display sundaes behind it.

He walked up to the counter, a camel tending it. "How's it going, Charlie?" He asked.

"Oh, if it isn't Nick Wilde!" He said cheerfully. "Haven't seen you here in ages, what brings you in?"

"I was on duty in Sahara Square and wanted to stop by my favorite ice creamery, for old time's sake."

The camel chuckled, "Guessing you'll have your usual?"

"Oh, you know it."

"One double-stacked chocolate vanilla sundae with extra chocolate and caramel syrup comin' up."

"Don't forget the candy cricket legs!" Nick joked.

"I never do!"

Nick waited at the counter for his sundae to be made. He was glad the place had air conditioning. It had felt like he was walking around the district for hours, even though it had only been about half an hour.

Suddenly, everything began to shake.

"QUAKE!" Someone in the store shouted. Everyone there ducked under their tables, the building felt like it was going to fall apart.

Suddenly, it stopped. No damage had been done inside the building, and the quake itself seemed to have only lasted around ten seconds.

"Damn it!" Charlie yelled, walking out from the kitchen, covered in ice cream. "Really sorry, Nick. That quake was one of the worst, ruined your ice cream." He apologized. "I'll have another one ready for you, but it'll take a bit."

"Its fine, I got time." His eyes widened. He had forgotten about the bomb. "Okay, I'll be back in a bit, I just remembered I have to do something REALLY important." He rushed towards the door. "Real sorry about this, Charlie!"

The camel sighed, wiping some ice cream off his face.

Nick burst through the doors, and headed into the middle of the sandy street. Suddenly, the ground began to shake again. It wasn't a quake.

He looked to his right, a massive stampede of animals, big and small, was running towards him. They were all screaming in terror at something, but Nick couldn't make it out over the sound of the animal parade.

He leaped out of the way of the stampede, it just missing him. He got up, trying to clear away the dust from his face. "What was that about?" He coughed, squinting through the dust cloud.

A figure emerged through the dust. Definitely not a normal mammal, or even a mammal at all.

He couldn't make it out well, but he could see it. "Hah, already running away in fear!" It laughed in a metallic voice. "I haven't even planted the bomb yet!"

Nick got up, and the dust cleared, letting him see the creature more easily. It was definitely a robot, yellow and grey in color, with a V-like visor. Of course, the most notable feature was its gigantic, shovel-like left arm.

It turned to look at the fox staring at him. "Oh look, if it isn't our furry little player!"

"Great, so you know who I am." Nick said, standing up. "I'm so flattered. Now, are we gonna do this or what?"

"I don't have time to fight you!" It yelled. "I don't have a lot of time to plant this…" He held out his shovel arm, the bucket of which carried a large, grey object. "BOMB!"

"Well, guess what? You're not gonna plant it at all!"

He rushed towards the monster, and hit the button on his Zoolizer, transforming. He leaped into the air, bringing his sword down onto the monster's still outstretched arm.

The monster yelled in pain as the bomb flew from his bucket, crashing to the ground with a thud.

"NO!" It yelled out as the fox quickly dashed towards the explosive.

Nick scooped up the bomb in his arms, quickly finding the big red button. "Dig this!" He yelled, slamming his paw against the button.

"BOMB DEACTIVATED"

The monster let out a mechanical growl, "You may have deactivated the bomb, but that doesn't mean I can't SCRAP YOU!" IT lifted its arm to its visor, and then jolted it away, a large, red laser firing from it.

Nick leaped out of the way, dropping the bomb. The laser hit the deactivated bomb, causing an explosion, and once again creating a dust cloud around them.

Even with the helmet on, Nick could barely see anything. Unfortunately, it looked like the robot could see through the dust, as it rushed towards him and smacked the fox backwards with his massive shovel.

He went flying into the side of a nearby building. The dust cleared as he saw the robot preparing another laser blast. The fox got up, and pulled out his cannon. He fired it at the robot, knocking it back.

"Lucky shot!" It yelled as it steadied itself. It scooped up a bunch of sand and dirt in its bucket claw, and flung it at the red ranger. The ground clung to the visor, effectively blinding him.

He struggled to see, and could only hear the clanking of the metal monster's inner workings coming near him. He heard the monster's arm raise up, causing the fox to instinctively pull out his sword and slash upwards. The resulting yell and scraping told him he had successfully hit.

"Guess you forgot about animal instincts, huh?" Nick quipped, wiping the dirt from his helmet.

"Guess the blinding trick won't work here." The robot lamented. "Guess I'll have to play a bit more offensively!"

He fired a barrage of lasers from his visor, Nick barely dodging as they hit the wall behind him. The wall was nearly vaporized as a result.

The shovel robot rushed towards the fox, swinging its arm rapidly at him. Nick managed to block the hits with his sword, but the attacks were starting to tire him. No wonder they worked better as a team.

As the robot prepared another strike, Nick jabbed the sword into its chest, knocking it backwards and to the ground. It gave the fox a bit of a breather.

The monster didn't get up. Instead, it flipped over, and began revving up its arm, which caused it to dig under the ground. Everything began to shake, it was causing a quake.

He couldn't tell where the monster was, but he could tell that the monster knew where he was. He did the first thing he could think of.

Run.

He rushed back towards the Humpback Creamery, leaping through one of the glass windows in the front of the building.

"Everyone, get out now!" He yelled, trying to put on a deeper voice.

"What's going on here!?" Charlie yelled at the fox.

The fox ignored the camel, rushing towards the back of the store. Suddenly, a large dent appeared from the floor. And then another one a few feet away. And then another one. This caused all of the current patrons, and Charlie himself to rush out of the building, something was clearly going down, and they didn't want to deal with it.

The robot monster burst through the store's floor, only his upper half poking out. It grunted, trying to get out.

"Looks like you can't dig through stuff that isn't dirt, huh?" Nick mocked, looking at the struggling monster. "Tiles too much for you?"

"Damn fox!" It yelled, slamming its shovel arm into the ground, boosting himself out of it.

The monster grabbed the base of a table with its normal arm. It ripped it from the metal bolts, and hurled it at the fox. He ducked under it as it smashed into the wall behind him. He rushed to the counter, and smashed the glass. Quickly grabbing two of the bowls of ice cream, he chucked them directly at the robot's face.

"Ice cream!? Seriously!?" It yelled as the ice cream and glass smashed against its face. It was covered in the stuff, and much like Nick was a few minutes ago, the monster appeared to be blinded.

"You ready for twenty flavors of pain?" He yelled, rushing towards the monster with his sword. He slashed it several times, and then knocked it backwards, shattering the glass doors.

He looked on as the monster struggled to get up. Suddenly, he heard something.

"Nick?"

The voice echoed through his helmet, it sounded like Judy. Was he going crazy?

"Nick, can you read me?"

Did the helmet have a communicator? He guessed it did, but before he could say anything, the monster rose. It was preparing another laser blast.

"Kinda busy right now, Carrots!" He yelled into the communicator, quickly dodging out of the way of another laser blast.

"This is kind of important!" The monster rushed towards him, as he blocked another shovel swing with his sword. "This isn't a normal bomb threat, this is a monster attack!" She continued through the communicator.

He knocked the monster back as it fired another laser, which just barely missed the fox and caused an explosion. "Yeah, you're about twenty minutes late to that revelation!" He yelled.

"Wait, did you already find the bomb?"

"Yeah, deactivated that sucker a while ago," He dodged out of the way of another laser. "Now I'm busy trying not to die!"

The robot rushed towards him as soon as the laser hit the wall behind the fox, and smacked him away with his shovel arm, directly through a wall.

"The guys I fought were really easy, why are you having trouble?" Judy asked, unaware of the danger the fox was in

He slid across the ground, slamming into the building next to the parlor. "Sounds like you got lucky." He moaned in pain.

The monster closed in through the hole in the wall, raising its arm for the final strike. "Listen, I'll meet you in the Rainforest District." The monster swung its arm down to the ground, the fox rolling out of the way just in time. "If I'm not there, I'm dead. See ya!" He tapped the side of his helmet, causing it to hang up.

He stood up, drawing his sword and backing up into the street again. He was getting tired, but the robot didn't seem to be feeling any fatigue.

Suddenly, the robot jerked backwards. "What!?" It yelled.

"Pah, you scared, buddy?" Nick said, trying to stay cool.

"Retreat!?" The robot said, ignoring the fox. "But I've got him on the ropes!"

The robot was talking to someone. This is probably what he looked like to the monster during his call.

The monster growled, looking at the tired ranger. He pointed towards him with his normal arm, "I'll be seeing you again soon, and when I do…"

He lifted up his shovel arm, and slammed it against the ground, creating a large crater in the middle of the street.

"Great, another pot hole for city hall to not fix."

The monster began spinning its arm at tremendous speeds, digging into the ground and disappearing.

He fell to the ground and untransformed, taking deep breaths.

"I should probably let Judy know that I'm not dead."

* * *

Judy paced back and forth by the ground entrance to the Rainforest District. The wait for Nick was causing her to become anxious. The last words he said before he hung up weren't exactly hopeful, but there was a chance he wasn't dead.

She heard the noise of a motorcycle coming out from the tunnel. A red motorcycle burst through and skidded to a halt. In a flash, Nick was standing there.

"Sorry about worrying you, Carrots." He said, sounding a bit out of breath.

"I wasn't worried." She denied.

"Then why are you doing that?" He asked, looking down at her furiously tapping foot.

"I'm, uh, worried about the bomb." She tried to excuse.

"You're an awful liar, Fluff." He said. "I should give you some lessons."

"I'd rather not." She muttered, the fox rolling his eyes in response. "SO, where do you think the bomb would be?" She said, trying to change subjects.

"Considering what I just saw, probably somewhere in the middle of a street."

"Really?" She said as they began to walk deeper into the forest. "Mine was in a statue."

"Huh, my bomb seemed like an afterthought."

"I say we check out a landmark." Judy suggested. "Lots of people would be around them, it would cause a lot more damage."

"Good point." Nick said. "But most of the Rainforest's landmarks are organic, something like those bombs would be pretty noticeable."

"No matter where it is, the only choice we have is to start looki-." Judy wasn't looking where she was going, and slammed her face into something.

They looked up, it was a large elephant, browner than the ones they usually saw around the city. Near it were a host of other animals, all recognizable, but with different colorings.

"Tourists." Nick whispered as the rabbit got up.

The sound of a novelty car horn caused everyone there to look down the road. A rather gaudy red and white bus drove up to them, the side having a large tree painted onto it. The door slid open, revealing an otter in an explorer's outfit, and carrying a microphone.

"Howdy, folks!" he said to the tourists. "Are you all ready to see the sights of Zootopia's wonderful Rainforest?"

"Huh, how convenient." Nick said, as the tourists got onto the bus.

Judy ran up to the otter. "Excuse me sir, how much for a ticket?" She asked.

"Only fifteen dollars, ma'am!"

"Great, we'd like two."

Soon, the two officers, still in uniform, were sitting on a bus full of tourists.

"This isn't awkward at all." Nick whispered to her.

She shushed him, "It's better than wandering around aimlessly."

Nick looked around, feeling a bit awkward and small against so many much larger animals. There were none around his size. He turned around and spotted a lone mammal sitting at the back of the bus.

It was a tan cheetah, wearing dark sunglasses, a dark coat, and a dark hat. He was looking out the window. This was a completely normal animal, but something felt off about him. Nick decided to keep this to himself, no use causing a stir over what was probably just a weird tourist.

After a few minutes, the otter driver began to speak.

"We are arriving at our first exciting destination! The world's oldest standing Tumble Tree!"

The bus stopped, and the passengers exited. The officers waited until everyone else exited before they left, but didn't notice the cheetah following after them.

They were led into a park, and absolutely massive tree sitting in the middle of a raised section.

"The Tumble Tree is a kind of tree known for being incredibly tall, but their thin stumps break after only a few decades of growing!" He stated. "This miraculous specimen, however, has been standing here since the Rainforest District was founded over a century ago!"

They looked up at the tree, it was incredibly tall, the top being barely visible.

Judy looked up in awe, while Nick tried to keep his eye on the cheetah.

"I've never seen this before." She said, craning her neck upwards. "It's really beautiful."

"I used to live here, y'know." Nick said, turning to her. "Had to come by here a lot. Trust me, the novelty of a large tree wares off quickly."

He turned back and looked around, the cheetah was nowhere in sight. "Hang on, I need to go check something."

"What?" Judy said, looking down as her partner dashed off towards the tree.

He rushed behind the tree, seeing the cheetah, crouching down and fiddling with something.

"Hold it right there!" He shouted, pulling out his badge. "You're under arrest!"

The cheetah stood up, it's paused raised in the air. One of them held a smart phone.

He glanced at the object he was fiddling with. It looked like a miniature version of the bombs they found before, and it was strapped directly to the tree.

"What's going on!?" Judy yelled, running up to her partner.

"I found our bomber." Nick growled.

The cheetah let out a laugh. "Congratulations. You win."

He tapped the phone's screen, the red button on the small bomb beginning to beep. Seeing what was happening, the two leaped backwards.

An explosion, not a massive one, but big enough to light the Tumble Tree on fire, and create a massive hole in its stump. It teetered over, crushing the bus, and a few other cars located behind it.

"And that folks, is our que to GET OUT OF HERE!" The otter yelled, causing the tourists to scatter.

"Bon travail, you two." The cheetah laughed.

"We didn't disarm the bomb, how did we win!?" Judy yelled.

He wagged one of his digits. "I never said you had to disarm all the bombs, now did I? You had to find them, and that you did."

"Alright," Nick said. "We played your twisted game, are you going to give us your part of the deal?"

"Ah yes, the info." He said to himself. "You did win, so I guess I should tell you."

He threw off his clothes, revealing another set beneath them. A tan jacket, a scarf, and a pair of strange goggles placed on his forehead.

"I killed Grizzle, but you two should have figured that out by now."

The two looked at each other awkwardly. They probably should have guessed, considering this guy was seriously messed up, and seemed to be the only person who knew anything. But over the course of the two hours, they hadn't really thought about it.

"Judging by your looks, I'm guessing you didn't figure it out." He placed his paw to his chin. "And I suppose you also didn't figure out there was only one bomb?"

Judy's eyes widened. "What?"

"There was only one real bomb, the one I just set off." The cheetah explained. "The other two were fakes."

Their jaws dropped.

"Oh, and this entire exercise was a test. Which you failed, by the way."

"What the hell does that mean?" Nick asked. "We did what you wanted, and you just said we won!"

"You won the game, but failed the test." He explained. "Shame, I gave you so many hints too. Let me give you a quick rundown."

He dashed towards them, the two quickly dodging out of the way as he kicked the ground. The kick was strong enough to leave a hole in the ground.

"So you managed to focus on trying to find who killed this insignificant bear, but, whoopsie, not on the quakes plaguing the city for a week."

He snapped his fingers, another quake happening directly after. The monster Nick had encountered before burst through the ground, landing next to the cheetah.

"You didn't find that at all suspicious?" He asked, a bit smug. The two could only look at each other in response.

In a flash, the cheetah dashed over to Judy, lifting her up by the arm and flinging her at Nick. The two toppled over, lying in pain.

"Whoopsie deux," He continued, the two officers trying to get up. "Was you falling for my bomb ruse when the real plan was going on under your own feet."

The two got up, still in pain. "What does that mean?" Judy asked.

He ignored them. "And whoopsie numero trois..." He dashed behind the two, and locked them both into a choke hold.

Neither of them could breath, they struggled and kicked against the attacker's body as he squeezed his arms around them.

He drew them closer to his mouth, his eyes dilating, and whispered.

"You didn't know you were playing with Enter."

He dropped them to the ground. They gasped for breath, and writhed in pain as Enter stood above them.

"Of course, killing you both now wouldn't be very much fun, would it?" He said. "In fact, I'll let you in on what you were missing out."

He knelt down to them. "My Metalroid over there has been digging a massive fissure under your city. If he completes it, everything you're fighting for will be destroyed."

Nick tried to let out a growl, but his throat was still in massive pain.

He stood up again. "How bout we make this a game, hmm?" He said, lifting the two to their feet. "If you can defeat Shovelroid before he finishes, you win. Deal?"

Nick let out a successful growl. "I'm guessing we don't have a choice."

Enter laughed, pushing them forward. He then pulled out a small, red object, and hurled it at the idle robot.

It jabbed into the monster's chest, where it vanished into it's metallic skin. It writhed in pain as a bright red light emanated from it. It's neck extended out, a large, bucket-like jaw forming where there was none before. Machinery enveloped its normal looking arm, turning it into a second shovel arm. It's legs became more digitigraded, and a large red marking appeared in the middle of it's chest.

"CHAOS SHOVELROID!" It yelled, before digging into the ground.

"The game starts now. You have an hour." Enter said. "Au Revoir, Zoorangers!"

They both turned around at the sound of those last words. Enter had completely vanished.

"This is pretty bad." Judy said.

* * *

The two sped through the streets of Zootopia on their bikes, weaving in and out of traffic as they tried to find the runamuck Shovelroid.

"Alright Blue, I have an idea." Red said through the communicator.

"Anything's better than driving around aimlessly, lay it on me."

"So, the robot had to have made an entrance, right?" He suggested. "When I fought him before, he definitely made some big holes."

"So, find the entrance, find the monster?"

He nodded. "We just need a place to start."

Blue paused. "I think I have an idea."

She quickly swerved into an upcoming street, surprising the fox. He skid to a halt, and turned around, starting to follow her direction.

He followed her to a very familiar looking construction site. This is where Grizzle was murdered.

"Ah, I get it." Red said, parking his bike next to hers. "Returning to the scene of the crime."

"Not exactly." Blue replied back, running over to the large hole in the side of the site. "If that Enter guy was the one who stole the excavator, then it couldn't have gone too far from the site."

Red walked to the hole, and looked around. "Maybe we should follow those obvious tracks." He pointed to the large tracks on the ground.

"We already investigated that, the track's just kind of ended." Blue pointed out.

Red walked out and followed the tracks. They were here every day of the week, every day they checked out the place for clues. The suddenly disappearing tracks was definitely odd, but it wasn't an improbable situation.

When he reached the end, they still stopped dead. They ended halfway through the alley next to the site, it was strange. He sniffed, "Guess you're intuition was a bit off, Blue."

She walked to his side as they stared into the empty alleyway. She sighed, where else could the entrance be besides here?

"Have we actually ever looked down there?" Red wondered.

"What's there to look for? It's just an alley."

Red squinted from behind his mask. He walked forward slowly towards the back wall of the open hallway. He blinked. There was now a gigantic hole in the middle of the ground.

"Holy…" He almost yelled, but stopped himself. He turned around to tell Blue what had just happened, but the only thing behind him was a wall of black and white static.

"…shit."

He walked through the wall of static, reappearing in the alleyway he was standing in a few moments before. Blue stared at him, her paws brought to her mouth in obvious shock.

"What the hell just happened, Red?" She asked, walking up to him.

"I found our entrance." He said smugly, turning back to see end of the alleyway, hole-less.

He stepped through again, seeing the hole appear in front of him again. Blue followed after, deciding to leap through instead of walk.

She rolled to her feet and looked around, seeing the hole. "What in the world is going on?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, like this is weirder than anything that's happened in the last month." Red said, looking into the corner. A small device clung to the wall, shaped like a large V, and with a glowing light in the middle of it.

He pulled out the Foxfire Blade, and jabbed it into the device. The wall of static behind them disappeared as the glow from the light faded.

"A hologram?" Blue said, watching as the static faded, showing the outside of the alley.

"This Enter guy's a real trickster, huh?" Red said, pulling his blade from the wall and scraping off the device. "At least we found our entrance."

She nodded in response, "Here's the plan." She started. "We need to get him above ground, that way he can't cause any more damage."

"Sounds like a plan."

They both walked up to the edge of the hole. It was deep, pitch black. They stared down it for a minute.

"So, rabbits first?" He suggested.

Blue groaned in annoyance at the rabbit burrow joke, and punched the fox in the back, knocking him down into the hole.

"Dumb fox." She said, jumping into the tunnel herself.

The cavern was deep and winding, the two slid down and down into the depths, it getting even darker. Red yelled in fear the entire way down.

Eventually, the slide ended and the fox fell directly onto his snout. The rabbit landed directly on his back.

"Red?" She asked quietly. "Red are you there?"

"Yor stanghing on topf oth me." He muttered, his face buried into the ground.

"Oh my gosh!" She yelled, stepping off of him. He got up and shook the dirt off. She helped him up, "Are you alright?"

"I'll be coughing up dirt for a week, and I'll probably never go on a water slide again, but I'm fine."

"Can you see anything?" She asked, looking around in the inky blackness of the cavern.

"Not a damn thing." He responded, not sounding concerned. "But I think I can do something about that."

He pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it off at the ground. The room lit up for a brief second as it exploded, before going black again. He fired it again, and then again, this time at the wall and a nearby stalactite respectively. The room lit up both times, but they still couldn't make anything out.

"Huh," He said, "Guess I don't have a solution."

Blue sighed to herself, and placed her paw onto the side of her helmet. Suddenly, everything turned green, and she could see everything in the cave.

"Oh, our helmets have night vision!" She excitedly stated.

"How many things do these helmets have?" He wondered, turning on the night vision.

The wondered through the cave, almost aimlessly. Considering this was meant to be under the whole of downtown, it had to have been incredibly large. They had nowhere to start looking for the monster.

"You hear anything, Blue?" The fox asked quietly.

"What?" She asked loudly.

"Have you heard any noises yet, that dirt digger is probably making a bunch of sounds your ears can pick up."

She hadn't even thought of that. She listened into the silent cave, trying to hear anything. She stopped breathing for a second when it wasn't silent enough. Then she heard it. The sound of machinery, coming from… whichever direction was to their right.

"Got him." She said, rushing forward, the fox trailing behind her.

After a bit of running, they found the monster. It was halfway into a rocky wall, only its back legs visible. It was making a noise, similar to someone eating really fast, but with rocks instead of food.

"Hey, mud muncher!" Red yelled, drawing his cannon.

The monster seemed to ignore him, continuing to dig.

"I don't think he heard you." Blue joked, the fox turning to give her a look.

"Guess we'll have to get his attention in a more direct way." He aimed the gun at the monster's rear, and fired.

The monster roared in pain as it hit, and a small tremor struck as it slammed its head on the top of the tunnel it was in. IT slowly crawled out, and turned to the two rangers behind it. IT began to pound its chest, letting out a roar that sounded like a mix between an engine grinding and a savage roar.

"I was expecting something a bit more legible." Red whimpered as the monster rushed towards them.

The two dodged out of the way as the monster leaped up and slammed its shovel hands into the ground, causing a massive shake. The two looked up as rocks began to fall from the ceiling.

"If he keeps this up…" Judy said, dodging a stalactite that nearly crushed her, "Then the whole city's gonna cave in!"

"Let's get him above ground quickly!" Red yelled, aiming the Vickscannon at the angry shovel robot.

The monster tromped towards him, using its arms as what appeared to be extra support. Red aimed the blaster at its face, and fired. The monster quickly knocked the blast away with one of its arms, launching the ball of fire off in a different direction.

The monster leaped directly in front of the fox, and swung its arm at him. "Wow, you're a lot…" Nick started as he ducked under the swing. "A lot more aggressive now, huh?" He leaped out of the way of another smash.

"Not that you weren't aggressive before, I mean." The robot fired a series of lasers from its eyes, causing the fox to get knocked back. "It's just that you're a little bit more, uh…" The monster leaped at him again, knocking the fox onto his back and pinning him down. "I dunno, savage?"

The monster unhinged it's shovel jaw, and let out a monstrous roar, blowing dirt chunks into the fox's terrified face.

"RABBLASTERS!" Blue yelled, firing her blaster at the shovel monster. It quickly turned to her, all of its anger now directed at the rabbit. It rushed towards her, to which the comparatively tiny rabbit responded by running away.

"I HOPE YOU HAVE AN IDEA, RED!" She yelled as she ran from the shovel beast.

He didn't, but Nick was always a master of improvisation.

He quickly pulled out his sword and rushed towards the chase. He ducked in behind the rabbit, causing the monster to skid towards him as the fox held his sword out. He swung it directly into the side of the monster as it neared, launching the monster into the side of the wall it had previously been digging in, face first.

It fell from the stone it had been lodged into, stone still. It fell onto its back, and remained there, unmoving, for a few moments. The two rangers simply stared on, unsure what to do. Suddenly, it leaped back to its feet, and roared at them.

"Damn, thought we got lucky for a second there." Red lamented.

It fired a burst of lasers from its glowing red eyes, which the two dodged. Blue rushed at it with her daggers, attempting to attack the robot, but it effortlessly knocked her back with a swipe from its arm.

She skidded across the ground on her back, ending up next to the still standing fox. "I think this guy might be too tough for us." She said, crossing her arms.

"You might be right about him being stringer," Red said, looking down at her. "But we've got him beat by miles in the brains department." He finished, tapping the top of his helmet.

She sighed. The rabbit wasn't entirely sure that brains could stop this beast, it was too powerful to even get near. She heard the monster step forward as she continued to look up at the ceiling. She noticed something. Light, shining through cracks directly above them.

Shining from above ground.

"I GOT IT!" She yelled, sitting up. This startled both the monster, and the fox.

"What?" He asked, looking at her.

"Directly above us, there's a weak point!" She yelled pointing upwards. "If we blast that, we can trick this guy into following us up!"

"Get him above ground, finish him off. Sounds like a great plan." He said, aiming the Vickscannon upwards.

He blasted the weak spot. What they didn't account for in this plan was the debris falling towards them both. They leapt out of the way, as light shone through the hole, filling the cavern.

The monster recoiled in pain, Blue making a quick note of it. They used all their strength to leap out of the pit, which was around a remarkable 50 feet by the looks of it.

They broke through the hole to the underground, and looked around. It was Sahara Square. In fact, it was around the same area Red had first fought the monster. They looked down the hole, seeing the monster's red eyes staring up at them.

"Hey, buddy!" Blue yelled, combining her Rabblasters together and aiming them at the monster in the hole. "Ready to face the light?" She pulled the trigger.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

The blasters fired a blade-like laser directly at the monster, striking it between the eyes and briefly lighting up the cave. It let out a massive roar of pain, which shook the entire block.

With a smash, the monster itself leapt through the ground in front of them, creating another hole, and land landing nearly in front of the two rangers.

Blue looked at the monster. Despite its menacing stance, it was squinting, something it hadn't been doing in the cave earlier. She smirked.

"This is our chance, Red!" She said, the fox responding by looking at her in confusion.

"He's still a heavily armored beast, and I wouldn't say that he's weak enough to finish off, so unless you got a clever plan…"

She turned to him, and despite not being able to see her eyes, he could tell what she was thinking.

"He sighed, "Alright, what's the plan?"

"He's sensitive to light, see how he's squinting like that?" She said, pointing towards the robot.

"So it'll end up being clumsier when it's trying to fend us off, right?"

She nodded, "Exactly."

The two rushed towards the monster, weapons drawn. They just had to use their agility to take it down.

Blue got right in front of the monster, dodging side to side as it attempted to awkwardly squish her with one of its shovel hands. It moved slower than it did in the caves, as if making sure that it was actually aiming for the rabbit. Looks like her suspicions were one hundred percent confirmed.

She ducked under it, slicing its stomach with her daggers, the monster reacting in pain. It then attempted to step on her with its back legs, but due to the sun and a lack of periphery vision, Blue managed to jump of the way easily.

Red kept a bit of a distance, firing at the monster with his blaster. It winced with each blast, struggling as the rabbit continued to leap around him, slicing it up. It was time to resort to its backup plan.

The robot roared, and began thrashing around wildly, knocking Blue back. Even with the rabbit gone, it continued to flail and smack the ground.

"Is he having a temper tantrum?" Red asked, a bit confused.

Blue shook her head, just as confused as the fox was.

Red groaned, pulling out his weapons. "Let's just finish this jerk off. He owes me a sundae."

The rabbit looked at him for a second, surprised at how deadly serious that had sounded, and then pulled out her own weapons. They threw them up into the air, combing them into the Zookaiser.

It fell into their hands, and they aimed it at the unaware monster, who was still thrashing around.

"ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!" They both yelled, Red pulling the trigger.

A massive laser fired from the cannon, directly at the monster. It quickly turned to look at them, hearing the noise, seeing the laser heading towards it. With one last roar, which trailed into the distance, it erupted into a massive explosion, larger than the ones they had seen before, as a large, yellow object flew from it.

With a crash, it landed on top of a nearby ice cream parlor. It was an excavator, and it had nearly entirely destroyed the place.

"GOD DAMN IT!" A voice yelled from inside.

The fox cringed, "Looks like I'm not getting my sundae any time soon." He muttered.

They heard a noise emanating from behind them. Turning, they saw another one of those red badges, floating in the air. It flew off into the distance, and exploded on the horizon, the monster they had just destroyed reappearing. It let out a large roar, alerting everyone in a ten mile radius to its existence.

"You ready to do this, Blue?" Red asked, pulling out his ZooTag.

"You know it." She responded, pulling out her own.

They both plugged them into the Zoolizers.

"DEFENDERS OF NATURE  
ARE YOU SURE?  
LOOK UP AND COMBINE!  
ZOOSAGI!  
ZOOKITSUNE!"

The two mechanical animals appeared, and the two rangers leaped into their cockpits, rushing towards the monster on the outskirts of the city.

As soon as they reached the outskirts, the robots leaped into the air, folding out and combining into the giant robot now known as ZooRobo. The two behemoths locked sights, and began circling each other.

"Let's get this show started!" Red yelled, jolting the controls forward, causing ZooRobo to dash at the giant shovel beast.

The monster raised one of its massive arms, attempting to strike the mech, who raised its sword up to block the monster's blow. With a successful block, ZooRobo then swung its sword directly into the beast's chest, knocking it backwards.

The monster stumbled, and regained its composure, letting out a roar at the heroic robot. It dug into the ground with its claws, and began chucking huge chunks of dirt at ZooRobo. Its blade cut most of the chunks in half, until one slapped it right in the face, blinding the pilots.

ZooRobo wiped the dirt off, only to find the monster swinging its claw directly at them, causing the robot to fall over. The shovel creature than planted its limbs on the robots own, locking it in place.

The monster raised its fist, and punched ZooRobo in the face, causing the cockpit inside to spin around.

"WHO DESIGNED THIS THING!?" Blue yelled as they spun around at incredible speeds, before stopping.

With one of its arms freed for the moment, ZooRobo quickly struck the monster's stomach, causing it to break from its lock. The heroic mech got up, and backed away from the angry monster, who pounded its claws into the ground, causing tremors.

"We're too slow." Blue said to her partner. "If we were faster, we could easily beat this guy."

"Alright, how do you suggest we get any faster?" Red asked, a bit stressed.

"Let me take the controls!" She said, the cockpit spinning around, placing her in the front.

Instantly, ZooRobo put its sword onto its back. Putting up its fists, it hopped back and forth, ready to take the monster down.

"ZOOROBO, USAGI MODE!" A voice yelled, startling the two.

"What was that, and what did we do?" Red asked, a bit confused.

"I think we've figured out how to beat this thing!" Blue replied back.

The robot dashed towards the monster, letting out a flurry of punches directly into its face, the beast unable to do anything about it as the punches kept coming. The punches stopped as quickly as they began, the monster stepping back in pain.

The monster roared, and leaped at the mech, which quickly rushed forward towards the monster, and performed a sliding kick. The beast just barely missed them, falling face first into the grassy ground.

ZooRobo dashed over to the grounded, stunned monster, and kicked it over. The mech jumped onto the monster's own vulnerable body, and began rapidly punching it in the face once again, finishing with a kick to the face as well.

It leaped off, the monster getting up in a daze. "Let's finish this off!" Blue announced, her partner nodding in agreement.

ZooRobo back flipped into the city, and landed on top of two buildings, each holding on of its feet. It then jumped high up into the air, locking its sights onto the monster.

"LUNAR KICK!" She yelled, the mech performing a diving kick straight into the monster, it somehow going right through it.

Explosions racked the monsters body, as it finally fell over and exploded for good.

"You just got buried!" Red quipped, the robot performing a pose.

"We're not done yet, Red!" Blue announced, turning the mech to a nearby mountain.

"What?" He asked, and immediately retracted, seeing the mountain.

It was Mt. Animalia, the supposed base of operations for the monster they had been fighting.

"Ooooh, I getcha." He said. "Let me take care of this."

The cockpit spun around again, putting the fox in front. ZooRobo drew its sword, and approached the mountain.

It swung the sword down with all its strength, attempting to get rid of the monsters in an enhanced size. However, they were blocked, a dark red force field appearing around the mountain, the sword harmlessly bouncing off it.

"What the?" The two ranger let out, looking as the barrier suddenly vanished from sight.

Suddenly, a loud, booming voice shook the surrounding area.

" **HAHAHAHAHAHAHA** " It laughed, causing the two rangers to clutch their ears in an unknown pain.

" **YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO STRIKE THE MIGHTY OMNIPOTENCE WITH SUCH A FEEBLE ATTACK** " It announced, the pain continuing to ring through the two. " **HAVE A TASTE OF TRUE POWER** "

The barrier reappeared, a massive glowing red spot showing up, facing directly towards the robot. A large bolt of red electricity fired from it, striking the mech and the pilots.

They writhed and yelled in pain, the mech's components detaching and disappearing, launching the two heroes back into the city. They tumbled and rolled across the ground, thick black smoke coming off of their bodies.

Blue got up, still in pain, and untransformed. "What…" She tried to say, taking a breath, "Was that?"

Red got up as well, in equal pain, and also untransformed. "I think we might have just found our big villain." He stated, taking breaths between each word.

The two decided to head back to their apartment, unaware of a figure watching them from a nearby building. A tan cheetah in a long jacket, looking down at them with a pair of goggles.

"Congratulations, Zoorangers." He said to himself, "You've passed the real test."

* * *

A few hours later, and after an awkward excuse call to Bogo, the two had returned to their apartment. Surprisingly, their wounds seemed to have nearly entirely healed by the time they got back, aside from very minor stinging.

Nick planted himself on the couch, and sighed. "So, what happened back there?" He asked, distraught.

"What do you mean, the part where we nearly got killed by a mystery villain, or the part where we nearly got killed by a different mystery villain?" Judy retorted back from the kitchen, thumping her foot on the floor loudly.

"Okay, let's take this one step at a time." He said, a bit more seriously. "Did you hear what that Enter guy was saying when he was, uh… kicking our asses?"

"You mean him telling us how bad we are at being heroes?" She said, sounding a bit angrier.

"I mean, what he was doing during that." Nick said, getting up and walking over to her. "It was our stuff."

She looked up at him as he sat in a chair next to her, confused.

"It was a bit more frou-frou, but he was doing it." He said. "He kept calling you Carrots, the dumb rabbit slash fox thing, and that 'whoopsie' thing from way back when we first met! Remember that?"

"Of course I do." She said, remembering back.

"What I want to know is how he knew any of that." He asked, slamming his fist on the table. "We keep that kind of stuff private, I think the only people who know our quirks are at the station." He continued. "How did a villain from another universe find out about this?"

"The guy seemed like a stalker, he could have been watching us without us knowing." She tried to rationalize. "The real question is what that… thing that attacked us was."

"I'm still betting on some kind of ancient, evil monster." Nick said. "Maybe it was locked away by a magic seal, or it could be some kind of evil, underground emperor that wants to take over the surface!"

Judy stared at him, slack jawed.

"What?"

She shook her head, and got up. "Whatever it was, I can tell you one thing…" She paused.

"Well, what is it?" Nick asked after a few moments of silence.

She took a deep breath, letting out a shudder. "That thing could've killed us." She said. "It could've turned us to dust… but it didn't."

The room fell silent, Nick turning to look at his paws as he twiddled them. Judy walked over to the window, opening it up and staring up at the sky.

"I know this is our responsibility now, but I feel we still need help with this whole Sentai thing…" She admitted, looking up.

As she did, she noticed a single star, shining brighter than the rest.

* * *

"WHO'S THE NITWIT THAT TOLD THOSE RANGERS ABOUT OUR SECRET BASE!?" Sambash yelled aiming his gun back and forth between Yogostein and Yabaiba. Long stood idly by, watching the two panic and run as Sambash began shooting at them both.

The biker looked back and forth at the two, Yogostein out of breath, resting against a wall, and Yabaiba cowering in fear.

"Yogostein seems too smart for that kind of slip up." Sambash said to himself, aiming his blaster towards the clown Org.

With a couple shots to the back, Yabaiba fell to the ground, Sambash towering over him.

"Alright, alright!" He yelled, shielding himself from the gun pointed towards his face. "I may have said the location of the base… ten feet away from the rangers…"

"You dumbass clown." He said, drawing his gun back. "I have a feeling the bossman would get angrier with me if a killed you, but it's tempting."

He walked away, the clown sitting up. "Thank you for your, uh, mercy?"

Enter soon walked into the room, shifting from his animal form back to his human form. "See your mission went as well as ours did, huh?" Sambash mocked, sitting down at the table.

"Au contraire." Enter replied back. "It went better than any of yours did.

"Your monster got destroyed, and you lost, sounds like it went as well as ours did!" Yogostein snapped back.

Enter ignored him "Have any of you seen monsieur Kyuemon?" He asked, looking around. "I hear he's been having trouble."

The three looked at each other, not having an answer. "He's been busy doing something." Yabaiba said, "We just don't know where he… is."

"He's at the top of the mountain, sulking." Long let out, not looking at any of them.

"Merci!" Enter thanked, disappearing into a burst of red data.

He reappeared at the top of the mountain, seeing the fox Yokai sitting down, staring off at the city. He approached.

"So, you're having problems with your next monster, hmm?"

Kyuemon barely reacted, he seemed to have sensed Enter before he even appeared. "How would you know that, machine?"

"It's called information gathering." He replied coldly. "It's our job."

Kyuemon scoffed.

"It's hard to not find out about the numerous attacks you've done within the last few hours." Enter stated.

"Why are you here, robot?"

"I want to help." He said plainly, circling around to the front of the Yokai. "We are a team, are we not?" He asked, crouching down to face his apparent partner eye to eye.

The two stared at each other for a moment. Kyuemon thought, he was certainly having… difficulties getting the transformation shuriken to work.

"Very well, Enter." Kyuemon said, standing up. "What do you suggest I do?"

Enter stood up on his own. "You're trying to make a wolf monster, correct?"

"Indeed, the famous American Yokai, Wolfman."

Enter placed his hand to his chin, thinking. "You aren't going about this the right way."

Kyuemon looked at him, quizzically. "What?"

Enter laughed, "Why would a wolf turn into a wolfman in this world?" He walked back behind Kyuemon. "You need to use this world's logic, what would be the perfect creature to turn into a creature such as the wolfman?"

Kyuemon looked down, thinking. What exactly was Enter talking about? "Explain." Kyuemon demanded, turning to him.

"You ever hear the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'?" He asked.

"Yes, but what does…" He paused, what Enter was saying had just hit him. "A sheep? Are you saying I need to use it on… a sheep?"

"Bing bong!" Enter yelled out. "And I think I know JUST the right candidate for this."

A burst of data surged from his hand, shaping itself into a piece of paper. Kyuemon grabbed it and looked. The picture on the file showed a small, female sheep, looking very angry at having to take a prison photo.

"Why this one?" Kyuemon asked, looking back at Enter.

"Let's just say…" Enter began, turning away from Kyuemon. "She has a bit of a vendetta."

He let out a laugh and disappeared, Kyuemon facing towards the city once again.


	8. Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

"Watch it, Smellwether."

Contrary to the rhino's words, he kicked the small sheep forward in the line, nearly knocking her glasses off. She let out a small growl, inaudible to the larger creatures surrounding her. She had been locked up in prison for three years at this point, and nobody there had given her a single bit of respect.

Maybe their dislike was based around her being possibly the smallest prisoner there, or it came from her being a former political power. Maybe it was both.

Either way, she hated it. She hated the only food she'd been eating for the last 600 plus days, she hated the inmates, and she hated the ones who had brought her here.

The rabbit and the fox.

Every day she grew more bitter and angry at those two. She wanted revenge for ruining her life. Her mind shifted from being frustrated with her surroundings to anger at the bunny cop and her fox partner.

The fox had even become a cop within the last while, what a wonderful way to make fun of her.

She felt another kick, this one a lot stronger. "Move it up, baa-brain." The rhino behind her said. She had gotten wrapped up in her thoughts, and hadn't noticed the line moving.

She sighed and moved, she was next to be served. She went up on her toes, trying to get her tray up onto the counter. She heard a wet slop hit the tray, some of it landing on her dirty white wool. She grabbed the tray, and searched for a table in the cafeteria where no one was sitting.

She found one off in the corner. The sheep enjoyed sitting alone, it helped her think about revenge plans. Once that would probably never come to fruition, but they helped calm her.

She poked at her "food". It had been three years, and she'd eaten the stuff for nearly the entire time, but she had no idea what it actually was. It was a brownish orange, and covered in lumps. It looked like liquefied meat, but tasted of nothing.

As she ate it, she thought about plans when she got free. Maybe she would put up a facade of forgiveness, and destroy the two from afar. Maybe she would risk going to jail again, and just kill them herself. No matter what, she was going to get back at them.

After the disgusting food, everyone returned to their cells. Bellwether hadn't managed to get a cell mate yet, to her relief, but the solitude by itself was one of the worst parts at this point. Every day she wondered whether no one or someone would be worse, and she could never decide.

She continued thinking to herself, laying down on her uncomfortable bed and staring out at the night sky through her barred windows. Some days she thought of escaping, but her being on the third floor on an island prison put the kibosh on those every time she tried to logic it out.

After what felt like a short time, the lights of the prison shut off, signalling that it was time for shut-eye.

The bed was probably the worst part of this entire experience, a thin mattress over a hard piece of metal. Luckily, she had her wool, which made for a decent replacement on nights when it felt really bad.

She closed her eyes, rolled over to face the wall, and drifted off to the usual awful sleep.

* * *

Her eyes jolted open.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it most likely had, and it was still dark outside. Waking up in the middle of the night wasn't exactly a rare occurrence, but something felt wrong.

She heard something. Something breathing.

It was behind her. It was a calm breathing, only audible due to the silence of the building. It wasn't like anything she had heard. Her heart raced, wondering what it was. An angry inmate that broke in to her cell to kill her? Had she gone insane? What if it was some kind of monster?

The thoughts continued until she heard footsteps. Her heart started to beat even faster. Then, a paw of some kind placed itself against her head. It was leathery, and had a shape she had never seen or felt before. She should've screamed, but the terror was causing her to freeze up. Maybe if she pretended to sleep, it would go away?

She shut her eyes as hard as she could, attempting to go back to her dreams.

"I know you're awake, Bellwether."

"W-who are you?" She asked, shuddering.

The thing removed its bizarre paw. "I am not here to harm you." It said, in a calm, smooth voice.

"Then what are you here to do!?" She blurted out, finally sitting up and facing the creature.

In the dark, all she could make out was a vague outline, and the thing's glowing, yellow eyes. The illumination revealed a vaguely fox shaped head, but from what she could make out, it was nothing like a fox.

"What… who are you?" She asked, standing up and backing towards the wall.

The creature laughed, "I am Izayoi Kyuemon." It explained. "I simply want to help you." It stated. "I want to help you escape from this dreadful prison, I want to help you get your…" It paused, and looked her right in the eyes. "Your revenge. Your revenge on the two who have wronged you."

"Judy and the fox?" She asked, calming down a bit. "You can help me… get rid of them?"

"Indeed." It said, holding out a small, metal object, which gleamed in the light. "All you need to do is… poke yourself, with this."

Bellwether grabbed the object. She wasn't entirely sure what it was. "How will this help?" She asked sceptically.

"This shuriken will give you untold power." Kyuemon explained. "With it, not only could you destroy Judy and her fox friend, you could take control of the entire city again."

She looked down at the bladed object. "You're not bullshitting me, right?"

"Now why would I ever do that?" Kyuemon laughed. "We're all friends here, I only want what's best for you."

The two stared at each other. Kyuemon's eyes stared at the sheep, the glow seeming to grow even more intense. Anxiety hit the sheep, but she took a deep breath to calm down.

She finally gave in. "Alright, I'll do… whatever you want me to do with this."

"Just stab it into your arm, unlock your true power!"

She held the blade up in her right hand, sticking out her left wrist. She gulped, staring down at her own arm.

"Do it, Bellwether." Kyuemon whispered.

In a single motion, Bellwether jabbed the shuriken into her arm, an intense pain washing over her. She tried not to yell in pain, seeing blood rise up from the wound. A purple glow began to surround the shuriken.

Kyuemon began to laugh, as the purple glow began enveloping Bellwether's body. The blade absorbed itself into her skin, as she felt her bod begin to change. An awful pain cracked through her bones. She looked at her wrist, the wound suddenly gone.

Her wool was beginning to change, from soft white wool to coarse, brown fur. Her sight turned blood red, now being able to fully make out the monster standing in front of her, which she soon towered above from on top of the bed.

A loud howl resounded through the prison, one no one had heard before. Not even the timber wolves joined in.

The howl was followed by a loud crashing sound, and then the wailing of sirens.

* * *

It had been a week since Enter's attempt at destroying the city, and his words still echoed in Judy's mind. The doubt in her abilities had been noticeably bothering her, which Nick had of course noticed.

As they sat for roll call, Nick thought about this. He had been thinking about it the entire week, but he hadn't been able to say anything about it. Mostly because he himself wasn't sure if Enter was wrong. The only reason he wasn't acting weird was mostly because this was a thing he'd dealt with for most of his life.

The two sat in thought throughout the entirety of the meeting, unaware of their surroundings.

"OFFICER HOPSS, OFFICER WILDE!" Bogo yelled at them, causing them both to snap out of their thoughts, and turn in attention to the buffalo.

"Took you long enough." Bogo scolded. "What is with you two, you've been acting odd for the last week!"

"We, uh," Nick began, "We've been having a rough week, lots of… things going on in our lives."

Bogo nodded, "I understand. To be honest, I'm surprised it took you two this long."

Both of the officer's eyes widened, their fur turning red. "NO!" They both yelled in sync.

"Sir, it's nothing like… that, we're not…" Judy fumbled to explain.

Bogo began to laugh. "Kidding, kidding!" The two sighed in relief, and slumped back into their chairs.

The buffalo suddenly turned serious again. "Now, I have a rather personal assignment for you two."

He placed his arm on the podium, and began to explain. "It seems an old acquaintance of yours has escaped prison."

"Wait, you don't mean…" Judy began.

"Smellwether finally did it, huh?" Nick finished, sounding a bit impressed.

"Indeed, she seems to have escaped last night." Bogo continued, ignoring Nick's mocking nickname. "Considering you have a bit of a history with her, I wanted you both to go investigate. Perhaps you can make some sense of it."

"Another weird case, huh Chief?" Nick joked, hopping down from the chair. "You sure have been putting us on a lot of those recently."

"What can I say," Bogo said, "You two tend to be able to solve them, why should I stop?"

"Point taken." Nick said, back, the two officers heading out.

"Nick, do you think we come off like that?" Judy asked as they headed for the cruiser.

"Like what?" He asked as they headed out the door of the station.

"Like, you know…" She said, blushing a bit.

"Ohhhhhhhh." Nick realized what she meant as they got to the car. "Probably, yeah." He said, shutting the door. "Entirely a weird coincidence though, we're just friends." He paused, and looked at. "Right?"

"Yes yes we are." She quickly said. Probably shouldn't have brought it up, she thought to herself.

"Anyway," She said, attempting to change the conversation, "You ready to go to Elkatraz?"

"You mean go back, right?" He joked, watching as his partner's faced grew a look of terror. "Joke, carrots. I've never actually been sent to Elkatraz."

"GOOD!" She yelled, relieved. Though, she couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

* * *

The guard was resting in his booth. He has been there all night, since the guy on the night shift had an "accident" a few hours before. He had managed to make it the night, but began dozing off during the day.

Suddenly there was a knock on the booth's wall, causing the elk to jolt awake. He looked down, there was a fox, dressed as a police officer, wearing a pair of ridiculous aviator sunglasses.

"Two for the cruise to Elkatraz." The fox said, removing his aviator glasses. "Don't worry, we got cash." The fox continued, causing the guard to roll his eyes.

Judy elbowed him in the gut, causing the fox to grunt in pain. "I'm sorry about him." She apologized. "We're here to investigate a prison escape." She held up her badge, the elk leaning down to eye it.

He sighed, and grabbed a pair of keys from the wall inside of his booth. "Hope you two know how to drive a boat." He tossed the keys to them, Nick fumbling to catch them. He motioned towards the boat.

The two looked past the booth, onto a very dirty pier, with a rather small speedboat parked next to it. They walked towards it, and then looked at each other.

Judy looked back at the booth. "Shouldn't we have a captain, or something?" She yelled back. The only response was very loud snoring.

"Relax, fluff." Nick said, twirling the keys on his claw. "I know how to drive a boat."

"Really now?" She said. "When did you get a boating license?"

"Never said I had a license."

Judy facepawed. This was certainly dubious, but it was also their only way to get to the island right now.

"Don't tell anyone I let you do this." She groaned, Nick hopping into the boat.

She got in as well, just as he started the engine, making her nearly fall into the water.

"Whoops, sorry!" He apologized to his rather disgruntled partner.

She sat down in disappointed silence, the boat speeding off.

After a rather quiet boat ride, (Nick had tried to spark up conversations, but it didn't go well) they arrived at Elkatraz Island.

They parked the boat, and got out. Three figures walked up to them as they got out. Two of them were a rhino and a hippo, dressed in guard's uniforms. The third was another elk, this one much older looking, and dressed in a black suit.

"Are you two Officers Hopps and Wilde?" The elk asked.

"Indeed we are." Nick said.

The elk grabbed both of their paws and shook them hard. "I am Elkton Johansson, current warden of Elkatraz Prison, nice to meet you both." He stopped shaking their paws, which they waved in pain. "Say, where's the boat driver?"

"Busy sleeping on the job." Judy said.

"What?" Elkton let out, turning to one of the guards. "Remind me to have a talk with Mr. Terrence." He said to the rhino, who nodded.

"So, anyway," Judy began, "You had a breakout here last night, correct?"

The elk nodded, and then motioned for the officers to follow him.

"Chief Bogo probably told you, but the former-assistant-mayor-former-mayor Dawn Bellwether managed to escape last night. I hear you two have a history with her?"

"Oh, you know," Nick began trailing behind the elk. "She just tried to kill us, not a big deal."

"But did Bogo tell you about the current circumstances of her escape?" Elkton asked.

"What was it?" Judy asked. "Did she dig a hole through to the sewers? Was there anyone else who escaped with her?"

They continued walking through the courtyard, and headed to the back of the prison. Nick admired it for a second, four stories high, dull grey, the perfect soul breaking prison. He was glad he managed to never get sent here.

They rounded the corner of the building, Elkton answering Judy's question. "No, nothing as simple as a group breakout, or even a tunnel escape, which wouldn't actually work on the middle of an island, or on the third floor, but that's not here or there." He stopped in front of a pile of rubble, and looked up. "Here it is."

The two officers faced the building, and looked up. Directly above the rubble was an absolutely massive hole.

"What the…" Judy muttered to herself.

"Did you guys start allowing explosives into the place?" Nick jokingly asked.

"Why would we ever let explosives in!?" Elkton said, missing the joke.

Nick eyed him, confused, before Judy interrupted. "Is there any security footage?" She asked. "Maybe we could work something out from that."

"That's the other thing," Elkton began, gesturing for them to follow him again. "The footage we got of last night was... odd. I'll show you."

They walked around to the front again, Elkton entering the building.

Judy began to walk in as well, before looking back and seeing Nick, standing still.

"Are you coming in?" She asked, looking at him.

"Let's see," He began, "I'm a former criminal who's ruined a lot of worse criminal's lives, why would I want to go into a high security prison?"

"Well, because it's high security." She answered. "If you do see anyone you know, it's not like they can hurt you."

"You've never seen Silence of the Lambs, have you?"

She shook her head. "Besides, we have the warden and escorts, if anything happens, they'll be there."

He sighed, "Alright." He followed her into the jail.

The place was very... sterile, as you might expect a jail to be, but it felt off. Hundreds of inmates, tons of different species. Most of them seemed to eye the cops, which caused Nick some anxiety.

They quickly caught up to the warden and the guards, who seemed to not notice they were missing for a few seconds. They walked in silence, Nick looking around nervously. Sure enough, there were some inmates he recognized, none of them seemed to notice him though.

He continued to follow, up to the second floor, in the relief that nobody said anything. Until a sudden bang sounded as he passed a cell.

"Nick Wilde, izzat you?" A sly voice whispered.

Nick knew that voice.

He sighed, and turned around. Through the cell bars looked a rather skinny lion, with a mangy mane and a rather crazed stare.

"Well, if it isn't Dave 'Scratchmark' Clawbick." He said, staring at the lion in a mix of remembrance and disdain. "How'd you end up in Elkatraz?"

"Oh, just a small homicide case." The lion joked. Nick remembered why he hated this guy. "What happened to you, man? You started pretending to be a cop or something?"

"No, Clawbick, I'm an actual cop." He held out his badge.

The lion burst into laughter, nearly falling over. "SERIOUSLY!?" He yelled between guffaws, "You used to be cool, Nick! Now you're a blueback!"

"I changed." The fox said sternly.

"No one can really 'change', Wilde." Clawbick said back.

Nick tried not to let out a growl, but it accidentally slipped, causing the lion to laugh again.

"So, what happened to the rest of the gang?" Nick asked. "They finally break up, or are you still playing your children's games?"

"Oh, they're all here." Clawbick answered. "They thought putting us in different cells would mean we couldn't plan an escape. Idiots."

"NICK?" Judy's voiced resounded down the hall, catching both their attention. "NICK WHERE DID YOU GO?"

"S'that your partner? The bunny cop!?" He began to laugh again.

"I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" He cried back, ignoring the lion. "I hope I never see you again, Clawbick."

"Well, I hope we meet again." The lion said, as Nick walked away. "IN HELL!"

Nick ran off to find his partner, who had been waiting for him around a corner, alongside Elkton and the guards.

"Where were you?" Judy asked, a bit worried.

"Just, uh, reacquainting with an old colleague." He explained.

"Well, if you want to see the security tapes," Elkton said, "Just go in here. They won't help you, but it's better than nothing."

The two looked at each other, that certainly didn't bode well.

They went through the door, and into the security room. Several screens greeted them, each showing a different part of the prison. Elkton walked over to a keyboard, and began to open up files on a computer. The two officers watched, only at his shoulder height.

"Here's the recording." He said, a black and white, angled shot of Bellwether's cell showing up.

They could clearly see her, sleeping in the cell. Elkton hit fast forward, it was like that for hours. Suddenly, there was a few minutes of static, which ended nearly as soon as it began. Bellwether was now gone, and light poured through a huge hole in the wall.

"What the hell?" Nick said.

Elkton nodded, "It's absolutely befuddling!" He yelled, placing his hooves against his head. "No one can figure it out!"

"I dunno," Judy said, stepping forward. "I think, maybe, we can work something out." She nudged Nick in the side.

"What?"

She whispered into his ear, "I think I have an idea of what's going on."

"Uh, alright." He whispered back.

"Thank you for showing us all this, Mr. Johansson." She said aloud. "This will really, really help in tracking down Bellwether." She paused. "That wasn't sarcasm."

The two said their goodbyes, and headed out of the building.

"So, what do you think is going on, Carrots?" Nick asked as they stepped into the courtyard.

"What was it the last two times we dealt with mysterious, impossible to solve crimes?" She asked back.

"It's a monster attack?"

She nodded in response. "There's really no other option after seeing that, honestly. Well, I mean there is, but it seems a lot less likely."

"Well, we have a probable cause of escape, now we just need a lead." Nick said.

The two continued to walk towards the pier, until a loud noise sounded from Judy's pocket.

"Oh god, not your phone again." Nick sighed.

"Maybe it actually is my parents this time." She said, trying to reassure him. This fell when she pulled out her phone, and the display showed a number she didn't recognize.

"Well, at least it's probably not that Enter guy again." She said, answering the phone. "Sorry, but I think you called the wrong number."

"What?" The voice on the other side said. "Is this Judy Hopps?" The voice had an obvious, exaggerated southern drawl to it, which kind of weirded out the rabbit.

"Oh, I guess you didn't call the wrong number." She nervously laughed. "My partner and I are kind of in the middle of something, so if-"

She was cut off by the voice yelling. "YEEEEHAW! I was worried I'd called the wrong person! I know y'all are in the middle of a case, but I reckon I might be able to help."

"What?" She questioned. "Who are you?"

"Telin' you right now would ruin the surprise!" The voice continued. "Come to the ol' abandoned fake meat restaurant in the, uh..." He paused, and there was the sound of pages flipping. "In Savanna Square. See y'all later!"

He hung up. Judy looked at her partner in confusion.

"What happened?" Nick asked.

"Some... really weird sounding guy wants us to meet him in Savanna Square, at an 'abandoned fake meat restaurant'." She shrugged. "You have any idea what that is?"

He placed his paw to his chin. "Fake meat place, huh?" He said in thought. "Probably means the Buffalo Rodeo Diner."

"Wait, something like that exists?" Judy asked, dumbfounded.

"Sometimes a pred just wants to tear into a facsimile of a sliced cow's hide."

Judy tried not to retch at that, the fox getting enjoyment from her disgusted face.

"So you want me to drive the boat again?" Nick asked.

She rolled her eyes.

* * *

"So, why was this place abandoned?" Judy asked as they drove through the streets of Savanna Square.

"Let's just say that, one day, the fake meat wasn't exactly fake." Nick answered.

"Are you kidding me!?" She yelled, surprised and terrified by his answer.

He nodded, pulling down his shades. "Some psychopath broke in and replaced all the food with accurately prepared dead bodies."

She felt like throwing up just thinking about it. "I really do not want to know anymore."

"They say the place still smells like the dead. Which is why it's abandoned."

Judy sighed, and tried to ignore the fox.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the Buffalo Rodeo Diner. The place looked as tacky as it had sounded, designed to look like an old hut. A large buffalo skull hung over the door, obviously fake due to its size, and because it hadn't seen any rot after all these years.

"People came to eat here?" Judy questioned, receiving only a nod in reply.

She walked up to the door, about to open it.

"Wait!" Nick yelled at her, pulling her back from the door.

"Oh are you also thinking this is a trap?" Judy asked, hopefully.

"No." Nick stated. "I used to use this place as a hideout, we should plug our noses before we head in."

"It's been like 7 years since it closed, the smell's probably lifted by now."

"Trust me, it hasn't." He assured.

She sighed, but the fox seemed genuinely concerned about it, so she complied. The two took deep breaths, and covered their noses, kicking the door open.

"What the?" Nick blurted out, muffled from his covered nose.

The place looked remarkably well kept for an abandoned restaurant. The hardwood floors were spotless, and a many tables sat in front of a large stage, complementing the booths that lined both sides of the building. The lights were also on, making the empty place even creepier.

Nick uncovered his nose, and took a whiff. It smelled fine, the place was nearly exactly the same as it was when it wasn't abandoned.

"You can unplug your nose, Fluff."

She let go, and let out a heavy breath. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Somebody cleaned the place up." He said, leaning down to touch the floor. "Recently, too."

Suddenly, a speaker located somewhere above them chimed. "The next act will be starting soon, please take a seat pardners!" A canned announcer said.

"Looks like they're still here, too." Judy said.

The two rather awkwardly took a seat at a table in the middle of the room, and waited. Nick grabbed a menu placed on the table, and looked through it, Judy simply tapping her foot repeatedly.

"What do you think I should get, the prime steak, or the ribs?" He jokingly asked. "You know, the bones were just hard plastic, good chew things."

"When's this guy gonna show up?" Judy asked, ignoring her partner.

Just as she said that, the lights turned off, the only remaining being two pairs of spotlights that shined on the stage.

"It's time for our next act, please welcome-" With the last word, the announcer cut off. Apparently whoever was showing didn't have a sound clip to play.

The spotlights turned to the stage, and began flashing varieties of reds, whites and blues, before turning into a single, large gold light.

A burst of smoke appeared on the stage, a figure appearing from it. The smoke obscured it, but from the outline the two could make out what looked like a ten gallon hat, and a… poncho?

It pulled out a microphone, and began to sing as the smoke cleared.

" _Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light_  
 _what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?_  
 _Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight_  
 _over the gallants we watched were so gallantly streaming?_  
 _And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,_  
 _gave proof through the night that our flag was still there._  
 _Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave_  
 _over the land of the free and the home of the brave?_ "

Just as the two were about to applaud, it pulled out what looked like a guitar, and strummed it as hard as it apparently could. An incredibly loud guitar riff struck through the empty building, clearing the smoke away.

It looked similar to GokaiSilver, in that it was obviously some kind of Sentai ranger. Only this guy looked a lot like a cowboy, his visor shaped like a large star, and what had looked like a cowboy hat turned out to be part of the helmet.

"Shining brighter, burning hotter than the sun possibly could!" He disappeared into a puff of smoke, reappearing on the table at one of the booths to their side. "Once a man of two worlds, now a man of three!" He disappeared in a puff of smoke again, this time showing up on their own table. "The valued, shining sixth member of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger…" He disappeared once more, the smoke causing the officers to cough. "The Last Western Ninja, STARNINGER!" He finished, strumming his guitar again.

The two stared at the cowboy as he postured. "Y'all can applaud now." He said, which they did.

He hopped from the stage, and walked to their table, doing his best to tip his helmet-hat to them. "Name's Kinji Takagawa, but you folks can call me StarNinger."

"So, you're another Sentai guy sent to help us?" Judy asked, a bit excited.

"Sure am, little… rabbit." He answered, a bit awkwardly. "This guy callin' himself AkaRed sent me a message to meet up with you two. Said it was personal, on multiple levels."

"Definitely personal for us. An old…" Nick paused. "Can we call her an enemy?"

"I'd say enemy is a fitting word right now." Judy answered back.

"An old enemy of ours escaped from jail." He explained. "Seems like she might be getting help from these monsters that have been attacking."

"Well, if that isn't a right pickle." Kinji exclaimed. "Don't worry, if there's a monster running around, I can track it with this." He held up a small hamburger-looking object.

"Is that a hamburger?" Nick asked.

"Almost, it's the Ninja StarBurger." He flipped it open, revealing a screen. "It's also a cell phone."

"Of course it is."

"Basically, when it rings, it means there's a monster nearby." He explained.

Of course, there was no noise at that moment.

"Our Zoolizers are supposed to make a noise when a monster shows up, but…" Judy began to explain, holding up her wrist to show the cowboy.

"They're pieces of crap, honestly." Nick finished for her, Judy begrudgingly nodding in agreement.

"That's danged weird." StarNinger said. "I am a mechanic, maybe I could look at them when we're done."

"That'd be wonderful." Judy said.

"So, Kinji, think you could tell us a bit about yourself?" Nick asked.

"Sure can!" He said excitedly. "I was born in the wonderful land of America…"

"Where?" Judy asked.

"Y'know, America! How have you not heard of America?" He asked, befuddled.

"Maybe it's because we're part of a different timeline." Nick joked.

"Oh." StarNinger let out, sounding upset. "If none of the places I know exist here, can't very well tell my story, can I?"

"I feel like we can get a grasp of it." Judy excused, not wanting him to feel bad.

"Alrighty then!" He stood up, and began to posture dramatically.

"I was born in America, where I lived with my parents on a farm. One day, a horrible monster killed them all, leaving me… alone." He clenched his fist in what seemed like regret. "I spent the rest of my life training to be a ninja, in order to meet with the famous Last Ninja, and become his student.

"Wait, so you're a cowboy, and a ninja?" Nick asked, confused.

"Yessirree!" He said, giving the fox a thumbs up. "I then joined Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, as the Western Ninja, StarNinger! There's more stuff, but it might be too much to explain here."

"So, ninja, cowboy, Ninninger, got it." Nick said, grabbing the hamburger on the table. "Oh man, there's a camera on this thing!"

"Please don't look through my pictures." StarNinger begged.

"I'm gonna!" Nick said, his claw hovering above the app's icon.

"NO!" Kinji yelled.

He then threw the hamburger at the cowboy ninja, surprising him. "Gotcha." Nick let out. "I may be a former conman, but I respect other's privacy."

He felt a sharp nudge in his side. "Stop being an ass to our guest, Nick." Judy said.

Suddenly, a loud beeping sounded from the hamburger, nearly causing StarNinger to drop it.

"Oh man, does that mean…?" Nick said.

"Sure does, my foxy friend!" Kinji said back

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry." He apologized. "You two ready to go?"

"Give us a second." Judy said, grabbing Nick by the arm, and over to the entrance.

She raised her hand, the fox suddenly realizing what she was doing, following suit. They both slammed them down onto the Zoolizers, glows covering them as they went into their Ranger forms.

"ZooRed!" Nick yelled, striking a pose. "Champion of the Sun!"

"ZooBlue!" Judy followed. "Defender of the Moon!"

"Okay, now we're ready."

The three dashed through the door to find the new monster.

* * *

She stared out over the city. This new body was strange, even if it was powerful. In fact, she felt like a hypocrite doing this. In her attempt to start a civil war against predators, who thought this would happen.

Who thought she would become one.

"So, I just need to destroy some stuff, and Hopps and Wilde will show up?" She asked, turning her body awkwardly to face the fox creature.

"Correct." Kyuemon said.

She wasn't sure she could do that. She may have tried to take over, but it isn't like she hated the city. In fact, she loved it. That is why she wanted to take over, right?

Her mind felt muddled. After years of prison, of nothing but thoughts of revenge, was she starting to turn around? But, this would be her first real chance to get rid of those two wretched officers. She wouldn't be resorting to this if they didn't show up. It was all their fault.

She growled, "Alright, I'll do it!" She swiped her claws towards a nearby building, creating blue energy beams that flew towards it. As they hit, the building was torn to shreds, collapsing under its own weight.

"That was amazing!" Bellwether said, surprised at her own strength in this body.

"Keep at it, and your revenge will be complete." Kyuemon stated, vanishing into a burst of purple smoke.

Bellwether turned back to the city. She leaped down from the roof, creating a large crack in the pavement. She growled at passersby, who reacted in terror, and began to run away.

After a bit of terrorizing and destroying stuff, Bellwether laughed to herself. "Maybe predators aren't as bad as I thought." She said. "Being one certainly is fun!"

"Stop right there, Yokai!" A voice yelled, causing her to turn around. Three creatures dressed in multicolored outfits stood there. She could make out two of them as a rabbit and a fox.

But were they THE rabbit and fox?

The one in the middle, dressed in gold, stepped forward.

"No, it can't be!" StarNinger said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Blue asked, a bit worried.

"This is the monster that killed my family!" He yelled. "The most powerful Western Yokai, the Wolfman!" He drew out something that looked like a guitar, but obviously wasn't. "This must be why AkaRed said it was personal. The Wolfman was revived, and it is written in the stars that we shall fight!"

He stepped forward, and pointed his guitar at the wolf monster, grabbing it by a handle like a sword. "Are you ready for our final round, Wolfman!?" He challenged. 'We're finishing this today!"

The Wolfman looked around for a few seconds, and then stared at the golden ninja.

"Who are you?"

StarNinger stumbled over, nearly falling on his face, and only managing not to thanks to the guitar helping him balance up.

"What do you mean 'who are you'!?" He yelled.

"Do you think I, like, actually killed your family, or is this a blame thing?" The wolf asked, in a surprisingly light voice. "Sure, there's some people I wished I killed, but I don't think I've ever directly killed anyone. Well, not until today."

The wolf stepped forward, pointing at the two other rangers, both of which were just watching in awe previously.

"Other question, are you two who I think and hope you are?" It asked.

"W-who could we possibly be?" Blue started, nervously.

"Yeah, we're just… anonymous superheroes." Nick awkwardly continued, trying to put on a fake deep voice.

"You two were way better actors the last time we met." The wolf said, shaking its head.

The two looked at each other in confusion, and then at StarNinger, who shrugged.

"Did you two just forget about me!?" It growled. "That just makes me want to kill you even more!"

The armored wolf monster leaped forward, attempting to strike the three with its claws. The ducked out of the way as it crashed into the ground, leaving five deep marks in the concrete.

"I was locked in prison for three years, doing nothing but thinking about my revenge!" It yelled slashing at Red, who attempted to block with his sword, but was knocked back. "And you just FORGOT?"

"Wait…" Red said, getting up. "Is that you, Smellwether?"

She roared, and slashed at the fox again, who jumped out of the way. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Are you kidding me!?" Blue yelled, as the wolf attempted to attack her next. "How'd this happen to you?"

"There's not much point in telling the dead my secrets!" She swiped her claws at the rabbit multiple times, causing energy blasts to fire from them. The force of the blasts knocked her back into a wall.

"Alright, you've gone far enough!" StarNinger yelled, pulling his guitar sword out. "Star Sword-Gun, Gun Mode!" He threw the sword up and grabbed it by one of the protrusions on the side, kind of turning it into a gun. He then fired at the monster, the blasts only seeming to annoy it.

"What...?" She said, turning to the cowboy ninja in confusion. "Was that... supposed to hurt?"

"Aw, consarn it!" He exclaimed, backing away. "I completely forgot about that little gimmick. Guys! There's something important I need to tell you!" He yelled, as Blue got up and dashed at the monster, Red heading towards the beast on the other side.

They both struck the wolf monster at the same time, smacking it backwards with their blades, causing it to be knocked back in an explosion of sparks.

"What is it, Kinji?" Blue yelled back.

"Oh, uh..." He replied. "Y'all just keep doing your thing!"

Red turned to him, giving StarNinger a confused look, and shrugging. He leaped at the monster, swinging his sword at it. Bellwether-Wolf blocked it between her claws, and knocked him away.

Blue followed up by taking her Rabblasters out, and firing them at the wolf, who deflected all of the rabbit's shots with her claws. Bellwether responded by slashing her claws at the rabbit, causing another round of energy blasts to shower her.

"Can you stop doing that!?" Blue yelled as she covered herself from the explosions.

"Oh, sure!" Bellwether laughed in response. "How about this instead!?" She turned to Red, who was just getting up, still dazed. She unhinged her wolf jaw, and let out a loud howl, which visibly rippled through the air towards the fox.

Red was knocked off his feet, and flung into the wall of a nearby building, leaving a large dent in the side of it. He fell limply to the pavement.

"NICK!" Blue yelled, running over to him. She knelt down, and grabbed his hand. Thankfully, he still had a pulse. "How DARE you!" She yelled at the monster, who was busy cackling in delight.

"Man, ruining you two is SO much fun!" She laughed as the rabbit clenched her paw in anger.

Blue rushed forward, preparing to strike the monstrous wolf with her blades. She Leaped up to strike the monster, only to be greeted with a flurry of claw swipes directly to her body. With her momentum completely stopped, she fell limply to the ground as well.

Blue attempted to get up, only for a large foot to bring her back to the ground. She glanced upwards, seeing Bellwether bring up her claw. "Time to finish you off!" She laughed, ready to strike.

She felt a blunt object hit her stomach, not hurting, but knocking her off of the rabbit. She looked up from this blow, seeing the golden person from before scooping the rabbit up into his arms, and holding his ridiculous sword.

He then leaped over to the unconscious fox, putting the sword away, and picked him up in his other arm.

He shuffled them both under his left arm, and pulled out some small white balls. "See ya!" He yelled, throwing the balls to the ground, which exploded into plumes of think, white smoke.

She slashed through the fog, trying to find her opponents. As the smoke cleared, she realized they were completely gone. She let out a roar in frustration.

"COME BACK HERE!" She yelled, her voice seeming to get deeper. "COWARDS, LET ME KILL YOU! GRAAAAAAHHHHH!"

In her anger, she slashed around wildly. Buildings fell as she continued to roar.

* * *

Judy opened her eyes, her vision blurred. She looked around to see a familiar setting, it was her bedroom. The last thing she remembered was watching as the monstrous new Bellwether prepared to strike her. How did she...?

The door creaked open, and StarNinger leaned into the room, trying not to hit his head on the roof.

"Good, you're awake!" He said. "I need to talk to you and Nick about somethin', come to the kitchen."

She got up, feeling a small jolt of pain as her foot placed against the floor. She grunted as she limped towards the kitchen. Exiting the door, she found Kinji sitting at the table, awkwardly, alongside Nick.

She sat at the table, rubbing her sore leg. "What did you want to talk about, Kinji?"

"Well, you see..." There was a bang on the table.

"Okay, redneck, I got a question for you before you say anything else." Nick's harsh words took them both aback. "Why didn't you do anything!? You almost let us get killed by that monster!"

Kinji tried not to make eye contact with the angry fox. "I... I couldn't..."

"Didn't you say that the Wolfman killed your family?" Judy asked. "Did you have a PTSD attack? I'm so sorry you had to go through that again."

Nick's anger quickly subsided. "Oh, now I feel like an asshole." He said.

"No! No, nothing like that!" He tried correct. "The Wolfman Yokai has the power to resist attacks from humans. I literally couldn't do anything during that fight!"

"So, because you're a human, you can't hurt her?" Judy asked.

He nodded, "And because you two are... animals, you CAN hurt her."

"Did you defeat this thing before?" Nick asked. "Cuz that sounds like an impossibility if your entire team was humans."

He got up, hitting his head against the ceiling and letting out a grunt. He stumbled over away from the table and got on one knee, pulling out his guitar sword and placing it on his knee.

"I must reveal to y'all," He strummed the guitar. "My shameful secret." He began playing on the guitar as he explained. "When the Wolfman first showed up, I was so enraged that I took desperate measures to get revenge on him. I sided with an evil monster, who made me part Yokai m'self, which let me finally defeat him."

He stopped playing and stood up, hitting his head again. "Ow. I regretted making that decision, especially when I turned into a Wolfman myself."

"Wait, you turned into that monster!?" Judy questioned.

"Don't worry, I got over it."

They both glared at him.

"Anyway, the point is, you guys ain't strong enough to beat the Wolfman by yourselves." He explained. "You need me, but I can't do bumpkis. You can see the problem."

"Before we move on to the test, professor, how about you let us in on some things?" Nick asked.

"What?"

"Just what exactly are these Yokai you keep talking about?" He continued.

"Well, Yokai are legendary ghosts that live in Japan-" Before he could continue on any more, he was cut off by Nick.

"Okay, now what's this 'Japan' thing?" He asked.

"It's another place on my Earth, this really isn't a big deal right now."

"He's right, what's up with you Nick?" Judy asked, giving the fox a look.

"Hey, when a guy nearly leaves you for dead and also has relations with a monster, a guy gets sceptical." He explained. "Especially when he says he's useless."

"I'm really sorry for that, but if we can work something out together, we can beat the Wolfman!" StarNinger said, looking at Nick.

"Okay, so these Yokai are basically ghosts, right?" Judy said, trying to change the topic and come up with a plan.

Kinji nodded, "They're made up of negative emotional energies, and usually possess a household object."

"Like a chainsaw?" Nick asked.

"Exactly." StarNinger replied. "Me and my team fought a lot of them over the year we were together."

"So, you guys were Ghost Busters?" Nick joked.

"I guess you could say that." Said Kinji, not getting the joke.

Nick gave him an odd look.

"The Western Yokai are different, they're a lot more powerful." He continued, still not getting the joke. "If the Wolfman bites you, he can transfer his Yokai energy into you, turning you into a Wolfman!"

"Sounds like our Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing myth." Nick said.

StarNinger tilted his head in confusion.

"It's an old superstitious legend." Judy explained. "It's when a sheep gets cursed to turn into a wolf monster during the full moon."

"It's a really specist legend, honestly." Nick continued.

"The first account was made all the way back in the fifteen hundreds, of course it's specist." Judy said, a bit exasperated at the thought. "The legend says that if a Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing bites another sheep, they become one as well."

Nick sighed, "If only rodeo boy was a sheep, maybe he could do something about this."

Judy's ears perked up at what Nick had just said. "If you get bitten by the Wolfman, you'd be part Yokai, right?" Judy asked Kinji.

"Yeah, but what are you..." It quickly hit him. "Oh no, I'm not doing that again."

"It's our only choice, Kinji!"

"What?" Nick said, having missed the exchange.

"She wants me to get bitten by the Wolfman!" He yelled.

"Might do you some good!" Nick joked.

"Hey!"

"Okay, enough of that you two." Judy said, attempting to push Kinji back. "If we can't beat Bellwether through force, we'll have to play a bit dirty." She explained to the two.

"Just like old times, huh?" Nick leaned back in remembrance.

"Okay, gotta ask, what's with y'all and this Bellwether person anyway?" Kinji asked, crossing his arms.

"Oh, we just managed to foil a massive conspiracy she started." Nick said proudly.

"She'd probably describe this as an arch-enemy thing?" Judy said. "It's not really like that, since we only foiled her once."

"Anyway," Nick said, hopping down from his chair. "I say this calls for a good old fashion, oh what do you call it?" He turned a knowing eye to Judy.

"Time for a hustle."

* * *

"You said I could defeat them!"

"You can," Kyuemon responded, growing frustrated at the complaining monster. "You just need to use your powers."

"How can I use them if you won't tell me!?"

Kyuemon turned and let out a small laugh, causing the wolf to grow angrier. "How would I know what your body is capable of? You seem to have developed new abilities anyway."

"Fine!" She let out. "I'll destroy them myself, no thanks to you!"

She turned around to see the city skyline form the building they were standing on. Suddenly, a strange smell went through her new snout, a sensation she reacted negatively to.

"Peh, what's that smell?" She wasn't used to her sniffer yet, and the awful smells of the city had been wafting through her the entire day, but these smelled different. Familiar.

"A fox, a rabbit, and a…" She paused. "Got them. Time to go finish those three off once and for all!"

Kyuemon turned to face the wolf's back. "Three? Was there a silver one there with them?" He asked.

"What? No, this one was gold." She replied back, a bit confused at the question. "Whatever, I'll kill them all anyway."

Kyuemon jolted forward, only for the wolf to leap off into the city. He grunted. "A gold one? It couldn't be…" He said to himself. "This could be an issue." A pluming darkness suddenly appeared behind him, which the fox Yokai backed into, vanishing.

Bellwether continued to follow the stench, the horrible smell that made her angrier and angrier with each second. She landed on a roof, and spotted the three, standing around on an apartment roof themselves, unaware of the wolf stalking them.

She let out a howl, startling the three as they turned to look up at the wolf, who jumped down from the higher building she was previously on, and crashed onto their level.

"There you are, Smellwether." Red joked. "Though, I guess we might have to start calling you 'Smelled-it-Wether'."

"That's a really bad nickname." Blue replied.

"Yeah, doesn't have the same punch." StarNinger finished.

"Everyone's a critic."

"SHUT IT!" The wolf yelled, firing several energy blasts at the joking heroes, who dodged out of the way. Blue dodged forward, running up to wolf and landing a straight kick to her gut, knocking the wolf-sheep backwards. Red followed up by performing a leaping slice to the monster, causing a shower of sparks.

Finally, Star pulled out his Star Sword-Gun, and fired it in gun mode. The shots harmlessly bounced off the wolf's skin, causing her to give a sharp glare to the cowboy.

"That's the second time you've done that." She said, a bit confused and concerned. "Are you sure you didn't switch that gun sword thing to blank mode?"

She then knocked the nearby heroes back with her claws, causing them to nearly fall of the building. Star rushed towards the monster, attempting to strike her with his sword guitar. Each hit caused the sword to bounce off her like a piece of plastic hitting a wall.

"You really are pathetic." She said, disappointed, and then knocked the ninja cowboy away, causing him to fall off the roof.

Blue turned around as he fell. "KINJI!" She yelled, reaching out for her friend in an over dramatic way. He slammed into the ground in the alleyway, falling limp.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Red growled, pulling out the Vickscannon. He fired a few rounds at the monster, who flinched with each hit.

Blue continued the fire with her Rabblasters, firing a volley of shots at the wolf as well, most of them hitting.

The wolf dashed at the rabbit, who jumped out of the way as she dug her claws deep into the rooftop. She effortlessly pulled them out, as a chunk of roof caved inwards. She then slashed the ground, causing a large energy wave to fire from her claws, destroying the roof as it traveled towards the rangers.

The sudden blast launched them off of the roof, and into the alleyway at the other side of the building. The wolf followed after them, landing on a dumpster and crushing it in the process. She snarled at the two as they got up.

She slashed her claws, causing a flurry of energy blades to fly at them. They managed to dodge out of the way, the wall behind them getting chewed up in the process. Red fired at her with the Vickscannon, only for the wolf to leap out of the way and avoid the blast.

"She seems to be getting better at this, huh?" Blue said, panting between each word.

"Probably getting more used to the new body." Red said. "And can I just say, it looks lovely on you, Bellwether."

"Oh you think so?' Bellwether said, looking at her new form for a second. "Could use some grooming, maybe a nail trim… Hey wait a sec-"

She was cut off by the two rangers hitting her in the face with their weapons, causing her to stumble back.

"In all honesty, I know some guys that would find that attractive." Red whispered to the rabbit next to him. She slowly turned to look at him in response.

The wolf growled, charging at them, delivering a flurry of swipes and slashes, knocking them both to the ground in a shower of sparks.

Just as Bellwether was about to finish them off, footsteps sounded through the alley, all three turning to see StarNinger. He strolled towards them casually, holding his Star Sword-Gun up in gun mode.

"Kinji, you're alive!" Blue yelled as the two rangers got up.

"Good job not dying, Star, now come on and-"

Just before Red could finish, StarNinger opened fire on them, knocking them both to the ground. He continued to walk forward, ignoring the two.

"Kinji… why…?" Blue moaned, only to receive a swift kick.

"What's going on!?" Bellwether yelled, confused at the events.

"I've thought 'bout it, and you're right, I am weak." He said, approaching the wolf. He then kneeled before her, and continued. "But if I team up with you, I could become stronger."

"Oh, that's, uh…" The wolf said, looking around, both nervous and somewhat flattered.

"Let's finish these two off, once 'n fer all!" He said. "We can start with the fox, he's an ass."

"What!?" Red groaned in surprise.

"Sure, sounds like a plan, partner!" Bellwether said. "And I agree, that fox is a real ass."

"Oh COME ON!" Red moaned.

"First, there's something I need you to do." StarNinger said, lifting his arm up. "In order for me to become stronger, you must bite my wrist."

"What?" Bellwether let out, still very confused at the current circumstances.

"If you bite someone, you can turn them into a loyal wolf monster." He explained. "Didn't ya know that?"

"Obviously not!" She said. "If I had I would've been doing that a lot more. But if you want me too, I guess I can."

Her jaw unhinged, and she lunged at the cowboy's arm, digging her teeth in. A purple glow surrounded them both as StarNinger yelled in pain

After a few seconds of awful pain, StarNinger decided it was time.

"That's enough of that!"

He quickly pulled out his gun, and fired it directly into the wolf's stomach. Her iron jaw grip lightened immediately, and she fell backwards in shear surprise.

"WHAT?!" She yelled up as StarNinger backed away.

The two previously weak and limp bodies of the ranger slowly climbed to their feet, shaking the dirt from their armor.

"That was a really good job, Kinji!" Blue complimented, hopping up to perform a fist bump with the cowboy.

"Was the kick too hard?" He asked. "I feel I mighta overdone that one."

She rubbed her rib cage. "Maybe a little, yeah."

"So what was with the whole 'me being an ass' thing?" Red questioned. "That wasn't in the script."

"Well, you were being really rude to him earlier." Blue said, Star nodding in response. The fox crossed his arms and stared at them.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Bellwether yelled, near hysterical.

"They call that one," StarNinger said, tipping his head up. "A hustle, sweetheart."

"Wait, all that for a single blow!?" She yelled, still confused. "That's really pity!"

"Wrong, little lady." Kinji continued. "Something YOU didn't know about your new body was that it resists attacks from humans! How could you, seeing as you don't know what a human is!"

"So," Blue continued to explain. "When you bit him, you transferred some of your own power to him. This technically made him not fully human."

"But, he said that it would turn him into a slave!"

"Wrong," Red said. "The bite only turns whoever it bites into another wolf monster, not a loyal one."

"But…"

"How did we know you'd fall for it?" StarNinger interrupted. "Well first, there was you not saying anything when my attacks hit you."

Red nodded. "Its prime monster material for them to explain their powers to you."

"So, when you said nothing 'bout that, it made it obvious you didn't know." StarNinger explained. "The other bit was when you actually fell for the wolf slave lie, if you were actually aware of that power, you wouldn't be humiliated right now!"

She let out a yell of pain and anger, which turned into a savage howl.

Suddenly, in bursts of purple smoke, several of the blue, stone creatures appeared, each brandishing a large blade.

"What? Who are you guys!?" Bellwether questioned.

"Jukkarage!?" Star yelled. "I shoulda known something was up."

"You can explain later, we need to stop these guys." Blue said before Star could go into another explanation.

"Alrighty then." He strummed his guitar, letting out a burst of sound that could be heard for a couple blocks. "Time for my star to REALLY shine!"

He slashed through a few Jukkarage, almost instantly causing them to vanish into purple mist. He pulled out a small object, shaped like a yellow star, and placed it onto a slot on the guitar. He strummed it again, and pointed at the group of monsters, including the two rangers fighting them.

"Sorry guys, but I need a lot more room to show off in!"

"What?" All three of the speech capable creatures in the crowd said.

"HURRICANE GALE!" Yelled a voice from the guitar.

He pulled the trigger, and suddenly a burst of air fired from it, turning into a near wind storm. The sheer power of it lifted up the rangers, Bellwether, and the dozen or so remaining Jukkarage.

StarNinger then swung the guitar like a sword, causing another burst of air, the strength of which pushed the airborne creatures away. The cowboy quickly ran to follow them.

* * *

After a bit of running, Star found himself in the middle of a rather flat park. A number of bodies laid on the grass, including his partners, who he ran to help up.

"What was that!?" Red yelled at the gold ninja.

"Ninja magic." He replied without irony.

"Of course."

They looked on as Bellwether and her stone assistants stood up as well, and charged at them. "I may be a ninja, but hiding won't stop PARTY NIGHT!" StarNinger announced, charging towards the monsters with his new partners.

Turning his guitar to gun mode, he blasted a few of the Jukkarage, destroying them. The star clad ninja then switched it quickly to sword mode, slashing it behind him as a few more creeped up behind him.

"YEEHAW!" He cried, destroying a few more of the stone army with his sword. "It feels great to be in action again, this is as fun as rodeo show gone wrong!"

"He seems to be enjoying himself." Blue said, busy locking blades with a Jukkarage.

"Can't let him steal the show entirely, can we?" Red said from behind her, also fending off some Jukkarage.

The two knocked back the Jukakrage, and pulled out their ZooTags. They backed into each other, surrounded by the stone army, and placed them into their guns. With the usual cry from them, they began circling and continuously firing, wiping out the crowd in a few moments.

"Wow!" Star said, running up to them. "That was mighty impressive!"

"No time for compliments," Red said, turning to face the currently panicking wolf monster. "We have a sheep to shear."

"Or a wolf to declaw." Blue continued.

Red shrugged. "Eh, you can take your pick, but the metaphor still stands."

Suddenly, a burst of dark energy appeared next to Bellwether, shocking the wolf. Out stepped Kyuemon, who was visibly holding something in his hand.

"KYUEMON!" Bellwether and Star both yelled.

"Thank goodness you're here, I could really use some help!" Bellwether said, nearly pleading with the Yokai.

"You demon, how did you come back to life!?" Star yelled, seeming genuinely angry.

Kyuemon ignored the ninja, and turned to the wolf. "I have no idea why Enter suggested you for the Wolfman candidate, you are truly pathetic."

"What?" Bellwether whimpered.

In a swift motion, Bellwether was knocked to the ground as Kyuemon pulled out a sword and struck her. He placed a foot on her back, and revealed the object in his hand. It was another one of the red badges.

"But I can make you stronger. I wonder what kind of effect Petrified Chaos will have on a conscious mind in a beast's body?" He quickly jabbed it down into Bellwether's back.

She began to glow red as Kyuemon stepped off. She yelped in pain, her voice going from recognizable, to completely animalistic in a few seconds. This fit with her changing shape, as she began to grow, her bones cracking into a four legged stance. The new form resembled a giant, armored wolf, with knife sharp claws.

"Have fun with this savage, Zoorangers." Kyuemon said, disappearing back into darkness.

It turned towards the three rangers, and let out a massive roar, causing spit and phlegm flying into their visors.

"Bellwether…?" Judy said meekly, trying to see if the sheep was still in there.

It simply glared at her.

"Smellwether?" She followed up with. Still no response.

"I think Bellwether's gone bye-bye, Blue." Red said.

"It's more like she's gone…" Blue tried to say, before the wolf turned towards the city and leaped off.

"Super savage." She finished.

The beast crashed into a road, bumping against cars as it ran away from the park.

"We need to catch her… it."

"Yeah, before she gets a ticket for road rage." Red joked.

Blue shook her head, and pulled out the motorcycle ZooTag, which red followed up with. With the call, the bikes suddenly appeared in front of the two, Star reacting in amazement to them,

"Whoa, motorbikes!?" He said. "I wish I had something like that."

"Ride with Red, then." Blue said, getting on her bike.

"WHAT!?" The two cried in surprise.

"You want me to ride shotgun with Goldilocks?" Red said.

"Why would you think this is a good idea!?" Star continued.

"Because you," She said, pointing to Red. "Have been a horrible jerk to a guest AND a teammate, so you two better hussy up and GET ALONG!"

The two looked at each other, and sighed. Nick got on the bike, followed by StarNinger. The bike was far too small for the large human, it was like seeing a grown person riding a tricycle.

"This is really awkward." He said.

"Yeah, same."

"Enough bickering!" Blue shouted, revving the engine, and speeding off to follow the monster.

The two grunted in annoyance at each other, and then zoomed off as well.

* * *

The two quickly caught up to the monster, swerving in and out of the way of a distressing number of car wrecks.

Blue reached the beast first, trailing along its side as it continued to run without noticing her. She drew her blasters, and fired them at the beast. They bounced off of the beast's thick furred hide harmlessly, leaving her in shock for a second.

She swerved in closer to the monster, and attempted to stab it with one of her blades, only to find it bend inwards when she struck. It seemed that got the monster's attention, however, as it thrust part of its body into the bike, causing it to spin-out for a second.

Once the bike stopped spinning, and Blue got her bearings, she started up and began to chase after the monster once again.

"So," She said into the communicator. "I can't seem to actually hurt this thing."

"Well, that's not good." Red responded back from a dozen feet back.

"What's not good?" Star said from the back.

"Looks like your wolf buddy's become fully invincible." Red explained snidely.

Star shook his head, "If there's one thing I know, it's that there is nothing invincible in this world. It has to have some weak spot on it."

"I'll get closer to see if there's anything odd on it." Red said, speeding up to catch up to the beast.

Soon, they had passed Blue, and closed in on the monster themselves. "I need to leap onto its back!" Star yelled to Red.

"Yeah, pretty sure that's not possible for you!" Red said, glancing down at the small bike.

Nevertheless, Star tried to stand up on the tiny, tiny bike. He managed to get somewhat of a balance by placing his foot on the fox's head, which caused the bike to lean from side to side. He bent forward, causing the bike to slide towards the monster. He leaped off the bike, and grasped onto the monster's bike via its long thick fur.

"That was really rude!" Red yelled.

"Jude said we have to work together, right?" He yelled back, struggling to stay on the monster's back. "That was technically working together!"

"Just make sure you don't fall off, alright!?" The fox yelled. "She'd definitely kill me for that!"

"Don't worry, I've been riding bulls since I was a kid!"

He attempted to get balanced on the monster's back, grabbing two particularly thick lumps of hair to use as a balance. That's when he noticed something weird, a large red marking covering most of the monster's back.

"There we go!" He said to himself, trying to pull out his sword.

The wolf suddenly turned, nearly knocking the cowboy off it. Just as he was about to fall off, he grabbed onto the wolf's side, and climbed back up. He pulled the Star Sword-Gun, and jabbed it into the monster's back. It howled in pain, and nearly threw Star off, who was only hanging on by the sword impaled into its skin.

The monster slowed down due to the pain, allowing red to catch up to it again. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He yelled.

"I found the weak spot!" Star replied back, cheerfully. "There's this big red mark on it!"

"Big red mark…?" Red said to himself. "Can you help me up there?"

Star nodded, gripping back onto the monster's fur and pulling out the sword. He strummed it against his side, and pointed to towards the fox.

"HURRICANE GALE!"

He swiped the sword, causing the fox and his bike to be thrust into the air, hovering directly above the monster's back. As the fox panicked, accidentally letting go of the bike and letting it fall into the pavement, he saw the red mark.

"GRABMEGRABMEGRABME!" He yelled, reaching out for StarNinger.

He pointed the sword upwards, the fox grabbing onto its very thick "blade". He then felt his body hit the monster's backside, and let go of the sword, quickly gripping onto its fur. He crawled up to the large red patch of fur.

"This seems really familiar." He said, out of breath.

"You've rode on the back of a giant wolf monster before?"

Red rolled his eyes. "No, no the marking is familiar. I've seen it before."

"That doesn't really matter right now!" Star yelled. "My hit barely did anything on its own, so I need your help!"

"You want to hit it together?"

The ninja nodded, which Red returned.

He grabbed the fox's paw, helping him upwards. They then both grabbed the fur with a free hand, and pulled their blades out. They struck at the same time, both blades jabbing into the monster's hide.

It roared in pain, trying to shake the two off, but they held strong and dug it deeper, a purple mist releasing from the wounds. After another howl, the creature tumbled over, skidding across the road and into a building, back first. The wall collapsed onto the monster, covering it in rubble.

Blue, having seen the whole ordeal, skidded next to the rubble. "Nick? Kinji?" She yelled, trying desperately to get a response.

The rubble began to move, the rabbit backing away with her guns drawn. A few rocks fell, revealing the upper torsos of her companions. They climbed out, and slide down the rubble, giving each other a fist bump.

"How do you like that teamwork?" Red asked smugly, giving a nod to Star.

"It was definitely… something." Blue said, reluctantly.

"Well, it got the job done at-" Before Star could finish, a large noise came from behind. The two turned around to see the rubble begin to move, and eventually explode as the monster leaped from it and behind them.

It growled, and approached the heroes. They backed away as it got closer.

However, Star stepped forward, and strummed his guitar.

"THUNDER GALE!"

He pointed the Star Sword-Gun, in gun mode, at the beast, and shot a volley of lightning and thunder at it, causing it to back away from them.

"You ready for a spaying?" He said to the beast. He then turned to Red, and held the Star Sword-Gun. "Take this and finish it off, Red!"

He threw the sword towards the fox, only for it to stop in midair, surrounded by a glowing light.

"What in tarnation?" He said, before looking at the fox, whose own sword glowed the same light.

"I think I know what to do here." Red said, looking up at the floating sword.

He threw the blade towards the guitar sword, which exploded into a burst of light, nearly blinding everyone there. Red ran beneath where the sword was, hoping to catchc them, and suddenly found himself pinned to the ground by something.

"What the…?" Blue said, looking at the object created from the swords.

It was basically a much, much bigger sword, about the combined length of both, and thicker than either of them. It had the star shaped base of the Star Sword-Gun, but the blade shape of Red's Foxfire Blade.

Red pushed it off, and attempted to lift it, only to find that it was way too heavy. "I might need some help over here!" He grunted, eyeing both of his teammates.

They quickly ran over, and grabbed the hilt of the sword, which had enough room for all of their hands. Star had to crouch down a bit in order to actually hold it properly, however.

"Last time we had another Sentai ranger, his weapon just combined with our bazooka gun thing." Blue stated as they struggled to hold the sword upright. "This thing's entirely new, so should we give it a name?"

"How about the Star Fox Blade?" Red suggested.

"Already taken." Star said. "I suggest the Solar Flare Saber!"

"That sounds a lot cooler." Red complimented.

"Alright, let's finish this then!" Blue said, pumping her fist, and nearly causing the sword to fall over.

Awkwardly, they all jumped into the air towards the monster. They swung it, causing it to crash into the ground, and a golden wave of energy flew towards the still dazed monster.

"Starry Night Slash, Party Night Edition!" Star yelled.

As the golden wave cut through the middle of the monster's body, spotlights shone down on it and the sounds of a guitar sounded through the air. The beast howled for its last time, and then exploded into a burst of stars.

"Now that's what I call a show stopper!" Star quipped.

Once the blast subsided, all that remained was a small ninja star, and a small, unconscious sheep laying on the ground.

They let go of the sword, which dropped to the ground, and separated back into the Star Sword-Gun and the Foxfire Blade. As well as a small, golden ZooTag.

Red picked it up. Engraved on it was the Solar Flare Blade. "Huh, that's odd." He said to himself.

All three of them looked at the charred street as a sudden heavy breathing broke the air. Bellwether was conscious now, and she sta up.

"Oh god, I'm alive!" She yelled, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in her arm. She grasped at the wound, and noticed the three rangers staring at her.

"Time to go back to jail, Bellwether!" Blue yelled, walking towards her.

The sheep scooted across the ground as the rabbit approached, and felt something jab into her backside.

She pulled out a small red object. "What's this?" She wondered looking at it.

"PUT THAT DOWN!" Blue yelled, rushing towards her.

"What? W-"

The object floated into the air, and let out a burst of energy, knocking both the ranger and the sheep backwards. Bellwether looked up, covering her eyes from the thing's bright red light. Now would probably be a good time to leave.

She got up, still gripping her wound, and ran off. The rabbit attempted to chase after her, only to be pushed back by the object's energy pulse.

"I don't think we have time to chase after her, Blue!" Red said, helping her friend up.

"What exactly is happening?" Star asked, walking over to them.

"Did you ever have to fight giant monsters?" She asked.

"Well yeah, all the time."

"You ready to do that again?" Red asked as they backed away from the pulsing energy.

Suddenly, StarNinger began to react in pain. He grasped his arm as purple energy began to drift from it. "It's the Yokai energy!" He said. "It's… It's coming out of me!"

The energy drifted and swirled towards the red object, which quickly absorbed all of it. With that, it flew off into the distance. In a flash, the four legged wolf monster appeared on the horizon, letting out a massive howl.

Star finished reacting to the energy escaping him, and looked up at the beast. "Boy howdy, this is a problem!"

"Not with these!" Blue said, the two then pulled out their mecha ZooTags, and summoned their robots.

Star looked up and admired the two robots. "Wowee, didn't realize y'all had Otomonin too!"

"Oto-what-now?" Red responded.

"I think we'll just keep calling them 'big robots'." Blue said.

"Oh, well you two go take care of that guy for now." Star motioned towards the giant wolf, who was closing in on the city. "I'll be there to help y'all in a bit."

"Uh, alright." Red said skeptically.

The two jumped up to the robots, and rushed towards the monster. The fox and rabbit mech soon unfolded and formed ZooRobo, who landed in front of the wolf monster with its sword drawn.

"Let's teach this dog a new trick." Blue quipped.

As the robot approached, Star looked up and admired the robot. "Wow that sure is something." He pulled out a small object. He looked at the robot face engraved in the center of its star shaped frame. "Hope you're ready for this old friend."

ZooRobo attempted to strike the wolf, only for it to sidestep out of the way. It then swiped at the robot, knocking it backwards. Another attempt at a sword strike missed, this time the wolf jumping up and kicking the robot down.

"We're too slow, we need to switch to Usagi Mode." Blue suggested.

"You really like saying that, don't you?" Red said.

She shrugged. The rabbit's cockpit then shifted to the front, the robot responding by standing up putting away its sword. It dashed towards the monster, and performed an uppercut on the beast, knocking it into the air. The robot followed with a flurry of kicks to its stomach, causing the beast to fly off.

It landed on all fours, leaving massive marks in the ground. The robot rushed towards the wolf monster, only for it to let out a massive howl, which knocked the robot down.

The robot got up again, and attempted to rush towards it once more, this time the beast swiped its claws, shooting a flurry of energy blasts at the robot.

"I think this four-legged freak's got us figured out, Blue."

"We can't get close to the thing, what are we supposed to do?"

StarNinger watched on from below. "Alright, it's time for me to shine!"

He plugged the star-shaped object onto the Star Sword-Gun, and spun it around, causing a noise to play.

"Who are you, wo-wow! Rodeomaru!"

A noise shook the giant's battleground, as they turned to look over the horizon. Over some hills, a large vehicle burst over them in a shower of explosions. It resembled a bison, but with wheels instead of feet, and a small, giant sized still, but small compared to them, blue figure rode on its back.

"Yeehaw!" Cried a voice from inside.

"Kinji? Is that you?" Blue asked, the robot looking down as the vehicle skidded over to its side.

"Sure is!" Star stated. "It's time to give this wolf something to really cry about!"

He pulled out the Star Sword-Gun again, and spun the star object on it once more. This time, nothing happened, much to Star's confusion.

"What the?"

"So, are you gonna help us, or…?" Red asked, leaning down on his controls.

"Just… gimme a sec…" He spun it again, still no response. "I'm sorry, this doesn't usually happen."

He spun it one more time, this time as hard as he could. He did actually get a response, but not what he expect.

Suddenly, Rodeomaru began to glow, and turned into a ball of light, which floated up into ZooRobo.

"What in tarnation!?"

The two pilots watched on in awe and horror. They were jolted from it by their seats shifting over a bit, and a sudden third cockpit appearing from below. This one was shaped like a bison head to compliment the other two's fox and rabbit heads.

"I say again, what in tarnation!?" Star yelled as he looked around the inside of the robot. "Where am I?"

"Welcome aboard, cowboy!" Red said, just as surprised at the events.

Star pulled out a small golden object. "Hey, I got one of those things y'all have been using!"

"Oh, put it in the slot!" Blue said. "It probably does something good!"

He plugged it in, and a noise sounded through the robot.

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

In a flash, a large figure appeared on the horizon, rushing towards the wolf monster. It didn't notice until it crashed into the wolf's side, knocking it backwards.

The figure was a large bison robot, very much in the same style as ZooKitsune and ZooSagi. It let out a loud moo, before rushing over to ZooRobo.

Suddenly, the upper half of ZooRobo split off from the legs. The bison robot leaped and began to unfold itself into an torso, the legs splitting off and forming into two large double barreled guns, which the newly formed brownish arms grabbed in their hands.

The bison's head folded into a chest piece as the fox part came crashing down on the top, its own leftover arms clipping onto the bison section's back, and the leftover bits forming into a cape.

"ZOOROBO, BISON MODE!"

"Holy cow!" Blue said as the robot checked itself out.

"Let's see what this guy can do!" Red yelled, jolting the controls forward.

ZooRobo spun its guns around, and aimed them at the dazed wolf. It fired a blast at it, knocking the beast back down once again. It continued to fire the blasts at the monster, barely giving it a chance to get up.

"This is great!" Red said.

"Yeah this thing's really powerful, thanks Kinji!" Blue thanked.

"Uh, you're welcome, but I have no idea how I did this!" he admitted. "Usually when I do that, I get my own robot."

"That's weird, but definitely not unwelcome." Red said back.

The wolf monster let out a howl, and then let out a barrage of energy blasts from its claws. With expert precision, ZooRobo shot each of them out of the air as they closed followed with another shot to the wolf, knocking it backwards.

"Dog breath over there can't even touch us." Red smugly said.

"Let's finish it off then!" Blue yelled, pumping her fist.

The robot placed its guns together, energy beginning to build in its tips. The yellow energy swirled and covered the gun barrels as it aimed them directly at the wolf, who was recovering from the previous shot.

"BISON RAMMING SHOT!" All three rangers yelled.

It pulled both triggers at the same time, shooting off the energy. The energy formed into a massive bulls head, which charged directly into the wolf, where it exploded and knocked the wolf into the air. With one last howl, it exploded in midair.

The robot twirled both of its guns and turned away from the explosion."YEEHAW!" Star yelled.

In a flash, the robot was gone, and the three rangers stood on the ground in the middle of the city.

"That was wild!" Star said cheerfully. "Glad I got to hang out with you guys. Y'all still want me to check on those wristmajigs?"

"If you mean the Zoolizers, then yes, we would love for you to make them work." Nick answered, untransforming.

"They don't actually come off, though." Judy said, also untransforming. "So I don't know how you can.

The ninja then quickly lifted up the rabbit by her arm, and began to examine the device. "Well, s'got a wrist strap, so maybe if I..."

Using his free hand, he touched the wrist strap, causing it to suddenly unzip and the rabbit to fall back down to the ground as the ninja reacted with shock to try and catch it.

"Wait, we CAN remove them!?" Nick shouted, tapping the bottom of the wrist strap as well. He got no response, however.

Star walked over to him, and took the Zoolizer off on his own. He looked back and fourth at both of them, and then down to the stunned fox and rabbit.

"Tell ya what, meet me in the center square in a few hours." He suggested. "I'll have 'em figured out by then. Trust me."

"Uh, alright." Judy said, rubbing the chafed section of her arm. "But how will we know when to meet you?"

"Oh, trust me, you'll know."

* * *

A few hours later, the two were back at the apartment. The sun had gone down, and the moon was raised over a starless night sky.

"Do you think we can just let Kinji keep the Zoolizers?" Nick asked, as he relaxed on the couch and watched TV.

"Please tell me that's a joke." Judy said as she flipped through the book of Sentai history.

"Seriously, think we can get them replaced with like... a belt? Maybe a cell phone?"

"What's wrong with them?" She asked.

"They chafe," Nick said, rubbing his arm, also noticing Judy start to at the same time. "They don't work properly, can't take them off, the list goes on."

"They're also the only things that let us beat those monsters," She retorted. "And we already decided to keep doing that, remember?"

"A choice I somewhat regret every day."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, looking back down at the book. There was nothing about Ninninger in the book, only a temporary "coming soon" page. It looks like Gai really hadn't been able to finish up the book. Too busy having space adventures, it seemed.

Suddenly, a loud explosion filled the air. The two jumped out of their seats in panic, Judy especially thanks to her sensitive ears.

"Are we under attack!?" Nick yelled.

Judy rushed over to the window, and opened it. She looked around, until something odd caught her eye. Over to the horizon, around town square, a lot of lights were flashing. Reds, blues, yellows, it looked like a concert had been set up.

"Nick, did you know about a concert in the square?"

"Carrots, I know about every concert, I would be there right now if I knew." He said, walking over to the window to look at it with her.

Suddenly, three small flares launched into the air, flying high into the starless night sky.

"Fireworks, that's probably what caused that noise." Judy said.

"Excellent deduction, Holmes." Nick joked, the rabbit giving him a sharp look.

The two covered their ears as the fireworks hit their apex, where they burst into three multicolor pictures. The middle one was the largest, and shaped like a large yellow star. The other two were red and blue, and formed very familiar pictures, resembling their Zoolizers.

"Oh great." Nick let out, uncovering his ears.

"Guess this is what he meant by us knowing, huh?" Judy said, shrugging.

The two rushed out the door as fast as they could.

* * *

The two stepped off the bus, and into the square. Their jaws dropped at what they saw.

There was the vehicle Star had summoned during the fight, parked in the middle of the lot. It had a rather fanciful concert stage set up on its back as well, where, strangely enough, three different StarNingers stood, two playing the bass and drums, and a third one playing the guitar, which was, of course, the Star Sword-Gun.

Of course, what caught their attention more was the two large posters next to the stage, each of which displayed one of them, as ZooRed and ZooBlue, in an action pose. Clearly, they were expected.

They were playing in front of an absolutely massive group of animals, who seemed to at least be enjoying themselves.

"Carrots, what the hell is going on?" Nick asked, looking around.

"I don't know, but we need to find Kinji."

The two dashed through the crowd, heading towards the large bull robot. After a lot of shoving, apologies, and yelling, they made it, and looked up at the band member playing. None of them seemed to notice them, even when they yelled up.

"I don't think he can hear us." Judy said to her partner.

"WHAT!?" Nick yelled, unable to hear her over the sound.

A warm touch suddenly gripped their shoulders. "Hey, I've been waiting for you two!" A familiar voice said.

The two reacted in shock, turning around to see Kinji standing behind them. "Whoops, didn't mean to startle ya."

"Wait, if you're down here, then who are..." Judy asked, pointing up to the band playing.

"Ninja copies!" Star excitedly explained. "Pretty cool, huh?"

He began to push them to the side of the robotic bull. "Anyway, I need you two backstage."

"What, why?" Nick asked as they passed behind one of the giant posters.

"I'll tell you in a second, we have something more important to talk about right now." Star half-heartedly explained, as they rounded to the back of the bull. Or rather, the front, as they spotted its head.

"I wanted to give you two back your Zoolizers." He said, pulling them out.

They took them, and put them back on their wrists, where they instantly tightened back around.

"You manage to work out some kinks?" Nick asked, hopeful.

Star nodded. "Sure did, it looks like the monster detection wasn't working properly due to a loose wire." He explained. "Also managed to make it so you can take them off, them not being able to come off was a weird security system."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Judy said.

"They sure are strange things, though." Star continued. "They have some incredble energy going through them, but the construction seems a bit rushed."

"I mean, that AkaRed guy said he made them." Nick said. "I feel that guy might have some loose wires of his own."

"Oh yeah, also wanted to give you this." He pulled out a golden ZooTag, and handed it to them. It had an engraving of a bison on it, meaning it probably summoned ZooBison.

Nick pulled out the Solar Flare Saber's ZooTag, and looked at it and the ZooBison ZooTag. "Looks like you helped us out a bit in the weapons department, huh?"

He nodded. "Speaking of help," Star started. "I may need your help with something... stage related."

"Oh great." Nick let out, putting both of the tags in his pockets.

"See, I may or may not have promised these kind folks that you two would be up there at some point during the concert." he explained, rather sheepishly.

The two sighed.

"Okay, first of all, why did you even set up a concert?" Nick asked, holding up a digit.

"It was the only way I could think of how to get your attention."

"You could've just... knocked." Judy said.

"Not my style." Star said, shaking his head.

"Second," Nick held up another digit. "Why did you promise these people we'd show up?"

"How else was I gonna get a big crowd for the show?"

Nick sighed, and facepawed.

"We also don't know how to play any instruments." Judy stated.

"Hey now, I might know how to play the bass." Nick stated, getting a bit of an odd look from Judy. "What, I experimented during my teens. But what I feel is more important here is that our identities are at risk, Fluff."

"Oh gosh, I wasn't even thinking about that." Judy said, embarrassed.

"Listen, I just need you two to do this, it's the big showstopper!" Star pleaded. "I can use some of my Ninpo to help you with the instruments."

They sighed. "Alright." Judy said. "We'll play a song for you."

The two then hit the buttons on the Zoolizers, turning into their armored forms.

"Alright!" He cried. The ninja then performed a series of hand movements, before letting out a yell. "STAR NINPO: LET'S ROCK OUT!"

A puff of smoke blinded the two, and when they opened their eyes, they looked out over a sea of animals. The crowd let out a massive cheer, and the rabbit felt her heart begin to beat at one hundred miles an hour.

She looked around, she was standing on a podium, where the drumming StarNinger once stood. It was black and yellow, very neon. She looked to her side to see Nick standing on a similar podium, and StarNinger, now holding a microphone.

Another burst of smoke appeared around her, and she found herself suddenly standing on the a stool in front of a large drumset. She looked over again, and Nick was holding a bass guitar.

'Guess it's too late to say never mind.' She thought to herself.

StarNinger held the microphone up to his helmet. "ONE TWO THREE FOUR AND HERE WE GO!"

Suddenly, the two found themselves instinctively playing their instruments, with StarNinger taking up vocals and main guitar with the Star Sword-Gun.

Shortly after, he began to sing.

" _Launch off a big old firework into the air!_  
 _It's our one-time shot at our dream!_  
 _You rush and surprise everyone, but just remember_  
 _You have lots of friends who are always there for you!_  
 _Take your claw, and scrtch scrtch scrtch schtch!_  
 _With out of this world abilities_  
 _Just dance a bit to a rar rararar_  
 _Tomorrow is gonna be splendid!_  
 _With clear skies all over the world!_  
 _Who's that? It's a ranger!_  
 _Oh yeah! Oh yeah yeah!_  
 _We don't intend on staying timid_  
 _Who's that? It's a ranger!_  
 _Oh yeah! Oh yeah yeah!_  
 _It's a festival, let's celebrate! Here we go!_  
 _Zyumen Sentai Zooranger!_ "

As they played through the song, Judy felt a sense of joy build up in her. It was amazing, really, all these people had shown up for them, she felt like a celebrity. As she played on the drums, in an automatic trance, she slowly began to realize that it was just kind of fun on its own.

With the last riff of the song letting out, StarNinger let out a massive yell.

"PARTY NIGHT! YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAWWWW!"

The two finally stopped playing, absolutely exhausted from around even a minute and a half of playing.

The crowd began to cheer, StarNinger egging them on as they did. "Thank you, thank you, don't forget to tip your waiter, who is also me!"

* * *

Miles away from all of this commotion, in the middle of Tundra Town, a small figure collapsed in an alleyway.

Bellwether had not stopped running since that weird red thing showed up. Even with her little hooves, she was fast. But obviously not in peak performance, as she stared at the massive wound on her arm, now covered by a cloth she had picked out of the garbage in the savanna. She gripped it in pain.

"Stupid lying fox thing." She muttered. "Stupid star man, stupid fox and rabbit."

She was amazingly angry at everything around her. Not only was she most likely going to die in the cold, even if she did find some shelter, it would most likely lead back to the police, where she'd get sentenced a much, much larger jail time.

Overall, a bad day.

She regained a bit of her strength, and got up, continuing to walk down the alleyway. She stopped when she heard footsteps.

She wanted to yell something, like "What is it, officer?" or maybe a ruder "Get the hell away from me!" but something about the being behind her froze her with fear. She gulped, and gathered enough strength to at least turn around and see it.

It was horrible.

Some kind of strange, furless creature, wearing a long coat. It reached out with its hairless, gnarled digits, and grabbed her by the fur, lifting her up.

"I see Kyuemon managed to come through for me, even if he doesn't know he did." It said. "So, you're Dawn Bellwether, hmm?"

"Who... what... are you?" She stuttered.

It laughed. "That's a question you'll be asking a lot soon enough."

The thing began to glow a horrible red, until Bellwether noticed she was glowing as well. She shut her eyes tightly, and went to her happy place.

She opened them again, only to find herself in a new place, an unrecognizable place.

Around the darkened room, only lit by an occasional pulsing red and a handful of dim lights, there stood five other creatures, including the fox creature she had met before.

There was some kind of horrible, golden mechanical creature, a clown thing, a walking suit of armor, and a half bug half biker looking monster.

"Enter, why did you bring that failure here?" Kyuemon asked harshly.

"Simple, we need intel." Enter stated, holding the terrified sheep up to the fox's face. "She was mayor of this city for a few months, she knows a lot about it."

"But what if she doesn't?"

"Then we kill her, simple as that." He explained. "Now, do you have some kind of dark ninja magic for imprisoning something?" Enter asked, the fox squinting at him.

"Give me the sheep." Kyuemon demanded. He grabbed the sheep from Enter's hand, and walked over to an empty section of the room.

He began to make a series of gestures with his empty hand. "Imprisonment Ninjitsu."

He threw the sheep into the air, as puff of purple smoke shrouding her as she hovered above. In less than a second, Bellwether was now surrounded bya small birdcage, dangling far above the ground.

"What!?" She yelled, grasping onto the bars and causing the cage to sway. "Let me out!"

"No." Kyuemon said flatly, walking away from the struggling sheep.

"So, my compagnons," Enter announced, grabbing all of his teammate's attention, side from Long. "Whenever you require something for a plan, just ask her." He pointed towards the sheep, who felt a sudden surge of fear as they looked at her.

"Cool, so it's like some kind of magic sheep-ball?" Yabaiba said. "I wanna shake it first!"

"You can do that later, numbnuts." Sambash said, socking Yabaiba in the side of his face. "We gotta wait for the bossman to finish."

Enter turned to look at the Omnipotence's cylinder. Every couple of seconds, it flashed red, but he seemed completely silent.

"Hmm, what's up with our wonderful leader?" He asked, less confused and more intrigued.

"He's doing system maintenance." Yogostein explained, clanking his spear against the ground. "Says there was some kind of error, and is looking for a way to fix it."

"Who knows how long it could take." Yabaiba said, rubbing his cheek. "It could take hours, days for him to finish, maybe even years!"

" **MAINTENANCE COMPLETE** "

"Or he could finish right now." Yabaiba shrugged.

" **ERROR DETECTED: RECREATED MONSTERS GROWING STEADILY WEAKER. SOLUTION: BREAKS TO RECHARGE ENERGY** " It announced.

"Whaddya mean by breaks!?" Sambash yelled.

" **IN ORDER FOR MONSTERS TO USE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL, THERE WILL NOW BE A WEEK LONG BREAK BETWEEN ATTACKS** "

Sambash fell to his knees and screamed.

"I don't see how this is a bad thing, Sambash." Kyuemon stated. "Having our monsters in top shape will help with the invasion."

"It will also help you idiots actually come up with halfway decent plans." Long said, still standing in a corner by himself.

Sambash got up and groaned. "Well, if it's what the bossman wants, I guess we have no choice." he shrugged. "Man, I really wanted to go cause some trouble again."

The villains began to go their separate ways, Kyuemon and Enter vanishing, Long walking out of the main base, and Sambash and Yabaiba heading into separate rooms.

Only Yogostein remained in the main hall, eyeing the caged sheep, who was sobbing.

"This could work well for me." He laughed as he headed towards the sheep.


	9. Enjoy the Silence, Feel the Noise

Yogostein's feet clanked against the ground as he approached the caged sheep, who was currently curled into a ball and crying.

He looked into the cage as he got close to it. "I have a question, sheep." He said, the only response he got was more crying.

He sighed, and then shook the cage. The sheep let out a shriek as she tumbled back and forth in the small cage, smacking into bars over and over again.

"What do you want you..." She angrily said, rubbing her snout in pain. "You... what are you, exactly?" She questioned, fixing her glasses.

"I am Yogostein, Earth Pollution Minister of Gaiark, son of Yogoshimacritein!" He announced proudly, as if it would mean anything to the confused and terrified sheep.

"Uh huh." She let up, eyeing the golden robot up and down. "Well, you look more like a tin can to me, Frankenstein. Anyway, what do you want?"

"I wanted to simply ask you a question." He stated, looking into the sheep's eyes with his deep red optics.

"Just a question?" She said, bemused. "Lay it on me."

"What kind of music does Zootopia like?"

There was a moment of stunned silence from the sheep, as she simply looked at the dead serious robot in confusion.

"You know, I was the mayor for a while, I know a lot about pipelines, undercover work, weird government cover-ups," She said, breaking the silence. "And you just want me to tell you about music?"

He gave a simple nod. "I require a popular musician for my next plan."

"What kind of plan is it?" She asked.

He pushed the cage, causing it to swing again. "Wouldn't you like to know, wool."

After the cage began to settle, Bellwether began again. "So, why exactly should I tell you anything?"

Yogostein held his spear up to the cage, sticking it in between the bars and directly near the sheep's neck. "Because if you don't, I can kill you on the spot." He rather calmly explained.

Bellwether gulped, and pushed the spear back. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you everything I know about pop stars."

He pulled the spear out on his own, and clanked it against the ground.

"If you want a big pop star, I'd go for Gazelle, she's basically been the hottest singer in the city for years now." She stated. "At least, she was before I went to jail."

The robot laughed. "Perfect, now all I need is the producer, which I can look up myself." He turned and began to walk away from the caged Bellwether.

"Um, excuse me?" Bellwether sheepishly asked, causing the robot to stop in his tracks and look back to her. "Can you get me something to eat? I haven't eaten in twenty four hours, I'm starving."

He turned away from her again. "Try asking someone who actually needs food." He mockingly stated. "Unless, you want some liquor."

"I really can't have alcohol, can't hold it down."

The robot rolled his eyes, and headed out towards the exit.

* * *

March 25th

"Yeah, yeah, I know she wants 'better music'." The jackal said into the phone as he reclined in his large office chair, feet on desk. "But we're music producers, we don't do good, we do popular."

Suddenly, a buzz came from the intercom on his desk. "Mr. Richards, you have some visitors and..."

He slammed his paw on the button on his desk, and put his phone down. "Not right now, Ms. Tannington, I'm on the phone with Reinhanna's agent, very important stuff."

"It's Rammington," the timid voice continued over the intercom, just seconds after. "And this is probably more important."

"Probably not, Standington." He said back. No response. Richards chuckled, and pulled his phone back up to his ear. "Sorry about that, what were we talking about again?"

After a few more heated minutes of back and forth on the phone, there was a sudden knock on his door. It was a hard knock, sounding like metal hitting against the fake wood of the door.

"Hang on, getting another interruption." He said into the phone, irritated. "NOT NOW, DANNINGTON!" He yelled.

The knocks quickly subsided. The jackal ran his paw across his head, trying to regain his cool. "Sorry again," He said back into the phone, letting out a weak laugh. "Secretary's trying to get a raise or something, not a big deal."

There was then a pound on the door, nearly causing the jackal to drop his phone in surprise. This wasn't a knock, or even someone pounding on a door with their fists. This was the sound of a large object hitting the door, and it became apparent as the door began to bend inwards with each pound.

Richards paused in stunned silence, and looked at the door as the pounding continued. After only a few pounds, the door flew completely off its hinges, literally, as it landed just in front of the jackal's wooden desk.

A large creature sidestepped through the door, its dull golden texture becoming visible in the room's mood lighting.

Richards held the phone up to his mouth and whispered. "I'm gonna have to call you back." He quickly hung up before another word could be swapped. Then he dropped it to the ground.

He cleared his throat, and fixed the large sunglasses he was wearing. He then let out a high pitched screech of terror, cowering in fear from the robotic monster before him.

"I assume that you are Jerrick Richards?" The creature asked, walking forward from the doorway. As he did, a number of smaller creatures walked through, each also clearly robotic in nature.

The jackal gave a small nod. "And I also assume that you are the idol Gazelle's manager?" The robot continued, walking closer and placing his hands in the desk.

"Wait," The jackal said, all fear suddenly disappearing. "Are you just a weird fan? Because I thought you were going to kill me!" He began laughing. "Listen, Daft Punk, I may be her manager slash CEO of Richards Records, but I can't get you an autograph, you have to wait until..."

"Quiet." The robot suddenly produced a spear, and held it to Richards' throat. The jackal complied with the robot's request.

One of the smaller robots pulled up a large, green chair, which the main robot sat down in. "Now, I'd like to make an offer to you." it said, a phantom grin appearing on its unchanging face.

He pulled out a flier, and placed it down on the desk, the jackal reaching over to look through it. It was written in a language he couldn't read, the letters seeming to consist of various different gear symbols.

"I am Yogostein, a member of the Gaia Ark Environmental Protection Service, we're an up and coming group who want to help protect this planet." The robot halfheartedly explained, seeming to choke on nearly every word. "At least, that's what you're going to say."

"What?" The jackal said, looking up from the nonsense flier.

"You're going to have Gazelle hold the world's largest charity event for us."

The jackal burst out in laughter at this request, pounding his fist against the table and nearly crying. "Yeah right!" He said between guffaws. "We don't do charity events, no way, no how!"

The robot stood up. "Very well then. Ugutz, get him." Two of the smaller robots circled around the desk, and grabbed the jackal by his sharply dressed shoulders, lifting him up. Yogostein then pointed his spear back at the jackal, this time energy coursing throughout it.

"Excuse me, what I meant to say was 'You're going to have Gazelle hold the world's largest charity event for us' unless you want your fried corpse found at your mother's front door step."

Richard let out a high pitched yelp as the spear came closer to his neck. "Alright, alright!" He yelled, the robots lowering him down. "I'll do your charity event. Where do you want it?"

"The largest concert stadium in Zootopia, obviously." Yogostein stated. "Oh, and before I forget..."

He grabbed the jackal by his suit collar, and dragged him across the table. He stared into Richards' eyes, and pulled out a small object. Gear shaped, and with a blue crystal carved into the middle of it. He then jabbed it right into Richards' stomach, where it disappeared, fusing into the jackal.

"What!? What was that!?"

"Oh, you know, just a listening device slash bomb." Yogostein calmly said, dropping the jackal to the ground.

"B-bomb!?" The jackal yelled, clutching at his stomach in a panic.

"A deterrent, if you will." Yogostein began. "If you tell anyone about this, I will personally see that you become nothing more than stains on your ugly green walls."

The jackal felt like throwing up from all the stress, but all that come out was a dry heave. "So get calling that pop idol Gazelle of yours." Yogostein stated, grabbing the jackal by the chin and staring directly into his eyes.

"And remember, I'm always watching you." The robot's red eyes turned into static, and then displayed Yogostein's own head, showing exactly what Richards was looking at. "You have a week."

He then laughed, and let go of Richards, and walked out of the room, the other robots following, and one even putting the door back on.

The jackal fell to the floor, and rested there for a few minutes. He then crawled back over to his phone, and dialed a number into it.

"Hello? Gazelle, baby? Yeah, I need you to come back to Zootopia, pronto."

* * *

March 27th

"Holy cheese and crackers!"

The door burst open, Nick looking around to see if Judy was okay after she had yelled. "What's going on, are we under attack!?" he yelled looking around.

Everything seemed fine, Judy was just laying on her bed, phone clutched in hand. "Uh, only the best thing ever happened!" She stated, hopping off her bed and showing the fox her phone.

"Gazelle is having a charity concert on Monday!" The screen certainly showed that, a large add on her FurBook page showing. "That means that we can get to go see Gazelle, and donate to a good cause!"

He squinted at the ad, trying to find the name of the group the money was going to. "Gaia Ark Environmental Protection Service?" He said, finally finding the logo in the corner, barely visible. It was more industrial than any environmental protection group's logo should have been, with a stylized gear coming out of the also stylized acronym, GAEPS.

"Never heard of them." He said.

"Apparently they're new." Judy said, looking back at her phone. "Anyway, it's on the 31st, wanna go?"

The fox thought to himself. He didn't actually like Gazelle's music, something that'd gotten him kicked out of several bars over the last 7 years. But at the very least, he would get to hang out with Judy in a non-work fashion.

"Sure," He said. "I'd love to."

* * *

March 31st

It had been a week of relatively normal police work, all building up to the thirty first, which had coincidentally been their day off. The two had been preparing all day, going to a concert was a big event, especially one that was happening so late at night.

"How long until you're ready to go?" Nick asked Judy, who was in the bathroom.

"Just a bit longer, don't worry!"

"Well if you want to get good seats, we have to leave in about half an hour." He stated.

He walked over to the couch, and fell onto it, waiting for his turn to freshen up. He took off his Zoolizer, and placed it on the table next to Judy's. The two had decided that wearing them to the concert might end up being too suspicious, so they decided to leave them at home. Suddenly, his phone began to ring.

He looked at the display, making sure it wasn't another mystery caller. This time it wasn't, but the number was one he'd recognized, and hadn't seen in a long time. It was Finnick's.

He answered it. "Heeey, Finnick, how's it going?" He answered cheerfully.

"Nick," Finnick started in his deep voice. It sounded different, less angry than usual, but more solemn. "Do you think we can meet up tonight?"

"What, like on a date?" Nick joked. "Well sorry, I already have one of those booked tonight."

"Listen," His voice got angrier, before calming down again. "I'm in a whole lot of trouble, and I need someone to talk to about it."

This sounded completely serious, and Nick was beginning to get a bit worried. "Uh, alright, where do you want to meet up?" He asked.

"Romino's."

"Okay, where else BESIDES Romino's?" Nick tried to get the fennick to change his mind. "The food there's really expensive, and I don't think I need to remind about me and Romino's issues with each other, right?"

"Money shouldn't be an issue for you, Slick." Finnick joked, his voice going back to that normal Finnick tone, only with a much larger hint of sarcasm. "We're meeting up at Romino's, that's final."

Nick sighed. "Alright, but if my carcass is found in a dumpster tomorrow, I'm blaming you."

"See you at ten."

"Alright, bye." Nick hung up, and slumped back down into the couch, resting his arm on his eyes. "Judy's never gonna believe me."

The bathroom door swung open, Judy dressed in much more casual clothes. "Alright, Slick, your turn." She said, walking over to him.

"Judy, I'm really, really sorry, something's come up." He tried to explain, the rabbit letting out a groan and rolling her eyes.

"Like what?" She asked skeptically. "An old friend of yours wants to meet up somewhere shady?"

"Actually, that's right on the money, Carrots." He said, completely earnestly.

"I know you don't like Gazelle, but you could've just said 'No' a week before we made all these plans."

"Judy, Finnick said he's in some kind of trouble, it sounds important!" He continued to try and explain, but she clearly didn't believe it.

"Alright, fine." She said, putting her hands up. "You go do whatever you need to, but I'm going to this concert."

She stormed towards the door, and left, slamming it shut. The fox was left in the apartment, feeling incredibly guilty about having to just abandon this. He looked at the time on his phone. It was eight, and Romino's was all the way in Sahara Square. And since Judy most likely took the car, he's have to take the bus.

He'd be just on time if he left right now. Which he did, running out of the room, leaving the Zoolizers behind.

* * *

A few rather uncomfortable, quiet bus rides later, and Nick found himself outside Romino's.

The place was large, extravagant. The lights and bright purple of the place shone against the mostly dull yellows of the Sahara, and made it especially noticeable at night. And being a night club, it was definitely designed to be that way.

"Sill as ugly as ever." Nick said to himself, looking up at the tacky blinking lights that spelled out "ROMINO'S". The apostrophe's light had gone dim, making the sign read more like a bad ripoff of a pizza joint.

He looked around, hands in pocket. Finnick and his van didn't appear to be there yet, so the fox leaned against the building and waited. He played around with his phone for a few minutes, before a loud honk nearly caused him to drop it.

He looked up, and saw Finnick's red van, the same tacky mural drawn on it as when they had last seen each other. Finnick gave the fox a glare, before parking it to the side of the building.

The two met each other halfway. "So, how's it going, Finn?" Nick tried to greet, holding out his paw. Finnick smacked it away and let out a growl.

"Awful, what's it to you?" The fennick answered, as the fox rubbed his paw from the rather hard smack. "Let's just go get something to eat, I haven't had anything good in months."

'Months?' The fox thought to himself as he followed Finnick into the building. A large rhino greeted them, as he brought them to their table, a booth at the side of the building, Finnick's van visible just outside of it.

After a few minutes of awkwardly avoiding each other's eye contact, Finnick finally let it out.

"I'm broke, Nick."

'Oh shit' Nick thought to himself as Finnick stared into him with tired eyes. "But what happened to all the money?" He asked. "We were doing that for fifteen years, and it's all gone?"

"It's not like you gave me a lot." Finnick mumbled.

"I gave you half every day, how is that not a lot!?" He was utterly baffled at the prospect of this. "Did you get conned by loan sharks or something?"

"No, I'm not an idiot." He said gruffly. "I was renting an apartment, had to get food, gas for the van, that kind of shit builds up over time!"

The waiter came over, ready to take their orders. Finnick ordered a bug salad and one of the more expensive drinks, while Nick ordered water and a chicken and cricket burger. As soon as the waiter left, they began talking once again.

"Why didn't you just get a job?" Nick asked.

"Do you honestly think someone like me can get a good job?" Finnick snidely said. "That's the reason I started conning with you, we were both unemployable. But now here you are, suddenly with a well-paying, respectable job!"

"Finn, are you trying to get me to give you money?" Nick asked.

"Nothing slips past you, Slick." Finnick joked. "I don't need the apartment, I got the van, I just need money for food, dry cleaning, and gas, alright?"

"And how much would that be, exactly?" Nick asked.

"I dunno, about a thousand a month?"

Nick sighed. "Alright, but I'm only doing this because you're my friend, got it?"

After a bit longer, the waiter returned, giving them both their dishes of food. The Fennick quickly began to scarf into it.

"Damn, I forgot how good Romino's cooking was." He said between swallows. "I've been living off dry ramen and McPawnalds for three months, this is the first real thing I've gotten to eat in a long while."

"You can quit with the pity party, Finn." Nick joked, the fennick giving him a glare before going back to eating. Nick took a big sip of water from his glass.

"So, how's it going with your girlfriend?" Finnick asked, a sly grin on his face.

Nick tried not to spit the water out in surprise, and painfully swallowed it down. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-what girlfriend?" He nervously sputtered, knowing exactly who Finnick had meant.

Finnick burst into laughter. "Oh my god, it's true! You and the bunny cop are an item!?"

He could feel his skin turning red as he scratched at his arm. "N-no, we're just partners."

He slapped his forehead as Finnick began laughing again. "I mean we're partners on the force!"

"C'mon, Nicky, everyone in the city knows it!" He stated, trying to stop laughing. "Have you seen some of the shit online once you joined the ZPD? I'm talking fan fiction, Nick, FAN FICTION!"

"That is weird and disgusting." Nick said.

"Yeah, so is most celebrity gossip."

"We're officers, Finn, not celebrities." Nick stated, though he didn't entirely believe himself at this point.

"You know I'm just teasing ya." Finnick said. "I'm just glad I'll get this money stuff sorted out, now how bout we enjoy the rest of the night?"

"Alright, but I'm not getting any alcohol, I have work tomorrow." Nick said, finally grabbing his burger.

About an hour passed, and the two had finished, and were simply waiting for the bill.

Finnick was surprisingly not drunk, despite ordering a few other, cheaper drinks. Little guy could always hold down his liquor.

Nick felt something in his pocket shake. It was his phone. As he pulled it up, he glanced at the time, 11:40, about ten minutes after the concert started. The number was Judy's.

"Hello, Judy?" He said into the phone. No response, only a faint buzzing sound. "Hello? Hello?" Still nothing. He hung up. "Weird."

"What as that?" Finnick asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"The 'bunny cop' and I were supposed to go to a concert, but then you called, and things changed." He explained, putting his phone away. "I thought she was calling to make me feel guilty, but looks like she probably just sat on it."

He felt something in his gut say something was wrong. Suddenly, Finnick gained a look of terror at something behind him.

"Nick, it's..."

The fox suddenly felt someone grab him by his shirt collar, lifting him up into the air. It was a large, surly hippo, who gave Nick an angry glare.

"Oh, heeeeey Romino." Nick said nervously. "How's it, uh, been going?"

"What are you a doing here, fox?" Romino asked in his heavily accented voice. "I tolda you to never come to my place again."

"Listen, I might've dined and dashed a few times..."

"You did it every week for a year."

"Alright, fifty two times, but I was actually going to pay you this time!" He pleaded. "I'm done doing shady stuff, just let me pay!"

"Alright," The hippo said, dropping the fox to the ground. "But you nevera come back here again!"

"Yes sir, got it sir!" Nick said, terrified. He reached for his wallet, and gave the hippo what he owed, and then quickly rushed out of the restaurant, leaving Finnick.

"What an idiot." Finnick said as he hopped down from his seat and headed for the exit.

* * *

About fifteen minutes earlier, at the concert hall...

"Stupid lying Nick..." Judy muttered to herself as she looked around the crowded arena. For larger animals, there was barely any room to move around, but for someone small like her, there was lots of room.

The concert was going to begin in about a minute or so, so she had to find a good place to sit. It was a lot more difficult than the last time she went to a concert, mostly because the place was absolutely packed.

After a bit of walking, she spotted someone familiar. It was Clawhauser! He and Judy had been talking about seeing the concert all week, of course he would show up.

She ran up to the cheetah, who was holding a soda in one hand, and a tub of popcorn in the other. He nearly dropped them when Judy yelled his name.

"Judy!" He yelled, turning to her. "I see you made it to the show!"

She nodded. "Wouldn't miss a Gazelle concert for the world!"

The lights began to dim, and the two looked towards the stage.

"Ooohhh, it's starting it's starting it's starting!" Clawhauser said quietly.

In a shower of sparks, the podium in the middle raised, revealing Gazelle and her tiger dancers. She began to sing her most popular song, Try Everything, which had basically become the theme of the city by this point.

But halfway through the song, something odd began to happen. Judy couldn't entirely make it out, so she climbed on top of Clawhauser's head in order to get a better look. It was some kind of smoke, spiraling around the stage. She also noticed Gazelle getting a nervous look on her face as the smoke came in closer.

Soon enough, the smoke had shrouded them, the music still playing while Gazelle and her backers began to cough uncontrollably, before falling down.

The crowd began to rabble, no one was sure if this was part of the show, it was environmental based after all, or if something was going on.

The true answer was revealed to Judy when the smoke cleared.

In the middle of the stage stood Yogostein, with four Ugutz surrounding him. He grabbed the microphone from around Gazelle's head, and placed it on his own.

"Greetings, people of Zootopia!" He began. "I am Yogostein, Pollution Minister of Gaiark!"

Judy slapped her forehead. Gaia Ark. Gaiark. How could she have been so stupid? She hopped down from Clawhauser, and rushed towards one of the exits.

"You organics are so easy to manipulate," He continued. "Just tell them something they want, and they'll come in droves."

Judy tried to push the door open, and even leaped up to the handle to try and get it open. It wouldn't budge, the door was locked, and she was betting it was like that on every other door.

"So how does it feel knowing that your own city idol, Gazelle," He picked up the unconscious Gazelle. "Was the bait needed for my own elaborate trap to end you all!?" He threw her off stage, the crowd reacting with boos and yells.

"Now you fools won't be able to try ANYTHING!" He yelled, begin to laugh. He then turned to an Ugutz. "That was a bit corny, do you think?" The Ugutz shook its head, and gave a thumbs up. "Oh, maybe I'll have to do standup later. ANYWAY! It is time to meet your destroyer!"

He pulled out a gear, and hurled it at one of the speakers lining the walls of the stadium. Judy ran out to look at it, as it was just above her.

It shifted and twisted in a very mechanical manner, until eventually a creature fell to the ground, nearly crushing the rabbit.

Judy could only make it out from behind, where it revealed its awkward, boxy shape. It mostly appeared to be made out of a lot of tubes. The horrified reactions from the crowd told her the front wasn't that pretty either.

It leaped to the stage, where its full visage could be made out. It had a weird, sneering face, and most of its body parts were covered in a variety of speakers. It then pulled out a strange looking microphone, which seemed to double as a spear, judging by the three sharp blades it had.

"MY NAME IS!" It yelled into the speaker. "SPEEEEEAAAAAAKER BAAAAAANNNNKIIIIIII!" The monster's horribly loud voice echoed throughout the arena, causing every animal there to cover their ears in pain.

"You still got it!" Yogostein said, playfully hitting the monster on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Master Yogostein!"

"Let's get this show really started!" Yogostein yelled, snapping his metal fingers.

Suddenly, music began to blare again, this time not the music from before, but instead some kind of heavy, industrial rock song.

"SCREAM YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!" Yogostein yelled. "SCREAM AS LOUD AS YOU CAN, BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Even more suddenly, a hoard of Ugutz appeared all around the crowd, and began to attack them. Everyone began screaming just like Yogostein had demanded.

Judy felt her wrist. There was nothing there, she had left her Zoolizer at home. That was a bad idea in hindsight.

"Do it, Speaker Banki!" Yogostein demanded, the speaker monster nodding in response.

Its mouth unnaturally unhinged, and it began to inhale. Everything in the concert hall fell silent. Judy looked around, mouths were still moving, feet were still stamping, but nothing was coming out of them.

"What in the world?" She tried to say, only to find nothing coming out of her mouth.

'I need to call Nick.' She thought, reaching for her phone.

"How do you like that, you animals!?" The monster yelled. "Enjoy the sounds of silence!"

She quickly dialed in his number, and tried to speak into it when he answered.

"Hello, Judy?" Nick said on the other side.

She continued to try and warn him, but nothing was coming out of her flapping lips.

"Hello? Hello?" The phone hung up, and pounded her forehead with it. She then turned to the monster on stage, who was busy dancing around.

It twirled its microphone laughing to itself. Yogostein then hit it on the back, seriously this time. He had apparently gone mute as well.

"Alright, I guess it's time for the show stopper!" It pulled the mike in closer, and held up a finger. "A one, a two, a one two three BOOOOOOM!"

With the final yell, a visible shockwave erupted from the monster's mouth, blasting everything away as it moved in quickly.

Judy tried to scream as it came towards her. The last thing she felt was being knocked back.

Everything went white.

* * *

Nick opened the door, and walked into the apartment quietly, not turning any lights on. Knowing Judy, she was probably in bed, passed out. Not because she was drinking, but because she had spent all her energy. He really didn't want to wake her, but he had to check in order to calm his nerves over the phone call.

He creaked the door to her room open and looked inside. "Judy?" He whispered. She wasn't in her bed. And judging by the complete darkness of the apartment, probably not in the place yet.

His heart began to pound. Was she in trouble? Did something happen? "Okay, calm down." he said to himself, turning the lights on and then sitting on the couch. "She probably met Ben there, and they went to get donuts after the show, nothing to worry about."

This explanation still didn't set well in his gut, and he checked the time on his phone. It was 1:30, well past the time she'd let herself be out. "Oh, that's not good." Judy had an amazingly strict curfew for herself, so her not being home was a problem.

His phone began to ring as he thought about this, surprising him. "Hello?" He answered, hoping it was Judy.

"Wilde," Rang the voice of Bogo, sounding very solemn. "We need you over at the concert hall."

"What? What happened?" Nick asked in a panic, clutching the phone with both paws. "Is Judy-"

"Just get over here, Wilde, ASAP."

He hung up on his own.

In only a few seconds, Nick was rushing through the door again.

* * *

Soon enough, after a very, very uncomfortable bus ride, Nick arrived at the concert hall.

It was an absolute mess.

It less resembled the large open are is had once been, and now a mess of concrete and electronics. Al of the grass that had been planted has also turned grey, and some of the ground was straight up lifted.

Of course, none of that was bringing up the fleet of ambulances parked outside.

He rushed through the gathered crowd, and passed the ambulances, spotting Bogo speaking to a leopard in a paramedic's uniform.

"Ah, Wilde, there you are." The buffalo said, turning to the exhausted fox.

"Judy..." He said, panting. "Is she... okay?"

"I'm sorry." The paramedic said. "She's over there." He pointed towards to a stretcher, only one of a couple dozen that had been around the scene.

He rushed over to the stretcher, Judy's tiny body covering barely any of it. "Oh god..." Nick let out, feeling himself begin to weep. "I'm so sorry..."

He felt a hoof place itself on his shoulder. "She's alive, Nick." Bogo assured him. "Barely, but she is alive."

Even with that news, he couldn't stop crying.

Bogo walked away, only to be approached by the paramedic. "Shouldn't you tell him what happened?"

He looked back at the fox, whose tears were beginning to stain the sheets of the stretcher. "Let him greave right now, there's more important things to worry about."

Nick continued crying over that stretcher for what seemed like days, even though it had just turned out to be around an hour. He was knocked from his mourning by a tap to the shoulder.

"Excuse me," Said another paramedic, this one a gazelle. "We need to move her to an ambulance."

"Let me come with her." He begged.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to come to the hospital during visiting hours." The gazelle said, pushing the stretcher over to an ambulance.

Nick fell to the ground, and into a fetal position. It was all his fault, he could've saved her.

He could've saved everyone.

* * *

He sat in the chair next to her bed. He looked at her still body, and could feel the urge to tear up. But he couldn't, especially considering who was supposed to be coming by soon.

He sucked it up, despite how hard it was, and continued sitting in silence.

He thought about how stupid he had been, especially with that... stop he made. It'd be better not to think about that, it just made all this feel even worse.

"Oh Judy, I wish I could've been there to help you..." He said, wiping away a few tears that managed to slip by.

He heard the door slide open, and looked over. Two rabbits walked in, a female one carrying a bouquet, and a male holding a box of... chocolates?

"Oh, excuse me!" The male one said. "Are you Nick?"

"Yes, I am." He said solemnly, walking over and shaking their paws. "You must be Judy's parents."

The rabbit nodded. "I'm Stewart."

"Bonnie." The female one said.

"Pleasure to meet you both." He looked back at the unconscious body of their daughter. "Shame it had to be under these circumstances."

"Well," Stu said, walking over to look as his daughter. "At least she's alive. That's the most we could ask for."

"So, Nick." Bonnie asked, taking a seat. "How exactly has Judy been handling the city life these days?"

Nick sat down. "It's been three years, of course she's adjusted to it." He explained.

"Judy was... has always been open-minded." Stu said, looking around the hospital room.

"Tell me about it." Nick said, remembering back to the first day they met. She certainly didn't judge him during the ice cream shop incident... even if it was under false pretenses.

"She's probably had more trouble adjusting with living with me, honestly." He said.

He then noticed that the two rabbits were staring at him in shock.

"She never mentioned you two were living together!" Bonnie replied.

"I swear, we're just roomies, completely separate bedrooms!" Nick frantically tried to explain.

"I swear, if you touched a single hair..." Stu began, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

A fourth person walking through the door. This one a wolf in a doctor's coat, with a name tag reading "Furnandez".

"Excuse me, are you Ms. Hopps' parents?" She asked the rabbits, who nodded. She turned to Nick. "And you must be her... boyfriend?"

"JUST A FRIEND!" nick yelled, waving his paws. He was screaming internally, what an embarrassment.

"Alright then." The wolf said. "I'm Dr. Furnandez. I'm here to tell you about what's going on with your daughter and... Friend." She pulled out a clip board and walked over to Judy's bedside. "She's in some sort of coma, but it's unlike any known to medical science. We can detect brainwaves, but she can't wake up, it's like she's stuck in a dream state."

"But, she will wake up, right?" Bonnie asked.

"We don't know, like we said, we've never seen anything like this before."

"Is this happening to all of the mammals that were at the scene?" Nick asked.

"No, it seems this only happened to all of the elephants, rabbits, mice, and other sound sensitive mammals that were there." Furnandez explained.

"So, it had to be some kind of sound attack..." Nick said to himself. That kind of unnatural ability had to be some kind of monster, but whose monster could it have been?

Another knock at the door. Everyone turned to see Chief Bogo peeking in.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asked the doctor quietly. The wolf shook her head in response. "Alright, good. Wilde, I want to talk to you about this."

He followed the buffalo out of the room, and down the hall. "Seems another officer was at the concert as well." Bogo said.

They walked into the waiting room, where Clawhauser was waiting. He looked rough, having a large, steel crutch to help him balance on his now bandaged leg.

"Ben, you're okay!" Nick yelled, running to the overweight cheetah.

"My body may be okay, but my heart has been crushed..." He said melodramatically. "Gazelle was injured during the attack, and she's probably not gonna be going on tour for a few months!" He began to sob.

"That's really not important now, Clawhauser." Bogo said. "You saw what happened, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, sure did Chief!" He said, quickly stopping his crying. "It was another one of those weird monster attacks, a big robot guy!"

A robot guy? That had to have been Yogostein! Wait a second...

"Were was the charity money going to?" Nick asked the buffalo.

"It was apparently going to a FAKE environmental protection group, named Gaia Ark something or other." He said. "Funny enough, when we got there, all the money was gone."

Gaia Ark. Gaiark. That was the thing Yogostein said he was a member of. Wow, he really had been an idiot the last few days. The fox reflexively facepawed, the two other officers gave him an odd stare as he realized what he did.

"Anyway, I just thought you might like to know all that, Wilde." Bogo explained. "Now go home, get some rest."

"Thanks, I will chief." The fox lied. Now that he had some form of target, he'd head out and take care of the son of a bitch.

As the fox rushed off, Bogo was hoping Nick wasn't doing exactly what he was planning.

* * *

Nick had been jumping around the roof tops for hours, looking for something, anything that could alert him to this sound monster. His suit was starting to feel... odd.

He scratched at his arm.

He looked across the city skyline, trying to hear something, but there was nothing of real note. It was just the sounds of simple city life, but for some reason he could hear all of it. It was actually starting to irritate him.

He looked at the device on his arm. "I wish you'd actually work for once, you piece of junk."

As soon as he finished saying that, it let out a high pitched beep. He suddenly got a whiff of something, something nasty. It smelled like gas fumes and battery acid.

His sense of smell wasn't usually this good either, but he didn't particularly note that.

He scratched at his arm again, feeling fur run through his claws, and then leaped off towards the smell.

The smell eventually trailed off, but he had spotted the monster by then anyway. It was standing on a roof below the one the fox was standing on, facing towards an open park.

"Time to get this party started!" It yelled. "Vamola!"

"Not if I can help it." Nick said to himself, creeping up to the roof's edge. He leaped off, and landed with a thud behind the monster, who turned to notice him.

The monster let out a surprised yelp, and backed away. "What the heck are you!?" It said, fear apparent in its quavering voice.

"What?" Nick said, confused by the monster's statement. "I'm a Zooranger, can't you tell?"

"Ugh, you look a lot... uglier, than I expected." The monster continued, stepping a bit closer.

"Now that's just..." He paused and grabbed his throat. His voice sounded wrong. Not different, but... wrong, far more angry than he was actually trying to be. He was usually good at hiding his emotions, why were they falling through now.

He looked at his gloved hands, or what should have been gloved hands. Instead, they were very clearly paws, covered in white fur with black tipped nails.

"What's happening to me!?" He yelled, looking at the rest of his body. Instead of a suit, it was all blood red fur, even darker than what his suit usually looked like. He had even gained a bit of a hunched over stance.

He felt a crack in his jaw, as his mind slipped away. The muzzle part of his helmet opened up, revealing jagged teeth formed from the outside of the helmet, and a mouth leading to a black void. The new creature let out a howl, unlike an actual animal, and more like a monster. Two blood red, glowing eyes phased through the black of the helmet's visor.

"I AM GOING TO RIP YOU TO SHREDS!" It yelled in a sneering, hissing voice. It leaped at the speaker monster, who had no time to dodge out of the way as it grabbed onto its face.

It clawed into the monster's metallic skin with no effort, exposing wires, and causing oil to spill out. "Get off you monster!" The monster ironically yelled out, managing to hit the fox beast away.

The things tumbled to the ground, and then quickly righted itself upwards, unharmed by the hit. "Come now," It said slyly. "I have a name."

"From what the boss told me, your name is Nick Wilde." The boom box said.

"Wrong answer." It said, giving a grin. "The name's..."

"SAVAGE!"

"UGUTZ!" The speaker yelled. "PROTECT ME!"

A dozen Ugutz suddenly appeared, marching towards the snarling beast. "Ah, I suppose you want a demonstration of how savage I really am!" It began to laugh, and rushed into the crowd of Ugutz.

It slashed at one, which seemed to go right through the robot, it quickly falling to bits. "Looks like you're just falling to pieces over my power!"

He then leaped up onto another one's shoulders. "I suppose you morsels think yourselves pretty strong huh?" It mocked, as the Ugutz tried to hit him. "You seem to be getting a bit big headed about that, let me HELP YOU WITH THAT!"

He then slammed his paws against the sides of the Ugutz' head, causing it to be instantly crushed, a spray of oil coming from it like a popped grape. The oil covered the fox and a handful of nearby Ugutz. The monster was laughing the entire time, and wiped up the oil to smell it.

"Mm, you know, you guys smell pretty good." he looked at the circle of Ugutz closing in on him. "But I wonder how well you taste?"

He leaped at one of the Ugutz, knocking it to the ground. The fox began to claw into the robot, and bite into its innards, pulling the wires out and swallowing them whole. "Tastes like disease and death, my favorite." It quipped.

The fox quickly turned around, and performed a single large swipe through the remaining Ugutz, who all fell to pieces. "Idiots."

It turned to the Speaker Banki, and slowly walked towards it, eyes piercing the robot's own. "I wonder how well you taste, noisemaker."

"I don't want to find out!" The speaker robot pulled out his spear microphone, and quickly thrust it in the fox monster's direction.

As the blades approached, the fox effortlessly dodged out of the way, and grabbed the pole of the spear, pulling it away from the robot. "Nice stick." The monster said. "Wonder how tough it is?" He grabbed it with his other paw, and quickly snapped it in half, tossing the parts behind him. "Aw, broke just like that. Maybe you won't break as easily."

The monster swiped at the robot, causing it to spark and fall to the ground, where it crawled away. The fox beast creeped dangerously closer towards it, mouth open and horrid panting noises coming from its void of a mouth.

"GET AWAY!" The speaker Banki yelled, kicking at the fox. It missed the first few times, the fox managing to dodge, until a single kick managed to knock the monster away, where it landed with a thud.

"Ugh..." The fox let out, its voice starting to change. Slowly, it shifted back to the more armored appearance of the normal suit. Nick got up, and looked at the cowering monster. He saw the massive wounds inflicted on it.

"What did I do...?" He said to himself, having blacked out for a few minutes. The last thing he remembered was leaping off the building and confronting the monster. Then it all went black.

"DISTRACTED!" The monster yelled, running up and sucker punching the fox backwards. "See you, Savage!" It yelled, as smoke began to cover it.

"Hold on a second!" Nick yelled, pulling out the Vickscannon and firing it at the cloud. As the blast traveled through it, the smoke cleared, revealing the monster had vanished.

"Damn it." He said, laying down on his back. "What happened to me?" He asked himself. He had more questions than that.

Questions like, "Why did I black out?" and "Why did that monster call me savage?" or even "What in the world was that monster even planning to do?"

Throughout this thought process, only one word continued to ring through his brain.

Savage.

* * *

The speaker monster stumbled into the main chamber, nearly collapsing as it did. "Master Yogostein!" It weakly cried out.

Yogostein turned from his conversation with Sambash, and looked at the limping monster. "By Batcheed's gears, what happened to you!?" The robot asked, walking over to help it up.

"It was the red one, he turned into some kind of monster!" The speaker tried to explain. "It said it was called 'Savage', reduced my Ugutz squad to dust!"

"Well that's something that's never happened before." Sambash said, taking a swig of his bottle.

Yogostein cleared a number of bottles from the table, and helped the speaker Banki lay down on it. He inspected the wounds, which were deep, most likely unfix-able. He was losing a lot of oil, and if he stayed like this, would most likely deactivate in minutes.

"Hmm, I hope you've caused enough chaos, Speaker Banki." Yogostein stated. He turned to the large cylinder. "My Omnipotence, can you gift me a Chaos Badge?" he asked.

A bolt of red electricity shot from the cylinder, and into Yogostein's hands, where it formed into the sharp red badge. Yogostein flipped the speaker monster to his other side, where there were barely any damages, and jabbed it into the flat backside of the monster's head.

Yogostein stepped back, and helped the monster up as he began to glow red. "Ugh, this feels very uncomfortably numb..."

He began to scream as the red light enveloped him, causing his body to shift. His already large head grew wider, more speakers appearing on the new flaps. The bit connecting his bod and his head caved inwards, making room for a neck and shoulders, which grew shoulder armor with more speakers on them. All of his speakers gained a golden mechanical plating as well, which was already apparent on new ones.

His legs grew longer, and then became more raptor like, thin flaps with even more speakers fell down from his upper leg, covering his new digitigrade stance. His face then grew even more sinister looking, the edges of his grin curving inwards, and two large horns forming from his forehead. Finally, a tail, resembling a plug, appeared from his backside, and whipped around.

"CHAOS SPEAKER BANKI!" It yelled. "Guess this is what they call going platinum, huh!?"

"Hah, good one!" Sambash complimented, taking another swig of beer.

"That was a lot like what happened to the fox ranger." The speaker continued. "He started going crazy, and then all of the sudden he'd become some kind of animal! I mean, more than usual, I'm assuming."

Meanwhile, Long was watching intently from the sidelines. The thing the speaker described had intrigued him, one of the first things in a while that had made him less bored.

"An animal, hmm?" Long said to himself. "Sounds interesting, might be what I've been looking for. I'll have to keep my eyes on this fox..."

"Alright, now you're all patched up, go get back to destroying!" Yogostein demanded, pushing him towards the exit.

"But, what if that Savage thing shows up again?" It asked, sounding worried.

"Nothing can break through the gold plating in your speakers." Yogostein explained. "You should be able to take care of him easily."

"Got it boss!" It said, bowing. It then rushed out the door, ready to bring more chaos.

* * *

Nick had been sitting on a roof for about an hour, thinking about what had happened. He didn't want to go into his ranger form, especially after that blackout. He didn't realize it was possible to feel sorry for one of the monsters, but he had, and its wounds had apparently been caused by his paw.

"You know you can't do anything without her." A voice said. "She's the reason why you have a life at all!"

"What?" Nick sat up, looking around for the voice. "Who said that?"

"I'm your deepest thoughts, Nicholas." The voice continued. "Give in to your feelings, and you can save her."

"I can't, not after that." Nick said to himself. "I don't want to cause that kind of horror show again, just let me do it on my own!"

"Very well. But let's see how well you do without me next time."

The voice suddenly stopped. The fox hit his cheeks a few times. "I think I'm going crazy without someone to talk to." He started reflexively scratching his arm again, and jerked it away as soon as he realized what he was doing.

He then felt something rise up from his stomach, and into his mouth. It was hard, made of... metal? He spit it out in a gob of black goo. It looked like a nut.

Why was that in his stomach?

The Zoolizer suddenly began beeping again. He took a gulp, closed his eyes, and hit the button. He opened his eyes, and looked at himself. He was in his normal ranger mode, nothing weird going on.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god." he pumped his fist, and then leaped off, trying to find the monster.

After a bit of searching, he found the monster, this time in the middle of an intersection, stopping all the traffic. It looked… different. Had it already gone into Chaos form? He hadn't even figured out what the thing could do besides shoot sound!

Even with so little information, he couldn't just let it cause trouble, so he leaped down into the intersection.

"Stop it right there, boxhead!" He yelled as he landed, sword drawn. "I'm not going to let you do… whatever you're doing."

"Well, if it isn't…" The newly demonized monster squinted at the fox. "ZooRed? Is that what you call yourself when you aren't a horrible monster?"

Okay, that raised some questions.

"Uh, yeah, ZooRed." He said, trying to hide his confusion. "Okay, let's just fight already."

He rushed at the monster with the Foxfire Blade, attempting to strike it. With the hit, the sword only bounced off harmlessly. The monster laughed, and pulled out a large spear with a microphone on the bottom. It struck the fox, knocking him backwards.

"After you, or whatever animal you became, broke my microphone, I had to get it replaced!" He yelled. "But this one's much better, it can do stuff like this!"

He pointed the three-pronged end of the spear at the fox, which produced a stream of lightning. It hit the fox, and caused him to be electrocuted. The force of the electricity brought him to his knees, and nearly drained all his remaining energy.

"Hah, you just got thunder struck!" The monster laughed, Nick's charred body letting out a groan.

Nick slowly got up, and drew the Vickscannon. He tried to aim it the best he could, which was tough considering he was nearly unconscious. He got a lock on, and fired, but the blast only bounced off, and caused the monster to laugh again.

"Shit."

"You know, it's been fun." The speaker said. "But I feel it's time to finish this off, y'know? UGUTZ!" He threw a pile of nuts and bolts into the air, where quickly shifted and twisted into a group of Ugutz. "Get some noise started, you junkers!"

The Ugutz nodded, and then rushed into the traffic. They began smashing windows and reaching into cars, turning on radios, starting car alarms, and causing people to start to scream. Oddly enough, all of the radios were playing the exact same industrial rock song.

Nick covered his ears, the amount of noise was painful.

"Perfect, what a cacophony!" The monster postured in triumph. "Now, fox, it's time for you to face two thousand decibels of PAIN!"

The beast opened its mouth, and began to inhale with alarming strength, a visible vortex of air travelling into its mouth. After a few seconds of this, everything went quiet. Nick uncovered his ears, and looked around.

People were still screaming, he could tell that, but nothing was coming out of their mouths, a fact they seemed to notice as well. "So that's what you do." Nick said, or tried to, as nothing came out of his mouth either.

"You ready to feel the noise, ZooRed!?"

The monster turned to him, and in a split second, unleashed a blast of sound directly at him. The blast hit him like a brick house made of trucks, instantly lifting him off his feet, and knocking him back at ridiculous speeds.

He felt his body hit something. And then again. And again. He kept hitting things as he flew back. He was being shot through buildings. It was like a bulldozer going through a shed, massive hole were being left behind as he traveled.

It felt like he was never going to land, but eventually he did.

His back slammed directly into a building, leaving a noticeable crack. He slid down to the ground, limp, and tried not to pass out.

Something he couldn't do.

Just as he closed his eyes, he saw something approaching, a creature in a black robe. It was too blurry to make out.

"Looks like my time's run out…" He said weakly, closing his eyes. The last thing he saw was the black figure reaching for him.

* * *

He opened his eyes, and looked around. It was pitch black, there was nothing anywhere.

"Is this hell?" He asked. "Did I finally kick the bucket?"

"I guess it was a matter of time." Nick said, letting out a weak laugh before beginning to walk through the void.

He had failed everyone, what a perfect way for a conman to go out. "Guess this is what they call wallowing in self-pity."

He felt something behind him.

It was hot, and making horrible noises. It was also towering behind him.

He quickly turned around to see what kind of hell beast was stalking him. It was horrifying.

It was himself.

"Sorry, but you're not dead yet, Nicky." The copy said. As he examined it, he noticed something off. It had much mangier fur, and its eyes were blood red.

"If I'm not dead, then where am I?" He asked, a bit frustrated.

"You're in your mind, Nicky boy." It explained in its slimy voice. "Not exactly that many places to be when you're nearly dead."

"I suppose you're some sort of mental manifestation of my guilt, anger, and sorrow?" Nick joked.

"Close, Nicholas, but I'm no mere thought in your head." It said, creeping up to him. "And I'm not just something you came up with, you're not nearly that special."

"Okay, then what are you?" Nick asked, backing away from the copy.

"I'm just something locked deep inside everyone." It mockingly explained.

"Okay, if you're in everyone, why are you talking to me?"

"Who knows, maybe I just want to taunt you for being a complete failure in everything you've ever done!" The copy began to laugh, a Nick gained a scowl.

He began to walk away from the laughing clone. "Go make fun of someone else, I've had enough of that my life." He dismissed.

"Good idea, maybe I'll go see your girlfriend!"

Nick stopped dead in his tracks. "Don't you dare do anything to…" He tried to say as he turned around, only to be greeted by another surprise.

Where the copy stood once was now a mangy clone of Judy, with pure blue eyes. "Surprised, Slick?"

He began to back away again. "How are you doing that?"

"Like I said, I'm a part of everyone." It explained, laughing. "Now, here's what I wanted to talk to you about."

It disappeared, and reappeared right next to Nick, arm wrapped around his shoulder, back as a copy of himself. "See, I know how much you want to, you know, save the city, and the only person in your life you've cared about, but I also know that you're not strong enough!"

"What? How am I not strong enough?" Nick asked, pushing the copy away.

"Well, you did just get almost killed by it!"

Nick growled, he did have a point.

"But I AM strong enough!" It said. "So here's the deal, I'll kill the monster for you, return your life to normal, BUT!"

It twirled its finger around, taunting the fox. Here comes the bad part of the deal.

"I want to use your body whenever you go into that super hero mode of yours. Sound like a deal?" It held out its paw, staring directly into Nick's eyes.

"No."

"What?"

"I said 'No'." Nick repeated. "That sounds like a horrible idea. I'll figure out how to beat it myself, I don't need help from a demon."

The copy lowered its paw, and growled. "Very well. Hope you enjoy getting fully killed."

The thing backed away into the darkness, slowly vanishing, one piece at a time, his eyes disappearing last.

"Okay, time to wake up." Nick said to himself.

He wasn't waking up.

"Wake up, Nick!" he yelled to himself. "WAKE UP!"

* * *

He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He was… somewhere, definitely not the nowhere in his head.

The question was where, though.

It was brown and ugly, and he seemed to be laying down on an awful green couch, which wasn't very comfortable. Considering the only light was an artificial lamp above him, he had to guess it was a basement.

He turned his head, seeing a large object covered by a tarp. It was definitely a TV, which meant this was definitely someone's house. He guessed he'd been kidnapped by some weirdo fan. He tried to sit up, but a jolt of pain shook through him. He could barely move.

Unable to move, in extreme pain, and trapped in somebody's basement. Wonderful.

He then heard a door open, most likely the door to the basement. "Hey, are you a kidnapper?" He yelled, trying to get the mammal's attention.

He heard the door slam.

He rested his head back on a pillow and sighed. It was silent for a good seven minutes before he heard the door open. This time, he also heard footsteps.

He looked up at the stairs in front of him, and a figure walked down. They were completely shrouded in a black cloak, which looked to be about three sizes too big for them. It walked, and nick noticed it also had a hunched stance.

"I see you're awake, Nicholas Wilde." It said calmly in a deep voice. A deep voice that sounded wrong, somehow.

It sounded like a voice changer.

"Who are you?" nick asked, as the figure helped him sit up straight. He also noticed it was wearing heavy gloves, and by the footsteps, boots of some kind as well.

"I wish I could tell you." The being said, glancing over to the corner of the room. "But I can tell you I am a friend. You would be dead if I wasn't there."

Nick looked at his arms. They were completely bandaged up. He felt bandages on his chest and legs as well.

"I fact, you should be able to move on your own by now." It explained. Nick tried to move, and still felt a pain, but managed to get up on his own.

"By now?" He asked, turning to the figure, who was at about his height. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days." The creature said.

"TWO DAYS!?" He yelled in a panic. "That… that monster's probably destroyed everything by now!"

"Not everything, it's just been smaller attacks. You still have time, Wilde" The creature turned back to the corner. "Of course he still has time, he's a ranger, right?"

"Yeah, I am." He answered.

"Oh, no, I wasn't talking to you." The creature solemnly explained. "I suppose you can't see him either?"

"Uh, nooo?" Nick said awkwardly, backing towards the stairs.

"Of course not." The thing sighed. "Great, now you're making me look even crazier than he probably already thought I was." It yelled at the corner, the voice changer becoming more obvious as it yelled.

Nick tiptoed towards the door, only to be stopped when the figure dashed in front of him at unnatural speeds. "You can't leave that way." It said.

"Why not?"

"Because it would…" It paused for a second. "…Endanger the plan and…" Another pause. "…Lead you to figuring out who I am too early." It turned to its side. "That correct? Alright. Besides, I had something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"What is it?" Nick asked, seriously weirded out by what was going on, but just going with it.

"I saw your little event during that first fight." It said, walking over to the couch. "It was terrible, but I knew it wasn't you doing it."

"Wait, have you been watching me?" Nick questioned.

The thing nodded.

"How long have you been doing it?"

"About half a month, but that's not the point." It said. "The point is, don't let that happen. You can't win all of your battles through brute force. Think up a strategy, use what you have, and what you know, to defeat the Speaker Banki and save everyone." It then walked over to the corner, and grabbed something from a box.

"I know you can do it, Nick."

For some reason, the fox felt a burst of confidence. There was still time, he could save Judy, and the city. He could be a real hero, on his own, for once in his life.

Suddenly, something struck him. "Wait, if I can't use the door, how do I get out of here?" He asked as the being walked closer.

"Like this." The creature said, pulling a hammer out and striking Nick on the head with it.

He was knocked out cold.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes, and was suddenly laying by a very familiar bridge. He rubbed his head, and got up.

"Better get to work."

* * *

"Let's get this concert started!" The monster yelled as it danced around on stage.

The Ugutz had set up a stage in the middle of a park, where a large number of animals gathered. The entire plan had taken two days to actually set up, but he was finally going to destroy the city for good.

"Hit it, boys!" He yelled, pointing his microphone towards a gathering crowd.

A group of Ugutz moved in to the crowd, each carrying a different instrument. One carrying a guitar rushed up to a nearby rhino, and whacked it over the back, causing the guitar to shatter.

"Great, this shirt was brand new." The rhino said, before kicking the Ugutz away.

"Hm, maybe the instrument weapons were a bad idea." Speaker Banki said to himself, as the Ugutz continued to try and harm the group of mammals with their instruments. "Maybe playing the instruments would have worked better."

He turned to the group of injured Ugutz. "Alright, I was trying to be thematic, but obviously this isn't working." He admitted. "Just attack them with your club things!"

The Ugutz pulled out their "club things" and began hitting the mammals in the crowd with them, which seemed to be going a lot better judging by all the screaming.

"Ah, much better." The speaker monster said to himself.

"Not so fast!"

The monster turned, spotting the heroic fox running towards the stage, holding a large cannon. He leaped onto a rhino, and aimed the cannon at the Ugutz, blasting a few nearby ones.

"What!?" It cried. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Can't kick me from the charts that easily!" Nick quipped, leaping onto a nearby lion and blasting a few more Ugutz.

"I think it's time for you to go back to the cutting room!" He spun his microphone around to the bladed side, and shot bolts of electricity at the fox.

The fox leaped off the lion, and into the air, deflecting the bolt of electricity with his blade. It flew towards another Ugutz, who began to short circuit when it hit.

Nick ran, and leaped onto the stage, sliding a bit before stopping. "We're going to finish this." he growled.

"The only thing finished is your musical career!" The monster quipped, shooting another bolt at the fox, who jumped out of the way.

He jumped up and struck one of the speakers on the monster's head, only for the hit to reverb back and cause the fox to fall to the ground. The monster kicked him backwards, and started to laugh.

"There's no way you can beat me!" It boasted, pounding at one of the speakers next to its head. "My speakers are reinforced, nothing can destroy them!"

"We'll see about that!" Nick yelled, pulling the Vickscannon out and aiming it at the monster. He pulled out the ZooTag for the cannon, and inserted it.

With the usual cry, it fired a massive fireball at the monster, who just stood there and took it. A burst of smoke was created form the blast, which the monster quickly cleared, letting out a fake cough.

"Oooh, ow. That really hurt." It deadpanned.

The cannon fell to the fox's side as he tried to gape at how it hadn't done anything.

"Face it, Nicky, you can't do anything without the bunny." The voice in his head began to taunt him. "And she left you, just like everyone else you've cared about. Only this time, it's your fault."

He pounded at his head, trying to get the voice to shut up. "Shut up!" He muttered repeatedly.

"Let me in, I can fix this guy up real good." The voice said.

He looked up, seeing the monster laughing at him. He felt like the weight of the world was collapsing on him. It looks like he didn't have a choice, he need to let this thing out.

But then he noticed something.

Sparks, sparks popping on the monster's shoulder armor. It apparently didn't notice, since the speaker seemed very proud of itself.

"That's it!" Nick said to himself. "Sorry, creepy voice in my head, I've got this figured out."

He pulled out a golden ZooTag, and stuck it in the Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paw with a burst of fire. He immediately felt its weight, as his arm dropped and the blade clanged against the stage floor.

He had forgotten how heavy the dang thing was.

"What in Machine World is that thing!?" The speaker monster asked, baffled.

"It's a guitar."

He rushed at the monster, the sword leaving a trail of sparks as he dragged it. With all his strength, he swung it upwards, directly into the monster's shoulder armor and ear speakers. The force of the sword unwillingly dragged the fox upwards as well.

The monster screamed as his armor and ear exploded, rendering them completely useless. "My unbreakable reinforcements!" It yelled. "They've been broken!"

In mid air, Nick began to feel the sword tilt, meaning gravity was a natural force in the universe once again. It crashed into the stage, ledging itself in the fake wood, the fox gripping the handle with all of his limbs.

He looked over at the monster, its ear only hanging on by a loose spring, which it tried to push back in. It was distracted, and Nick was ready to get to step two of his plan. He leaped off the sword, onto the monster's head, and then hopped down behind it.

He turned around and saw it, the red symbol that had been on all of these monsters. He quickly drew his sword, and swung it. The blade flew off the hilt, connected to a thin wire, and plunged directly into the middle of the symbol.

The monster shrieked in even more pain, the volume of it loud enough to pierce eardrums. Red mist began to emerg from the wound he created, much like on the wolf monster the week prior.

He pulled the sword back, it near instantly retreating back to the monster turned around, and shot a bolt from its microphone spear. The fox ducked out of the way, and in between the monster's legs. He leaped up and pulled the much larger sword from the stage's floor, and dragged it off into the field.

"It's time for your curtain call!" Nick said, as he began to spin the sword around in a circle. The centrifugal force of the blade kept him spinning for a few seconds. It began to glow a burning red, which meant it was ready.

He quickly stopped spinning, and struck the blade clean across the monster and the stage that were a few yards away. The faint image of the slice appeared on both the monster and his stage, a faint red line glowing on them.

"Ashes to ashes, bank to Banki!" It cried out in pain, it and the stage exploding into a massive ball of fire at the same time.

A speaker flew out of the massive fireball, and crashed onto the greenery, also exploding. "Probably should've stopped that." Nick muttered to himself.

The flames cleared, leaving only a small red badge laying on the burned remnants of the stage. Nick quickly ran over to it, trying to grab it before it could do anything, but a shock hit him and knocked him away.

The badge quickly rose into the air, and formed the monster, completely renewed, on the horizon of the city.

"Oh, I suppose I can do an encore!" It yelled, before quickly realizing something. It patted its ear, and then its shoulder. "Hey look at that, completely restored! Now I can destroy this place much faster."

Nick placed his gloved hand on his forehead. He hadn't considered the renewal aspect of the giant form.

Aw, pumpernickel.

* * *

She had felt like she was laying in this field for years.

It was a marvel, tall, lush grass, expanding out as far as the eye could possibly see. The sun shone down on her as she relaxed. The bunny didn't know where she was, exactly, but she didn't care. It was too peaceful to leave.

The ground began to shake, knocking Judy from her gaze into the cloudless sky. She sat up, and looked around. The ground shook once again, this time something noticeable happening along with it. The grass began to die, turning from a bright green to a hellish charcoal black, before it all turned to dust.

The bunny stood up as this happened, revealing the charred earth beneath her. It was hard as a rock, nothing like it had been only a few moments ago. Then she heard the footsteps. Her heart began to pound, she was in danger.

She ran, the footsteps managing to keep up with her. Judy didn't look back as she ran as fast as her legs could possibly carry her. A light shone on her, instantly causing her to become exhausted, and fell to the ground. The footsteps stopped.

She moved onto her back, and looked into the light. It was the sun and the moon, larger than they should ever be, and moving closer together in the sky. She felt compelled to look into them, despite it hurting her eyes.

The two celestial bodies moved together, fusing together into an eclipse. The light of it nearly blinded the rabbit, but she continued to stare into it.

And as soon as the eclipse had formed, it had disappeared.

Not only had the eclipse disappeared, but everything else had as well. The rabbit was now laying down in a black void. Then she heard a voice, humming a slow tune, gradually moving closer.

She bolted up, but couldn't move her legs. The humming continued, and eventually stopped with an eerie laugh. Then, everything became bright again, light shining from below her feet.

The ground had turned a solid red, and visibly began to bubble. She felt herself plunge into the liquid, and struggled to stay afloat, it felt like something was pulling her downwards. The liquid was burning her, she could feel it, but nothing visible was happening.

With a final struggle, she was pulled under, unable to let out a scream.

* * *

She jolted awake, and looked around. She was in a hospital room. Clean, bare, white.

"Judy!?" A voice said to her side.

She turned and saw her parents. She jumped out of bed, and gave them both a big hug. "What happened to me?" She asked, both relieved, and confused.

"You were knocked out for three days, hun." Bonnie told her.

She let out a squeak. "Three days!?" She grabbed her head in a panic. There was a monster running around, and she was knocked out. "Where's Nick!?"

He father shrugged. "He ran off a few days ago, not really sure where he went." He explained.

"That dumb fox..." She muttered, facepawing. "He's probably gotten himself killed by now."

"What?"

"Never mind." She said quickly. "I need to go find him."

"But you... you just woke up!" Her mother said, worried. "What if you got hurt, or..."

Judy started hopping up and down. "See? Not hurt!" She said cheerfully.

She started to run for the door, only for a sudden quake to strike the building. A rather tacky painting on the wall fell, and a vase full of flowers fell off a desk next to her bed.

"What in the sam hill was that?" Stu asked, regaining his balance.

"Okay, now I REALLY need to go!" She yelled, dashing out the door and down the hospital hall.

She ran as fast as she could to the exit, nearly getting stepped on a few times. She crashed through the double doors of the building, and looked around. She saw the monster, the one from the concert, massive in the outskirts of the city. It was slowly moving in.

"Not good, not good!" She muttered in a panic. She looked at her wrist, the Zoolizer wasn't there. "Definitely not good."

She dashed off again, this time heading towards the apartment

* * *

Nick looked at the two ZooTags in his hands, his heart beating like a drum.

"Okay, can I actually get two of these guys out here on my own, or do I need to be combined to do that?" He wondered to himself, before looking up at the slowly approaching monster.

He then heard the sounds of a motorcycle, and turned to see a very familiar blue bike speeding towards him.

"Oh thank god."

The bike skidded to a halt, and the bunny rider climbed down, clearly out of breath.

"Blue, I'm so happy you're not dead!" The fox yelled, scooping the rabbit up into a hug, trying not to cry. "I'm so happy..."

"Can't... breath..." She wheezed as the fox squeezed her.

He quickly dropped her to the ground. "Whoops, sorry about that." he then realized something. "Hey, you didn't have your Zoolizer when you were at the hospital, how did you..."

She gave him a glare, and the fox began to laugh. "Did you seriously run all the way from the hospital to the apartment?" He guffawed. "Man, I knew you bunnies were good runners, but that's ridiculous!"

"I think my running habits are the least important thing right now." She panted between breaths.

Red looked back at the monster. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He pulled out the ZooKitsune ZooTag. "You ready to do this?"

"Yeah, just..." She gasped. "Gimme a sec." She took a deep breath, and then let it out. "Alright, now I'm ready."

"Good, because that over sized karaoke machine's already in the city."

"Oh scrat!" She let out, quickly slipping the ZooTag into the Zoolizer. Red quickly followed up, and the two leaped into the cockpits.

The robots dashed towards the monster, who was already in the city boundaries, and crashed into it, knocking it back out of the city. The two robots used the crash to rebound to two different buildings, and then leaped back into the air, unfolding to combine into ZooRobo.

The giant robot crashed into the ground as the speaker monster got up. "Agh, you really know how to ruin a show!" It yelled, shooting a bolt of electricity from its microphone.

The robot quickly pulled out its sword, and slashed into the bolt, destroying it. "Guess you could call us professional showstoppers!" Blue yelled out.

"Oh great, two's even worse than one!" It yelled, realizing that a second ranger had joined in. "Doesn't matter, your fox friend only managed to beat me through pure luck! "I'm completely invincible now!"

Swiftly, ZooRobo jumped towards the monster, and slashed it with its sword. In a shower of sparks, the monster was knocked back to the ground. It felt the speakers on its chest, and realized they had been destroyed.

"Augh, how'd you do that!?" It yelled as it got up.

"Honestly, if I could beat you on your own, then the two of us together can take you down easily." Red mocked, the monster growing angrier.

"And you know what's even worse than two?" Blue asked, rhetorically. She pulled out the golden ZooTag. "THREE!"

She placed it into the slot in the control panel. ZooBison phased into existence right next to them, and leaped into the air, unfolding and combing with the other two robots.

"ZOOROBO, BISON MODE!" A voice cried out from the mech.

The robot spun its guns around, and aimed them at the monster's speaker ears. It fired, causing them to pop off in an explosion.

The monster yelped in pain, and then attempted to strike the robot with its spear. ZooRobot blocked it off with one of its guns, and fired the other directly into the monster's face. The monster dropped its spear due to the pain, and clutched at its face with both hands.

"Ugh, this is just getting pathetic." Red sighed. "I can't believe we both nearly died to this guy."

"Haha, yeah wait what?"

"I'll tell you later, let's just finish this guy off."

The robot placed both of its guns together, energy building up between them.

"BISON RAMMING SHOT!"

The robot fired, the blast forming into the head of a bull, which charged directly through the monster. It failed around as it sparked and teetered over.

"This is the end, my friends!" It yelled, falling over and exploding.

"Never mess with a duet!" Blue yelled triumphantly.

* * *

"So, taking off the Zoolizers, fun in practice, horrifyingly dangerous in execution." Nick said as he closed the apartment door behind him.

"No kidding, we both nearly died." Judy replied back, twisting at the device on her wrist.

"So, how are all the other victims doing?" The fox asked, walking over to the kitchen to set up the coffee maker.

"They all recovered, amazingly enough." Judy explained. "It looks like when we defeated the monster, everything went back to normal!"

"Well, isn't that just the best news of the day."

"So, Nick." Judy said, sitting on the couch. "Was that hug when I showed up genuine, or...?"

Nick felt his heart begin to beat again. Luckily Judy wasn't looking at his face, or she would've noticed it had turned a bit redder. "Well, I'm not saying it was, but..."

"I knew it." She whispered to herself. "I think we need to talk about some stuff later."

"Great idea!" He yelled, seeing an opportune moment to change the subject. He walked over to the couch, and leaned on its back. "How about I tell you the weird thing that happened to me today?"

"What, you mean besides almost dying?"

"Please, I've almost died like..." He counted on his digits. "More times than I have fingers."

Judy gave him a glare.

"I'll tell you about my run in with the Sahara mafia later," He said. "Let me tell you what I ran into after I nearly died. I was kidnapped by some... thing, and it helped me heal up after two days of being knocked out."

"Something, not someone?" She wondered.

"Couldn't tell what it was, it was wearing a cloak. Seemed nice, though." There was a ding from the kitchen. "Ah, coffee's ready." He walked over, and picked up the cup, taking a sip. "Man, haven't had a good cappuccino in three days."

"Was there anything else about this guy?" Judy asked, trying to get Nick to continue.

"Oh yeah, he kept talking to something." He said after another long sip. "Probably something in his head."

"Okay, so you got kidnapped by a crazy mammal." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I said nice, not mentally stable."

"That reminds me, I ALSO had something weird happen when I was nearly dead!" Judy announced. "It was a weird dream."

"Oh, a weird dream, how unique." The fox said sarcastically, taking another sip from his coffee.

"No, there was something... meaningful about it." She said quietly. "You know how our call signs are the Sun and the Moon?"

He nodded, taking another sip.

"Well the sun and moon were there, and they..." She clasped her paws together. "They combined into an eclipse." She then splayed her hands out. "And then there was nothing. Absolute darkness."

"It was just a dream, it probably doesn't mean anything, Carrots."

"Then! Then there was some kind of horrible red, burning liquid." She continued, ignoring the fox. "And I started drowning in it, something was pulling me down."

"So, there was darkness, then there was lava." He said. "I don't really see anything in that."

"There was also something there with me."

The fox's eyes widened a bit as he continued drinking the coffee.

"It had a horrible laugh, sounded like if a snake could talk."

Nick sputtered, spitting the coffee back into his cup. Judy turned after hearing him choke. "You okay?" She asked.

"Peh, yeah, just..." He coughed a bit. "Just remembered a really funny joke!"

Judy rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed now, I'd like to get some real sleep after three days."

Nick walked over to the sink and dumped the rest of his coffee in. "It's a bit early, but do whatever you want, Fluff." He said, reaching for another glass to fill with water.

He heard her bedroom door shut, and then something else. A laugh. A laugh like a snake.

"Good thing you didn't tell her about me, Nicky boy." The voice in his head said. "I'd love to see how surprised both of you are next time."

"There won't be a next time, whatever you are." Nick said, filling the glass with tap water.

"The name's Savage, by the way." The voice continued. "And trust me, I'll be here for quite a while..."

"Whatever you say, Jack." Nick said quietly, taking a sip from his glass.

He looked down at the Zoolizer, and then walked over to the table in the sitting room. He took it off and placed it down. It had suddenly hit him how tired he was as well, so he walked off to bed.

The sleep was fantastic.

* * *

"The night sky sure is wonderful, huh?"

"I suppose." Said the white and black figure as it stared into the sky. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I need to talk to you about them." The silver figure said, walking across the roof and towards the other being's red gaze. "I feel like I need to join them, soon."

"You can't." The being said, turning away from the other's glinting suit. "When the time comes, then you can."

"I can still help them, right?" It asked. "As long as I don't reveal my identity."

The white figure grunted.

"It's like a game, I know how much you like those!" The silver being continued, jabbing its elbow into the other creature's back.

"Very well." The white and black creature sighed. "But if you mess up, and they figure out who you are before the time comes, then I'll have to find someone else to use your powers."

"Deal."

"Enthusiastic, aren't we?"

"Well," The silver being started. "You said this was to 'cleanse your sins', so I want to get started on that right away."

"So, you just want me gone quickly."

"That's a reason, I suppose."

The silver being sat on the roof, and continued looking up at the stars. "What do stars remind you of?" It asked. "They remind me of when I was little."

"The stars?" The white creature said, its red stare turning upwards.

"They remind me of when I died."

The silver being turned around, prepared to ask another question, only to realize the other figure had disappeared.

"Sorry for asking, doctor."


	10. Odd Attraction

"I wanna go again!"

"You kiddin' me!? Your last plan was a complete dud!"

"I've barely gotten to do anything!"

"What're you gonna do, clown boy, annoy 'em to death!?" Sambash yelled.

"Excuse you, I have a really good plan!" Yabaiba retorted. "I just need to make it."

"Please!" Yogostein yelled, knocking the two back with his spear. "Neither of you idiots could come up with a decent plan, not even if you were given the blueprints to one!"

The three villains continued to bicker and fight amongst each other, slinging insults and hitting each other. The Omnipotence could feel his anger at them growing.

With a pulse of energy, the three were knocked to the ground. " **QUIET YOU IDIOTS** " It yelled, striking them back with bursts of electrical energy. " **I AM THE LEADER, I WILL CHOOSE WHO GOES NEX** T"

The cylinder began to pulse with even more energy. In a flash of light, Enter appeared in the room, clutching his head and quickly shifting from his animal form to his human form.

He let out a groan, before regaining his composure. "What is it, mon maître?" He asked, trying not to seethe.

" **IT IS YOUR TURN TO BRING CHAOS** "

"But sir, I've been..."

" **NO EXCUSES** " It yelled, causing Enter's body to ripple with painful electricity. " **YOU HAVE BEEN IGNORING DUTIES EVER SINCE I BROUGHT YOU BACK. IN ORDER TO PROVE I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE IN BRINGING YOU BACK, GO DESTROY THE RANGERS FOR GOOD** "

"Very well, I'll head out now." Enter said, still smoking from the electric shock. He turned to exit the base, but was interrupted.

" **AND MAKE USE OF THAT AWFUL CREATURE YOU BROUGHT BACK, PROVE IT WASN'T A MISTAKE AS WELL** "

Enter let out an annoyed click, and turned to the caged sheep, who in turn faced towards him.

"So, sheep." Enter began, moving towards the cage. "What would be the fastest way to plunge this city into chaos, and destroy the rangers?"

"Well, if I were you, I'd go for some kind of mind game." She said, no fear in her voice.

"I've already tried mind games, they're fairly clever."

"Don't have to tell me that twice." Bellwether quietly said.

Enter shook the cage, causing the sheep to fly into the side. "Just give me something so I can make the master happy. Quickly."

She tapped her hoof to her woolen head. "Uh, maybe try destroying some monuments. That could lower morale."

Enter stepped back from the change, and gave a brief glance to the cylinder, then turned back to the sheep. "Merci." He then vanished from her sight in a burst of red.

"Anybody else get the creeps from that guy?" Bellwether asked, looking around the room. She noticed no one seemed to notice her.

"Yeah, he really gives me the chills!"

She rolled her eyes. Aside from the clown, of course.

* * *

"So, why did we come here again?" Nick asked, pushing his cricket casserole around with his fork.

"I wanted to talk about us." Judy answered, the only thing she had ordered was a carrot latte.

The two had headed to a local diner a while ago, because Judy wanted to talk somewhere that wasn't the apartment. It was an old fashioned diner, and the two sat at a red seated booth next to a window.

"You mean you want to talk about me, and how great I was the other day, right?" Nick said, finally taking a bite of his meal.

"No, I wanted to talk about us in a... relationship sense." Judy replied back, still not having taken a sip of her coffee.

Nick spit out some of his casserole in surprise.

His heart began to beat faster. "What do you mean by that, Carrots?" He nervously chuckled.

"Well, are we just friends, or are we actually dating?" She asked. "It's really hard to figure out."

"Obviously we're just friends." Nick said quickly and frankly. "I mean, who would believe a fox and a rabbit..."

"Bogo told me you were crying like a baby when you found out I was comatose."

The fox dropped his fork, he began to sweat.

"Then there was the hug, and how you've danced around the subject every time I've tried to bring it up." She continued, finally taking a sip.

"That was a friendship hug." He tried to excuse. "It symbolized my friendship with you."

She rolled her eyes. "I also heard from my parents that the doctor confused you for my boyfriend. I was pretty confused when they called me to say they were 'concerned about my love life'."

"I keep getting confused for your boyfriend, alright?" He said. "It's not like everyone in the city thinks we're dating."

"Literally everyone in the city thinks your dating!" A voice from across the diner yelled.

The two looked out from their booth to spot Delgato, who gave a halfhearted wave, and turned to his meal.

"I guess it is easy to confuse on work duty with romance." Nick sighed. "But let's get this entirely straightened out, we're just friends, alright?"

He extended his paw. "That's all I wanted to know..." She reached out and shook it. "Pal."

"Bud."

"Friend-o-mine."

Nick felt incredibly awful lying to her like that.

Suddenly, a piercing noise began to strike through the diner, making nearly everyone cover their ears.

"Oh good, saved by the bell!" Nick shouted, looking down at the Zoolizer on his wrist, before he quickly rushed out of the diner.

Judy shook her head, and pulled out her wallet, leaving the change on the table before rushing out herself.

* * *

"Magnet Ninja Art, Polarity Ninja Stars!" The monster yelled as people ran from the park.

The robotic figure mechanically pulled out two ninja stars from its sides, one colored red, the other colored blue, and threw them. The red one struck a statue of a lion, while the blue one lodged itself in a nearby car. In a few moments, the car was completely lifted off the ground, and pulled towards the statue. The two crashed together, resulting in an explosion which destroyed both.

"Excellent!" It yelled, preparing another two ninja stars. "Let us see how this city fareth 'gainst mine magnetic prowess!"

"Not so fast, you, uh..." A voice yelled behind him, before beginning to stumble.

The robot turned around, revealing himself to the two rangers that had arrived to stop him. He resembled a stereotypical ninja, except with large, spiky hair, and a bunch of magnets hanging off him, including two massive magnetic blocks on its arms.

"Oh, you're a magnet guy." Red said, trying to figure out a joke, only to come up with a blank. "I can't come up with any magnet puns."

"Why don't you reverse your polarity, and get out of this city!" Blue yelled. "Does that one work?"

"Better than what I had."

"Hah!" The robot laughed. "Hah, I say! I, the legendary Magnetroid, hath come to bring doom upon this city, and none can stop me!"

"Yikes, we hit a really weird one today, huh?" Red said quietly to his partner, who nodded in response.

"If you wish to stop me, then you must defeat my NINJA ARMY!" It yelled, snapping its fingers.

Two dozen of the monsters Judy had encountered during the bomb scare suddenly appeared in bursts of smoke, clad in black suits instead of the purple suited ones Judy had encountered a few weeks ago.

"That's your ninja army?" Blue scoffed.

"I'm a bit lost, what are those?" Asked Red, a bit confused at these new monsters.

"They're..." She drew a blank when she tried to bring up a name. "They're really weak, that's what they are!"

The robot began to laugh, and wagged its finger very stiltedly. "These art not the Buglers thou faced before!" It yelled, the Buglers quickly spinning around and pulling out swords. "These art the Bugler Ninja Corp, the deadliest force in the eight regions!"

The two went a bit slack, and turned to each other, very confused.

"I have no clue what you're even talking about, but let's just fight already." Red said, before both forces rushed towards each other.

Red leaped into the fray, pulling out his sword and easily cut through a number of them, destroying them nearly instantaneously. Blue followed with her previous strategy, blasting them with her laser guns, which also destroyed the Bugler very quickly.

"You know, when you said 'weak', I didn't think you meant…" A bugler quickly ran up to the fox and attempted to slash him with its katana, only for it to be swiftly blocked. The fox knocked the sword back, and then did a quick cut through the Bugler's torso, causing it to vanish into data. "…I didn't think you meant THAT weak."

"Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what this guy means by them being deadly." Blue said as she leaped up and threw her daggers at two of the monsters, them instantly evaporating. "They're more like really big bugs."

With a few more blasts and slashes, the Buglers were completely cleared, and the baffled robotic ninja was the only one left standing. "Maybe 'deadliest' 'twas a bit of a misnomer…" It said to itself. "But nonetheless, thou shalt now face me in combat!"

It rushed towards the two Zoorangers, and pulled out two blades, one colored red, and the other colored blue. "Prepare to face the wrath of North Wind and South Pole!" It yelled, attempting to strike the two.

They both leaped out of the way of the strike, the blades striking the ground. "Couldn't you come up with a better name for your sword?" Red joked, rushing at the monster with his own sword. The two clashed, Magnetroid holding the fox back with both blades. "'South Pole'? Really?"

"Yeah, it's just really on the nose." Blue continued, blasting the monster in the back with her blasters. It flinched in response, unlocking blades with the fox, which let him strike the robot.

The monster sighed to itself, and looked back and forth at both of them. "How about Ma-South-Mune? Does that sound cooler?" The monster's once deep voice had suddenly gained a slight higher pitch.

"That's much better." Red said.

"Very well!" Its voice suddenly got deeper again. Prepare to face the wrath of Ma-South-Mune!" He then looked at his other sword, and then lifted it up. "And it's new partner, Kisa-North-Gi!"

"Now you're just going a bit far."

"Face my Magnet Ninja Arts," It yelled, throwing one of its swords up into the air. It then lifted the other one up, an electrical beam suddenly connecting the two. "Pole Sword Cyclone!" It then swung the sword around in a circle, the beam connecting the two causing the other sword to swing around as well.

The blade formed a red and blue cyclone around the monster, it being large enough to reach the two rangers, knocking them backwards before they could do anything.

"There's an ancient Japanese proverb fitting of this situation." It said, looking at the disoriented Zoorangers. "' ido no naka no hitori-goto mo san'nen tateba shireru.'"

"What does that even mean!?" Red yelled, getting to his feet.

"Thou will find out in Hell!" The robot yelled, rushing towards the fox, blades ready.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

"That's enough of this!" Red yelled, swiftly swiping the massive sword through the monster. The monster let out a yell as it flew backward, crashing into the ground.

The robot got to its feet quickly, and pulled out its blades… only to find the blade parts missing. "You ruined my sword!" It yelled, its voice going high pitched again. "Those cost me a fortune!"

Blue ran up, landing a flying kick directly to the back of the monster's head, and then leaping off and landing next to her partner. "Good thinking, Red!" She complimented, giving the fox a fist bump. "Maybe we can actually finish this guy before he powers up!"

The monster began laughing. "If thou thought that 'twas all I had, think again!" It robotically reached for the two ninja star shaped markings on its legs, and pulled them off, revealing the multi colored shuriken. "You have simply made me resort to my truly deadliest Magnet Ninja Art!"

It prepared the ninja stars. "Polarity Ninja Stars!" The robot threw the two ninja stars, one off into the distance, and the other directly towards Red.

He leaped out of the way effortlessly, the ninja star simply flying past him. "You really need to work on your 'Magnet Ninja Art, Actually Aiming Correctly'." He mocked. "Seriously, where were you even aiming with that throw?"

"Nick, look out!"

He turned around, seeing the ninja star flying directly towards him. Unable to dodge due to his mocking, he braced for a sharp pain.

Which never came, even though he felt the ninja star hit him in the chest.

He patted his chest as his partner ran over. "Are you okay, Red?" She asked, a bit worried.

"Uh, yeah, I'm perfectly fine." He said, still trying to find a wound.

"Hah, you thought I missed!?" The monster yelled. "Your true pain shall come in but a few moments!"

The fox felt a sudden thump through his entire body, which coincided with his body glowing a bright red. He then felt his fur begin to pull backwards, something was pulling him back. He tried to fight it, grasping onto the ground with his paws, but in a few moments he was flung backwards through the air.

Directly into a nearby building.

The fox slammed right into it at high speeds, leaving a noticeable imprint right in the concrete. Blue gasped in shock as this happened.

"I'm okay…" He yelled out weakly.

"Now 'tis your turn, rabbit!" The monster yelled, pulling out two more ninja stars. He threw the two as well, one towards Blue. She jumped out of the way, and kept her eye on the star, which suddenly stopped mid-air, and changed course to where she was now.

She felt a thump through her body as she began to glow blue, but she didn't feel anything pulling her away like with Red. Then she turned to the street, and saw it.

A bus, coming directly towards her.

Then, an idea struck as she turned back to the monster. She ran right towards the robot, who grunted in surprise at this act. In a few seconds, she was standing directly in front of the monster, with a tumbling bus coming for both of them.

"You're gonna get us both killed!" It yelled, panicked.

"Not both of us, just you."

She leaped out of the way at the last second, causing the full brunt of the bus to crash into the monster, causing a massive firey explosion.

The fox suddenly felt all the force behind him disappear, letting him fall to the ground, directly on his face. He rubbed his muzzle, and then ran right to the scene of the explosion.

"That was a real 'sticky' situation we were in, huh?" He said, nudging his partner in the shoulder and laughing to himself.

"'IT SHALL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO FINISH ME!" The monster's voice rang, as it crawled from the fiery wreckage, looking only slightly worse for wear.

"Oh, great." Blue sighed. "I thought we could go finish our meal."

"Prepare to face my ultimate punishment!" The robot yelled, pulling out two more ninja stars. It threw the stars directly into the two Zoorangers, Nick glowing blue, and Judy glowing red. "You shall now be stuck together, forever! Try going out in public like that!"

The two braced themselves for impact, covering their heads, and closing their eyes. But it never came. They opened their eyes, looked at each other, and then looked to the monster.

"I think you threw a dud there, Magneto!" Red joked.

The monster stepped back nervously as the two rangers approached him. "There's an ancient Japanese proverb for this too!" He yelled. "'kame no kou yori toshi no kou', which roughly means, 'RUN AWAY'!"

The monster leaped into the air backwards, moving away from them. "Magnet Ninja Art, Concealing Leaves!" It yelled. The monster performed a few brief motions with its hands, and then pointed its giant magnets towards two trees.

The leaves of the trees suddenly all flew off, clinging to the monster's body, covering it from head to toe in leaves. As soon as the ninja was completely covered, the leaves fell into a large pile.

The two rushed over to the pile of leaves, and rustled it around. The monster was gone.

"Well, isn't that just fantastic." Nick said, untransforming.

Judy also untransformed. "Let's go home," She suggested. "If the monster does anything else, it should show up on the news."

"Good idea." Nick complimented. "We need to stay alert."

* * *

The fox's snoring filled the dark apartment as the TV played.

"'Stay alert', he says." She mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. "Nocturnals."

The TV continued to play, nothing about the monster coming on. She sighed. Maybe it had actually ran away for good, since it usually didn't take this long for a monster to attack again.

Yeah, they struck fear into that monster! They made it run away in terror, they deserved a bit of a break.

The fox fell onto his side, his tail flicking the rabbit in the face. She pushed it out of the way, but then realized something as she touched it. She never noticed how soft it was. She played with it a bit, before the fox let out a snort.

He sat up, bleary eyed, and saw the rabbit grabbing his tail. "What are you doing?" He asked, a bit confused.

She quickly let go of the tail, which the fox moved inwards. "N-nothing. It was… in my face." She tried to excuse.

"This is probably something you don't know, but touching a fox's tail is…" His last word trailed a bit, making it even more awkward. "Inappropriate." He finished.

She blushed and cupped her paws over her mouth. "I'm so sorry!" She let out.

"Its fine, you didn't know." He said, rolling over again. He smacked his lips. "I'm kinda hungry, what're we having for supper?"

Judy's ears perked up. "W-well, I was thinking…" She started, twiddling her thumbs. "The monster doesn't seem to be showing up any time soon, so, I was thinking, maybe, we could go out for dinner?"

"Are you okay?" He asked, sitting up. "You're acting weird, the Judy I know would sit here until something happened."

"We've been sitting here for hours and nothing has happened, so, obviously, it might not be coming back soon." She repeated.

"I know, but are you sure there isn't any OTHER reason you want to go out?" He asked, eyeing her.

"NO!" She yelled. "I just think… we deserve a break." She said, trying to keep composure.

There was a bit of a silent pause as the fox continued to look at her oddly.

"Alright then." He said, breaking the silence. "As long as we don't go to Romino's, I'm up for it."

"I was thinking about, maybe, that Rabbit Stew place?"

"The fancy soup place downtown?" He replied, leaning back. "I thought they just sold herbivore stuff there."

"It is literally illegal to not sell a mix of herbivore and carnivore food." She explained frankly. "You're a police officer, how do you not know that?"

"I was joking, Carrots."

She blushed again, and got up. "We better get going, huh?" She tried to excuse, heading towards the door.

The fox got up and rolled his eyes. "Lead the way to the stewed rabbits, Fluff."

She turned back to the fox, and gave him a glare. He laughed in response, pushing her out the door. "You know you love me."

She laughed in response as they headed out, but a thought struck her.

Did she actually?

* * *

He knelt before the coated cheetah. "Enter-senpai!"

"Don't call me that." Enter said plainly. "How did the mission go?"

"It went well, until the Zoorangers showed up." The magnet monster explained, standing up. "I tried to use my magnetic ninja stars to make them stick together," He placed his hands together to demonstrate. "But it didn't work, and they're still separated!"

Enter turned to the edge of the roof. "So, your only use doesn't work, hmm?" He quickly swerved around, pulling out a rapier, and sticking it directly into the monster's face. "Not exactly worth having around, then."

The monster let out a high pitched yell, and stepped back. "W-wait, it had to have done something!" He tried to explain. "I saw the effects activate, it's just I saw nothing! There has to be some form of attraction between them!"

Enter's eyes dilated, and he lowered the sword. "Say that again."

"There has to be some form of attraction…" He stopped when Enter turned around.

"Attraction." He said to himself. "I believe I've figured out what you've done to them."

"What?"

"You haven't physically attracted them to each other, you've mentally attracted them." Enter began to explain.

"I don't understand." The monster said as the cheetah circled around him.

"Of course you don't, you've never felt love before." Enter said, a bit solemnly. "Love, the most fragile emotion organics have. The one to best use against them."

"So, what do you want me to do?" The magnet robot asked.

"Mind games." Enter said. "Play games with them, mess with them a bit."

"Oh, I get it!" the monster began to realize. "Use their love against them, and that will destroy them!" The monster began to laugh dramatically, Enter only sighing in response.

"I won't fail you, Enter-senpai!" It promised, leaping off into the night horizon.

"What a disgrace." Enter sighed, before disappearing into data.

* * *

"Ugh, did we have to walk?" Nick moaned as they walked down the darkened city street, only lampposts to light the way.

"Yes, yes we did."

"But we have a car, why didn't we just drive?"

"Because you need exercise." She lied. She just wanted to spend time with the fox, for some reason.

She wasn't sure why, she already spent most of her day with him, but this felt different. It felt special.

"I run around enough already, especially after this Zooranger stuff started." He whined. "Besides, didn't you say this was supposed to be a break?"

"It will be once we get there." She said. "So stop complaining, or I'm gonna touch your tail again!"

"Oh no, please, anything but that." He said sarcastically, causing Judy to chuckle. Nick was surprised, and ran up next to the rabbit. "Did you just laugh at one of my jokes?" He asked.

"Is it wrong to laugh at your jokes?" She asked, stopping. "They are funny most of the time."

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Judy Hopps?" He jokingly asked, starting to walk down the street again.

She caught up with him, and nudged the fox in the arm. She then noticed someone up ahead. A different, familiar looking fox.

"Hey, is that Lupina?" She asked.

"Huh, it is." Nick affirmed. She was standing by a bus stop, alone.

The two ran up to the patiently waiting fox. "Hey, Lupina!" Judy yelled, the fox reacting in shock as she turned to look at them.

"Oh, you're the officers from last month!" She said, a bit happy, but also nervous. "Uh, Hopps and Wilde, right?"

"Just calls us Nick and Judy while we're out of uniform." Nick suggested.

"What are you doing?" Judy asked. "And I mean that in a friendly, actually wondering way, not an undercover cop way."

The female fox gave the rabbit a quick look. "Uh, I was off work, and had a bit of cash, so I'm heading to the Rabbit Stew for a meal."

"Funny, we're heading there too." Nick replied.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Judy yelled cheerfully. "Why don't we all go together? Nick and I can pay!"

The fox's eyes widened. "Well, Judy can pay, at least."

"We share the same money."

"Yeah, and that's not a whole lot."

"I'd love to have dinner with some company… for once." She sighed. "And I'll pay for my food."

"Are you also going to pay for the bus tickets?" Nick asked.

"We're not taking the bus." Judy stated, a bit annoyed.

She then heard something behind her stop. She turned around, it was the bus. Its white coloring shone against the night sky, making it incredibly obvious. How had she not seen it until just this moment?

The doors opened up and the two foxes stepped on, followed by a very disgruntled bunny.

Little did they know, that just above them, on top of a building, was a very brightly colored ninja monster.

It laughed to itself. "A third party, this is absolutely perfect!" It ringed its hands together, before leaping on top of the bus. "If I hit the female fox with my red Magnet Ninja Star, she'll start to fall in love with the male fox, and the rabbit will start hating her! It'll ruin them all for sure!"

He stood tall, letting out a laugh to himself. The bus then jerked forward, causing the monster to fall onto his face.

It groaned in pain. "Ninja rule thirty seven, always stay low to the ground when sneaking."

The bus drove off, the ninja clinging to it via his magnetic body.

* * *

The bus halted, and the three waited for the rest of the passengers, both big and small, to depart before they got off. "So, how far away is the restaurant from here?" Nick asked, stepping off the bus with his two companions.

"It's only about a block away." Lupina said. "Like, five minutes, tops."

"You can handle five minutes of walking, can't ya?" Judy said, nudging the fox again.

"Stop that." He rubbed his arm, it was actually starting to hurt. "Yeah, yeah I can do five minutes."

The group started walking down the street, unaware of the monster watching from just atop the bus. It watched them as they walked away, and tried to get up when they were out of ear shot, only to find itself stuck to the roof.

It tried desperately to get up, beginning to panic as its targets continued to get farther away. After struggling for a few seconds, it managed to stand up and leap to a nearby building, barely making it before the bus left.

"That was close." It muttered, tracking the group silently from the darkened rooftops. "So, they're going to a restaurant, hmm?" It said to itself. "I'll never be let in... Unless..." The monster began to quietly laugh as it continued to follow them.

After almost exactly five minutes, the three reached the restaurant. It was a rather small place, a simple wooden sign with a stylized "Rabbit Stew" logo painted on it. Despite the rather homely outside appearance, through the window they could see the red velveteen interior, with a number of customers sitting around, even at this time of day.

They opened the door, hearing a bell ring. They approached a podium with a smartly dressed cougar behind it. "How can I help you?" The waiter asked.

"Table for three, please." Judy said.

"Right this way, then."

They followed the waiter to a table to the side of the restaurant, a round one almost directly next to a booth. The waiter reached under it, and pulled a lever, causing the table to compress downwards, making it large enough for them to sit at.

"Would you like to order now, or should I just bring refreshments?" The waiter asked.

"Just some water for right now." Nick said, pulling up the menu that was on the table. "I'd like to check out the menu for a bit, if you don't mind."

The waiter nodded, and headed off.

"So, Lupina, how's life been going after the... incident?" Judy asked, rocking a bit in her seat.

"To be honest, not much different." She sighed. "It was a bit exciting for a few days, I was being asked all these questions by the press. But after that, everything went back to normal."

"Ah, the dreaded five minutes of fame." Nick joked, not looking up from his menu.

"I guess so." She placed her paw on her cheek. "I just wish something exciting would happen again."

"Speaking of exciting," Nick said, flipping through the menu. "They're having a sale on the cricket and onion soup, might have to get some of that."

The two ladies laughed. "Is he always like this?" Lupina asked, giving a smirk to the rabbit.

"All day, every day."

Meanwhile, only a few meters above them, the magnetic robot ninja was busy plotting his scheme.

"Magnet Ninja Arts, Disguise Time!" It yelled, raising a finger to the air. The robot began to spin around, becoming surrounded in smoke. The smoke cleared, revealing that the monster was now dressed in a rather matted panda mascot suit. Its face and hair were revealed, however.

"Perfect, now I can get in there no problem!" It said to itself, leaping down from the roof.

The door bell rung. "How can I help…" The cougar waiter paused, looking the "disguised" monster up and down. He let out a sigh. "How can I help you, sir?" He asked, a bit frustrated.

"I'd like a table." The monster glanced over at the trio he was following. "Somewhere over there."

"Right this way… sir."

The monster was sat only a few feet away from the group, who he kept his visor-like eye on. After a few minutes, their food had arrived. This was the perfect time to make a cool entrance.

The monster stood up and turned around, throwing his disguise off and laughing. Everyone turned to him, a few brief seconds of awkwardness creeping in. The magnet ninja sighed, and sat back down at his table, picking the menu up.

The waiter walked up to him, the robot still looking through the menu. "Would you like to order now, sir?"

"Yeah, I'd like the… wait a second." The monster stood up and threw the menu over his shoulder. "I'm not here to order any food! I'm here to wreck the place!" He paused for a second in thought. "I mean, I am hereth to wreak havoc throughout this establishment!" His voice got deeper with those last few words.

He then flipped the table over, causing the waiter to run away. "Magnet Ninja Arts, Spike Hair Shot!" The monster leaned down, and began spinning around, his pointed metallic hairs flying from his hairdo and around the room.

The spikes flew over the trio's lowered table however. Nick turned from his meal to look at the monster. "Great, another monster ruining our meal." He sighed in frustration.

"This happened to you guys before?" Lupina asked calmly, ignoring the screaming and panic around her.

"Yeah." Judy answered. "It happened at noon, we had to evacuate when this guy attacked."

"Well, you guys are cops right?" She asked. "Why don't you try to do something about him before the place blows up?"

'Good idea." Nick said, getting up, preparing to hit the button on his Zoolizer. Judy quickly hopped up and pulled his arm away from it. "Not in front of everyone!" She whispered angrily.

The fox's eyes widened as he looked at his wrist. "Yeah wow, that could've been bad." He whispered back.

Judy shook her head, and stepped forward, pulling out her badge. "ZPD! You're under arrest!"

"Hah, why shouldst I be afraid of the police?" The robot scoffed. "I am far more powerful than any of you whelps!" It quickly leaned over, and shot several spikes towards Lupina, Nick quickly diving in to get her out of the way.

"Oh! Thanks!" She thanked as the male fox stood up, out of breath.

"No problem." He panted. "Just doing my job."

"It is time for my killer technique!" It yelled, raising its left arm into the air. "Magnet Ninja Arts, Silverware Arm Armor!"

"Oh, there's no way that's a real ninja art." Nick said in disbelief, running back next to Judy.

He was proven wrong quickly, as every single piece of silverware in the building flew towards the monster, and began to swirl around its arm. The silverware stuck to the monster's arm, forming a rounded, club shaped appendage.

"And now, for part two of my killer technique!" It yelled, aiming the massive, silver arm towards the two officers. "Magnet Ninja Arts, Silverware Machine Gun!"

The silver mass began to spin around, an audible revving starting up. Thinking quickly, Judy rushed to the lowered table, and pushed it upwards, extending the pole to give it some leverage. "Quick, get over here!" She yelled to her friends, who quickly ducked behind the table.

"Please, I can cut through that table with little effort thanks to this art!" It mocked, shooting the silverware on its arm off at an incredibly fast rate, comparable to that of a machine gun.

The three braced themselves under the table, holding their ears down to ease the sound. After a few seconds, Nick lifted one of his ears, and only heard a very dull clanking against the table.

"What the!?" The monster cried from in front of the table.

Nick slowly peeked from behind the table, letting out a laugh. Judy heard this, and turned to him. "What are you doing!?" She scolded, pulling him back behind the table. "Are you trying to get killed!?"

"Carrots, I think you need to see what he's actually firing."

She peeked around the table as well. On the ground were easily hundreds of spoons, and only spoons. The monster was hanging its head in shame. "There wasn't a single knife or fork in there…" It said sadly.

"You're in a place that sells soup, you don't eat soup with a fork and knife!" Judy yelled.

The monster reacted in over dramatic shock, stepping back as if hit by a weapon. "There's an old Japanese proverb for this situation." It muttered to itself. "Gukou yama o utsusu."

It then quickly raised its head, a bright glowing light shining from its visor. "But I still have this!" He raised his silverware covered arm, and rushed towards them. It slammed the metal arm directly through the middle of the table, knocking the three away from each other.

The robot eyed the female fox lying on the ground, and let out a small laugh. It then pulled out a red ninja star, and threw it towards her. The two officers tried to get up to stop the ninja star, but by the time they got up it was too late, and the shuriken had hit her.

"Mission complete." It said quietly.

The two officer ran to Lupina, to make sure if she was okay. "You alright?" Judy asked, worried.

She got up, and felt around her body. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine!" She said cheerfully, none of them noticing her glowing red for a second.

Nick turned to Judy, looking a bit confused. "That guy just can't seem to get anything to work, can he?"

They turned when they heard laughter coming from the monster. "We shall meet again on the field of combat, I can assure you of that!" It said. "But until then, I bid you sayonara!" It threw a small ball to the ground, which created a burst of smoke that cleared rapidly, showing that the monster had disappeared.

"You know, I've met some obnoxious people in my time, but that guy might be the worst." Nick joked, getting a rather loud laugh from both the lady fox and the rabbit. "You two sure you're alright?" He asked, a bit concerned.

"Nah, we're fine."

* * *

She had the worst sleep she'd had in a while.

Judy had only managed to get a few hours of shut eye, the rest had been restless tossing and turning. Why had she let Lupina go to the dinner? It was meant to be for her and nick only, not a third wheel. Maybe she was being too nice.

These thoughts continued for hours, and before she knew it, her alarm had gone off.

She groggily got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. When she exited, she saw Nick, sitting on the couch with a cup of his normal morning coffee.

"You're up early." She mumbled, reaching up to the counter to set up her own carrot mocha.

"And you're a lot less active than normal." He responded, having noticed the bags under her eyes.

"I had a rough sleep."

"Couldn't tell." He said sarcastically, taking a sip of his coffee. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yes, I'm feeling… PERFECTLY FINE!" She let out, sounding much angrier than she was trying to.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as she waited for her coffee to finish. Once it did, she sat at the table, and took a sip.

"Why are you up so early, anyway?" She asked.

"Weirdest thing," He began. "Lupina called me."

The rabbit's heart began to beat fast.

"Said she wanted to meet me in central park for some reason?" He continued. "Don't know what she wants, but it's in an hour."

Judy had started grinding her teeth, but she had tried to not make it obvious.

"You could come if you want." He suggested. "It's probably just something related to the Zoorangers."

"No, no you go on ahead." Judy managed to spit out.

"Alright then." Nick sighed, pulling out his phone. "I should probably head out if I want to meet her." He put the coffee cup on the table, and headed out for the door. "If you change your mind about coming, just give me a ring, kay?"

"I will!" She lied, the fox sighing and closing the door.

"No I won't." She muttered quietly, quickly gulping down the rest of her coffee. "You won't even know I'm there."

* * *

She had headed out only a couple minutes after Nick had left, and in order to keep things inconspicuous, took the long way to the park instead of the bus, like her partner had. She was only slightly late to their meeting, and watched from a faraway bush, binoculars in paw.

She watched them, several meters away, starting their conversation. Lupina was sitting at a bench when he arrived, facing the park's lake.

"A lakeside view during sunset!?" The bunny angrily growled. "She's good at this."

Nick walked up to the bench, and sat down next to her. From this distance, she couldn't make out what they were saying, but she didn't want to hear it. It would just make her even angrier.

She bit her thumb with her large teeth as she continued to watch them sit there and talk. It was aggravating for some reason.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" A voice behind her asked.

The bunny responded in surprise, the binoculars nearly falling out of her hands as she turned to face a large bear in a business suit.

"Oh, I was just, uh…" She stumbled, putting on a fake smile. "Bird watching. I was bird watching."

"Really, because it looked like you were spying on that couple over there."

"I totally, absolutely, was not doing that." She tried to excuse, unable to come up with anything good.

How did Nick come up with excuses so quickly, anyway?

The bear rolled his eyes, and continued walking through the park. Judy waited for a second before turning back to Nick and Lupina, only to find neither of them there.

"Oh no, oh no, where'd they go!?" She said to herself in a panic.

She ran down to the bench as fast as her legs could carry her, which was pretty fast. She checked out the bench, finding nothing, and then looked around, trying to spot somewhere they would've gone.

In a panic, she decided to just run around until she saw them.

* * *

"Isn't this great?" Lupina said to the very confused Nick. "Just you, me, a really inconspicuous tree, perfect for sitting under…"

"Lupina, why did you want me to come here?" Nick asked. "I thought you wanted to talk about something important, but this is more like a date."

"It is important, silly." She said, laughing. "And it's also a date."

He sighed. "Lupina, just because you're a female fox I happen to know, doesn't mean I'm in love with you." He stated. "And besides, I already have someone else."

"What!?" She yelled, panicked, startling the male fox. "Who is it!?" She grabbed onto his shirt collar.

"Okay, first," He started, gently taking her paws off of his shirt. "Don't invade my personal space. Second, she doesn't even know, so why should I tell you?"

"Is it the rabbit?"

Nick's eyes widened, and he let out a sigh. "Alright, yes, it's Judy."

"Trust me, I can be a much better partner than her!" She insisted, grabbing him by the shirt again, a crazy look in her eyes.

This time, he pushed her back. "Okay, something weird is happening." He said. "First Judy's acting weird, and now you're acting crazy, what's going-"

Suddenly, a yell was heard in the distance, gradually getting closer.

"Oh god no."

It was Judy, running as fast as she could towards them, which was, again, incredibly fast. She leaped into the air, and landed a diving kick straight to Lupina's face. The two fell to the ground, and began struggling, fighting each other.

"What the hell is going on!?" Nick yelled, unable to get close to the two.

A laugh echoed from nearby, and Nick glanced towards the tree. In a single motion, Magnetroid revealed itself by throwing away its cloth covering of a tree.

"Something strange is indeed going on, my kitsune friend!" It said, walking over to the two fighting mammals, who didn't seem to realize the monster standing near them. It pulled out a red ninja star. "I might as well tell you, since thy won't remember soon, anyway."

"What?"

"These magnetic shuriken do more than just smash objects together, naive." It started to explain. "They can control how much someone is attracted to another person."

"You're messing with us." Nick said, figuring it out. "Why are you doing this?"

"Sempai told me to, so tis what I must do." He let out a laugh, and then threw the ninja star at the fox, who winced in nonexistent pain as it hit. "I'll be taking this." He said, kicking the rabbit off the fox, and then reaching his hand into her stomach, pulling out a blue ninja star.

"And since you know too much, I'll be taking your memories of this as well!" It said, the fox feeling a thump as he glowed red. "Magnet Ninja Arts, Magnetic Erasure!" He aimed his magnets at the fox's head, and fired a red and blue beam from both of them, hitting the fox directly in the face. He yelled in pain, and then fell to the ground. All of them were unconscious.

"Magnetroid, out." The monster threw another ball at the ground, creating a blast of smoke that covered it, then faded, leaving nothing in his place.

After a few minutes, all three of them got up.

"What just happened?" Lupina asked, rubbing her head.

"I have no idea, the last thing I remember was, uh…" Judy paused. "Me not spying on you two."

"YOU WERE SPYING ON US!?" Nick yelled at her, suddenly becoming very angry. "We weren't even doing anything!"

"I feel like I missed something." Lupina said, backing away. "I'll let you two be." She quickly ran off, leaving the rabbit and fox alone in the park.

"What else was I supposed to do when you two were going on a date!?" Judy yelled.

"Not spy on us!" Nick said, exasperated. "You could've just stayed at home!"

"Yeah, I should've!" She said. "I have no idea why I was jealous over you!"

"I have no idea why I felt anything for you either!" He responded. "You're exactly what I thought you were on day one, a dumb bunny!"

"And you were exactly what I thought, a lying, conniving, traitorous FOX!"

Nick let out a growl, which Judy returned with a very angry look. "Let's just get to work." He sighed. "Maybe I can get a better partner, one who respects me!"

"Maybe I can get a partner who doesn't betray my trust every day!" She retorted, walking away from him.

He let out a growl, and walked away from her as well.

* * *

A bit later, both had arrived at the police station. This wasn't after a large fight, however.

They had both realized that, whoops, everything they needed for work was at the apartment. The outcome wasn't exactly pretty. Yelling, shouting, insults being thrown. There were indeed complaints from other tenants because of this.

The drive over was also miserable. As was the walk to the bull pen. And the wait for Bogo.

The two were basically at each other's throats as they waited, nearly literally as well.

"Great, everyone's looking at us. "Judy groaned. "This is all your fault, bug breath."

"How is it my fault?" Nick responded. "Obviously they just realized how ridiculous it is for a bunny to be an officer."

There was a swift sock to his jaw, the room filling with shock.

"You hit like a bunny." He said, trying not to show how much it actually had hurt.

"Guess you didn't know bunny's hit HARD!" She quickly leaned backwards, and kicked with both her feet, launching the fox across the room where he crashed onto a table.

He got up, dazed, and shook it off. "You're gonna pay for that, Fluff." He protracted his claws, and leaped at the rabbit, knocking her off the chair.

The tumbled around the bull pen in a daze, most of the other officers just watching on in amazement. The two were so wrapped up in their sudden complete hatred over each other.

They didn't even notice when Bogo walked in.

He lifted the two up from their fight by the cuffs of their collars. Judy gave the buffalo a weak wave, which was returned with a frustrated snort. "What are you two doing?" He asked, calmly.

"Uh, practicing... combat?" Nick tried to excuse.

"We're going to my office, right now."

A few moments later, they were seated in rather uncomfortable chairs, with the buffalo looking down at them. He was utterly embarassed. "You know, I've cut you two a lot of slack recently. I know recent events have made your lives a bit more tough, but this fighting is something else." The buffalo said, ashamed. "There's only one thing I can do in this situation."

"Give us new partners?" Nick asked, a bit hopeful.

"No."

"Fire Officer Wilde?" Judy asked, the fox giving her a glare.

"Definitely not." Bogo said. "You two are both suspended until you can get over yourselves."

"WHAT!?" Both of them yelled in unison.

"Sir, you can't do that, I'm a great officer!" Judy pleaded.

"Let me think about it, no." Bogo said sternly. "Get out of my office, go home, and be friends again."

"But-"

" _ **NOOOOW!**_ "

The two instantly sprinted out of he angry buffalo's office, and back down to the entrance, without even stopping for a breather.

"This is all your fault, you know that right!?" Nick yelled at the bunny.

"No, this wouldn't be happening if you didn't go on a date with Lupina!" She retorted.

"Oh, is that what this is about!?" He yelled, quickly pulling out his phone. "I'm gonna call her up, and we're going to go on another date right now!"

"See what I care!" Judy yelled back as the fox walked away, talking on his phone. "YOU'RE THE WORST, WILDE!"

* * *

"This is really... sudden." Lupina said as she walked down the street next to Nick. "We've only met each other twice now."

"Well, sometimes twice is all you need." Nick excused. He felt dirty for some reason. Everything about what had been going on had smelled rotten, but he didn't know why. Every time he tried to question it, it would be... blocked out, with another thought.

"So, where do you want to go?" He asked, rubbing his paws together. "We could go to the park again, maybe go see a movie, get some lunch, I dunno."

"I am kind of hungry." She admitted. "Maybe we could get something to eat down at the market."

"Great idea!" He said. "There's a sandwich shop down there that has really good centipede sandwiches."

"You mean Reggie's?"

"Yeah, you've been there too?" He said, amazed. "Wow, we really think alike."

"It's the only sandwich shop in the market, Nick." She said frankly.

"Oh."

"Are you alright?" She asked. "I know we don't know each other that well, but you're acting odd."

"I'm not acting odd, I'm perfectly fine!" He said, a bit panicked, and letting out a laugh. He was screaming internally, something was definitely wrong, but he couldn't...

Then he heard the sound of something crashing, and people yelling.

He turned to look down the street. "Oh, well that's just great." He said deadpanned. It was a bunch of those Bugler things running down the street, terrorizing people and destroying stuff with strange claw like weapons.

And of course, behind all of them, was the Magnetroid.

"Lupina, you need to get out of here." He said sternly.

"Trust me, I don't want to get wrapped up in one of these monster things again after last night." She said, running off shortly after.

He waited until the monsters were a bit closer, and until Lupina had rushed behind a building.

He leaped into the air, and landed in front of the crowd of monsters, transforming into ZooRed. "You're gonna be seeing red and blue when I'm done with you!" He quipped, twirling his sword around.

"Speaking of red and blue," The monster began from the other side of the crowd. "Where 'tis your partner in crime? Hath you two perhaps had a bit of a falling out?"

"I don't need the bunny in order to beat you, magnet face."

"Stop right there, monster robot thing!" A voice cried from a top a building. They both looked up to see the aforementioned bunny, standing on top of the building, hands on her hips triumphantly.

"But I guess that won't stop her from trying."

She leaped down from the building, transforming into ZooBlue on the way down. "You're gonna be seeing red and blue when I'm done with you!" She yelled once she landed, twirling her blades around.

"Great, now you're stealing my jokes." Red said to her, a bit angry.

She turned to him with an indignant look on her face, which he couldn't see under the mask. "How was I supposed to know you already used that one?" She angrily asked.

"Oh, I don't know, it's not like I just said it two minutes ago!" he yelled.

"Ooooh, I hate you so much!" She yelled. "I'm just gonna leave if you're gonna be here for the fight!"

"Alright, then I'll leave too, no point if you're also here!"

A few meters away, the monster was letting out a small laugh. His plan was working perfectly. With these two fighting, he could easily take both of them down, and then move on to destroy the rest of the city as well! It was brilliant!

He slowly walked towards the two, pushing the Buglers out of the way as he did. It was time to finish them off.

He reached within a few inches of them, the two arguing organics not even noticing he was there. He pulled out two daggers, both marked red and blue. He was ready to strike them, finish them off for good.

But just as he was about to, a noise got all three of their attention.

" **HOT HOT SUN!** "

In a flash, the monster felt a burning fireball smack directly into its chest, resulting in an explosion that knocked it backwards.

"What was that?" Blue asked, turning to the direction the fireball flew in from.

They both looked in the distance. A rather tall figure walked towards them. Not as tall as a Sentai ranger, but taller than both of them by the looks of it. It wore some kind of black cloak over most of its body, covering everything but its legs and arms. Even then, a piece of black cloth, which looked like it was ripped directly from the cloak, covered something on the figure's wrist.

From what they could make out was a very similar look to their own suits, but colored a glittering silver. It also carried what looked like a rapier, with a very bulky, rounded guard.

"I suppose you need my help yet again, ZooRed." It said, its voice gravelly, deep, and almost definitely artificial.

"Wait, are you...?" Red said as the figure walked between them. The mammal gave a brief nod, affirming the fox's suspicions.

The monster hastily got up, obviously angry at the figure. "Who the hell are you supposed to be!?" It growled.

The figure raised the arm it wasn't using to hold the sword upwards, parallel to the ground. It then raised the hand holding the sword upward. "GUARDIAN OF THE ECLIPSE!" It yelled, before quickly spinning around and pointing the sword directly at the monster. "ZOOSILVER!"

"THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!?" The monster yelled, terrified.

"Oh man, that means I don't have to have this jerk as my partner anymore!" The two other rangers said in complete unison. They glanced at each other, and then turned away.

"It's time for your dawn to end!" ZooSilver said, stepping forward.

Magnetroid backed away slowly, retreating behind the crowd of Buglers. "Get him, you idiots!" He yelled, pointing towards the approaching silver figure. The army of Buglers quickly ran towards it.

"Behold my weapon, the Eclipse Thruster!" Silver yelled, dragging its paw across the blade. "With it, I can harness the very forces of the cosmos!"

Silver rushed towards the crowd of Buglers, quickly exterminating a few of them with a few slices. The figure stopped, and turned back to the two other Zoorangers. "It has three amazing modes for battle!"

It turned back, slashing a few more Buglers backwards. Silver then dragged its paw across the guard, causing it to spin around incredibly quickly, visible sparks flying off. It then put its paw on it again, causing it to stop and emit a glowing red light.

" **HOT HOT SUN!** " A deep voice from the sword cried.

"Sun mode gives my blade the strength of the sun!" Silver cried, his blade suddenly lighting into a blaze. It slashed effortlessly through a large group of Buglers, the range of the blade increasing exponentially as it did.

"It also lets he harness solar energy into a powerful blast!" Silver said, demonstrating by thrusting the blade forward, causing the fire to fly off directly into another large group of Buglers, who were almost instantly vaporized in the explosion it caused.

Silver spun the hilt again, more sparks flying as it happened, and then placed a paw on it, stopping it in place. A blue light emitted this time.

" **SHINE SHINE MOON!** "

"In Moon mode, I can control light through my blade!" Silver slashed a few times, causing a long strand of blue light to shine from the blade, and also slash at a group of Buglers. It had functionally turned into a whip, but made of light.

Silver followed by showing just how whip-like it was, swinging it around to manipulate a group of Buglers into a straight line. Silver thrust it forward, the strand extending and going directly through the torsos of the Buglers, causing them all to explode.

"And with that, your night has fallen."

"ENOUGH OF THIS GLORIFIED TOY COMMERCIAL!" Magnetroid yelled, stepping forward into the charred street. "Let's see how you enjoy taking ona real monster!"

He pulled out two of the daggers, which quickly expanded into a around ten as he shifted them around. "MAGNET NINJA ARTS, MAGNETIC KUNAI STORM!"

The magnet robot threw the two handfuls of kunai, which quickly multiplied into well over a hundred of them. The hovered in the air as they were thrown, and then quickly shifted direction towards Silver, who gave out a small laugh.

Silver spun the guard once again, and stopped it, this time a silver light emitting from it.

" **HOT SHINE ECLIPSE!** "

The kunai flew directly towards Silver, who stood there, not moving. As they approached a foot in front of his body, he began to swing his sword, unnaturally fast, and with absolutely incredible precision.

In a split second, he drew back the sword, and all one hundred kunai disintegrated into dust. "Wh-what!?" The magnet monster yelled. "How did you do that!?"

"Eclipse mode gives me reflexes and speed beyond normal mammals, even if for a brief moment." Silver explained, walking towards the monster.

Silver then leaped at the monster, slashing at it multiple times before thrusting the blade into it and launching the robot backwards. "It is time to finish you off."

Silver pulled out a silver ZooTag, a picture of the Eclipse Thruster on it. It plugged the tag into the bottom of the blade, and the guard began to spin around rapidly, flashing all of the previous colors.

Raising the sword upwards, he began to move it in a clockwise motion, visibly forming a glowing ring around him. As the sword reached its original position, he swung it downward and yelled.

"COSMIC ECLIPSE SLASH!"

This caused the ring of light to spin around, forming the faint appearance of an actual eclipse, and then fly towards the monster, who flailed around in a panic. Just as the eclipse was about to hit, the monster also yelled out.

"MAGNET NINJA ARTS, SUBSTITUTION!"

As the eclipse blast hit the monster, it exploded into a puff of smoke, showing it had transformed into a metallic log with the monster's hair attached to it. The log then exploded into a massive burst of flame.

"Damn it, he got away." Silver muttered, before turning to the other two Zoorangers, who ran up to him.

"Wow, that was pretty impressive." Nick said, both of them untransforming. "Maybe you and me should be partners, it'd be better than sticking with-"

Silver thrust the blade directly through Nick's chest. Judy looked on in horror as he let out a horrifying yell of terror. Silver pulled the blade out, and Nick fell to his knees, eyes widened.

"Goodbye cruel world..." He whispered. "Tell my mom I love her." He fell to the ground, tongue lolling out.

He then opened his eyes and rolled over, feeling for a wound. There was none. Actually, he felt like a weight had been lifted.

"What happened?" He asked, getting up, and looking at Judy.

"Great, you can't even stay dead." She muttered, a second before she also felt the blade pierce through her.

Silver pulled it out again, and she tried to find the wound. Again, there was none, but she felt better somehow. "What did you do?" She asked the silver figure.

"That monster was using these," Silver held out his sword, causing two ninja stars to slide down the blade and onto the ground. "To manipulate your emotions."

The pair's mouths dropped open.

"He was the reason you two were fighting amongst yourselves." Silver continued to explain. "He was planning on killing you while you were fighting." It looked at Nick. "He also erased your memory when you found out."

Judy clenched her paws, and stamped on the ground "That! That..." Judy tried to blurt out, but she couldn't come up with anything, she was absolutely furious at what that monster had done.

"He'll be back soon." Silver continued. "You must be prepared. And with that..." It spun around, the cloak flinging around. "I bid you farewell, until I am needed again." Silver leaped off across the rooftops, and into the horizon.

The two looked at each other, and grabbed the ninja stars lying on the ground. "I can't believe that robot." Nick said. "Do you think this was that Enter guy's plan?"

"Definitely seems like his MO, considering our last run in with him." Judy said back, dropping the ninja star to the ground.

"OH MY GOD!"

They both turned around to see Lupina running towards them.

"Uh oh, do you think..." Nick whispered as Judy gritted her teeth.

"I had no idea you two were the Zoo Rangers!"

They both facepawed in disbelief.

"Well, actually, I had a bit of a hunch." She admitted. "I mean, that monster was basically stalking you two, so it had to have had a reason, right?"

Nick sarcastically clapped. "Congrats, you've figured it out, we're the Zoorangers." He paused for a second. "There's no space in it, by the way."

"It's just a shame you had to see us like that." Judy said, sounding upset.

"Yeah, that was pretty... embarrassing." She said. "But how about that silver guy, huh? How cool was he!?"

"He was pretty cool, gotta admit it." Nick admitted, shrugging.

"He did basically save our hides, so at least we can trust him." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"Don't you have to go find that monster now?" Lupina asked.

"Yeah, knowing how this works, he'll be back even stronger than before." Nick explained. "It's probably best if you don't follow us, alright Lupina?"

She nodded.

"Let's go Carrots, we have a monster to stop."

They both transformed, and summoned their bikes, riding off down the street.

Judy scratched a bit at her fur as they rode.

* * *

"Enter... sempai..." Magnetroid moaned as it stumbled through an alleyway. His injuries over the last few fights had finally built up, and he was almost as good as dead. He had to find Enter.

"I'm right here."

The ninja turned around in shock, seeing that his master had suddenly appeared behind him. "Enter sempai, I need help..." It said, reaching towards the cheetah.

He pulled out a small red object, and threw it at the monster, which hit it directly on the headband. The robot began to writhe in pain as it glowed red.

It's spiky hair flew off of its head, formed into a more compact ball, connected to its head only by a stream of red and blue electricity. The magnets on the side of its head, and the headband, melted across its face, before forming a white mask around it. A visor like eye burst from the mask, and several markings appearing across it, blue on one side of the mask, red on the other.

Its body changed into what looked more like a robe, only a bit blockier looking, the shoulders resembling shoulder pads, and it was colored to match the red and blue motif, but with a gold trimming. It pant-like legs puffed out a bit more, and its sneaker like feet turned into faux-sandals, still obviously one piece.

"KONTON JISYAKULOID!" It yelled, twisting its head around and stomping, the sound of a string instrument coming from nowehere.

It bowed down towards the rather nonplussed Enter. "Arigatou, Enter-dono." It thanked. "I will see to it that the Zoorangers are finally dealt with."

"Hm." Enter grunted. "Just do something so I don't have to deal with you anymore."

The newly improved ninja robot disappeared in a burst of smoke, leaving Enter only a tiny bit confused.

"I suppose this could be interesting." He said to himself. "Might at least be entertaining to see that idiot get destroyed."

He disappeared in a flurry of data particles.

* * *

"Are you okay, Blue?" Red asked over the helmet's communicator. "You've been scratching at your arm a bit."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She assured. "Just got a bit of an itch, I don't know why."

"I hope its just an itch." He said to himself as they rode through the city, trying to find the monster. "So, where do you think this guy might show up?"

"Hard to say." She replied. "We don't exactly have any leads, or even anything the monster's actually capable of if it managed to upgrade. We just have to keep our eyes out-"

She skid to a halt quickly as a refrigerator flew passed, missing the bike by only a few inches. It skid across the ground, and then flew off into the air, into what appeared to be a massive round object in the distance.

"You mean keep our eyes open for something like that?"

They quickly drove off towards whatever the massive object was. As they did, they noticed hundreds of metal objects flying towards, from all across the city.

"What in the world is he trying to do?" Red asked as they sped along, following the flying objects.

"I have no idea, but he's not going to do it." Judy said, sounding a bit angrier than normal.

Eventually they made it to where all the items were being made, the middle of a large, open park. The monster was sitting in the middle of it, legs crossed. A red and blue beam of electricity shot up into the ball of junk. The two skidded into the middle of the park, and leaped off the bikes, weapons drawn.

"Okay, ninja boy, what exactly are you planning with this..." He looked up at the absolutely massive sphere, and then back at the monster. "Ball of random, useless junk?"

"It is very simple, kitsune." The monster said, almost completely motionless. "Once the ball is large enough, I will launch it across the city, destroying everything in its path. Now if you excuse me, this takes a lot of concentration, but if you refuse to leave..."

The monster made several quick motions with its hands. "SUPER MAGNET NINJA ARTS, DUPLICATION!" In a massive puff of smoke, there were suddenly five other monsters, each resembling the monster's previous form.

"We can take you all on, no matter how many of there you are!" Red said proudly. "We just need to work as a team, right Blue?"

There was no response.

"Blue?" He turned around, seeing the rabbit standing dead still, he head lolled to the side. "Judy? Are you okay?" He asked, worried.

"Of course I am, Nick." She said, stone coldly.

Her head jerked up unnaturally, and the outline of teeth appeared around her helmet. Two deep, blue eyes shone through the helmet's visor, as the teeth split to form a mouth leading way to a bit of pure black.

"Oh no."

It let out a monstrous roar, what was once a suit turning into dark blue fur, and the gloved paws now becoming what were very clearly regular paws, with black tipped nails.

Then it began to laugh.

"I MAY BE ALRIGHT, BUT THESE GUYS WON'T BE!" It yelled, sounding exactly like the thing Nick had in his dream. "Savage is back, baby, and he's ready to fight!"

The monstrous rabbit rushed towards the copies, leaping into the air and kicking one rapidly in the chest, each kick visibly making the monster's chest cave in. With a final two legged kick, Savage's legs went directly through the ninja's chest, causing it to disappear in a burst of smoke.

"What!?" Savage yelled, glancing at the other four monsters. "These guys don't have anything in them, where's the fun in that!?" It let out another monstrous roar, before turning to Red. "Don't think I've forgotten about what you did, Wilde. Once I'm finished with these sad sacks, I'm coming for you!"

Red began to back away slowly, before eventually turning into a sprint. He ran as fast as he could, and leaped behind a nearby tree, absolutely terrified of whatever it was that had taken over Judy.

He hit his head repeatedly. "I should have told her, I should have told her..." he peaked out from behind the tree to watch in morbid curiosity.

"Let's make this quick, I have a fox hunt to get to." Savage joked, holding its claws up to the still fearless ninja copies. With two quick slashes, two of them vanished in puffs of smoke, leaving two remaining.

"I guess I could have some fun with you two..." Savage muttered to itself. "How about I tear you both limb from limb, and then rearrange you into a macabre statue? It'd make this place far more interesting to visit."

Almost as soon as he finished, the two monsters burst into smoke. "What the? I didn't even do anything to them!" Savage yelled, trying to clear the smoke away. "Who kill stole!?"

The smoke cleared, and walking towards the rampaging Savage was ZooSilver.

"You." Savage snarled, baring his claws.

"This kind of power should only be used for good, you monster." Silver told the creature. "You were a mistake that should never have been released."

"Pssh, come at me, glitter boy."

The two rushed at each other, Silver attempting to strike at Savage with his sword, only for the rabbit to block it effortlessly with its own bare claws. A few more attempted strikes, which were only met with yet more blocks.

"Jack rabbit be nimble, Jack rabbit be quick," Savage started in sing song voice, clutching the blade in its claws. "Jack rabbit's gonna rip you bit from bit."

"Not today, Savage." In a brief motion, Silver thrust his sword upwards, out of the rabbit's reach, and then let out a lightning fast slash, knocking him backwards.

As Savage hit the ground, it went limp. But after a moment, it rose like a puppet on strings, and with what sounded like cracking bones, readjusted itself back to normal. "You hit me." It said in disbelief. "No one's supposed to hit me."

"There's a first time for everything."

Silver rushed over to the rabbit, and lifted it up into a choke hold. "Let go of me!" Savage yelled, trying to break free of the clutch.

"This is for your own good." Silver said, tightening the grip around Savage's neck. After a few seconds, he let go, the rabbit falling to the ground unconscious. Before Silver's eyes, the monstrous rabbit reverted back to ZooBlue. Silver let out a sigh. "Even when he's weakened, he's still powerful."

Red rushed from his hiding spot, a tried to nudge Blue awake. "Judy, please wake up!" He cried. "Please, I don't want to go through that again!"

"I guess I have been getting knocked out a lot." She said, groggily opening her eyes and sitting up. "What in the world happened?"

"Nick can tell you later." Silver said. "Right now, you need to stop that other monster." It pointed the sword towards the ninja robot who was still sitting in the field, completely oblivious.

"Can't you help us?" Blue asked.

"I'll only help you when times are dark, friends." Silver explained. "I have a feeling you can finish this guy on your own. Farewell."

Silver then leaped off into the horizon, the other Zoorangers watching as he left.

"So, ready to finish this guy now?" Red asked, holding his sword on his shoulder.

"Yep, but let's make this as quick as possible."

She pulled out her blasters, and fired at the monster, who reacted in pain and fell over. The ball of junk began to shake, and fall apart.

"You know, maybe we should have done that from farther away." Red said as he saw a large truck heading towards them.

They quickly ran away as the junk continued to fall from the sky. Objects of all kinds, TVs, cars, even odd things like dentures and tents attached to bars. All of this fell from the sky, crushing trees and benches, and nearly crushing the two rangers at multiple times.

After a few seconds, the giant ball of metal objects was no more, reduced to massive piles of junk scattered across the park.

The two stopped running when they stopped hearing the sounds of crashing. Red looked around at the massive piles of scraps. "Well, looks like the park rangers are gonna have their work cut out for them, huh?" He quipped, Blue nudging him in the arm. "I've missed that."

They heard an angry cry from the middle of the park. "YOU FOOLS! YOU'VE RUINED MY PLAN!" There was then sort of electrical burst, causing a bunch of objects from around the area the scream came from to launch through the air.

"You don't suppose he's angry at us, right?" Red joked.

Blue rolled her eyes, and they ran towards the middle of the park. When they got there, the monster was floating in the air, electricity crackling through the air.

"I'll make sure you wretched animals see the deepest bowels of Hell!" It shouted, pulling out two ridiculously long red and blue swords.

"See you got your swords fixed." Red pointed out. "Did you come up with decent names for them yet?"

The monster didn't respond, only slashing the swords in their direction, creating a blast of energy that knocked them both away and into piles of trash.

"I don't think he's in the mood for jokes, Red." Blue said, moving a few pieces of scrap out of her way.

Her partner pulled his head out of a broken microwave, and threw it to the ground. "Pretty obvious, I'd say."

Blue leaped down from the pile of junk, and fired her blasters at the monster again, who sliced the blasts out of the air with his blades.

"Let me handle this, Carrots." Red said, running up next to her, swinging his blade around by the rope it was connected to. He tossed the sword slightly to the side of the monster, only slightly catching the monster's attention.

"You missed."

"Might wanna..." He tugged at the cord. "Check that again!"

The monster looked back, as the blade flew directly towards him. It smacked him directly in the face, causing him to fall from his magnetic floating.

He got up and rubbed his head. "This is no way to treat a legendary ninja!" He yelled at the two.

"You're not a ninja!" Blue yelled, throwing her daggers directly into the monster, knocking him backwards. She ran up and grabbed the daggers from its chest, and began jabbing them into him. "AND! YOU'RE! DEFINITELY! NOT! LEGENDARY!" She yelled with each stab, and finishing by kicking the monster away.

The monster rolled across the ground, and weakly got up, clutching its chest.

"Let me finish this." She said, holding her paw out in front of her partner.

He looked at her, and she rolled her eyes. "Give me the Solar Flare Saber!" She explained.

He dropped the tag into her paw. "Be careful, it's really heavy."

She quickly plugged the tag into her Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The blade appeared in her hand, and she carried it almost effortlessly. "Feels pretty light to me."

"Never mind then." He said a bit meekly, backing off. "You go get him."

She gave him a nod, and rushed towards the monster, getting a running leap above him.

"DON'T MESS WITH ME AND MY FRIENDS!"

She brought the sword down through the monster, cleaving it directly in two. She spun around, slashing through the monster's midsection, and then dropped the sword to the ground as the Magnetroid exploded.

She turned back once the explosion cleared to see what was left, only a small horseshoe magnet and another of the red objects laying on the ground. She stepped back as the red object floated into the air, and then flew off into the distance, the giant monster reappearing outside the city.

"Now I'm bigger than Mt. Fuji!" It yelled, "Nothing can stop me!"

"Wanna go prove him wrong?" Blue said, turning back to her partner and holding up a ZooTag. He nodded in response, holding up his own.

In a few seconds, ZooRobo had been formed, and the two were ready to fight. ZooRobo tried to slice at the ninja with its sword, only for the robot to dodge out of the way and retaliate with a series of swift palm strikes. The robot stumbled backwards a bit.

"The swiftness of the ninja can defeat your lumbering machine any day." It boasted.

"You want fast, huh?" Blue said, cracking her knuckles. "I'll show you fast."

The controls switched around, and ZooRobo put its sword away, entering Usagi Mode. The robot leaped up, and delivered a swift kick to the monster's face. It followed with rapid punches, which knocked the ninja backwards.

"Hmm, so you're fast as well, but I bet you can't counter this!" In leaned forward, the ball attached to its head extending via the electrical beam. The Magnetroid then began spinning its torso around, turning the ball into an incredibly fast barrier.

"There's no way past my Super Magnet Ninja Arts, Super Magnetic Barrier!"

"This guy really needs to stop coming up with attack names, it's getting annoying." Red admitted.

ZooRobo tried to step through the barrier, but only got knocked back by the swinging ball.

"Looks like we've reached a stalemate." Red said. "Think we should call in ZooBison?"

"No, I have a plan." Blue said.

ZooRobo reached forward, and quickly snagged the ball as it flew by, causing the ninja to stop. "Ow! Let go of my hair!" It yelped in pain.

"Your hair, huh?" Blue said, jerking the controls so that the robot pulled on the hair more. "Looks like you could use a trim!" ZooRobo's free hand pulled out the sword, and sliced it through the beam connecting the ball and the ninja.

The ninja fell forward, directly onto its face, letting out a squeak of pain before getting up. "That hair had all my electromagnetic powers in it!" He yelled. "Give it back."

ZooRobo dropped it to the ground. "Oops." Blue let out, before making the robot crush it with its foot.

"Yeesh, remind me not to get on your bad side again." Red let out.

"Let's finish this guy off for good!" She yelled.

ZooRobo leaped into the air, higher than it ever had before, and locked on to the monster.

"LUNAR KICK!"

The robot performed a dive kick, travelling at ridiculous speeds to reach the monster, which it went right through.

The monster writhed in pain as it started exploding. "There's an ancient Japanese proverb for this!" It yelled. "issun saki wa... yami!" It fell over, exploding into a massive ball of fire.

"Not so attractive now, are you!?" Blue yelled.

Meanwhile, back in the city, a figure watched on the rooftops. "I knew that one was a failure." Enter said to himself. "But at least I made the Omnipotence... happy." He then gave a smirk. "And I also got to see that fight with the rabbit... Savage. Interesting."

He disappeared in a burst of particles.

* * *

Judy fell onto the couch. What an awful two days that had been.

"So, why didn't you tell me about the horrible evil thing that can possess our bodies?" She asked, looking up at the fox sitting in the kitchen.

"It's, uh, because I didn't want to worry you." He tried to excuse. She seemed to take it.

"Who do you think Silver is?" She asked.

"All I know is that it was definitely the guy that saved my life last week." He said. "But who he actually is, who knows."

"He could be anybody." She muttered. "Somebody we know, maybe somebody we don't know!" She went quiet for a second, and the sat up. "You don't think its Lupina, do you?"

Nick gave the bunny a look, and then quickly became a bit more contemplative. "I mean, Silver only showed up after Lupina left, so..."

"We'll just have to wait and see I guess." Judy said, sitting up. "I have another question."

"What is it?"

"do you actually love me, Nick?"

The coffee mug he was holding hit the table as the fox became stunned by the question. "W-well, uh, um..." He mumbled. He pounded his chest for a few seconds, and took some deep breathes.

"Yes."

Judy let out a small sigh.

"But, I kind of want us to just stay... friends, right now." He admitted. "It's nice just having a relationship that's... normal. But if you want to start dating, we can, I guess."

"If you wanna be technical, we've been together for three years." She said. "That's how long we've lived together, how long we've been partners on the force..."

"How long we've basically known each other."

"You want to keep lying to people about it to mess with them?" She asked.

"Carrots, you know I would love that."

* * *

Enter stood atop the mountain, looking up at a particularly bright, yellow star. "That Savage creature could be of use to me." He said. "As long as everything keeps going smoothly, I should-"

"What are you doing up here, robot?" A voice called to him. He turned around, revealing Long.

"It's not like there's any other spots on the mountain good for contemplating." Enter explained. "I suppose that's why you're here as well?"

"Not exactly." Long said. "I heard you say something about... Savage."

"You've also heard of it?" Enter asked. "A tres magnifique creature that is."

"So, you're also hatching something, huh?" Long replied. "I wonder which of us will get him first."

Enter smiled. "I have an idea." He said, walking up to Long. "What if we make this into, say, a game?"

"A game?" Long said back.

"We'll see who can destroy the Zoorangers with Savage's help first." Enter explained. "The prize will be the satisfaction of destroying them."

Long thought about it for a moment. "Very well. Game on."

He disappeared in a burst of fire. Enter chuckled to himself. "He should be useful as well." He turned back to looking at the sky.

The star from before had disappeared.


	11. Be Careful what you Wish For

"Swing low, sweet chariot... Coming for to take me home... Swing low..." Bellwether sang, rocking her cage back and forth. "I wish I had a harmonica."

She spun around to face the exit of the cave, moonlight barely shining through. Then, something else shone through it. Bright, yellow. Growing.

The thing causing the light flew in. It was a star, or at least something that looked like a star. Bellwether rubbed her eyes, and then fixed her glasses. "I must have gone crazy." She assumed, turning back around. "Bound to have happened soon or later."

She felt something hit her back, and a burst of sand flooded out from her orange jumpsuit. It poured out and onto the ground as she tried to shake it out, only to see sand pouring out from her wool as well.

The sand began to move on its own, swirling into the vague shape of a figure, half stuck in the ground, with its legs floating above it.

It looked kind of like a fox, but much taller. It had several markings crawling up and down its body, and a very mask-like face. It had a furry collar going around its neck, and its strange hands and feet ended in claws.

"Make a wish." It said, in a smooth voice. "I can grant you anything you may desire. I only ask for one thing as payment..." It paused.

"Your time."

"Anything?" Bellwether asked, peering out of the cage and down at the creature. "Is there a catch? Can it really be anything?"

"Absolutely anything." It said. "If you wish it, I will grant it."

"I wish..." She started, thinking about it. "I wish I could get revenge!"

"Revenge on who?" It asked, placing a claw to its chin.

"Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps." She continued. "They're the ones who got me into this situation! I want you to get rid of them completely!"

"I see." It laughed to itself, before turning into more sand, which swirled into a monster the size of the ones who had captured her. Its colors became visible, browns and blacks. It walked over to the cage, and grabbed the sheep by her head. "You know, I like you. You're a truly vicious soul."

It dashed out the entrance, unaware of a third figure watching from the shadows.

"Interesting." he said to himself, stepping back into the shadows and disappearing.

* * *

It had only been a few hours from the previous discussion, and neither of the couple could fall asleep.

Judy had been kept up by the thoughts of Savage. She hadn't been aware of what she was doing, but she could feel something wrong during the entire possession. She was terrified that something like that might end up happening again. There was also that Bogo had suspended them, but they had called earlier to clear things up, so it should be fine when they got back.

She tossed and turned in bed for a bit, and then sat up, opening the window and looking out into the sky. She noticed a star, shining a bit more brightly, a bit more yellow.

"I wish we had someone to help us."

Nick, however, was terrified of a much more personal problem: Intimacy. He hadn't had a girlfriend in almost twenty years, he had no idea how to do this kind of stuff, especially on someone of a different species.

That in itself was a problem. Interspecies relationships themselves weren't considered taboos for years, but a pred-prey relation could still cause a bit of a stir, especially when they were sort of mini-celebrities, and it would get even worse if everyone figured out they were the Zoorangers.

So, should he hide, or make it an obvious thing? He had gone out for a walk a bit after the thoughts started to storm his mind. He had been out for a while, and looked up to see a brightly glowing star.

"I wish we had someone to help us."

* * *

The next day they had shown up to work bright an early, hoping to leave a good impression on Bogo.

"So, do you think Bogo's actually going to let us back in there after what happened yesterday?" Nick asked, stopping in front of the rotating doors.

"As long as we don't do anything stupid, we should be fine." Judy assured.

"Yeah, might have a bit of trouble with that one." Nick joked, before feeling something knock him forward. "Ugh, didn't think you'd get that mad at me."

"What?"

"You just hit me in the back, didn't you?" He asked. She shook her head in response.

The bunny stepped forward, and felt something hit her in the back. She turned to the fox and gave him an angry look. "Hey, just because you think I hit you doesn't mean you can hit me."

"What?" He said, sounding confused. "I didn't hit you at all."

"Weird." She said, as they both walked through the rotating door to see Clawhauser's smiling face sitting at the welcome desk, gnashing on a few donuts.

"Hey Spots, how's it going today?" Nick asked as they walked in.

"Not bad," He said, not looking up from his phone. "I got some extra coffee for you guys if you want any."

"Nah, we'll pass." Judy said as they started for the bullpen.

Clawhauser looked up from his phone. "Whoa, you two just get back from the beach?"

"What?" They said in unison, looking at the cheetah.

"You two are tracking crazy amounts of sand!" He told them. The two looked to the front door, and there was indeed a crazy amount of sand leading up to them.

Nick tugged at his sleeve, and more sand fell out of it. "That's, uh, different." He muttered, turning to an equally confused Judy. They both looked back down at the sand. "We'll clean it up later."

As they continued walking, they noticed the sand stop, but Judy looked at Nick's face and noticed something odd.

"Did you get some ketchup on your forehead?" She said, pointing out a rather large red blotch across Nick's hair.

Nick stopped, and tried to find it, feeling all around. "Uh, no, I don't think I did?" He said, shrugging to her. "And besides, my fur's already red, a lot more conspicuous than your make up mistake."

"I don't wear make-up." She stated, a bit confused.

"Then what's..." He started, dragging a claw down from the top of his head and around his eye. "Then what's that?"

Judy felt where he had motioned to, not finding anything. "We're making a quick bathroom break."

In the bathroom, they used the close to the ground sinks to look at their faces.

"How in the world did we get these?" Nick asked, feeling the rather large blot of dark red fur covering his forehead to just above his cranium.

"I have no idea." Judy replied, looking at the long purple line that travelled from the top of her head down to her cheek. "These weren't here a few minutes ago, right?"

"I'm ninety percent sure they weren't." Nick assured. "We probably shouldn't worry about it right now, it's just a bad fur day."

Judy nodded. "If we keep looking at ourselves, we'll be late for roll call."

"There is five minutes to roll call."

Judy's eyes widened, as she ran out of the bathroom screaming.

Nick chuckled to himself. "There's ten minutes to roll call." He stepped forward proudly, and slipped on a patch of water.

After that, they had both made it to roll call, just in time for Bogo to show up.

Bogo eyed the two up and down for a solid minute before he started the roll call. He was obviously trying to make sure a fight wouldn't break out between them, but was also a bit weirded out by their new hair coloring.

The stare sent fear directly into them, as they tried to sit there perfectly still, only keeping eye contact with the buffalo. 'Don't mess this up, don't mess this up.' The two repeated in their minds over and over again.

"I suggest, Wilde and Hopps," He started as soon as he broke eye contact with them. "Not trying to make a statement the next time you come in."

Instantly the two relaxed, sighing in relief that the chief's absolutely terrifying stare had been broken.

"Think he'd believe me if I told him they appeared over night?" Nick whispered to Judy, who gave him a glare. "Thought not."

"First order of business." Bogo started. "We have gotten even MORE assault cases happening. They all seem to be from a single source, but it doesn't seem to have any clear pattern, as we've gotten calls from everything from mice to elephants. It might sound like a simple case, but each report describes the assaulter as some kind of monster, so be wary. I'm not assigning any teams yet, due to too little leads."

As Bogo talked, Nick began to feel his chest burning. He pounded at it as softly as he could.

"You okay?" Judy whispered.

"Yeah, Just..." He took a deep swallow. "Just have a bit of heartburn."

He quickly jolted up, his eyes briefly glowing and changing from green to red. The red part of his fur suddenly grew quickly, forming a large patch of red spiky hair. He grinned.

He climbed up on the table, and stood proudly.

"Nick, what are you doing!?" Judy whisper yelled.

"I..." He placed his thumb to his chest, and then splayed his arms out. "...HAVE ARRIVED!" His voice had suddenly gotten a lot deeper.

Everyone looked at him, either with confusion, or, in Bogo's case, complete apathy. "You've been here for ten minutes, Wilde, sit back down."

"Shut it, bullhorn."

Bogo looked at the fox, who was currently crouching down on the table.

"Man, is this what normal police do?" He asked, hopping down from the table. "Sit around all day and take orders from someone? Lame."

Judy hopped down from her chair and came face to face with the out of it Nick. "Nick, what are you doing!?" She scolded. "I said not to do anything stupid!"

"'Nick', huh?" He said. "Looks like I got the right guys. Told that turtle I was good for this."

"What are you talking about!?" She yelled, nearly ready to break down.

"You can come out now, half-pint."

Judy suddenly bolted up straight, the purple streak suddenly extending into a long, thin piece of fur that hang down in front of her face. Her eyes also turned from lavender to a deep purple.

She leaped up onto Bogo's podium, and spun around before stopping and throwing one of her arms out. "Mind if I break it down for you?" She yelled, her voice suddenly sounding more boyish. She placed her paw up to her ear. "I can't hear you!"

"Nobody said anything." Sounding Rhinowitz from the back.

"That's even better!" She leaped back to the ground, and started breakdancing for a solid minute. She ended with an unnaturally high flip, even for a bunny.

"That's enough showing off, brat." Nick said, grabbing the rabbit by the ear and pulling her away.

"And where do you two think you're going?" Bogo said, walking up to them, fuming.

"Sorry, bullhorn, but we got some important work to do." The fox said, not even turning to face the buffalo. "If you let us go peacefully, I'll let you keep your teeth."

"Are you challenging me, Wilde?"

He let go of the rabbit, who fell to the ground. The fox turned around, revealing his blood red eyes. "Yeah, I guess I am." He said, sounding a bit too happy. He cracked his knuckles loudly jumped up into the air, right in front of Bogo's face, and swiftly smacked him.

A few teeth and some blood flew out.

"I can take you all on!" He yelled, putting up his fists. "Who wants some!?"

"Big bro, we have to go now!" The rabbit said, tugging at his tail.

"Tch. Alright, you all get your skin saved today." He said, a bit angry. "If you ever want to see a real climax, you gotta fight me."

The two left the room, Bogo still reel in shock and pain at what had just happened.

The two strolled through the entrance hall, the fox picking up something with his sniffer. "Is that... coffee?" He said, rushing over to the welcome desk.

"Hey Nick, hey Judy!" Clawhauser said. "You guys got picked first for duty today, huh?"

"Quiet, spots." The fox said, leaping up onto the counter. He spotted the coffee, and strolled over to it, picking it up and gulping it down.

"I thought you said you didn't want any coffee today?" Clawhauser asked, a bit confused.

The fo turned to the cheetah, and spat the coffee in his face. "Blah, not enough wasabi."

"Hey bro, can you get me a donut while you're up there?" The rabbit yelled up.

The fox spotted a box of donuts, and grabbed a pink, sprinkled one. He twirled it on his claw, and threw it down to the rabbit.

"Ooh, sprinkles." She said, admiring the donut, before gulping it down whole. "Whatever this body eats, it doesn't have enough sugar."

The fox hopped down from the desk, and the two headed out the door. "Alright, see you two later!" Clawhauser cheerfully yelled to them, wiping the coffee of his face.

"Alright." The fox said as they exited the station. "We can either head back to base and get this over with, or explore a bit and head back later."

"I say we head back now." The rabbit suggested. "I really don't want to be yelled at again."

The fox wrapped its arm around the rabbit. "Well, we haven't actually figured out if there's one here yet, so I say..." He let go, and walked away, looking into the city. "I say we explore a bit, we can head back any time! It's not like we get to explore alternate timelines every day, y'know."

"I guess you're right, big bro!" The rabbit said cheerfully. "Let's go explore Zootopia!"

"Yeah, now you're on the right track." The fox said cheerfully, pumping his fist. "And besides, this uniform is killing me."

* * *

"So, how will you be paying for this, sir?"

The fox felt around, trying to find a wallet. He finally found one, and pulled out the credit card, handing it to the gazelle. After a few seconds, the clerk handed it back, and they two left the clothing shop.

"Now this," The fox started, brushing off his new clothes, "Is much better." He now wore a red jacket with a chain hanging from it, and black jeans. He also had cloth straps with spikes on them on his wrist, and had a pair of pointed sunglasses. Around his neck hung a red scarf, which hung around, being slightly too big for the fox's body.

"Yeah, its nice to be in something more loose." The rabbit said, tipping her new baseball cap, which caused her ears to bend backwards. She also now wore a long, beige coat that reached down to her knees, and baggy pants her heels stepped on. Her undershirt was a white t-shirt with the logo of a record producer on it.

"You really need to pick out some different clothes." The fox stated. "It's always the beige, you need to pick a new style."

"Hey, I only wear what works, bro."

The fox shrugged, and looked around the rather plain mall, ignoring the many odd looks they were getting. "Think there's any pudding shops around here?" He asked.

"I don't think pudding shops are a thing over here." The rabbit noted.

"NO PUDDING!?" The fox fell to his knees, before instantly getting back up. "Well, there might be a good coffee shop somewhere around here! LET'S GO, GO, GO!" he yelled running off, the rabbit quickly following after him.

A while later, they found themselves waiting in line for a coffee at a place called Top Tail Coffee. The fox had smelled it from farther in the mall, and the rabbit had no choice but to follow.

After about five minutes of waiting in line, they finally got to order. "Do you have anything with octopus in it?" The fox asked the giraffe barista.

"What?" She said. "Why would you put octopus in coffee?"

"Uh, why would you not?" The rabbit said, acting like the giraffe was an idiot.

"Alright, what's the weirdest coffee you've got?" The fox asked.

"Um, we have a fruit cocktail flavored coffee, but it's not very-"

"We'll take two."

The two soon left the shop, coffees in hand. The fox took a sip, and yelled out in joy. "YEAH! Now THIS is a real coffee!" he took another sip. "I THINK I'M HITTING THE CLIMAX!"

Nearly everyone within a fifty foot radius heard this, and the ones closer all turned to give the fox odd looks, which he was oblivious to.

The rabbit took a sip. "I think Naomi could improve it." She said. "I'll have to recommend it to her when we get back."

"Speaking of," The fox said, crushing his empty coffee cup and throwing it over his shoulder. "I hear there's a big train scene in this city. Wanna go check it out?"

"Uh, sure, but-"

The fox quickly rushed off, the rabbit trailing behind him once again.

A half hour later, the two were riding one of the skyway trains.

"Man, this is boring." The fox said, sat down on one of the seats next to the rabbit.

"It's just a normal train, bro." The rabbit explained. "I don't know what you were expecting."

He sat up and looked out the window, getting a wonderful look at the city. "I was expecting it to go faster, at least." The fox said, a bit nonplussed. "They don't even go as fast as the skyways back home."

He leaped down from the seat, and headed towards one of the entrances. "I say we split from this boring ass place and go somewhere more interesting."

"But we're on a skyway, how can we-"

The fox grabbed onto the door with his claws, and tore it open. He then leaped out.

"That's one way of doing it!" The rabbit said cheerfully, running out the door as well. "Weeee!"

Another half hour later, the two were walking through central park.

"So, if the bear was born here, do you think he'd be an actual bear?" The fox asked, laying down and looking up into the sky.

"Probably." The rabbit responded, watching as a family of bears coincidentally walked by.

"What about turtle?" The fox asked. "You think he'd be an actual turtle?"

"It looks like there's only mammals here, so probably not."

"What do you think he'd be then?" The fox continued to ask.

"Oh, I'd probably say a panther or some kind of big cat." The rabbit answered, watching as a family of panthers walked by.

"Really? I was thinking more like a sloth."

"Don't be rude, big bro."

"He's not here, I can be as rude as I want!" The fox yelled, sitting up.

The rabbit stood up. "I know where we can go next!" He announced, running off.

The fox quickly got to his feet and chanced after her.

A while later, they were in a different mall, outside of a record store.

"You and your music." The fox groaned.

"C'mon, they might have something good." The rabbit said, walking into the store. "It's always fun to explore other culture's music."

"They probably don't even have our album!"

The rabbit walked past a wall of CDs, and went through a bunch of them. "Bearno Mars, Iggy Koalia, Weird Al Yakovic..." She sighed. "Man, there's nothing here that I'd like." She walked into the middle of the store and looked around. "Maybe I need to broaden their horizons."

"If you start singing, I'll show you my killer technique personally."

She frowned, and blew a raspberry at the fox while he wasn't looking.

An hour later, the two were walking down a rather shady looking street.

"So I've been keeping track of guys we've run into before." The rabbit said, pulling out her phone. "Lion, armadillo, rabbit, you know, those old guys."

"How could I forget any of those bastards?" The fox muttered.

"Why are we walking down a shady looking street anyway?" The rabbit asked cheerfully. "Are you looking for trouble again?"

"Am I getting that obvious?" The fox questioned, briefly stopping to rub his head. His ears perked up, and he ran to a corner, peeking around it.

A gang of three rhinos, each sitting around playing cards in the middle of an alleyway. "This is perfect!" The fox muttered.

"What's perfect?" The rabbit said loudly, tackling the fox and knocking themselves into the alley.

"HEY!" One of the rhinos yelled, causing all three to stomp over to the fox and rabbit. "Were yous spyin' on us!?" He asked angrily. "That's an invasion of personal privacy!"

The fox got up and dusted off his jacket, before pushing the rabbit away. "So, what if I was?" He asked.

"Well, then I'd have to teach you and your... girlfriend... boyfriend..." The rhino stared at the rabbit in confusion. "What are you, exactly?"

"Does it matter?"

The rhino snorted. "I'd have to teach you and your friend here a lesson in respect." The rhino cracked its knuckles. "And by that, I mean I'll have to finish yous off, poimanently."

"I'll have you know," The fox started, a grin growing on his face. "From start to finish, I'm always at a climax!"

The fox quickly leaped up and socked his fist right into lead rhino's chin, launching him up into the air, and over a few buildings. An audible crash could be heard.

The other rhinos stared at the fox, who cracked his knuckles. They let out yells of fear, and stampeded off.

"That was fun." The fox said. "We should probably head back to the DenLiner now."

The rabbit nodded, and they rushed off.

* * *

The two stood outside of what appeared to be some sort of abandoned factory. Grey, dark, generally not the kind of place you'd want to be around.

But it had what they needed, a door.

"You got the pass?" The rabbit asked. The fox pulled out a blocky, black object from his pocket, and gave the rabbit a smirk.

The fox put it back into the jacket pocket, and placed a foot on the door. "Just let me know when its time." He said.

The rabbit pulled out her phone, and watched as time ticked by. 2:20. 2:21.

2:22.

"NOW!" The rabbit yelled, the fox kicking the door open.

Instead of opening to a factory interior, it revealed a sprawling desert of golden sand. The sky swirled with multiple colors, and sitting there in the middle of it all was a silver and red train.

"Nice to be back home." The fox said, stepping into the desert, the rabbit following him.

They walked up to the train, and the fox knocked at the door. It slid open, revealing a tall, blue figure covered in shell patterned armor.

"Where were you two?" He said, calmly, but sternly. "I told you to be back in an hour, it's been five."

"Relax, turtle." The fox said, hopping up into the train. "We got them like The Owner asked us to, and nothing happened."

"Aside from you changing their sense of style, it seems."

"You woulda done the same thing too, y'know." The rabbit said as they entered the main car of the train.

It was mostly a dull silver, with the only color coming from the repeating yellow and red chairs and tables. The two moved to the middle of the cart, and took seats.

"I knew me and Kin should have done this." The blue creature said, going to the counter at the end of the cart.

"We still got it done, dude." The fox said, standing up on the table. "And we still haven't gotten an Imagin reading, so who knows if we'll even need these two!"

"We should probably stop possessing them, though." The rabbit said, trying to reach a piece of paper on the table, with no success.

"Oh, wait, I have a great idea!" The fox yelled, the turtle creature shaking his head as he sipped from a cup of coffee.

He hopped down to the seat, and fell onto his back, closing his eyes.

The fox tried to open his eyes. It was too bright, so he covered them with his arm. "Ugh, I had the worst dream, Carrots." He moaned. "There was sand everywhere, and I had an awful hairdo."

Silence struck through the room.

"Carrots?"

He sat up, finally seeing his surroundings. Some kind of train car. "Great, another train." He groaned, hopping off of the seat. He looked up and down the aisle, no one was there, it was completely silent.

"Hello?" He cried out. "Is there maybe, a weird rabbit guy with an even weirder puppet here, by chance?"

The lights went out, and he heard a door begin to slowly slide open. Smoke poured through the opening it as it continued to crawl. A figure stepped through once it fully opened, dressed in a long, flowing black robe.

"GREETINGS NICHOLAS WILDE!" It yelled dramatically.

Nick just kinda stared at the figure as it spoke.

"YOU HAVE DIED, AND THIS TRAIN WILL BE YOUR RIDE TO HELL! YOU WILL FACE-" A large, silver staff hit the cloaked figure over the head, causing him to yell in pain. "Yeesh, can't take a joke, can you turtle?"

"He wasn't even scared, Momo." A blue figure said, stepping around the figure and pointing towards the fox.

"Yeah, I've seen way scarier stuff than that." Nick said as the lights turned back on.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop." The figure pulled off the cloak, revealing a red, demon like creature with two large horns, pure black eyes, and a fixed silver grimace.

"AHHH!" Nick yelled, stepping back and crossing his index digits. "DEMON!"

"Great, he's scared NOW!" The demon lamented, sitting down at a table.

The blue creature moved to the counter, and two more stepped in. One was yellow and had a rather muscular build, and some kind of blade sticking out of its eyeless head. "Watching a prank go bad is enough to make me cry!" It lamented.

The other creature that followed behind the yellow one had a very pointed face and a pony tail. Its body seemed to have its own built in jacket. "You say that about everything, big guy!"

"I'm sorry we had to meet like that." The blue one apologized. "It was his idea." He motioned towards the demon like creature, who scoffed in return. "Your partner should be in the next cart over."

"Uh, thanks." The fox responded, running over to the other side of the cart.

The door instantly slid open, and revealed the bunny, who was currently screaming her lungs out.

"-AND IF NO ONE TELLS ME WHERE I AM SOON, I'M GONNA-" She heard the door slide open, and turned to the fox. "Nick!" She ran up and gave him a surprise hug, she had obviously been worried. She got an odd look on her face and stepped back. "What are you wearing?" She asked, trying not to laugh at the fox's odd clothes.

"I could ask you the same thing." He said back, motioning towards her also odd clothes.

The two looked at themselves, and started tugging at their new, strange clothes. They also noticed the strange markings on their fur had disappeared.

Nick walked back into the other cart. "I think you guys need to explain some things to us." He demanded.

"Well, for starters-" The blue creature tried to say, only for the red one to shush him.

"Lemme handle this, turtle." It interrupted. The creature stood up, and swung its leg onto the table, stepping on it. "My name is Momotaros." He pointed towards the blue creature, who was drinking a cup of coffee. "That's Urataros."

"A pleasure."

"That's Kintaros," He pointed over to the yellow creature, whose face was planted on a nearby table, dead asleep. "And that's Ryutaros." He motioned towards the purple creature, who was doodling at something at another table.

Ryutaros looked up, and waved at both of the mammals with both hands. "Hiya!"

"And you two," Momotaros said, pointing towards the two. "Are gonna help us out with somethin'." He quickly got out of his seat, and stretched, before bringing his thumb to his chest. "We've been told there's an Imagin roaming around this timeline, and The Owner recommended that we get your help."

"I have a few questions." Judy sounded. "Where are we, exactly?"

"The DenLiner." Urataros started, taking a sip of his coffee. "The train of time. It can move through time freely, from the past to the far future."

"We came here from an alternate timeline." Momotaros continued. "It's a pretty rare event, you probably don't get it."

"I'm pretty sure they get it." Ura said. "You're the one who doesn't understand."

"Hey, rude!"

"Second question." Judy said, holding up two digits. "What's an Imagin, and why do you need our help to fight one?"

"I'm pretty sure we don't actually need your help to fight one." Momotaros said, rather smugly. He didn't notice as Urataros came up and smack him on the head.

"Imagin are destructive monsters from the future." Urataros began. "They're powered by people's wishes, and can mess with the time stream."

"Ah, so..." Nick said. "Probably not very good having one run around."

"But, how would we know if we found one?" Judy asked, crossing her arms. "You do want our help, right?"

"Well, you're looking at four of them right now!" Ryutaros said, spinning around to face them.

The two stepped back.

"Don't worry." Urataros tried to assure. "We hunt Imagin, we gave up on destroying things a long time ago." He turned to the sleeping Kintaros. "Some of us never even started, actually."

"So, they all look as weird as you?" Nick joked.

"Weird!?" Momo pushed the turtle out of the way, causing him to spill his coffee on the slumbering Kin, and rushed towards the fox, falling down to his stomach to look Nick right in the eye. "Who you callin' weird!?"

Urataros stepped on the demon creature, causing his face to hit the steel ground. "Imagin can look like whatever the person it's made a contract with comes up with." He explained, Momo struggling to get up. "Hence the name."

"Alright, third question." Judy said cheerfully, holding up a third digit. "How did we get here!?" She yelled.

"Oh, that's easy, we possessed you!" Ryutaros cheerfully said, not looking back from his drawing. "We had to get you here indiscreetly, y'know? Having two monster guys showing up in your city would've been bad!"

Momotaros finally got up, knocking Urataros to the ground. "Yeah, it was fun. I took over you, fox, and the brat took over your partner." He continued, going back over to his seat. "We rode trains, looked around the city, got stuff to eat, I punched a buffalo in the face..."

"YOU WHAT!?" Both of the mammals yelled in terror.

"Yeah, had to do it to get out of the police station." Momo continued, completely unaware of their reaction. "Bet that surprised him!"

Judy passed out, and Nick fell to the ground, clutching his head.

"Yeesh, you two are almost as bad as Ryotarou." Momo said, looking at them. "Wasn't a big deal, guy was asking for it."

"MY LIFE IS OVER!" Judy yelled, reaching for the sky.

"What did I do!?" Momo yelled, looking at the other Imagin for answers.

"You punched our police chief in the face!" Nick yelled, trying to get it through his skull.

"What?" Momo looked around, and then rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Oh. Sorry 'bout that."

Urataros sighed. "I don't think you get just what, exactly, you did, Momo." He said, slapping him on the back of the head. "Imagine if you punched The Owner on purpose, how mad do you think he'd be?"

Momo thought for a second. He brought a hand up to his mouth. "Shit, I really messed up there!" He yelled.

"You really did."

The rabbit sat up again, taking deep breaths. "It's okay, he'll understand, we can get through this."

"Do you really think Bogo will believe us if we told him we were possessed by time demons?"

She fell back down again, groaning.

Kintaros suddenly woke up, letting out a loud yawn, and spotted the nearly sobbing rabbit. "A lady? Crying!?" He yelled, turning back to the other Imagin. "Which one of you did this!?"

"Momo just probably ruined her life forever!" Ryutaros plainly and cheerfully said.

Kin stomped over to the red Imagin, who moved back in his seat. "Hey now, it was just a mistake, bear!" Kintaros pulled his fist back, and socked Momotaros in the side of his jaw, causing him to give out a horrifyingly loud shout of pain.

"Hope you learned your lesson."

Urataros knelt down in front of Judy, and helped her up. "Don't worry, Miss Hopps, we'll help you get everything back to normal." He said, looking directly into her eyes, causing her to blush a bit. "Promise."

"Heeey, I have another question." Nick chimed in, pushing the turtle away. "What happened to our clothes?"

"Well, I don't know what happened to them, but we bought you new clothes!" Ryutaros said cheerfully, still drawing.

"Yeah." Momotaros continued, rubbing his cheek. "Those are a lot more comfortable than those ugly uniforms you were in before."

"How much were they." Nick said flatly.

"Five hundred."

Both of the mammal's eyes widened, and they both audibly gulped.

"Yeah I know, super cheap!" Momo said cheerfully. "I thought they'd be way more expensive than that."

Urataros looked at him. "How much of an idiot are you?"

"What did I do!?"

Suddenly, the lights began to flash red and a rather loud siren aired.

"Shit!" Momotaros yelled, getting up from his seat. "Imagin alert! I"ll get the train started!" He quickly ran into the next cart over, and the train started to move, nearly knocking the two mammals over.

"We'll be at the Imagin's location in a few minutes, so you two better prepare yourselves." Urataros told them, heading back to the counter.

"To be honest, I didn't really miss having to fight monsters multiple days in a row." Judy lamented as the two hopped up to a seat.

Nick turned back to the turtle creature. "Hey, do you know a weird guy in a fake bunny hat, carries around an annoying puppet everywhere he goes?"

Urataros took a sip from his coffee. "No, can't say I do."

"Wow," Ryutaros said aloud. "Sounds like you guys've seen even weirder stuff than us!"

"Eh, you guys are probably the weirdest."

After a minute of silence, a calm chime sounded.

"HOLD ON TO YOUR ASSES!"

Followed my Momotaros yelling.

The two mammals desperately clung to their seats as they felt the train take off into the air, the other passengers seeming completely unphased by it. It went better than their last train ride, at least, no looping.

There was a flash of light through the window, and the train slowed down. Judy hopped up to the window and peered out, revealing them hovering above the city.

The door slammed open, and Momo ran back it, smacking the blue Imagin on the shoulder, causing him to spill coffee. "You better take the controls, turtle."

"What!?" Ura yelled. "Why do I have to do it now?"

Momotaros chuckled a bit as he walked towards the mammals, placing his hand on Nick's shoulder. "I gotta get ready to show these newbies what I can do!"

"Ugh, fine, whatever." Urataros let out, frustrated, before rushing to the cockpit.

"'Newbies'?" Judy said, a bit insulted. "We've been doing this for almost a month now, I wouldn't consider us newbies."

"I've been doing this for ten years, rabbit." Momotaros started, staring her directly in the eyes. "You two haven't even seen half of the shit I've seen."

She promptly shut her mouth.

They felt the train begin to lower down, and begin to enter a spiral motion. The turbulence was starting to get to the fox as he clutched his stomach.

"Ugh, remind me to never go on a flying train again." He groaned, stomach audibly grumbling.

"I can help with that!" Momotaros said, stepping back and rubbing his hands together. He then dashed towards the fox, turning into a glowing red sphere.

The fox ducked in surprise, causing the ball to fly over his head and swerve into the bunny on the table. He looked up and saw the rabbit, standing there dramatically, now with red eyes.

"I..." She pressed her thumb to her chest, and then splayed her arms out. "HAVE ARRIVED! Again!" Momotaros' voice was now coming from the rabbit. She looked down at her paws, and groaned. "Damn it, not again!"

The rabbit threw off her hat, which landed on the backside of Kintaros' head, revealing a mohawk of dark red fur running down her head. "Wow, is that what I looked like when you possessed me?" Nick asked, placing his hand on his chin. "I looked like a real tool."

"Shut it, fox." Momotaros said, before looking at her clothes. "Ugh, can we trade clothes?"

"What? No!" Nick yelled. "You're like, two sizes smaller than me anyway."

"Just let me have the scarf."

Nick handed the scarf to the rabbit, which covered the bottom half of her face and still hung around loosely.

"I'd like if you got out of her, actually." Nick said, a bit agitated.

"Sorry, I have to stay in a body for some arbitrary amount of time before I can leave again." Momotaros explained, pulling the scarf down a bit so her mouth was visible.

Nick looked at the rabbit, skeptically.

"What? I'm not lying!"

They felt the train stop, and both of them looked out onto an intersection. The chime run again, followed by Urataros' calm voice. "We have reached the area where the monster will attack."

"'Will attack'?" Nick wondered.

"Time travel is something else, huh?" The rabbit said, hopping down from the table and to the exit. She turned back to the fox, and motioned him to come over. "C'mon, let's GO, GO, GO!"

The door slid open, and the rabbit hopped out onto the street, Nick quickly following behind her.

He hopped out into the middle of the intersection, realizing that everyone there, which was a lot of mammals, were staring directly at him, the rabbit, and the train. He looked down at the rabbit. "They can see the train, can't they?"

"Why wouldn't they?" The rabbit replied back. "It's pretty hard to miss."

The fox let out a loud sigh.

"So, the Imagin should be somewhere around here..." The rabbit looked around, before quickly glancing over to a nearby alley. "Over there."

The fox turned to the alley, seeing an antelope walk by, only for it to turn and begin talking to something shrouded in the darkness. The antelope backed away a bit, fearfully, before being pulled back by the unknown creature. A brief glint shone through the dark, raised above the mammal.

Without hesitation, Momotaros ran towards the alley, leaping into the shrouded figure and kicking them back. "Get the hell out of here!" The rabbit yelled to the antelope, who nodded and ran away.

Nick ran up next to Momotaros as the figure got up. "Oh, that's definitely a monster."

It looked like some kind of fox, but was far too tall. It growled, and pointed towards the two, a gleam of malice in its eyes. "Are you two Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde?" it asked.

"What?" Momotaros sounded.

"I mean, yeah technically we are." Nick said. "Judy's a bit... out of it right now, though."

"FINALLY!" It yelled, approaching them. "I've been searching through this city all day and night to find you two!" It clenched its claws together in triumph. "So many I harmed, and yet none of them were you."

"Wait," Nick said, backing away. "You were the one assaulting all of the mammals recently?"

The monster chuckled to itself, and leaped out into the open. It splayed its arms out, claws glowing with a golden energy. It then slashed forwards, unleashing powerful energy blasts that cleaved two nearby buildings in half.

Nick gulped. "I'll take that as a yes." Then a thought hit him. The monster was looking for them.

"ALRIGHT!" The rabbit yelled, running into the middle of the street. "Haven't gotten to do this in a while!"

She pulled out a belt, and strapped around her waist, where it clipped in automatically. She pulled out a large, blocky, grey thing and held it up.

"TRANSFORM!"

She slid it across the belt, and in a flash of light, her body was now covered in a suit, black and white, and with what appeared to be a train track going down the middle of it. Of note were her ears, which were also covered.

She cracked her neck a few times, and then pressed a red button on the belt, which caused the belt to play a chime. She swiped the object across it for a second time.

"SWORD FORM" An electronic voice from the belt yelled out.

A rainbow of colors began swirling around the armored rabbit as a red object travelled down the tracks and onto her face, where it split into two bug-like eyes. Red armor pieces flew in from nowhere, and attached to her chest. A few more armor pieces flew in, almost haphazardly, and attached to the ears, forming an arrow-shape.

"I..." She began again, performing the same pose as before. "HAVE ARRIVED! Part three!"

Nick stared on from the alley, a bit confused at what had just happened.

"Hmm." The Imagin let out. "So you're the famous Imagin Hunter, huh? Thought you'd be taller."

"Just because I'm short right now, doesn't mean I can't kick your ass!" She yelled, pulling out an odd looking sword and rushing towards the monster. She leaped up and striked it, knocking the fox thing backwards a bit.

It slashed at her, energy blasts flying from its claws. Momotaros effortlessly blocked each shot, twisting and spinning the sword around at incredible speeds. "That the best you got?" She mocked, planting the sword into the ground.

The monster swiped its claw across the air, causing many small balls of fire to materialize in front of it. "Fox fire!" It yelled, pointing towards the armored rabbit. All of the fireballs immediately zoomed towards her.

The rabbit once again tried to block the fireballs, but some crashed next to her, knocking Momotaros off balance and letting her get hit by a few remaining ones. The explosions completely covered her.

The smoke from the explosions cleared, revealing the rabbit, head cocked to the side, still standing. "Still not good enough."

She rushed towards the monster, and swiped at it with her sword multiple times, sparks flying. On the last strike, the fox grabbed the sword with both claws, lifting her up.

"I've got you now, Hopps." It growled.

"Sorry, wrong rabbit."

The blade of the sword detached from the hilt, letting the rabbit drop down to the ground, and sparked with electricity, causing the monster to recoil in pain and drop it. The blade fell to the ground, and Momotaros swiped the hilt back, causing the blade to fly through the air, slicing the fox in the process, and reattaching to the hilt.

"You just saw my killer technique, surprise edition!" She said.

"Grah!" The monster growled, its eyes suddenly lighting up and a pulse of energy shaking the surrounding area. "Enough playing around!"

The fox monster dashed towards the armored rabbit, and kicked her into the air, slashing her a few times, and then kicking her away.

In a flash, where there was one figure flying through the air, there were now two, Judy and Momotaros. Judy rolled across the ground and into the alley, next to the stunned Nick, while Momotaros smashed face first into the building next to them.

Judy got up, groaning, and then looked around, surprised. "What? How did I get here?"

"Blame horn head, come on, we have a monster to fight." He ran out of the alley, the rabbit following behind him confused.

"Yikes, is that an Imagin?" Judy asked, staring at the now roaring monster.

"Yeah, handsome guy, ain't he?"

Momotaros walked up next to them, rubbing his face in pain. "Aggghhh, you're gonna pay for this, you fox bastard!" He glanced down to Nick. "No offense to you."

"None... taken?"

"And now I gotta transform again, thanks!" He continued complaining. He performed the entire thing again, all three other parties watching on awkwardly as he rushed through it to get back to the armored state.

"I have arrived, you know the deal." He finished, pulling the sword out again.

Judy hopped in front of him before he could rush to fight, spreading her arms out. "Okay, I think you need to explain to me just what you are!" She yelled, walking towards the monster and pushing him back.

"What? What do you mean!?"

"Well, you did that transformation thing like us!" She continued.

"Yeah, I just thought you were a weird monster guy, not a Sentai Ranger." Nick continued.

"Sentai Ranger!?" Momotaros said, still confused. "I'm not a Sentai guy!"

"I..." He placed his thumb to his chest, and splayed his arms out again.

"...AM A KAMEN RIDER!"

There was a brief moment of awkward silence.

"Is..." Judy started. "Is there a difference, or...?"

The Rider stumbled forward a bit, and then rubbed his helmeted head. "Well, Kamen Riders mostly work alone, and-"

There was an explosion, which knocked all of them backwards.

"QUIT WITH THE CHATTER!" The fox monster yelled.

"Ugh, alright, all you need to know is that my name is Den-O in this form, kay?" The rider finished. "Now get to the transforming!"

The two complied, and transformed into their ranger forms.

"CHAMPION OF THE SUN!" ZooRed yelled, spinning around and scraping his claws against the ground. "ZOORED!"

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON!" ZooBlue yelled out, leaping into the air and spinning around, landing in a pose. "ZOOBLUE!"

"ZYUMEN SENTAI, ZOORANGER!" The two yelled, a sudden massive explosion appearing behind them as they posed, which startled all three of them.

"Yikes, where'd that come from!?" Den-O yelled.

"Doesn't matter, we've got a fox to hunt!" Blue yelled, before turning back to her partner. "No offense."

"None taken."

All three rushed at the fox, weapons drawn, and attempted to strike at him, who seemed to be able to block every strike they made effortlessly.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to finish me off!" It mocked, spinning around to launch them all away.

Den-O slid to a halt, and let out a laugh. "I'll have you know, from start to finish, I'm always at a climax!"

"Speaking of a climax, let's do this!" Red said, pulling out his weapons and throwing them into the air, Blue following up by tossing hers up.

The weapons combined into the Zookaizer, which landed in their hands. It was aimed at the fox, and Den-O gave a quick nod.

"Alright, starting at the climax already, I like you guys." Den-O pulled his sword back, which began crackling with electricity. "I'm gonna show you my killer technique, part two!"

"ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!" The Zoorangers yelled, firing the blast at the fox. Den-O followed up, swinging his sword, it disconnecting from the hilt, connected by a beam of electricity.

The two combined blows caused a massive explosion, larger than any they had caused before. However, when the smoke cleared, the fox was still standing... along with something else.

Surrounded in a large dark sphere were the fox and Kyuemon, holding a small mallet. "You sure are an interesting one." He said. "I want to see how interesting you can be."

"What?" The monster replied, a bit confused. "Who are you!?"

"Jukkarage!" Kyuemon yelled, causing a burst of dark energy to surround the sphere, an army of Jukkarage appearing in front of the Rangers and Rider. "Distract them."

The sphere vanished in a burst of dark energy, leaving the three in front of the massive group of stone warriors.

"What are those things?" Den-O asked, gripping his blade.

"StarNinger called them Jukkarage." Red explained. "They're not that bad."

"Ah, just a bunch of shrimps, huh?" Den-O said, stretching his arms. "I guess I could use a bit of a break..." He pushed a button on his belt, and swiped the object over it, causing the belt to glow blue.

"ROD FORM"

His armor flew off, shifting into a different form, blue, and with large shoulder pads. His visor vanished, a small turtle like object sliding onto the tracks and shifting into a much more bug like face, with two antenna.

"Mind if I reel you in?" Den-O said, Urataros' voice now coming from him. He looked around, seeing the dozens of soldiers. "Of course Momo gives this job to me."

"What just happened?" Blue asked, looking the new blue Rider up and down.

"I'll explain it after we clear these guys out."

He pulled the sword out, throwing it into the air where it split into four different pieces, which recombined into a long pole weapon.

Den-O rushed into the fray, striking at the monsters with his pole, spinning it around to destroy an entire circle of them.

"Can't let this guy hog all the action!" Red stated, pulling out the Vickscannon. He fired a few shots, clearing out a large number of them quickly.

"You're not gonna take the spotlight from me either!" Blue replied back, twirling her daggers and dashing into the fray. She leaped through the air, somehow gliding as she sliced through the Jukkrage in a line.

After a few more swipes, Den-O paused for a minute, surrounded by Jukkarage. "Y'know, this kind of job really isn't for me."

He pressed the red button on the belt, causing him to transform into Sword Form, which Momotaros reacted to with surprise.

"C'mon, seriously turtle?" He yelled. "Maybe bear will appreciate the screen time more." He pressed the yellow button on the belt.

"AXE FORM"

His armor flew off again, forming a more armored look, this time yellow. This time, an axe like object rolled down the tracks, unfolding into a mask with a blade like protrusion. He immediately fell limp, loud snores resounding through the area.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." Red let out, pulling out the Foxfire Blade and dashing towards Den-O, slicing up a few more Jukkarage as he went by.

He smacked the Rider on the back with the dull side of his sword, causing him to wake up.

"MY STRENGTH HAS MADE YOU CRY!" He yelled, throwing the rod up into the air, turning it into an axe weapon. With barely a pause between catching the axe, he slammed it into the ground, creating a massive crack in the ground, the force destroying nearby Jukkarage, and launching the fox upwards.

"Well, at least I have a vantage point!" He yelled, trying not to sound terrified, and pulling out the Vickscannon again. He pointed it downwards, and fired several blasts directly into the crowd of monsters, which seemed to be endless.

"I was having a wonderful dream!" Den-O cried, and then looked over at the two Rangers fighting. "But seeing those two fight is wonderful, it brings a tear to my eye... i need to go." He pressed the purple button on the belt.

"GUN FORM"

The armor flipped around again, this time forming into a purple colored armor with large shoulder pads. What looked like a dragon head slid down, and formed into a pointed purple visor.

He spun around, and pointed towards a group of Jukkarage, who stared at him confused. "Mind if I defeat you?" He asked. "I can't hear you!"

He threw the axe into the air, where it reformed into a gun. Den-O spun around, stopping facing away from the soldiers, and caught it in his hand, pointed towards them. He shot a flurry f blasts without looking, wiping them all out.

"Yeah, now that's an awesome beat!" He yelled out.

After all that, the Jukkarage had been completely cleared out. The three grouped together, the two mammals untransforming and falling down, catching their breath.

"Why do you two look so down?" Asked Den-O, still having Ryutaros' voice, and almost compulsively dancing. "You got to see us all in action!"

"Well for one, the Imagin got away." Judy started, out of breath. "And two, we don't exactly know what's going on with you four."

"We all use the same powers, basically." Ryutaros explained, still dancing. "Our weapon and abilities change, though."

"So, you're all this Den-O guy?" Nick asked. "But you're alls till different?"

"Yeah, basically." Ryutaros said, having stopped dancing. "Also, don't you two have a boss to apologize to?"

The two gritted their teeth, stared each other in the eye, and dashed off towards the police station.

"I dunno why they're in such a hurry, it probably won't be that bad." Ryutaros said to himself.

He strolled up to the train, and got on, seeing the other three Imagin waiting around the cart. He untransformed, and sat down back at his doodle, starting to draw again.

"So, remember how I said we were going to help them out with their job?" Urataros said, taking a sip of coffee.

"Uh, not really." Momotaros said.

"Well, we're going to go do that now."

* * *

The monster stumbled onto the roof, and turned to glare at the strange monster that had saved it. "Who are you!?" It asked. "Why did you take me away, I almost had them!"

"No you didn't." Kyuemon plainly stated, not breaking eye contact.

"What does that mean!?" The monster angrily yelled. "Are you calling me weak!?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

The fox rushed at the yokai, who pulled out his sword and effortlessly blocked every swipe it tried to strike with. With a single strike, Kyuemon launched the Imagin away.

"If you can't even touch me, you have absolutely no hope of defeating the Zoorangers, especially with that Kamen Rider on their side." Kyuemon explained.

"Then what am I supposed to do!?" It yelled, almost a full cry. "I need to complete the contract in order to reach my full potential!"

"Actually, I don't think you do." Kyuemon stated, walking towards the fox monster. "In fact, with my help..."

He held up a small red object, glittering in the sunlight. "...I feel you can surpass your power in that form."

He tossed the object directly into the Imagin's chest, causing it to writhe around in pain as red bolts of electricity covered it. The monster turned sheet white, and quickly disintegrated into a pile of sand.

"Hm, disappointing." Kyuemon said to himself. "But there was a chance he wouldn't survive."

Just as Kyuemon turned to leave, he heard a rumbling, and turned back to the pile of sand. Before his eyes, the sand shifted and swirled, forming into a new body for the monster, still resembling its previous self, fox like and brown, but with a bulkier frame, a hunched over stature, much larger claws, and a red marking of the Chaos Badge on its chest.

It stretched its arms out, and let out a mighty roar. "This is amazing!" It yelled. "What in the world did you do!?"

"I've granted your wish." Kyuemon said slyly. "Now go and kill them."

"Oh, I have a much better idea in mind!" It said, looking into the city. Kyuemon cocked his head, less confused and more intrigued.

"I won't just kill them, I'll erase them completely!"

It started laughing, and Kyuemon disappeared in a burst of dark energy.

* * *

After running off, the two officers had headed back to their apartment to pick up their spare uniforms. They'd bother finding the other ones after this whole ordeal was done with.

"This is it, Nick." Judy said dramatically, staring down the revolving doors of the station. "This conversation is something our lives depend on."

"You mean 'your life depends on'." He sarcastically replied.

She glared at him. "Can you please take those off?" She rudely asked.

The fox lifted his pointed sunglasses up. "Why? They look good on me, and that's all that matters." He gave her a wink, and the glasses fell back down his face.

She rolled her eyes in response, and the two walked in. And instead of being met just by Clawhauser, there was another mammal there, sitting on Clawhauser's desk and talking to him. It looked like Fangmeyer, but something was off.

"Yeah it goes like, 'doot dah doot doot dah doo', it's by 175R, pretty good song."

"I'll have to check it out!" Clawhauser said cheerfully. "I didn't know you had that kind of taste in music, Fangmeyer, you struck me more as a classic rock guy!"

"You learn more about people every day!" The huskie said, his voice sounding off, but familiar to the two as they walked closer. He turned to them, and they noticed the purple strand of fur hanging in front of his face.

"Oh no." Nick whispered.

"There you two are!" The huskie said, hopping down from the desk. "I've been waiting for you two for hours!"

"But we saw you like, an hour ago." Judy pointed out.

"Time travel!" He quietly shouted. "I've been here talking to Clawhauser for three hours!"

"Seriously?" Nick shook his head. "I hate time travel."

"Talking about popular music isn't the reason I'm here though." Ryutaros explained. "I'm here to let you know that Ura and Kin are coming to help you guys out of this mess."

"What about Momo?" Judy asked.

"He's caused enough trouble." Ryutaros continued. "He's been put on possession ban for a month."

"So, Ura and Kin are going to come by?" Judy asked. "I don't really see how they can help us."

"You never know, maybe sleeping on the job will make Bogo understand."

"Don't worry, Urataros can get out of anything." Ryu cheerfully explained. "There was the time he pretended to betray us, hah! What a guy."

"Sounds like he'd make a good lawyer." Nick joked.

"Or a great conman." Judy followed. "No offense."

"None taken."

"He mostly uses it to woo ladies though." Ryu continued. "Real ladies' man, everyone swoons over him."

"Ugh, that sounds awful, right Nick?" She turned to nick, whose paw was placed on his chin. "Nick?"

"Whu? Oh yeah, what she said."

"Anyway, Ura also wanted me to give you this." He held out the blocky object Den-O had used to transform, and placed it in Judy's paws.

"What is this, exactly?"

"It's a DenLiner Pass, it lets you get to the DenLiner through any door, as long as the numbers on the clock completely match up." Ryu explained. "You're gonna need it when you get out of here."

"What?"

"Nothing!" He yelled, stepping forward awkwardly. "I have to go now, ciao!" With another step, Fangmeyer fell to the ground, knocked out cold.

The two looked at the knocked out huskie, wide-eyed, and then turned back to Clawhauser, who was also looking at it wide-eyed. "We don't mention this to anyone." Nick said, motioning his hand over his mouth like a zipper. The other two followed suit.

The two quickly ran away from the scene, and Clawhauser buried his face in his desktop. Nick and Judy ran to the upper floor.

"So, we just wait for the shell head and the napster to show up now, huh?" Nick said, putting his sunglasses away.

"That's an extraordinarily rude thing to call people who want to help us, but yes."

"Hey if they can come up with rude, uncreative nicknames for themselves, I can come up with rude, creative nicknames for them."

The rabbit suddenly jolted up straight, a sudden blue bang of fur appearing down her face, and her lavender eyes turning blue. She relaxed, and brought both arms behind her back, and glared at the fox, who slapped his face in response.

"I heard you call me shell head." She said, Urataros' voice now coming from her.

"Great." The fox sighed. "So, how are you and Kin going to help us?"

"I'm going to lie you guys out of there." She explained.

"But, what about Kin?"

"Oh, he just wanted to come along."

The fox felt a sudden jolt as well, as a long ponytail of red and yellow fur formed, while his eyes turned yellow. He cracked his neck a few times, and then stomped on the ground, causing the entire building to shake a bit.

"I am ready to help!" He yelled, crossing his arms.

"Great, the best way you can help is to keep quiet." Ura said. "But no napping."

"I will try my best!"

They looked across the hall as the door opened, Bogo stepping out, an ice pack placed next to his jaw. He spotted them, and gave a glare. "You two." He said, calmly, but with obvious frustration in his voice. "In here. Now."

Urataros gritted her rabbit teeth. This might be more difficult than she had thought. Kin, on the other hand, seemed excited.

"I like that guy!" He yelled. "Strong, menacing, a real man!"

In a few moments the two were seated in uncomfortable plastic chair, locked in a staring match with the infuriated buffalo. Finally, he sighed, breaking the terrifying silence.

"I know you two have been having a rough last month." He said. "But even with all the bizarre occurrences, that doesn't mean you can just punch me in the face and leave!" He slammed his fist on the table, and then quickly clutched his jaw again. "Maybe I should have kept you suspended, obviously neither of you is mentally well right now."

Ura coughed a bit. "Well, sir, there's obviously been some kind of mistake." Her voice sounded exactly like Judy's again. "We never actually showed up for work today."

"What?" Bogo said, confused. "Clawhauser said he talked to you this morning."

"Sure, he claims he did, but how do you know he really did?" She asked. "Were you there?"

"Uh, no-"

"Exactly! They were impostors who snuck in." She continued to lie. "Did you see their fur? It had completely different markings from us."

The buffalo sighed, and rubbed his jaw. "I didn't know you were so good at making up excuses, Hopps." He said, a bit angry. Ura gritted her teeth so hard, they felt like they were going to break. "Obviously you've learned from Wilde."

"Hah!" Kin laughed, his voice still sounding like his normal, gruff voice. "The mighty Urataros, master of lying, defeated!"

"What?" Bogo let out.

"Shut it, Kin!" Ura yelled, her voice going back to normal. "You blew our cover!"

"Are you two okay?" He asked, leaning across the desk.

"There is only one way to settle this!" Kin yelled, standing up and rubbing his paws. "A situation unable to be solved with lying must be solved with honesty!"

"Kin, don't do it!"

The fox suddenly fell limp, his ponytail vanishing. In a flash, Kintaros had appeared in the middle of the room, staring directly at the surprised buffalo.

"Honesty... is the virtue of a man!" He yelled, cracking his neck. "We apologize profusely for the trouble we've caused, but we required these two for important business." He explained, bowing down.

Ura sighed. The rabbit fell limp as well, her blue bangs disappearing. Urataros also appeared in the room in a flash. "We're, uh, monster hunters." He explained. "We required their help for hunting one down. They were acting weird because two of our... colleagues were possessing them."

"Ah." Bogo let out. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Wait, really?" Ura said in surprise.

The buffalo nodded. "I've known those two were those super heroes running around for a while now, I could've guessed their odd behavior was relating to something involving it."

The two looked at each other in shock.

"I do want to know what you two are, though. Ghosts? Demons?" He asked. "I'll have to put it in the file."

"The best thing to describe us as is demons, I suppose." Ura said.

"Demons!?" Kin yelled, smacking Ura on the shoulder. "Demons do not have the bravery and integrity of us!"

"Alright, demons." Bogo said, pretending to write it down on a piece of blank paper. "Listen, don't tell them I know they're super heroes, alright? I don't want them taking advantage of my kindness."

"We won't tell them a thing." Ura nudged Kin in the shoulder. "Right, Kin?"

"Uh, yes!"

The two vanished, and the unconscious bodies of the mammal cops got up, their odd furstyles returning. "Now, if you excuse us, we have a train to catch!" Ura said, the two hopping down form their seats and rushing out the door.

As they opened the door, Bogo heard the sound of a train, and a brief glow from behind the door. He got up and opened it, looking out into the police station hall. He opened it up all the way, and turned to a passing by Grizzoli.

"Did Hopps and Wilde run down this way?" He asked.

"Uh, no." The bear responded, continuing to walk past.

He closed the door behind him. He let out a loud sigh, and clutched his jaw. "What in the world is going on in this city?"

* * *

Nick opened his eyes. He was back on the DenLiner, Judy sat next to him, fast sleep. "Great, more trains." He mumbled. He nudged the bunny in the side, trying to wake her up.

"Sorry, no more turtle soup..." She muttered in her sleep. The fox rolled his eyes and nudged her again. "No, I don't want to go fishing..." She mumbled again.

The fox pulled back her ear, and blew into it, startling her and making her wake up. "Augh, don't do that!" She yelled at him.

"Sorry, thought you were in a coma again." He joked, standing up to look around. All the other Imagin were there, doing their usual business as the train continued to move along. He turned to Urataros, who was nervously drinking a cup of coffee.

"So, how'd the conning go?" He asked, paw to chin.

"Oh, it went well!" Urataros said, sounding a bit nervous. "Do you think it went well, Kin?" He turned to the sleeping kintaros, who replied with a loud snore. Ura turned back to the fox. "He thinks it went well."

The fox rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything else, Judy hopped up and asked another question. "Why are we back on the DenLiner, did you guys find the Imagin again?"

"Hell yeah we did!" Momotaros yelled from his seat. "We're gonna go kick that bastard's ass, and send him packing!"

"So, we're on the way there right now?" Nick asked.

"Yes, about thirty seconds until we're back in the city." Urataros said.

There was a bright flash, which nearly blinded the two unprepared mammals. "Whoops." Urataros said flatly. "Must've been three seconds."

The two huddled to the nearest window, and looked out. The train was hovering directly over the streets, hundreds of different mammals seeing it fly by. "Well, this is just peachy." Nick said aloud, causing Momotaros to give him a glare.

They felt the train head upward, and then dip down suddenly. The two were flung into the air, and then crashed back into the table as they felt the train skid to a halt.

"Alright!" Momotaros yelled, getting up from his seat and rubbing his hands. "Let's go do this!" He ran out the door, shortly followed by the two officers as they tried to get their bearings back.

The two hopped out of the train, and found themselves in the middle of central park. Only it looked much worse for wear than it had the previous day. Most of the trees were cut down, large, claw mark shaped chunks of grass were missing, but there didn't appear to be any actual injured mammals nearby.

"Wow, this place is a real dump." Momo said, looking around.

"What happened to the park!?" Judy yelled, horrified.

"That monster probably wrecked it." Nick rationalized. "But it isn't like the other monsters, right? It's just supposed to be hunting for us and not destroying things, so..."

"Wait, is this a trap?" Momotaros quickly realized, pulling out the belt.

The ground began to shake, and then burst open, the Fox Imagin leaping from beneath the ground. It swung its claws towards them, firing dozens of small, sharp energy blasts. The Zoorangers leaped out of the way, transforming into their armored forms. Momotaros quickly transformed into Den-O, and slashed away the blasts aimed at him.

It landed on the ground with a loud thud, leaving visible cracks in the ground. Den-O looked at it for a second, piecing together its new form. "Did you get uglier?" He asked, pointing his sword towards the creature.

"No." The Imagin started. "I got stronger."

"Stronger, huh?" ZooRed said, spinning his sword around as he stepped towards the monster. "I'll say this to start, we're fairly strong ourselves."

"That does not matter." The monster said. "In a few seconds, you won't be anything!" The creature sliced at them, causing a wave of energy to fly towards the three, who blocked it with their weapons.

With some struggling, the three cut through the blast, and dashed towards the monster. All three attempted to strike with their blades a few times, only for the monster to deftly block them all. With a swing of its claw, the heroes were knocked backwards.

Blue looked at the monster as she got up. She saw the emblem on its chest. "Oh cheese and crackers." She said, frustrated.

"Do you know why it got so strong, rabbit?" Den-O asked, motioning towards her.

"I didn't realize those red things worked on other monsters." She said, shaking her head.

"Wait." Red let out. "It got to Chaos form!? How!?"

"Kyuemon must have given it to him!" Blue guessed.

"So, hold on," Den-O started, holding up his hands. "Imagin are already pretty strong as it is, but they aren't at their strongest until a contract is completed." He clenched one hand. "And this Chaos form thing makes them even stronger than before, so that must mean..." He clenched his other hand. "He's really, really strong!"

"I'm stronger than you even know, Imagin Hunter!" The fox yelled, before it started to laugh. "That Kyuemon helped me realize a fatal flaw in my contract." The monster began to explain. "I had made a contract to erase you two from existence, not simply kill you."

"So, you can't actually complete the contract?" Red said, a bit hopeful.

The monster laughed again. "I wasn't able to in my original form, but in this form... Well..." The monster paused for a few seconds, the three bracing themselves.

It quickly dashed towards ZooBlue, clutching her head and lifting her up into the air. A bright light emitted as this happened, which quickly faded. He dropped the rabbit to the ground, who sat there stunned.

It held up a small card in its claws, waving it around to taunt the Rider. "A Rider Card!?" Den-O yelled. "How did you...?"

"Now, Kamen Rider Den-O, watch as I transcend even your precious DenLiner!" It dropped the card to the ground, and its claws began to glow green. With a quick slash, the monster had appeared to cut a hole in the air itself. The hole also glowed green, and the fox monster approached it, turning back to Den-O to give a brief smirk before jumping in. The hole quickly shut afterwards.

"This is bad." Den-O said flatly. "This is really bad."

"What is?" Blue asked, getting up.

"Well, Imagin, when they complete a contract, can go back in time to cause trouble and mess with the time stream." He started to explain. "But this bastard just cut a hole in time by himself! And worse, he's gonna use it to kill you two!"

"WHAT!?" Red yelled, feeling panicked. "That's crazy!"

"Crazy like a fox." Judy said, untransforming. "No offense."

Nick also untransformed. "Now's not the time for puns, Carrots."

"Oh come on, you know if it was a rabbit monster, you'd be making puns about it."

"That is very true, but-"

"JUST SHADDUP!" Momotaros yelled, instantly silencing the two. He ran over to pick up the card. "We don't have a whole lotta time before you two get erased forever." He stared at the giant number plastered on the card, directly underneath a picture of Judy. "2016, huh? Well, let's get going!"

All three of them ran back to the train, which quickly flew into the air and vanished.

"So, what's the plan?" Judy asked, sitting down in the booth next to Momotaros.

"The best I got is that we find this asshole in the past, and kick his ass."

"Not much of a plan, but what do you expect?" Nick joked, taking a seat next to Judy.

"It's the best we have right now." Urataros said, taking a sip of coffee from the booth next to them. "Momo might not be the best at plans, but he knows what to do most of the time."

"Momo might act all tough most of the time," Ryutaros started, seated at a booth near the back, still coloring. "But he's a real big softy once you get to know him."

"Shut up, you brat!" Momo yelled, standing up on the table. Ryutaros responded by pulling at his eyelid, and sticking his tongue out. Momo shook his fist at him, and sat down. "I don't have the energy to waste killing you right now." He awkwardly excused.

"See, just a big, peachy softy!"

"That doesn't mean I won't kill you later!"

As the two continued to argue with each other, Nick looked at Urataros, who was still calmly drinking his coffee. "I have something I need to do." He said to the rabbit next to him "I'll be back in a few."

He hopped down from the seat, and walked over to Urataros, tapping him on the leg to get his attention. "Hey, do you think we can talk in private for a minute?" He asked, rubbing his arm.

"Uh, sure." The turtle Imagin said, standing up. "We can go to the next car over, if you like."

"Perfect."

The two headed to the cart behind the main one, and took a seat, Urataros still holding his cup of coffee. "What is it you want to talk about, Nick?" He asked. "Is it about the Imagin? The philosophical implications of time?"

"Actually, I really need your help with... romance." He explained, cringing a bit.

"Love advice, hmm?" He wondered. "That's a rare one. First, who is it you're in love with?"

The fox stared at him for a second. "Who do you think?"

"Judy, alright." He realized. "How long have you two been... together?"

"Officially, not even twenty four hours, but technically, around three years."

"How did you two first meet?"

"At an ice cream place."

"Romantic."

"I managed to hustle her into buying me a massive Popsicle, which I made into more popsicles, which I then sold for even more money."

The Imagin nearly choked on his coffee. "That's... quite a first date." The imagin wondered if the fox might have been an even better liar than himself.

"Wouldn't really call that the first date." Nick said. "I'd call us saving the city from a massive conspiracy our first date."

"Incredible." Urataros said, a bit sarcastic. "So, what exactly do you need my help with?"

"Well, I've been incredibly nervous about this entire thing for the past day." He admitted. "It's terrifying. I considered us friends before, but now, I feel that if I mess up, we won't even be that."

"Love is a powerful emotion." Urataros began to explain. "It can make people do crazy things."

"But what should I do?" Nick asked. "You're supposed to be a romantic guy, right?"

"I feel there's been some miscommunication." Urataros said plainly. "I am a romantic, but I am far less good with long term relationships, which is what you want."

"So, this has just been a waste of time?" Nick said, throwing his arms up. "Great."

"Not entirely." Urataros said. "I feel I can still give you some advice about your situation."

"And it is...?"

"As a friend once told me, 'Don't be afraid, just go'."

"And that means...?"

"It means," Ura started. "Do what you feel is necessary. If you want to take this relationship farther, you'll have to do it yourself. If you don't do anything, it will stagnate, and you two will remain 'just friends'."

The fox slumped back and thought about it for a second. "Don't be afraid, just go." He said to himself.

"Some more advice." Urataros started again. "Don't be afraid of change. If you are, you'll lose sight of what you want."

The fox hopped down from his seat, a bit solemn. "Thanks for the advice." He said, walking out to the next cart.

"You're welcome."

* * *

She stared at the computer monitor, and sighed. Savage mammal report, Emmet Otterton. What a disaster this case had been, her first case. She had alienated herself from a friend, and the entire situation seemed to only be getting worse.

Her ears perked up as she heard a knock at her cubicle. She spun around to see Bogo. "Come on, Hopps." He said. "The new mayor wants to see you."

"The mayor? Why?"

"It seems you've arrived."

Meanwhile, a few miles away, under a bridge.

Nick's life had turned to shit after the incident. Not only had an awful, terrible void been created in his heart, but he could barely live anymore. Distrust levels of him had gone from "normal fox distrust" to "unreasonably high", which mad hustling a very, very difficult prospect.

He popped open his soda can, and took a sip. It was sunset, and he was wearing sunglasses, but he didn't care. They helped protect his rather sensitive sight, and they looked cool.

Then, he heard a car park nearby. He ignored it, but the sound of clopping hooves nearing him certainly brought some intrigue. He twisted around in his lawn chair, and spotted two large rams in black suits heading towards him.

"Walter, Jesse?" He said, lifting up his glasses. "That you?" He hopped out of his chair, and ran over to them. "How's the illegal drug trafficking business been treating you?"

"The mayor wants to see you." One of them said, he wasn't entirely sure which one.

"You guys know the mayor?" He wondered aloud. "Explains the suits. You know, my dad always wanted to-"

"Nobody cares, Wilde."

"I'd say my dad cared about it a lot." Quickly, ond of the rams grabbed the fox's arm. It wasn't a light grip, it was very uncomfortable. "Yeesh, can you lighten the grip a bit?"

He got no response, or any lightening, but he was dragged forcibly to a nearby dingy, black car. One of the rams opened the back door, and the other flung the fox into it. Before the fox could get out, the door was slammed in his face.

"So, why does Bellwether want to see me?" He asked a bit confused.

"How should we know?" One of the rams said, the car starting up. "We just do what she tells us."

The fox gulped. Something bad was going to happen.

* * *

The rabbit and the buffalo walked through the foyer. "Are you coming in with me?" She asked, a bit nervous.

"No, the Mayor said she wanted it to be private." Bogo explained as they walked. He stopped when he noticed someone else pacing outside fo the office's large doors. "But it looks like you may have some company either way.

She spotted the fox, who was just kind of standing nervously outside the door. She ran up to him. "Nick?"

"Oh, if it isn't the friend formerly known as Hopps." He said, trying not to make eye contact with her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"You probably think I'm here to attack someone." He growled. "But you should ask the Mayor's hired goons that instead."

"Wait, you're here to see the mayor too?"

"Not by my own free will, Carrots."

The doors creaked open, and the small sheep walked out and spotted the two, who in turn turned towards her. "Oh, I'm so glad you two are here!" She said cheerfully, walking up to them. "Come in, I have a lot I want to talk to you both about!"

"I still don't get why I'm here." The fox said as they followed her into the office. "And I really wish this traitor wasn't here."

Judy's ears drooped, she felt like a pile of walking rabbit dung.

The sheep waddled over to her desk, and climbed up onto the chair, struggling a bit. She opened a drawer, and began to rummage through it. "I wanted to talk to you both about becoming the faces of the ZPD!"

"What?" They both said.

"If you haven't noticed," Nick said, tugging at his clothes. "I'm not a police officer." He crossed his arms and turned to the rabbit next to him. "And never will be."

She tried to ignore her awful feelings for the moment. "This is really sudden, Mayor Bellwether, but I-"

"You two didn't let me finish!" She said, still rummaging through the drawer. "Ah, there it is." She pulled something out, neither able to make it out. "I want to make you the faces of the ZPD..."

In a swift motion, she pulled out a pistol. "On their missing person's board."

The two put their hands up in complete shock. "A gun!?" Nick yelled, slowly backing away alongside the rabbit. "Where'd you get a gun!?"

"I thought firearms were outlawed years ago!" Judy said.

"Oh, you know, I always have one laying around in case of emergencies." She excused. "But that's not important now. Now it's time for you two to be erased."

Judy spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Outside the window, and large, red and silver… thing, was flying towards them.

It looked like a train.

With a mighty crash, the train smashed through the window, and dug itself through part of the wall of the tower. The slowly slid to a halt after crashing through part of the entrance as well, a rather out of place "ding dong" playing as it stopped.

The door slid open, and a strange, red, black, and white creature in a suit stepped out. "I…" It placed its thumb to its chest, before quickly splaying its arms out. "HAVE ARRIVED JUST IN TIME!"

"Den-O." Bellwether growled, her voice suddenly growing lower, and her eyes turning pure yellow. She aimed the pistol directly at Den-O's chest, and quickly unloaded the entire barrel into his chest. The bullets bounced off the Rider's armor, and fell to the ground with a clink.

"Bullets, really?" He said, shrugging. "What a lame climax."

Quickly, two other figures ran out of the train, one dressed in a blue armored suit, the other in a matching red one. They looked like a bunny and a fox, respectively.

"Carrots, what's going on?" Nick asked, lowering his arms and turning to the rabbit.

"How should I know?"

"We'll fill you in in a second." ZooBlue said, turning to her past counterpart. "This is weird, even for us." She whispered to herself.

"I was hoping to get rid of you indiscreetly." The sheep said. "But I suppose I'll have to do this more… directly." A green glow appeared on the sheep, splitting her in half. Then it literally split her in half, her two halves separated by the glow opening up to reveal a green portal. Two massive claws reached through, and out climbed the Fox Imagin.

"What the HELL is that thing!?" Past Nick yelled, stepping back. Him and the rabbit rushed to the door, and tried to pull it open. It was locked. They turned back as the monster let out a massive roar.

"Just, stay in the back, alright!?" ZooRed yelled.

"We aren't going to let this thing hurt you!" ZooBlue assured.

"It's time to show you my killer technique!" Den-O yelled, stepping in front of the other two. "Part Two, part two!"

He splayed his arms out, his sword beginning to crack with red electricity. He swung it, the blade detaching, connected by an electrical beam. It swung towards the monster, who nearly instantly caught it in its claws.

"I guess what they say is true." It mocked. "Den-O does climax too quickly." It pulled the blade off of the beam, and threw it into Den-O's face, knocking him backwards.

"Momo, we need to actually weaken the monster before we use a finisher." Blue explained.

"Don't treat me like a kid!" He yelled, rubbing his helmeted face. "I just got too excited."

The two pulled out their weapons and aimed them at the monster, who hadn't moved from the desk.

"VICKSACANNON!"

"RABBLASTERS!"

They fired rapidly at the monster, a mass of explosions wracking it. The sheer force of the combined blasts was strong enough to shatter the window behind it.

The smoke cleared, and the monster just stood there, letting out a small chuckle. "That didn't even tickle."

"OH COME ON!" Red yelled, pulling out his sword. He hopped onto the desk, and attempted to strike the monster repeatedly with his blade, only for it to block each swing.

Blue eyed the monster. While it was attacking Red, there was no protection at the back. She twirled her daggers, and dashed around the desk. She leaped up, and jabbed the monster in the back, causing it to let out a howling screech as sand rushed from its wounds.

In its pain, it knocked a disoriented ZooRed of the desk, and quickly swished around the face the small rabbit standing behind it. It crouched down, claws gripped to the edge of the desk. It blew hot air in her face, causing her ears to bend back slightly.

"Did you know," It started, trying not to have its voice turn to a growl. "That where I come from, foxes eat rabbits?"

"Yes, actually, I did." She smugly said. "But did you know that fox monsters here, have to EAT THIS!" She quickly hopped onto her hands, and kicked the Fox Imagin directly in the face with both of her feet. There was a sickening crack, as it rose back up, and fell to the floor.

It twisted around, obviously in pain from the surprise attack. The fox monster tried to get to his feet, but only looked up to see Den-O. He had, at some point, switched to Axe Form. "The only thing I hate nearly as much as making a lady cry," He started. "Is someone hurting my friends!"

He held the axe above the monster's head, and slammed it down on the monster's skull. The monster let out another howl, and swiped at the Rider, who was knocked back a bit. "I've had enough of this!" It yelled. "See you in another timeline, suckers!" It ran and leaped over the desk, barely missing the rabbit, and right through the broken window.

"Oh, great." Nick said, untransforming. "He got away again!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blue yelled at the fox.

"What?" He asked, before quickly realizing. He slowly turned to his past double, and awkwardly waved. "Oh, hey, me."

"I say this again." Declared past Nick. "What the hell is going on here?"

Judy hopped down from the table, untransforming as well. "We're you." She sighed.

"From the future!" Nick yelled in an overdramatic way, performing over exaggerated hand movements as did.

"The future?" Past Judy questioned. "Do you really expect us to believe that?"

"Yeah, how can you even prove that?" Past Nick said, getting up into his future self's face. "And if you are me, why are you wearing a police uniform?"

"Well, uh…" Future Nick said, backing away a bit. His ears perked up, and he pulled out his wallet, flipping it open to reveal his police badge. "Officer Nicholas Piberius Wilde, ZPD."

"Hah, nice fake." The past fox said, grabbing the badge from him. He felt it. It felt real. "Wait, this is real."

"So, in the future, you become an officer?" Past Judy asked, walking grabbing the badge from the fox.

"Yep." Future Nick continued. "Got the face for it, don't I? Yeah, in about a year, you become an officer, and get the best partner a fox could ask for." He turned to Judy, and gave a smile.

"But, she…" The past fox turned to the rabbit next to him, and grabbed the badge back from her. "She broke my trust, why would I ever partner with her?"

"I'm pretty sure you know why."

The past fox gulped and blushed a bit, handing the badge back to his future self.

"I just want to say…" Future Judy said, walking up to her counterpart. "You're a horrible, awful idiot." The counterpart's ears drooped a bit from hearing this from herself. "But that changes. Everything changes."

"And remember!" Den-O yelled, hands on hips. "Being afraid of change is no good! You're just losing sight of who you want to be!"

"That's pretty good advice." Past Judy said. "Thanks, weird super hero man."

Suddenly, Den-O shifted to Rod Form. "Excuse me, but we have a monster to catch." He ran towards the window, and dived out of it.

The four mammals watched as this happened, before future Nick turned back and gave a quick salute. "Alright then, be seeing you guys later!" He said, transforming and jumping out of the window.

Before future Judy could run out, she stopped and turned back to them. "Oh, and spoilers, but Bellwether is the one causing the Predscare, she's using a drug that makes animals go savage." She transformed and started running. "Alright see you BYE!" She cried as she leaped out of the window as well, before either could reply.

She crashed onto the ground, creating a small crack. "Which way'd he go!?" She asked the two other heroes.

"Maybe, I'm not the best to judge, but…" Red pointed towards a completely ruined street. The pavement was cut up, and trees down it were destroyed, and, of course, a nearby fire hydrant was gushing water.

"Alright then." Den-O said, placing his rod on his shoulder. "Just follow the trail of destruction."

"Wait, I have a question." Blue said, stopping the Rider before he could run off. "Did we just horribly mess up the timeline back there?"

"Most likely not." He assured. "At worst, you created an alternate timeline. Things usually go back to normal once we return to the present."

"Oh, that's good." Red sighed in relief. "I was worried we might have to face consequences for our actions one of these days."

"Oh, you probably will, but right now, we just have to make sure neither of you is erased from history completely."

"We have just the thing for these kinds of situations." The two pulled out the bike ZooTags, and summoned their bikes.

"I thought you guys were a Sentai, not Kamen Riders?" Den-O said, seeming genuinely confused.

"I'm pretty sure we're a Sentai." Blue said, hopping on her bike. "IS that why they call you a Kamen Rider, because you ride a bike?"

"Uh, yes." Den-O said, rubbing the back of his head. "And it seems like I left mine up… in the train."

Red rolled his eyes under his helmet. "Alright, hop on."

The three rode through the streets for a bit trying to find the Fox Imagin Den-O riding uncomfortably on the back of the Kitsunaider. After a bit, they spotted him in a different destroyed street. He was unaware they were coming, and they were heading towards him at incredible speeds.

"Alright," Said Den-O from the back of Red's bike. "Once we get a bit closer, I'm going to use my Solid Attack on him."

"You're what?"

"Just stop the bike now!"

He complied, and Den-O used the momentum to leap high into the air. He threw his rod like a spear, which pierced the monster's back. He then dive kicked towards the spear. The kick lodged the spear further into the monster, as Den-O used the momentum from that to leap off and backwards.

The monster thrashed and wailed in pain, but eventually managed to pull the spear out, and toss it to the ground. "You'll have to do better than that!"

"Even my Solid Attack didn't defeat him…" Den-O sighed as the other two heroes drove up. "How strong is this guy?"

The fox monster dashed towards the ranger, before he could even get off the bike, and lifted him off the ground. Another light emitted, and ZooRed fell to the ground, a small card following him. "Ah, that's a much better time to kill you." The monster snarled smugly, cutting another hole in the air and leaping through it.

"FOLLOW HIM!" Blue shouted, rushing towards the portal.

"We should take the DenLi-"

"NO TIME!" She yelled as she leaped through the portal. The Imagin sighed, and quickly followed her through it.

Red spotted the card as he got up, and grabbed it. He rushed towards the portal, barely making it before it closed.

* * *

A flash of green covered his eyes, as he tumbled back onto pavement. He got up and looked around. It was the concert hall parking lot, late at night. "Where are we?" He asked the other two.

"The real question is WHEN are we?" Den-O said. "Sorry, couldn't resist."

Red pulled out the card and looked at it. It had a picture of him, and underneath it was a large number. 2016. "Wait, I know where we are. When we are. Whatever."

"Where is it, Red?" Blue asked.

"We're at that Gazelle concert we went to after I became an officer." He explained.

"How do you know that?"

He held out the card. "It has a date on it, and it showed up before the thing got away."

"What is this card anyway?" Blue asked.

"It's a Rider Card." Den-O explained. "The DenLiner uses them to pinpoint exact times and dates when travelling through time. They're created from especially strong memories, and somehow this Imagin is using them to travel through time himself."

"Wait, so the concert was a strong memory for you?" She asked with a smirk, turning back to the fox.

He got a bit of a blush underneath his mask. "It wasn't for you?"

"I mean, it was the first concert I ever went to, but, it was still just a concert." She said. "I've been to tons of them now."

"Oh."

"The Imagin is definitely in there, he's probably planning on taking you both out during the craze of the concert." Den-O explained, "Quick, we need to-"

He paused mid run. His armor shifted around in to Gun Form, and he began dancing. "I heard somebody say concert!" Ryutaros said, still dancing. "I finally get to hear some of this place's music!"

He quickly rushed into the concert hall, the two exasperated rangers rushing in after him. As the entered, the memories of the night came flooding back to them. It was exactly like it was before. It was completely packed, and as they peeked in, Judy even managed to spot her parents.

The walls played a variety of patterns, coloring the area in greens, oranges and blues. It was beautiful, and kind of nostalgic to the two.

Den-O stood by the end of the entrance hall, arms crossed, and foot tapping rapidly. "This music's fine, but…"

"Don't do anything!" Blue yelled at him. "If you make us obvious, the Imagin's probably going to kill more than just us!"

"Aah, fine!" He shouted in frustration. "You two are no fun."

"We need to find him" Red said. "Everyone split up, he's probably slinking somewhere around here."

The three ran into the crowd, searching for the fox monster. After a few minutes of unsuccessful searching, Blue rang up her partner. "Find anything?" She asked.

"No, just a lot of people we know dancing." He replied back. "You know, if this was a movie, this would make a great credits sequence."

"Well this isn't a movie, this is a matter of existence and non-existence!"

"Oh no."

"Did you find him?" She yelled. "Tell me where that monster is!"

"No, it's not the monster…" He groaned, sounding embarrassed. "Look up on the stage."

She turned to face the stage. Sifting around one of the lower rungs was Den-O, still in Gun Form. He turned to her, and gave a thumbs up, before leaping to the center platform. The music suddenly stopped as he obviously surprised the singer and dancers on the stage.

He grabbed the headset Gazelle was wearing, an audible "Hey!" being heard before her voice vanished. He placed the headset on his helmet, it somehow managing to fit.

"Testing, one, two," He said, testing out the mike. "Alright, perfect! Hello, Zootopia, this is MC Ryuuta coming at you!" He yelled towards a very confused crowd. Blue facepawed in response.

"I know you came here expecting to hear Gazelle sing," He said as one of the tiger dancers attempted to hit him. He spun out of the way and continued. "But I figured you all could use some variety, especially when there's a horrible monster running around in the crowd! Lessee…" He placed his hand above his eye line, and looked around, pointing over to a crowded area. "There he is! Go get him, guys!"

The crowd parted, and blue hopped up on a nearby rhino's head to look over. She could clearly make out parts of the monster's bulky, furry frame, which quickly started to scurry through the crowd. She leaped from mammal to mammal, attempting to catch up with the running monster, who became much clearer due to the crowd continuing to move away.

As she followed the monster, who seemed to be unaware of her, she figured out where it was heading. She spotted her and Nick in the distance, the monster was running directly towards them.

The monster reached them quickly, and bared its claws and teeth at the past counterparts, who seemed to be unaware due to the noise. Before it could attack them, Blue leaped onto its head, jabbing one of her Crescent Cutters into it.

It let out a beastly howl, bringing attention from the entire crowd to the monster. The rabbit leaped from the monster's head, and landed in front of her and Nick's counterparts. "You need to get out of here!"

"What?"

"RUN!"

The two complied with the weird rabbit yelling at them, and quickly ran away from the giant fox thing.

"RED!" She shouted into her communicator. "GET OVER HERE!"

"Gimme a sec!"

"I need you here NOW!"

"I said..." She looked up, hearing the fox's voice from above her. His sword was drawn, and he quickly smacked it into the side of the monster's face, knocking it backwards. "...Give me a second!"

"Alright, that's showing him the beat!" Den-O yelled, still probably accidentally dodging attacks from around him. "Now, who minds if I lay down my own beats for you!?" He continued, the crowd replying with a resounding "Boo!", but that didn't appear to bother the rider. "I can't hear you! Hit it!"

He snapped his finger, and suddenly the lights in the arena shifted from the bright colors, to various shades of purple. The screens switched to displaying a purple, train track-esque pattern. Everyone, including the rangers and the monster, looked around, confused, as electronic dance music began to play.

" _BEAT THE BEAT SO THE PARTY HAS COME_ "

" _It's great, it's great, it's awesome!_  
 _It's great, it's great, it's awesome!_ "

As Den-O sang, he danced, continuing to accidentally avoid the dancers trying to attack him. The Imagin realized his opponents were distracted, and attempted to slash into them. The two realized immediately, leaping out of the way as the monster's claws dug into the ground.

" _If you have a dream, just trust your rhythm and grab it_  
 _always unbalanced, adult and child, half and half, yeah!_ "

The rangers spun their weapons around, and dashed towards the monster slicing it with their blades. The Imagin managed to block the fox's sword with his free arm, but received multiple slashes to his stuck arm courtesy of the rabbit.

" _If I don't like what I'm forced to do, then I'm going to clear everything away!_  
 _This tune is super surround, it's always exciting, hands up, hands up!_ "

The monster knocked the fox back, and pulled his arm out, swiping at the two, who blocked with their blades. They pushed the monster backwards, causing it to stumble.

" _These climax vibes cause a clamor, feelin' it, party party!_  
 _A well know song is coming up, so everybody say,_ "

The two pulled out their blasters, and fired at the fox creature. The first few blasts managed to hit, but it managed to deflect the last few blasts away, where they flew into one of the screens. It exploded, and started to fall.

" _It's always sudden at first_  
 _Taking fate time cruising! Surpass the impossible, grab it!_ "

The fox monster leaped up into the air, and descended into the angry crowd. The Zoorangers also jumped up, and began chasing after it.

" _Don't be afraid of change_  
 _You're just losing sight of your future self!_ "

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Red yelled, pointing the Vickscannon towards the monster. He fired it, the crowd scattering quickly as he did. The blast hit the fox directly in the back, causing it to slam into the ground. At this point, they were directly in front of the stage.

" _Jump higher than everyone else!_  
 _CLI-MAX JUMP!_ "

With the last line, Den-O Leaped into the air. "Wild Shot!" He yelled, aiming his gun at the stunned monster. Two bolts of energy shot from his shoulder armor, gathering in front of his gun, which quickly formed into a large, purple sphere.

He fired the ball directly into the monster, causing a massive explosion. He landed, and spun his gun around. "Feel the rhythm yet?" He joked.

The explosion cleared, and the monster stepped out, letting out a roar. "Oh, are you kidding me!?" Red yelled in disbelief.

"I've had enough of this ridiculous, noisy timeline." It scoffed. "Time to move to the next, maybe something a bit more public..."

He rushed towards ZooBlue, and grabbed her by the head, a light shining. He then slashed open a hole in the sky, and leaped through it.

"Quick!" Blue motioned towards the portal, leaping through it, followed by her partners.

* * *

"You're gonna have to wait your turn like everyone else, meter maid." The elephant said.

"Actually," She lifted her neon bright orange vest, revealing her police badge. "I'm an officer. Just had a quick quest-"

"Oh come on!" The elephant yelled, turning his attention to the window. "What is there, a 'fox convention' sign outside my store!?" He pointed his trunk at the fox. "Is that guy with you!?" He asked, pointing back to the window.

"What?" Nick said aloud, genuinely confused for the first time in a while. He peeked around the elephant woman that was standing behind him. Out the window was some kind of awful creature that vaguely resembled a fox, but definitely not a fox itself. It just stood there, not moving. "No, I have no idea who that is." He said, turning back to the manager.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a window shattering, and a yell. The fox, his cohort, and the bunny cop turned around to see the thing stride into the building, his massive claws pointed towards them.

"No more interruptions!" It yelled. "I will finally erase you!"

"Do we know each other?" Nick asked. "Because if we do, I can make up for whatever I conned you out of."

"WHAT!?" The rabbit officer yelled. "You're a conman!?"

"Yeah, and I can't believe you fell for it!"

"I was standing up for you!"

"QUIET!" The monster yelled, jabbing its claw directly into the ground, leaning down to stare the three in their faces.

"Excuse me, but those floors were very expensive!" The elephant manager said, tapping on the fox monster's back with his trunk.

The monster slowly rose, its eyes glowing yellow as it raised a claw, preparing to strike the elephant behind the counter. Before it could, however, a rain of firepower showered its back. It turned around to see the Zoorangers and Den-O standing outside the building.

"Great, more distractions." It growled as they leaped into the parlor.

"You gotta be god damn kidding me!" A deep voice yelled from behind the toddler's outfit. The fennec pulled the hood back, and started walking away. "I've had enough of this shit, Nick, I'm out!"

"Finnick, come on!" He yelled as the fennec left the building through the broken window. He tried to follow, only for the monster's claw to slam back down in front of him.

"The only place you two are going," The monster growled at them. "Is the void."

The fox gulped, and backed up into the counter, alongside the equally terrified bunny.

"Alright, let's get this party..." Den-O tried to say, before his armor forcibly shifted to Rod Mode.

"Mind if I reel you in?" Urataros asked the monster, before noticing the surroundings. "An ice cream shop, a strong memory..." He turned to the monster, and pointed his rod weapon towards him. "Love is blooming here, and you're not going to stop it!"

"You mean a friendship is blooming." Red tried to correct. "We were starting to become friends here."

"That's not really how I remember it." Blue chipped in, the fox shushing her.

"Either way, we won't allow you to break this up!" Den-O stated, before rushing forward to strike the fox monster, who blocked his strikes.

"Hey, hey!" The elephant yelled. "No fighting in the store!"

"Oh shut up!" The fox monster yelled, pushing Den-O away. It leaped into the air, and delivered a swift kick to the pachyderm, launching him into the wall. Another elephant walked in from the back room, looked at the unconscious body of his boss, and then walked right back out.

The two Zoorangers ran to their doubles, not being noticed by the monster due to it fighting with Den-O, and started escorting them away. "You two need to get out of here!" Red said, pushing his double forward.

"But that thing's going to kill us if we go anywhere!" He yelled back to himself.

"Yeah, and he's gonna kill you if you stay here." He explained flatly. "NOW GET OUT OF HERE!" The two of them pushed their counterparts, who both quickly ran out of the door.

"Alright, Red, let's help out!" Blue said, pulling out her Rabblasters. She fired a few shots into the monster's stomach, causing it to stumble backwards. Den-O jabbed it in the stomach, causing the monster to fly into the counter in a shower of sparks. The force of this caused the nearby glass display to shatter.

Red spotted the large Jumbo Pops start to slide out of the refrigerated display. "Blue, I think a delicious idea just hit me."

She turned to ask him what he meant by that, but he had already ran to the display. The fox picked up a familiar, large, red Popsicle, nearly tipping over in the process. He toddled over to the stunned fox monster, who had just gotten up.

He tapped the Popsicle on its shoulder, getting its attention. The monster turned and stared, confused at what the normal fox was trying to do. "Hey, bet you didn't know..." He held the Popsicle up, and swung it in the monster's face, knocking it side to side. "... That revenge..." He then pulled the Popsicle back, and jabbed it hard into the monster's chest area, launching it back a bit. He dropped the Popsicle down. "...Is a dish best served cold!"

Blue ran up to her partner. "Did you just do that for the pun?"

"Eh, maybe."

"Wait," She said, rushing over to the Popsicle and doing her best to lift it up. "Think you can shoot this?" She asked, out of breath.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

He pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it. The heat of the blast instantly melted the Popsicle, reducing it to sticky juice, which splattered all over the monster.

"Fun plan." Den-O said. "Fight fire with ice cream." He leaped over the counter as the monster struggled to escape the sticky liquid. The Rider jabbed his rod into a large, pink ball of ice cream, lifting it up. He then jabbed it into a green ball of ice cream. "Funny, this reminds me of something."

He leaped over the counter, and ran over to a table, where two elephants were seated in silence, a large ball of ice cream sitting in front of them. They had mostly been watching the events unfold. "Mind if I borrow this?" Den-O asked, not getting a response. "You can get another later."

He jabbed it onto the rod, the other two sliding down. He ran back over to the the stuck monster. "Hope you're ready for my Frozen Solid Attack." He calmly said. He threw the rod directly into the monster's chest, the three balls of ice cream sliding down even more so that it looked like they were sticking out of its chest. He jumped upwards, and kicked into it, a massive explosion of ice cream showering the entire parlor.

The two wiped ice cream from their visors, and looked over at Den-O, who was completely clean. "Of course." Red muttered.

The fox monster tried to scrub the ice cream out of his fur, but had no success. "Ugh, this is just embarrassing!" It growled. "I need to get out of here! Maybe somewhere... farther back."

He rushed towards the rabbit once again, and lifted her up, reading her memories once again. Another card fell to the ice cream covered ground, and the monster sliced open another portal, which it hopped through.

The rabbit and the Rider leaped through the portal, but Red stopped to pick the card up first, trying to shake the ice cream off of it. He then quickly jumped through before it closed.

* * *

When she landed, she skid across a wooden floor. The place was completely dark, aside from a massive hole in the side of one of the wall, letting sun flow through. She turned to the wall behind them, a mural of a jungle. She turned to the other side, to a lowered floor, full of empty chairs.

"Oh no."

"I'm guessing you know where we are, then." Den-O said.

"We're back when I was a kid." She explained, as the fox crashed into the ground. "The 1995 Farmer's Market Festival."

"You guys have a farmer's market festival?" Nick asked, amused. "What, do you celebrate farmers or something?"

"How do you not know this?" She replied, bemused. "I come here every year!"

"Is that what your weekend-long visit to your parents every summer is about?"

"YES!"

"I don't feel like you ever mentioned this festival thing, I thought you were just visiting your parents."

Den-O watched over from the hole in the wall as they continued to argue. "Those two were made for each other." He sighed. "Hey, if you guys don't want to be erased completely, you should hurry up!"

The two quickly snapped out of their argument and followed him out into the front of the school auditorium. "Okay, let's see, after I was done in the play, I headed to the farmers market…" Blue said to herself.

"You were in a play?" Red asked. "I'd pay to see that."

"Shut it." She snapped. "So that's when I… Follow me!" She quickly zoomed off, the other two heroes hastily following her.

They dashed through the farmer's market, until the rabbit skid to a stop, and peeked between two of the stands. There she was, in the middle of her "fight" with a young Gideon Grey.

"What are you looking at?" Red asked, the rabbit pushing him away. "Hey, I just wanted to look."

"You probably don't want to see this." She admitted, watching as her young counterpart kicked the fox in the face. "I don't see the Imagin though, he should be here."

"Maybe he ran home crying when he realized we couldn't beat him." Nick smugly suggested.

"'Crying'?" Den-O said. "Oh no." Quickly, his armor shifted into Axe Form.

"Did someone say crying!?" Kintaros yelled, pushing the rabbit out of the way. He saw the rabbit on the ground, being approached by a fox. "Gasp! That guy is making a lady cry!"

He leaped into the air, and crashed on the other side. Blue rushed off in a panic, Red trailing behind her as they ran through an entrance to the field they were in. They stopped at watched what was happening.

"Stop it right there, you punk!" Den-O yelled, approaching the young fox.

"Ah!" Gideon yelled, falling to the ground at the sight of the creature. "What the heck're you!?"

"I'm a guy who hates jerks who make ladies cry!" He replied, helping the rabbit up. "You look familiar, weird." He told her, before she ran back to her friends. "Anyway, a real man doesn't bully a girl, so to prove your own worth, I challenge you!"

"Whut!?" Gideon let out, shuffling back as the Rider approached him. "Challenge me to whut!?"

Den-O slammed his foot on the ground, causing the ground to shake. "The real man's sport, the ancient art of sumo wrestling!" He slammed his other foot on the ground. "Show me your power, young fox!"

"Okay, we have to stop this before someone actually gets hurt." Judy said, untransforming. She quickly ran over to the Rider, and grabbed the Rider's leg. "Alright, Kin, we need to head back to the games."

"What?"

"We're really sorry, kids." She excused. "Our… mascot, here, decided to wander around."

"I'm not a mascot!" He yelled.

"And he's also obviously… far too in-character." She continued to lie. "We'll be taking him back to game center now." She walked the fussing Den-O away, and slapped him hard on the calf. She then turned back to the young Gideon Grey. Oddly enough, the two were nearly the same size.

"And what's your name, mister?" She asked the fox.

"Guh-Gideon Grey?"

"Gideon Grey, huh?" She said, arms crossed. "Well, I'll be telling your parents about what you did here."

"NO!" he yelled, his voice nearly cracking. "Please don't tell paw!"

"Oh, I'm gonna." She said, walking off to the now untransformed Nick and the upset Den-O. "I'm not actually going to tell him. I just wanted to scare him."

"So, that guy was your childhood bully, huh?" Nick said rather plainly as they walked into the main path of the market.

"Yeah." She admitted.

"No wonder you were afraid of foxes." He said

"Yeah he was a real, just… jerk." She said. "No offense."

"None taken."

"He's a nice guy now, he works with my parents, makes really good pies." She continued, trying to spin a positive on this.

"Never would have guessed." Nick said as they walked through a crowd of animals, mostly bunnies. "Wonder how good his blueberry pies are."

"He's a great chef, so probably pretty good." She answered. "But right now we have to find that Imagin, and defeat it before it gets to young me!"

"This place seems pretty big, where do we even start?"

"The best place to start when you're looking for an Imagin," Den-O declared. "Is near wherever it's looking for is!"

"So, back with young Judy?" She said, the Rider nodding in response. She facepawed. "I guess that is the most obvious place. We should-"

"I found him." Nick said plainly, looking behind the rabbit.

She turned around slowly, and saw the monster perched on top of a booth. It was looking directly towards the field her young counterpart had been in. She quickly transformed, and leaped up, striking the monster with her blades and knocking it down.

"Alright, guess we're doing this now." Nick said, transforming into ZooRed and leaping over the booth. Den-O quickly followed.

As she landed on the other side and watched the monster get up, she noticed something. Despite the monster surviving three finishers, it was starting to look worn out. She twirled her blades. "Let's do this quickly." She pointed one blade towards it. "Obviously you can't take much more."

"I can take as much as you throw at me." It snarled. "I'm not dying until I complete my contract!"

She rushed at the monster, striking at it with her blades, the other two heroes watching on. She leaped over and ducked under swipes, managing to successfully get more hits on the beast than she and Red had managed to do together.

"Does she think she can take him on her own?" Red asked the Rider, crossing his arms.

"I think she's testing his abilities." He replied. "Look. Its reflexes are getting worse." He was right, the monster seemed much slower.

The fox quickly rushed behind the monster, and slashed it in the back. The Imagin attempted to swipe at him, only for the rabbit to respond with another strike. "He can't take us on all at once!" Red shouted, signaling Den-O to attack as well, striking it in the side with his axe.

They all hit it at once, knocking the fox monster backwards. Den-O stepped forward, and spun his axe around. He cracked his neck twice, and threw his axe into the air. "Dynamic…" He leaped into the air, grabbing the axe, and then bringing it down through the monster. "CHOP!"

He spun around as the monster exploded. "Looks like my strength has made you cry!"

He felt something strike his back, and the Rider flew forward. All three looked up, and saw the Imagin, still alive.

"Yikes, how tough is this guy?" Red questioned.

The Imagin's eyes gleamed, and it rushed towards Red, grabbing him by the head. Another light, another card. It slashed through the air, and leaped through the portal it created. Blue and Den-O leaped through the portal, Red grabbing and staring at the card for a second before following them.

* * *

The fox tumbled into the darkened streets, a bit worried about the number written on the card. It was night, and cloudy. It was all familiar.

"So, Red, where are we?" Blue asked.

"My strongest memory." He replied. She gritted her teeth. She knew what that meant.

They turned around, seeing a large apartment with a neon sign advertising the Ranger Scouts outside of it. They saw that the door was torn open.

It was already inside.

"Alright, let's make this the climax!" Den-O yelled, having switched back to sword form. The two nodded, and rushed towards the building.

"You know, one of those kids' mom was here the night I came." Red said, as they entered through the ruined doorway. "She was actually nice, I hope she isn't dead."

The house was pitch black, the only light coming from the moon and the street lights. There were horrifying claw marks in some of the walls, and furniture and decorations were completely ruined.

"I wouldn't call that promising." Blue said as they walked down the hall. Her ears perked, she heard someone slamming at a door.

She also heard a small voice call up. "One minute, we're about to start initiation!"

"The basement." She said. "Where's the basement?"

"It's up there." Red said, pointing down the hall. The three creeped down silently, and peeked around the corner. There was the Imagin, pulling at the door, trying to get it open.

"Okay," blue whispered as they moved back behind the corner. "We need to strike him quietly, and-"

"LET'S GO, GO, GO!"

Den-O rushed around the corner, and tackled the monster, launching them both through the door and down the stairs. The Zoorangers quickly followed, spotting as the two tumbled down the stairs, the sound of children screaming soon following.

"That guy's a real idiot."

The followed him down into the basement, seeing the two sparring, a group of children huddled in the corner. Den-O slashed at the monster a few times, then thrust the blade into its chest, causing it to fly back and hit a table.

Red swung down from the stairs, striking the monster as it got up. Blue reached the bottom of the stairs, and instantly fired her blasters at the monster's face, causing it to flinch backwards even more. The monster swung back, knocking the fox away, and then barreled through the other two, rushing up the stairs.

"Quick, after him!" Den-O yelled, him and Blue chasing after the monster upstairs.

Red turned to the terrified group of children. "What were you scamps doing down here?" He said playfully.

"We were just…" Replied the beaver scout, who had a noticeable lisp. The children dispersed from the corner. Red spotted his child self in the group. "We were just setting up for initiation."

"Does initiation usually include a muzzle?" He asked, tone not changing.

"What!?" His past self yelled, backing away from the rest of the kids. "Why do you guys have a muzzle?!"

"Because, little Nicky," He knelt down and placed his paw on his past self's shoulder. "They don't trust you. They think you're going to hurt them, just because you're a fox. No offense."

"None taken." The young fox said.

"Now," Red stood up. "We know that you won't hurt them. You're too nice of a kid for that. However, I am a bitter old man, and I might just…" He paused for a second, and then lunged forward suddenly, scaring the children back into the corner. "Hah! Got you guys good. Now if you excuse me, I have a timeline to save."

He ran up the stairs a bit, and then turned back to his counterpart. "Oh yeah, head back home now, your mother is worried about you. Actually, all of you should leave, bad things are happening." The building shook.

"NICK! WE NEED YOUR HELP UP HERE!" Blue yelled.

"COMING!" He yelled up. "Now get the hell out of here!" he yelled to the children, before running up the stairs.

"Was that your dad?" The beaver asked.

"Didn't sound like my dad."

He rushed up the stairs and looked down the hall. It looked even worse than it had a few minutes ago, massive claw marks lined the walls, glass from pictures covered the ground.

"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

He rushed up stairs, but couldn't see them anywhere. He heard noises from above, and rushed to the attic opening, pulling down the stairs with a rope.

"Okay I'm finally here sorry!" He said quickly, leaping up with the Vickscannon. The two were struggling with the monster, who swiped at Den-O knocking him into the side of the attic. The fox took aim, and fired the cannon right into the monster's face, knocking it away from the rabbit, who then leaped up and kicked it in the face.

Den-O rolled over to Red, and the two pulled out their blades. "Ready for the climax, fox?"

"Whenever you are, horn head."

The rabbit leaped out of the way as they prepared their blades for their final strike. They pulled the blades back, Den-O's crackling with electricity, Red's burning with fire.

"Behold our Killer Technique!"

"Double Climax Version!"

They swung the swords, the blades detaching and going right through the walls of the building. They sliced through the walls, heading towards the monster, which they cut through at the exact same time. They then swung the swords back, slicing through the monster and the walls again.

"Now that's a climax!" Den-O yelled, the two turning around as the monster exploded into a massive burst of fire, leaving nothing but a hole in the wall.

The monster stumbled forward. At this point, it looked completely wrecked, barely any fur remaining, and with massive gashes. It stumbled towards the three heroes, reaching out towards them, and then collapsed to the ground. It disintegrated into a pile of sand.

"Thank god that's over with." Red sighed in relief.

"Yeah, it feels like this episode has been going on forever!" Den-O said, the two turning to him with a weird look. "What?"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and everything began to warp and twist. "What's happening!?" Blue yelled.

"I think we're-"

There was a bright flash, and they and the pile of sand were gone.

* * *

"Going back to the present!" Den-O finished as a bright light dissipated from the park.

"Oh." Red said, looking around at the ruined park. "I guess you were right."

They looked at the pile of sand in front of them, which began to shake. A red object burst from it, floating into the air, and bringing the sand up along with it. It swirled and twirled around the red object, more sand continuing to appear.

There was another flash, and before the three stood a monstrously large creature. A red and black beast down on all fours, with multiple eyes and three horns. On its back were large bat-like wings, and a large, stinger tail trailed down it. It let out a massive roar, and flapped its wings, creating a blast of air that knocked the three down.

It took off into the sky, and began to fly through the city, destroying buildings and erratically shooting lasers from its tail.

"What in the hell is that!?" Red yelled, turning to Den-O.

"Well, sometimes when we beat an Imagin, it turns into a big monster thing called a Gigandeath." He explained. "But I've never seen one like that before."

"HEY!" A voice from behind them yelled. They turned to face the DenLiner, Urataros standing in the open door. "GET ON THE TRAIN, WE HAVE TO STOP THAT THING!"

They rushed to the train, and got on. Den-O headed to the cockpit, while the Zoorangers headed to the main cart. "Alright," Blue said. "What do we do?"

"Uh..." Urataros said, rubbing his head. "Try to not die."

"What?" Both of them said, confused.

The train started to move, much faster than before. It crawled into the air, and swerved towards the rampaging Gigandeath. The two slammed to the ground as this happened, and then into the walls. They quickly moved to a seat before it made any more movements.

"So, how exactly do you fight a giant monster in a train?" Red asked.

"Look out the window and find out!" Ryutaros said, pointing towards the one by their seat.

They looked out, seeing the train was headed in a spiral pattern around the monster. They couldn't see clearly, but something was firing lasers at the monster, making it thrash around in pain. Every so often, two large red bombs would be thrown at the monster, and they could see some kind of flying object crash and slice through the monster.

"So, what, we just sit here while Momo does everything?" Blue questioned, before getting up from her seat. "That doesn't sound very fair."

"Well, it's how we usually do things." Urataros replied. "He should be fine."

"I think we should go help him, honestly." Red said, also leaving his seat. "Let's go-"

There was a large explosion on the train, tipping it over. The monster had shot a blast directly into the side of the cart, leaving a smoldering hole in the side.

Everyone on the cart started to fall to the other side as the train tipped. Blue smacked into the side, followed by Red slamming directly into her, and then Ryutaros smacking into them both.

"Oops, sorry!" He apologized. She managed to push the two off of her, and they rolled to her sides. She noticed two things once she was free.

The first was that this didn't seem to affect Kintaros at all, as he stayed perfectly still while he slept. The second was a small, round silver object, which slid out from under one of the tables, and dropped out of the hole, falling towards the city.

"Blue, we need to get ZooRobo out here!" Red yelled, trying to stand up.

She nodded. "I have a plan!" She stood up, and sidled her way over to the hole. "I need you to get over here first!" She yelled back to her partner over the wind.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!"

He sidled over as well, staying directly behind the rabbit. "Okay, now take out your ZooTag for the mech." She pulled hers out, and the fox followed suit. "Now, JUMP!"

She jumped out, grabbing the fox by the arm. "ARE YOU CRAZY!?" He yelled as they started plummeting.

"PUT THEM IN!" She yelled, putting her tag into the Zoolizer. The fox followed again, and the mechs appeared beneath them.

They landed inside the two's individual cockpits, but were still falling. "Combine them!" She yelled again.

The mecha began to combine, unfolding out into ZooRobo. It quickly reached up and grabbed the train, the extra height it had gained from combining giving it a boost. It swung itself up on top of the train, and the two managed to see what, exactly, was attacking the monster.

The other three train carts had split open to reveal a large dog head, some kind of primate creature, and a tower, which was most likely connected to the flying object.

"Those are some weird weapons." Red admitted.

"It probably means something to them." Blue replied. "We've got our own weird weapons, too." She pulled out a golden ZooTag, and stuck it into the slot on the cockpit.

ZooBison appeared in midair, and formed into armor and weapons for the robot. They aimed the guns directly towards the writhing monster, and began to fire rapidly. The monster roared in pain, and swiped at them.

They fired more blasts at the monster's giant arm, trying to keep it from attacking, but with that single swipe, ZooBison was knocked right off of the mech.

"Well, that didn't last that long." Red lamented as the mech pulled back out its sword and tried to block more swipes.

"I don't think we can beat this thing." Blue said, her ears drooping. "We're just not strong enough, even working together!"

"We're not exactly working together, Blue." Red explained. "I don't even think Momo knows we're up here."

"We need some way to communicate with him..." She said to herself. Her ears perked up again. "That's it!" She pulled out the DenLiner pass she had been given earlier. It started to glow, and the odd D symbol on it shifted into that of an odd Z symbol.

The train beneath them began to shake, and then zoomed off, leaving the robot to fall down to the city. "THIS WAS A BAD IDEAAAAAAAA!" Red yelled as they fell, covering his eyes.

Quickly, the DenLiner turned around, heading back towards the robot. It began to unfold itself, and latched onto the mech. The front of the DenLiner had become a piece of chest armor, while the carts had turned into a pair of wings, the insides of which sparkled red, blue, yellow, and purple. With a flap of its new wings, the robot was halted from its fall.

In the cockpit of the robot, their seats shifted around again, as a third one flew up. Den-O was seated on a bike, which itself was seated on a red platform. "What the hell's going on!?" He yelled, looking around.

"ZOOROBO, DENLINER FORM!"

"Well, this is what I'd call working together!" Blue announced.

"I still don't know what's happening!" Den-O yelled.

"Alright, here's the plan." Blue continued, ignoring the confused Rider. "We cut of its tail, then its wings, and then finish it off."

"Sounds like a plan!" Red sounded.

The robot dashed forward at incredibly fast speeds, heading towards the tail. The tail fired a few lasers at the mech, which deftly dodged out of the way of each. It held its sword out, and slashed through the tail, sand pouring from the wound.

ZooRobo dashed upwards, and sliced directly through one of the monster's wings, and then swept downwards into the other wing, cutting it off as well. The creature roared in pain as it fell towards the ground.

ZooRobo dashed into the monster's chest, pushing it downwards until it hit the ground, causing it to explode into a massive amount of sand, which abruptly disappeared mid-fall.

The robot landed on its feet, and in a flash, the robot was gone, and the DenLiner zoomed off.

In the DenLiner, however, the two Zoorangers found themselves untransformed, and sitting in the cockpit along side Den-O.

He looked back and forth at them. "Do either of you know what happened!?" He asked.

They both shrugged.

* * *

She sat on the seat, staring at the DenLiner pass. It had been completely broken, split in two, a crack going right down the middle.

"How in the world did you break a pass?" Urataros asked, grabbing a piece of it to examine.

"I don't know!" She yelled, shrugging. "I wanted to beat the monster and save everyone, and then it started glowing, and then we combined!"

"That doesn't make any sense." Momo sounded from his seat. "You aren't even train themed, why did we combine!?"

She shrugged even harder as the train stopped. "We're at your place." Urataros announced.

The rabbit and fox got up, and headed towards the door slid open, revealing the brick wall of their apartment complex. Through a window they could see their place. A bridge extended from below the door, and stopped on their window sill.

"Well." Judy said, turning back to the weird group, which seemed to be missing Ryutaros. "Hope we meet again some day."

"The memory of us meeting will never be forgotten." Momo said, sticking his fist out. She hopped up and fist bumped him.

"I hope you and Judy do well, Nick." Urataros said to the fox, who rubbed the back of his head. The rabbit let out a small chuckle.

"Remember," Kintaros started, crossing his arms. "Never make any lady cry, and always take long naps."

"Thanks for the advice." Nick said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, where's Ryu?" Judy asked, peeking around the corner to see him still doodling. He looked up and spotted her.

"Oh, wait, don't leave yet!" He yelled raising his hand. "I'm almost finished!" He started doodling furiously.

After a few seconds, he got up, and brought a handful of pieces of paper to them. "Here, have these, in memory of us!"

She took the drawings from him. "Oh, thank you!"

"I've been working on them all day!" He said. "So don't forget about us!"

"Alright, enough of the goodbyes, head out you two!" Momotaros said sternly, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.

The two complied, and walked across the bridge. Luckily, the window was unlocked, and they managed to open it. They crawled through the window, and into their apartment. They looked back as the bridge retracted, and the door shut. The Taros were waving to them from the inside.

They waved back.

In a brief moment, the train was back in time. Momotaros turned back to the others. "Now that that's done with," He started. "Who wants to get something to eat? I'm thinkin'... Arby's."

* * *

Judy flipped through the drawings. They were all very crude, but she had appreciated the thought. There was one of a purple rabbit and a red fox in a city, one of the six meeting on the train, with Momotaros dressed up in a sheet, and then there was one of six going through time and chasing the monster, split up into four equally crude panels.

The second to last one showed ZooRobo fighting the giant Gigandeath. The last one showed all six of them, having a goodbye party for them.

"Well, that was a weird day." Nick said, pouring himself an extra large cup of coffee. He stretched his back. "All that running around and fighting is killing me."

He sat on the couch, kicked his feet onto the table, and flicked on the TV. It was, of course, ZNN.

"In other news," Started the moose anchor. "Police are still on the look out for the mysterious fox and rabbit that caused trouble early this morning." A picture flashed up next to the moose, showing a fox and rabbit that were unmistakably them.

"Oh no." The both groaned.

"These two are being charged for assault," A picture popped up of a rhino in a hospital bed, completely bandaged up. "Destruction of city property," It then cut to a picture of a train, the door completely ripped off of it. "Public indecency,"

It cut to a video clip, taken from somebody's phone. They could distinctly hear a voice that sounded like Momotaros' yelling about "Being about to hit the climax."

"And finally, loitering." A security feed played, showing the two of them walking around a music shop, before leaving. "If anyone has any information on these criminals, please inform us."

They shut the TV off, and burst out laughing. Uncontrollable laughter, uproarious, raucous laughter.

They almost instantly passed out.

* * *

His feet clopped across the ground. He was going to be late if he didn't hurry up. So he did, and nearly fell on his face.

The goat managed to prevent that, but also saw something strange as he got up. It was a thick, silver, medal-like object, a large X carved into it. He picked it up in his hooves.

"Strange." He said to himself, examining it. "I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder if it..."

His eyes widened. He got up quickly, and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

This was perfect.


	12. Hungry Like the Wolf

“So, did you notice how those guys we met last week had a bunch of catchphrases?”

The car started, and then stopped, rocking them both forward.

“Catchphrases?” Judy asked, giving her partner a quizzical look. “What do you mean by that?”

Start, stop.

“Like, Momotaros was saying stuff like ‘I have arrived!’, or ‘Let’s go, go, go!’ every time he did something.” Nick explained as he put his new pointed sunglasses away. “I was wondering if we should have something like that.”

Start, stop.

“I really don’t think we need to have catchphrases.” She responded. “I think we’re charming enough as we are.”

“Obviously, but what if we had something cool we said before fighting a monster?” Nick wondered.

“Like what?”

“How about ‘It’s about to get wild!’” There was a silent pause as Nick admired his own work. “Get it, because-“

“I get it.”

“Oh, you don’t like being excluded, I get that.” Nick said, before thinking again for a bit. “How about ‘Don’t mess with this city!’”

“That one’s kind of too generic.” She admitted.

“Yeah you’re right.” He said. “How about-“

She quickly flicked on the car’s radio. “-And that was Durat Durat. In other news, famous celebrity chef and critic, Gordon Hamsley, has arrived in Zootopia today on a special visit.”

“Gordon Hamsley?” Nick questioned. “The really angry guy who always yells at his staff?”

“I think that’s who they mean, Nick.” She said, as traffic started to move again.

“He’s come to our wonderful city from across the sea, in order to test if our own professional chefs are all they’re cracked up to be.” The newscaster continued to explain. “Hopefully his infamous spicy attitude will be satiated by our fine cooks. His tour begins in only a few minutes.”

“Trust me, I’ve seen Heck’s Kitchen.” Nick said. “That guy is one mean porcine, nothing can satisfy him.”

“Yikes, he sounds like a really scary guy.”

* * *

 

The rest of the drive had been rather normal, aside from Nick continually trying to suggest catchphrases. Judy tried to ignore them to the best of her abilities.

They strode into the station, Nick still trying to suggest catchphrases. “Okay, how about,” He moved in front of her, walking backwards. “’We’ll end it with a r-“ He bumped into someone behind him, and fell over.

“Oh gosh, I’m really sorry!” The wolf apologized, trying to help the fox up. He was met with a swipe to his paw.

“I don’t need your apologies.” He grunted, getting up on his own.

“No, seriously, I’m really sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Wolford continued to apologize.

“I don’t think you get it,” Nick continued, brushing off the dust from his uniform. “I don’t need your apologies, specifically.”

The wolf’s ears drooped, and he walked off.

“Nick, that was really rude!” Judy scolded. “Why do you act like that to everyone you don’t know?”

“Years of not being able to trust many people.” He halfheartedly explained. “This isn’t even a trust thing; I’ve just never liked Wolford.”

“What?” Judy wondered, confused. “Why? He’s one of the nicest mammals in the station.”

“That’s the reason!” Nick exclaimed. “He’s too nice! A guy like him probably hasn’t seen any hardships in his life!”

“Just because someone didn’t have your life doesn’t mean they haven’t had any hardships.” Judy explained. “He’s probably just a really nice guy.”

“Nobody is that nice without a reason, Carrots.” He continued. “He probably has some other motivation behind it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Hurry up, we’re gonna be late for roll call.”

The two quickly ran to the bull pen, and took their seats. It turns out, they could’ve probably talked for another few minutes. Bogo was late, something he usually never was. It took about five minutes later than usual for him to show up.

And when he did, he hurried through the assignments, quickly saying each of them with only a brief explanation. And as usual, the fox and rabbit were the last two left… except for today, where Wolford was also left behind.

“You three are probably wondering two things.” Bogo calmly started, with no papers left in his hooves. “The first is why I was late, and the second is why Wolford is here, instead of with his normal team.”

“You got that exactly right, sir.” Nick joked. “Except, I was also wondering what that pungent stench is, it smells like wet dog in here.”

“Quiet Wilde.” Bogo snapped. “I can answer both of those searing questions very easily. I was late because I was talking with the manager of Ode De Le Fume about a robbery, and Wolford is here because I’m assigning him to your team so he can assist you in the robbery.”

“Oh man!” The fox and the wolf let out, in wildly different tones. The fox planted his face into the desk, while the wolf’s ears perked up.

“So,” Judy started, trying to move things along. “What happened at Ode De Le Fume?” She asked.

“All of the food in the place completely disappeared.” Bogo explained. “Poof, vanished. No trail, nothing. Which is why I’m assigning Wolford with you. His sense of smell is excellent, he should be able to detect any scent the perp could have made.”

“So why didn’t you just send him and Delgato?” Nick asked, looking up from his desk.

“Because you two are best at these strange occurrences.” Bogo explained. “They seem to follow you around everywhere you go.”

The two gulped.

“Dismissed!”

The three walked out of the bull pen. “Oh man, I never thought we’d be working together!” Wolford declared, placing his paws on their shoulders, having to duck a bit. “Isn’t it great to be trying something new?”

“Yeah sure whatever.” Nick dismissed, pushing his paw away.

“He doesn’t like being touched by mammals he doesn’t know.” Judy excused as they headed out of the station.

Wolford chuckled as he approached the cruiser. “What are you laughing at?” Nick questioned, a bit annoyed.

“Oh, nothing, I just can’t believe I get to ride in the Bunny Mobile.” He said.

“The what?” Judy also questioned.

“It’s what everyone calls your car.” Wolford explained. “Didn’t you know that?”

“Obviously we did not.” Nick said.

“Man, they gave you guys a Pachyderm Model cruiser. Only the best officers get those.” He continued, looking around the vehicle. “What a beautiful machine. Kept in good shape, too.”

“Thanks.” Judy said. “I take it in for a tune-up every six months.”

“She also cleans it every week.” Nick chimed in. “She’s a bit obsessive.” The rabbit nudged him in the shoulder.

“Anyway, I always ride shotgun.” Nick explained. “So get in the back.”

“Hey, just consider me a guest, I’m not going to interrupt your dynamic.” Wolford said, opening the back door and sliding into one of the seats. He had to duck a bit.

“’Dynamic’?” Nick wondered as he got into the passenger’s seat. “What do you mean by that?”

“He means the way we interact with each other.” Judy explained, starting the car.

“Oh.” Nick let out, putting his sunglasses on and turned to the wolf in the back. “Well, don’t mess with it.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t”

* * *

 

The three stepped into the restaurant, a pleasant aroma filling their nostrils. The place was covered in purple velvet, an absolutely beautiful looking restaurant.

“What is that smell?” Nick wondered. “It smells like…”

“It’s a perfume that’s designed to smell like a mixture of roses, daisies, and the smell of fresh baking.” Wolford explained.

“That’s one heck of a sniffer you got there.” Judy exclaimed.

“One of the best in the business.”

“Too bad you can’t smell yourself.” Nick said quietly.

“As it happens,” Judy said, nudging the fox in the side again. “I happen to have some of the best ears in the business!”

“Alright, yeesh.” He said, rubbing his arm. “I’ll just have to say it even quieter next time.”

A sharply dressed skunk with a pencil thin mustache ran over to them. “Are you the officers here to investigate the theft?” He asked hopefully.

“Yes, we are.” Judy said, pulling out her notepad and carrot pen. “Can you tell us exactly what happened?”

“I can’t, actually.”

“Well, can you point us to someone who can?” Nick asked.

“I can’t do that either!” The skunk said, distressed. “Nobody saw anything! One of the chefs returned to the kitchen, and everything was gone!”

“Why was there nobody in the kitchen?” Judy asked. “That’s very dangerous.”

“Everyone was busy attending to Monsieur Hamsley.” The manager explained. “We prepared the meals in advance for him.”

“You mean, TV celebrity chef Gordon Hamsley?” Wolford asked. “Why is he in Zootopia?”

“He’s doing some kind of restaurant tour.” Judy explained. “Weird that this happened at the first place he went to.”

The wolf thought for a second. “Can we see your kitchen?” He asked.

“Sure you can.” The skunk said. “But you won’t find anything.”

“We’ll see about that!” Wolford said, running off towards the kitchen, the other two officers following him.

He swung open the kitchen doors, as was greeted by a plain white kitchen. He sniffed around a bit, moving down the kitchen as he did.

“You getting anything, wolfy?” Nick asked.

He sniffed. “Tofu, carrots, lots of vegetables…” He stopped for a second. “Pig?”

“Pig?” Judy wondered. “Why can you smell pig in a kitchen?”

“Maybe one of the chefs is a pig.” Nick suggested.

“That might be it.” Wolford said. The doors slammed open again, and the skunk walked in.

“Have you found anything?” He asked, tapping his foot. “We have to open in a few hours, and we don’t have any time to restock!”

“Perfect timing!” Wolford said, walking up to the skunk. “Do you have a pig under your employment?”

“No, actually.” The skunk said. “We’ve never had a pig working here.”

“Well, scratch that one off.” Nick said, the wolf’s ears drooping a bit.

“But, we did recently have a pig guest.”

“Hamsley.” Judy announced. “Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the food went missing at the same time he showed up!”

“It couldn’t have been Hamsley.” The skunk said. “We kept an eye on him the entire time!”

“He could’ve had some partner in crime.” Nick suggested. “He could’ve snuck into the kitchen and stolen the food while everyone was paying attention to Hamsley.”

“All we have to base this off is a pig smell, though.” Wolford said. “We need to get a bit more evidence before we go blaming anyone.”

“Wolford’s right.” Judy exclaimed. “I think this calls for…”

“Don’t say it.”

“AN UNDERCOVER MISSION!”

“You said it.” Nick said, facepawing.

“That’s a great idea, Hopps!” Wolford complimented. “It’s too bad we don’t know where he’s going next.”

“Why don’t you just check his website?” The skunk suggested. “It has the entire schedule listed.”

All three of them looked at each other. “I guess this is just kind of a publicity stunt.” Nick said, pulling out his phone.

“Alright, now that we’ve got a lead, it’s time to go…”

“UNDERCOVER!” The wolf and the rabbit yelled, pumping their fists into the air. Nick slapped his phone to his face.

“We can take my car!” Wolford announced as they left the kitchen. “It’s not as cool as yours, but it’s much less conspicuous.”

“That’s a great idea, Wolford!” Judy said. “Do you have any undercover clothes we could wear?”

“I have a sheep costume.”

“Considering the next restaurant,” Nick said, putting his phone away. “I don’t think a sheep costume is going to cut it.”

“Where is it?” Wolford asked.

“Buffalo Bill’s Fine Cuisine and Dining.”

The two gritted their teeth. “That place is fancy with a capital F.” Wolford said.

“I don’t think any of us have clothes that will make us fit in.” Judy said, shaking her head.

“Police resources.” Nick chimed in. “I think that’s going to be the only way we can do this.”

“Alright, let’s do this.” Judy said, pumping her fist.

* * *

 

“I hate this.” Judy said, crossing her arms.

“I feel the same way,” Nick said, fiddling with his tuxedo. “But it was your idea.”

“But this dress is awful!” She said, tugging at a flowing purple dress that seemed about three sizes too large. “How can anyone wear this kind of stuff?”

“Some women just aren’t as productive as you.” He said. “Besides, I think it looks nice on you.” He nudged her in the shoulder, causing her eye to twitch. “This tux is way worse anyway.” He continued. “It is way too itchy, and I think it’s too small.”

“Quit complaining back there.” Wolford said from the front seat, adjusting his mirror to get a look at them. “They were the best we could get on short notice.” The wolf was also dressed in a tuxedo, which also seemed to be bothering him. “And they definitely are all the right size, this is just how they’re made.”

“Rich people are weird.” The rabbit said.

“I know, glad I was never one of them.”

The car stopped, and they got out. It was some kind of sports car, well taken care of, with a silver sheen. They turned to the large restaurant, a crowd of mammals swarming it as a limo parked up. The door swung open, and out stepped a large pig, dressed in a chef’s uniform. It was Gordon Hamsley. Following him was a small goat, dressed in a suit and small spectacles.

There was a cheer as he walked towards the entrance, but the pig seemed to just ignore it.

“Alright,” Judy said, trying to figure out how to walk in the dress. “What are our undercover names?”

“Lupes,” Wolford said, pointing to himself. He then pointed to Nick. “Vulpen,” He then pointed to Judy. “And Pyonia.”

“’Pyonia’!?” Judy quietly yelled, the fox chuckling a bit. “Who came up with that!?”

“That’s what we were given.” Wolford shrugged.

Judy rolled her eyes, and they walked towards the restaurant. The rabbit tried desperately not to trip on her dress. They got to the crowd and waded through it, getting to the front door.

Nick waved up to the large rhino bouncer. “Hey up there.” He greeted. “We have a reservation.”

The rhino held up his clipboard. “Mr. Lupes, Vulpen, and Ms. Pyonia?”

“That’s us!” Wolford said.

“You three are the only ones reserved now, why’d you want to come here when Hamsley was showin’ up?” He asked.

“We wanted to go on a breakfast date.” Nick lied.

He eyed the three of them, then snorted. “Okay, step right in.” He opened the door.

The three stepped in, and admired the incredibly large, two floor restaurant. “Yikes, do you really need two floors in a restaurant?” Nick quietly questioned.

“This place gets pretty busy some nights.” Wolford explained. “They need two floors to fit everyone.”

“Greetings.” Said a panther waiter who walked up to them. “May I take you to your seats?”

“Yes, please.” Judy said.

They were walked over to a table covered in a large, white tablecloth. Luckily for them, it was only a few table over from where Hamsley was seated. His table was crowded with different foods, most likely the restaurant's different dishes. Right now, he was carefully eating a lobster dish.

The table was also surrounded by what seemed like every employee at the place. Even from the distance they were seated, they could tell they were all nervous.

"Wow, it's like they're staking their entire restaurant on this." Judy said, looking at her menu.

"They basically are." Nick explained, also flipping through his menu. "If he gives them a bad review, the place is pretty much dead."

"Do people really take his opinions that seriously?" Judy asked.

"Guy has three TV shows, and a chain of high class restaurants all over the world." Wolford stated. "The guy takes this stuff really seriously, and people take him seriously as well."

Judy stared at the fox, who had got a bit of a grimace. "Oh, that's not good." He said. The other two officers turned to the pig's table. He was trying to cut into a bit of lobster, unsuccessfully.

"It's feckin raw!" He yelled, with an odd accent. "How do you expect me to eat slop like this!?"

A buffalo, most likely the manager, started up. "We are so sorry about this, Mr. Hamsley." He apologized. "Our lobster is usually never like this. We'll get you a replacement one in a minute." He slapped one of the chefs, a leopard, on the back, and motioned towards the kitchen. The leopard quickly ran to it.

"You know, I don't think we're going to get served." Nick lamented.

"We're not here for the food, remember?" Judy scolded. "We're supposed to be keeping an eye out for the food thief."

"Yeah, but I never get to go to places like this." He said. "We usually just have take out for supper."

"I'm not much of a cook myself, honestly." Wolford chimed in.

Suddenly, there was a scream from the kitchen, everyone turning towards the door as the leopard chef ran out.

"ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE GONE!"

"WHAT!?" The manager yelled. "How is all the food gone, we just restocked!"

"It's just... all gone!" The chef explained.

Judy slammed her head against the table. "Great." She mumbled.

"Another one!?" Hamsley yelled, standing up. "How do you expect to get anything positive out of me, if you can't even keep your gosh danged food in the cupboards without it getting knicked!?" he quickly stormed out of the building, the manager desperately trying to stop him.

He fell to his knees, and began sobbing.

"Wolford, can you smell anything?" Judy asked.

He sat up, and began to sniff around. He quickly ran to the kitchen, swinging open the doors and dropping to all fours to get a better smell.

"There it is, pig again." He said, standing up.

"Okay, so now we know it can't be Hamsley." Nick said. "We watched him the entire time, and he didn't get up once."

"What if the criminal is using him as a distraction?" Judy suggested. "Without Hamsley knowing."

"That would certainly make sense." Wolford deduced. "He's probably using his magnetic personality to distract mammals while he steals the food."

"New plan." Nick stated. "No more undercover stuff, we need to act as guards at the next place."

Wolford checked his phone. "The next restaurant is the Guppy's Galley by the docks. Pretty good seafood place, actually."

"I'll call up the manager and tell him to meet us." Judy said. All three of them nodded as they ran out of the kitchen.

"Excuse me!" A meek voice called from behind them, causing them to stop and turn around. It was the goat from before. "Do you three know where Mr. Hamsley went?" He asked.

"Uh, he left a while ago." Nick explained. "You're his assistant, right?"

"Yep." The goat said. "Mr. Trammer, assistant to Gordon Hamsley." He shook Wolford's paw. "I'm the guy who writes down what he thinks of the restaurants so he doesn't forget."

"That's an oddly specific job." Wolford stated.

"Why weren't you with him when he left, then?" Judy asked.

"Bathroom break." Trammer explained. "It's just like him to leave me behind though, guy barely notices I'm there most of the time." He sighed. "But, I still have an important job! Better go to the limo!"

He quickly rushed off. Nick and Judy looked at each other, and shrugged rushing off. Wolford looked at his paw, and took a sniff. He then followed after them.

* * *

 

"So, yer sayin' me restaurant's gonna be robbed?" The old polar bear asked.

"Yes." Judy said frankly. "Well, we suspect it's the next place to be robbed."

"There is a very high chance." Nick stated.

"And why should I believe yeh?" The polar bear asked, tapping his cane on the pavement. "Ye say yer police officers, but ye ain't dressed like them."

The three looked at their formal wear. "We were on an undercover assignment." Judy explained. "We haven't had a chance to change out of our disguises yet."

The fox pulled out his badge. "Real police badges, though, so you have to believe us."

The bear rolled his eyes. "Very well." He said, adjusting his cap. "Guard the kitchen, but if I sees any of you messin' with this event..." He looked them in the eyes, and flipped up his eyepatch, revealing a perfectly fine eye. "I'll have you cooked for Hamsley's second course."

"Uh, we promise not to mess with anything." Judy said as they backed off a bit. The bear scoffed, and headed off towards the front of the restaurant. The three headed through the back door, and into the kitchen.

"Alright." Judy started as they entered the kitchen. "I'll guard the front entrance, you two guard the back."

"What!?" Nick yelled. "Why do me an wolfsbane here have to partner up?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, this does seem like an odd idea." Wolford admitted.

"Well, for one, I am currently in a horrible dress." She started. "I can't exactly fight someone most likely five times my size in it. If the theif comes from the front, then at the very least someone out there will try to help stop it. The back way is the more likely option for the theif, since no one will notice him coming that way, and you two are less confined in your outfits than me, so obviously you'll have more of a chance."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Nick said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Also, I want you two to have some personal bonding time." She said smugly. "Good luck!"

The fox watched on in anger as the rabbit walked to the other side of the kitchen. He sighed. "Alright, Wolford, I guess we're partnering up for a bit."

"Sounds good to me!" He responded back, slapping the fox on the back a bit too roughly.

They headed to the back door of the kitchen, and waited. "So," Wolford said, trying to spark up a conversation. "Nobody in the precinct actually know much about you besides Judy." He said. "Why don't you open up to anyone else?"

"It's really none of your business." Nick replied. "Judy's the only person who really understands."

"But if you never tell anyone else, she'll be the only one who understands."

"I said this was none of your business." The fox said, a bit more forcibly.

"Alright, I have another question." Wolford continued, the fox rolling his eyes in response. "Why, exactly, do you hate me?"

"What makes me think I hate you?" Nick asked back.

"You called me 'wolfsbane' a few minutes ago." He answered.

"I give everyone nicknames."

"Then there's your multiple jokes about me smelling bad, and the fact that you insulted me this orning when I was trying to be nice." He continued, the fox's ears drooping a bit. "And by the way, that was totally your fault."

"Alright, you want to know why I hate you!?" Nick said, angry. He walked away from the door. "It's because you're you, and I'm me."

"That doesn't exactly clear it up."

"You're Maxwell Wolford, an outgoing friendly, respectable guy!" He said, mockingly. "And I'm Nick Wilde, a former conman who can barely even trust himself, and whose life is barely clinging to a single thread." He continued, growing more upset. "You haven't seen the things I've seen, done the things I've done. I hate you because you aren't me."

"You know, you're right." Wolford admitted, the fox turning around, confused. He had expected Wolford to be angry, but he seemed... contemplated. "I haven't seen or done the things you have. You have every right to not like me. But I can also tell you feel this way about a lot of mammals."

Nick's ears twitched. "What do you mean by that?"

"I can tell you don't trust a lot of people, period." Wolford said. "And that is a major problem. The only person you seem to trust is Judy, you don't even trust yourself. If you don't trust others, you'll never improve on how you see yourself." He continued to explain. "So, just this once, trust somebody besides her. Trust me."

The fox took a deep breath, and opened his mouth. There was a sudden crash from behind the door. They dashed through and looked around, spotting something climbing out of the dumpster on the other side of the alley.

"Hoink, stupid dumpster!" It said. The creature was a large, pink monster, with a head that resembled a distorted pig, and a more realistic pig head decorated on its chest. It continued to climb out of the dumpster awkwardly. "Thank goodness everyone's payin' attention Hamsley, or I'd-"

The creature turned around, and spotted the fox and wolf staring at it. It let go of the dumpster, and fell onto its back. It writhed on the ground for a bit before getting up "SOO-EE! What're y'all doin' back here!?"

"We're looking for a food thief." Wolford said, crossing his arms.

"And I think we just found it." Nick continued for him. The two pulled out their tasers, and aimed them at the monster.

They quickly fired, the wires plugging into the monster and giving him an electric shock. Despite the shock, the monster continued to stand there, and sniffed the air. "What's that smell?" It asked, not noticing the Tasers. "Smells like bacon!"

"What is that thing?" Wolford asked.

"I am Tabu!" The monster announced, patting itself on the stomach. "Predatory Beast Man, master of the Pig-Fist!"

"Oh great, one of these guys again." Nick muttered.

"Wait, do you know what he's talking about?" Wolford asked, confused.

"Uh, no, no I don't." He lied. "Just go tell Judy that we found the theif, I'll keep him busy."

"You sure?" Wolford said. "He's like four times your size."

"Just go do it."

The wolf rushed back into the building. "Alright, hoggles, it's time to pull your pork." He held up his wrist. "ZOO ON!" He slapped the button, and transformed.

"You're a Zooranger!?" Tabu yelled, stepping back a bit. "Master Long told me you were trouble!"

"Yeah, we're even more trouble than the last time he showed his ugly mug." Red said, pulling out his blade. "Now let's see how much trouble we are to you!"

The fox rushed at the pig, and leaped up, slashing him directly in the chest. Tabu was flung directly into the dumpster, and then bounced back, hitting the fox with his bulk.

Red was flung directly into the doors, and into the restaurant. He got up to see the pig monster coming in, and laughing. "My beautiful bulk is stronger than anything you can throw at me!"

He tried to get up, but he was a bit dazed from the surprisingly hard hit. "NICK!" Judy yelled, running over to him.

"Wait, what?" Wolford said, also running up.

"Great." Red groaned. "Another mammal we have to tell our secret identities."

"We're the Zoorangers, Wolford." Judy explained as she helped her partner up. "You can't tell anyone else about this."

"Don't worry." Wolford said. "I'm great at keeping secrets."

She nodded, and transformed into ZooBlue. "We're not gonna let you steal anymore food, pighead!" She twirled her daggers around, and pointed them towards the monster.

"Oh, I'm so scared!" He joked. "FLAME BREEZE!" He yelled, and a stream of fire protruded from the pig nose on his chest, striking at the two's feet.

The two leaped backwards, and started stamping their burning feet, trying to get them to cool down. "You aren't gonna make me into a cooked rabbit!" Blue yelled back.

"Why would I want a single cooked rabbit, when I can have all of this!?" The monster yelled, motioning towards the rest of the kitchen. "Predatory Beast Art, Swine Suction!"

The mouth of the pig head on its chest opened, and a sudden, powerful suction began to pull through the room. Doors and cupboards clattered open, fish tanks in the corner began to tip over, all the food in both being pulled towards the monster's stomach.

In a few seconds, the kitchen was completely empty.

"OH COME ON!" Red yelled, looking around the empty kitchen.

"Thanks for the food!" The pig yelled. "Now it's time for my exit! Whaddya think?" It rushed past the three faster than one would expect a pig to move, and went straight through the entrance to the dining hall.

The group quickly followed it. When they entered the hall, they saw it standing in front of Hamsley's table. "What in the world are you?" He asked rudely. "You're like some kind of cruel mockery of a porcine."

"That's basically what I am!" The monster replied. "Now gimme your food!" He began to clutch at the pig chef's food, and stuff them into his chest mouth. He felt something hit him in the back, and his actual head fell face first into a bowl of lobster bisque.

He got his snout out of the bowl and turned around to face the rangers, who were now both holding smoking blasters. "Can you guys stop messing with me!?"

"Messing with you is kind of our jobs." Red replied, pulling out his blade, and Blue pulling out her daggers.

"Alrighty then!" The pig said, rubbing its cloven hands together. "If it's a fight you want, whaddya think of this?"  He pulled out what appeared to be a long weapon made of sausages, each connected by a small chain, and each end ending in a large hook.

"Sausage Bomber!" It yelled, twirling the sausage weapon above its head. Pieces of the weapon began flying off of it, flying around the boat-themed restaurant and exploding.

"Everyone, get out of here!" Blue yelled. It only took a few seconds for all the workers to disappear, but Hamsley stayed.

"This is the most interesting thing that's happened all day, why would I leave?" He said, arms crossed as he relaxed back in his chair.

"Some people are so stubborn." Red muttered, before rushing at the monster, blade ready. He attempted to strike the monster, but Tabu responded with a swing of his weapon, slashing the fox himself and sending him flying.

He landed directly on a table, which broke immediately. "Alright, hambone." Blue said, twirling her knives. "Let's see how you deal with me!"

She rushed towards the pig herself, which deftly turned into a slide as she went in between the monster's legs, and under the table behind it. Using all her strength, she kicked the table upwards, where it slammed into the monster's back, the deafening sound of many dished breaking resounding through the empty restaurant.

The monster burst upwards, smashing through the table. "Look what you've done!" It yelled, scrambling to the floor and picking up a fish. "You're ruined this perfectly good fish fillet!" He sat up and stamped the ground, pointing towards the rabbit. "I was gonna eat that!"

She ignored the monster, and walked up to the passive chef. "Mr. Hamsley, you really need to get out of here!"

"Why?" He asked. "Do you think that awful thing is going to do anything to me?" He motioned towards Tabu. "It looks like someone in a bad rubber suit, what could he possibly do?"

"BAD RUBBER SUIT!?" The pig monster yelled, knocking the rabbit out of the way and glaring at Hamsley. "I'll show you what this bad rubber suit can do!"

He stuck the nostrils of the head on his chest directly up to the chef's face. "Predatory Beast Art, Snorting Wind!" A strong wind came from the nostrils, blowing the chef directly out of his seat and into a wall.

Hamsley shook his head, and got up, a bit dazed. "Cripes, enough of this." He moaned heading towards the door. "I can tell when I'm not bloody wanted."

Tabu turned back to the rangers. "Now then, where were we?" He pulled out his sausage weapon, which had somehow managed to regenerate its sections. “Oh yeah, me kicking your bacons!”

“Sorry, but we’re the ones doing the cooking.” Red quipped back. They both pulled out their blasters, and fired at the monster rapidly. It blocked the first few shots by swinging its weapon around, but couldn’t keep up with the rapid fire, and began taking hits.

A shot to the monster’s face caused it to let out a squeal of pain, and drop the weapon to the ground. Blue quickly ran over and grabbed it from the floor, and tossed it into the air. “Looks like we’re getting some cold cuts!” She said, leaping up and slicing at the sausages. In a few seconds, they were all reduced to slices of meat, which flopped to the ground.

“HOOOOOINK!” The monster let out, clutching at the slices of meat. “MY BEAUTIFUL SAUSAGE-CHUK!” He dropped the slices to the ground, and squeezed his hoof-like hands. “I guess I’ll have to resort to my forbidden technique!” He yelled. “Pig-Fist Art, Regurgitation Reinvigoration!”

The pig head’s mouth opened, and Tabu stuck one of his hands into it, pulling out a silver fish. “Fish Boomerang!” He yelled, throwing the fish at them.

“Fish what?” Red said, before being smacked in the face by a fish. It hovered in the air, spinning around and slapping the fox in the face, before heading back to Tabu. The fox shook his head. “That hurts a lot more than it looks.”

The pig stuffed it back into his stomach-mouth. He patted his stomach, and let out what sounded like a laugh, but also like an oink. “You two can’t stop my plan, I’m too strong for you!”

The two looked at each other, and then back to the monster. “What is your plan, anyway?” Blue asked.

“I feel like Long could come up with something better for his monster to do than just steal food. “Red said.

“I’ll tell ya what I’m plannin’!” The pig yelled, slapping its stomach. “I’ve created the ultimate pot roast under the city, and when I fill it up completely, it’ll explode and destroy the whole damn place!” It laughed for a few seconds. “Whaddya think of that!?”

“So, you’re going to blow up the city…” Red started, deadpan. “With food.”

“Exactly!”

The Zoorangers looked back at each other, and sighed. “Let’s just finish him already.” Blue said, pulling out the rest of her weapons, blasters hanging by her thumbs.

They tossed the weapons into the air, which formed into the Zookaiser. It landed in their hands, and they pointed at the monster. “Get ready to kiss your pork goodbye!” Red yelled as they aimed at him.

“I don’t think so!” The pig yelled. “Let’s see if you can catch me first!” It began hopping around the room at speeds unexpected for a creature of its size, the rangers trying to keep the large cannon aimed at him.

“We can’t get a hold of him!” Blue yelled, the monster deftly managing to leap out of the way every time they got their sights on him.

Suddenly, an idea hit Red. “WOLFORD!” He yelled. “WE NEED YOUR HELP!” He looked around, Wolford was nowhere to be seen. “Where did he go!?”

“Why do we need Wolford right now, Nick?!” Blue yelled.

“He can get a hold of the monster so we can shoot it!” He explained.

She dropped the cannon. “Do you know how bad of an idea that is!?”

The two started to argue, which Tabu took notice of. “Chance!” He whispered to himself, tiptoeing towards the exit. He looked back at the two once he reached the door. The two were no longer paying attention to him. He let out a cross between a snicker and an oink, and sneaked out the door.

Blue heard the door slam, and quickly looked around the room. “Awwww, cheese and crackers!” She yelled. “He got away while I was trying to tell you how dumb that idea was!”

“Oh, so you’re blaming it on me?” Nick said, untransforming.

“Yes, I am, actually.” Judy said, also untransforming.

“Well if Wolford was here, we wouldn’t have been arguing anyway!” Nick excused. “Where is he?”

The door slammed open again, Wolford walking in. “You guys do know that the pig guy is escaping, right?”

Nick glared at him, and stomped over. “And who’s fault is that?” He asked, seething.

“Uh, yours?”

“No,” Nick said, facepawing. “It was YOURS!” He poked a claw directly into the wolf’s chest. “If you were here, we could’ve stopped him. What were you doing, anyway?”

“I was evacuating the area before anything serious went down.” He explained.

“Well, because of that, the monster’s going to cause even more trouble!” Nick yelled at him.

“What?”

“He’s preparing a bomb under the city.” Judy said, walking up to them. She pushed Nick away from the wolf. “If it blows up, the entire city will go up in smoke.”

“Exactly.” Nick said, trying to get closer, only for the rabbit to push him back again. “This is your fault, wolfsbane.”

The wolf’s ears drooped. Judy looked back and forth at the two. She probably couldn’t help at this point, Nick seemed genuinely convinced that this was Wolford’s fault, and even if she told Wolford it wasn’t his fault, it might end up making Nick even angrier.

She was nearly having a panic attack, she had no idea how to handle this kind of situation. Sure, her and Nick fought and argued a lot, but it was mostly in a friendly way. This was boiling down to Nick completely hating the wolf.

Even worse, they were running out of time. Who knows if Tabu had enough food to finish the bomb. She quickly pulled out her phone, and opened to the page detailing the tour. There was only one stop left, the Insectes De Fantaisie.

“There’s only one stop left.” She explained. “Tabu will probably be there. Let’s go!” She ran out the door, quickly followed by the other two officers.

* * *

 

They drove down the road in Wolford’s car. Insectes De Fantaisie was located all the way in Sahara Square, so it wasn’t exactly a short drive.

It was also a very silent ride. This was probably the longest Nick had ever stayed quiet – while conscious, that is – and it was making Judy incredibly nervous. Was his anger at Wolford that strong? Why did he hate Wolford so much, anyway?

Either way, the silence was causing her anxiety to act up. She needed to say something.

“It wasn’t your fault, Wolford.”

She slapped her mouth as the fox glared at her.

“No, this time, it was my fault.” Wolford said, Nick quickly turning to him.

“No, it really wasn’t.” Judy said. “It was mostly my fault, actually.” Nick turned to look at her again, confused.

“No, it was mine.” Wolford continued. “If I hadn’t been… helping people… we could have beaten him. I just ended up making it worse.”

Nick laughed. “Looks like Mr. Perfect here is finally having some of his own hardships.” He gloated.

“Nick…”

“Let me have this one, Carrots.” He sighed. “It’s not every day I get to gloat about being right.”

“I can make it up to both of you.”

The two looked at Wolford. His expression was a mix between sadness and confidence. “I’m going to fix everything.”

“How, Wolford?” Judy asked.

He stayed silent.

Judy punched Nick in the shoulder, and pulled him by his tuxedo sleeve. “Why do you ACTUALLY hate Wolford?” She whispered.

“It’s a mix of self-loathing, jealousy, and really not liking his preachy attitude.” Nick whispered back.

“So, it’s less you hate him, and more yourself.”

“In a roundabout way, yes, but he preached up a storm when you left us alone in the kitchen.” Nick said. “Guy loves the sound of his own voice.”

She pushed the tuxedo clad fox away, and rolled her eyes. “You do know this attitude is going to jeopardize your career, right?” She said. “You’re going to have to work with people you don’t like every now and then.”

“Fluff, I’ve been doing that for decades.” Nick retorted. “I am VERY good at hiding my contempt.”

“Then why can’t you do it just this once!?” She said, frustrated at the fox. “You’re acting like a little kit, I thought you would’ve learned better than that by now!”

The two continued to argue, but Wolford ignored it. He looked back down at his paw, and clenched it.

“I’m going to fix this.”

* * *

 

The car stopped, and the three stepped out onto the hot sand. By this point, the sun had set, making the yellow and green lights that shone out of the restaurant, which was shaped like a large bee hive, even more noticeable.

“Yuck, this place is really tacky.” Judy said, genuinely disgusted.

“The food’s absolutely divine, though.” Nick said. “Their anthill special is incredible.”

“I’m a vegetarian for a reason, Nick.”

“I thought you were vegetarian because you were a rabbit.”

Wolford stomped off towards the restaurant, the two following behind him. “So, what’s the plan?” Judy asked.

“He probably doesn’t have one.” Nick said. “Probably winging it.” He could tell this wasn’t the case, just by the completely determined expression. He was just saying that because he felt like being a jerk.

It wasn’t a good feeling, though. When Wolford admitted that it was his fault, a sudden, massive weight fell onto Nick’s subconscious. He knew it wasn’t Wolford’s fault either, it was completely, utterly his own fault. But his pride seemed to be blocking this out, and he just couldn’t say it. It was killing him.

Maybe he was too good at not letting his emotion show.

They walked up to the bouncer, an elephant this time. Guess it made sense for bouncers to be big animals.

“Names.” He asked, pulling up a clip board.

Wolford pulled out his badge. “Officer Maxwell Wolford, with officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.” The other two quickly pulled out their badges, surprised at Wolford’s act. “We have reason to believe that there’s a dangerous criminal in there.”

“Oh, uh, go on in then, officers.” The elephant nervously said, opening the door for them.

They stepped into the restaurant. The carpeted floor had a yellow and orange honeycomb pattern, and a variety of lights shining out of the building via a ring of spotlights hanging from the ceiling. Much like the last few locales, the place was barren, aside from Hamsley sitting at a table, surrounded by chefs, and the manager, an anteater.

“You do know we don’t actually have a reason to think there’s a criminal here, right?” Judy asked. She got no response, the wolf simply eyeing the table. He began to stomp towards it.

“Yikes, he got really intense.” Nick said as they trailed behind him a bit.

Wolford walked up to a familiar goat standing near the table. “Oh hey, you’re the nice folks from before!” Tramming said. “What brings you here?”

Without warning, Wolford socked the goat in the side of his mouth, knocking him to the ground. Everyone looked at him in shock.

“WHAT THE HELL, WOLFORD!?” Nick yelled.

“What are you doing!?” Judy continued for him, her paws covering her mouth.

“I should have known something was up.” Wolford said, lifting the goat back to his feet, before hitting him again. “I thought that pig smell from you was because you were hanging around with Hamsley.”

“What?” The goat said weakly, getting to his feet. “What are you…?”

“But the smell wasn’t because you were working with Hamsley,” Wolford continued. “It’s because you were working with the food thief.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Tramming said, backing away. “Why would I be working with a monster?”

“When did I mention a monster?”

Silence broke through the room. The goat looked around nervously, backing away a bit. Nick and Judy quickly ran to the other sides of the goat, leaving him with nowhere to run. He gulped, and looked around.

Tramming then let out a laugh. “Hate to say it, but you’re wrong!”

Wolford’s ears perked up. “What?”

“I wasn’t working with the food thief…” He said, his voice suddenly becoming deeper. His body twisted and contorted, eventually forming into the grotesque visage of Tabu.

“I AM THE FOOD THIEF!” It squealed. He pulled out his now regenerated sausage link weapon, and spun it around, knocking the officers away. “Whaddya think!?”

“My own assistant turned out to be a bleedin’ monster.” Hamsley lamented, still sitting in his seat as everyone else ran away. “I need to get a better interview system. Preferably one with ‘Are you a bloody monster or not?’ on it.”

He let out a scoff, and got up from his seat, slowly walking towards the exit.

“What is with that guy?” Nick asked himself, watching the chef exit as he got up.

“Ha ha HOOINK!” The monster squealed as the three got up. “Y’all three ain’t no match for me!”

“I say we taste test that idea first!” Nick said, transforming into ZooRed and pulling out his blade.

“Yeah.” Judy followed up. “We’re gonna be the ones smoking your ham!” She transformed into ZooBlue.

“Let’s get this potluck started then!” Tabu yelled, swinging his sausage links over his shoulder.

“Hold it right there, Tabu.” A voice from across the room said. Everyone turned their sights to the owner of the voice.

It was Long.

He strode towards them confidently. “So we meet again, Zoorangers.” He chuckled. “I wonder how much stronger you two have gotten since we last fought?”

“Strong enough to beat you.” Red said, pointing his blade towards him. “Hopefully.” He muttered under his breath.

“Is that so?” Long said. “If you’re so confident in yourselves, I’ll give you another free shot.” He stretched his arms out to his sides, readying himself for the attack.

“Master Long, why are you…?” Tabu started, confused at the dragon warrior’s actions.

“Don’t interfere, pig.” He snapped back. “Do it, ZooRed, strike me with everything you’ve got!”

He sighed. “Alright.” He pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it into the Zoolizer. The Solar Flare Saber appeared in his hand.

The fox spun it around, attempting to get some momentum, and then leaped into the air, flying towards Long. He brought the blade directly down on him, slicing through the dragon.

“is that really the best you’ve got?”

Red looked up. Long hadn’t been harmed at all by the attack, not a single scratch in his armor, despite the blade definitely going through him.

“I will admit, you have gotten stronger.” Long said, staring down at the terrified fox. “But not strong enough to impress me.”

Long delivered a swift kick to the fox, launching him across the room and crashing into multiple tables. He then dashed towards ZooBlue, and smacked her face first into the ground.

“Great job, Master Long!” Tabu said, clapping. “Now, let’s finish them off for good!”

“No, that job is for you.” Long said, pulling out a small red object. He tossed it towards the pig monster, it striking it directly in the chest-head’s snout.

The monster began writhing in pain, letting out horrid squeals. Red got up just in time to see what was happening. Tabu’s head dissolved into his body, as the head on his chest began to grow and shift up to where the old head was, resembling more of a head, and giving it more of a hunched stance. Its nose shifted to resemble the Chaos badge, pointed and a bit unnatural. The head stretched out a bit, and gained two small tusks. Its bulk grew significantly bulkier, its stomach puffing out a bit more.

“CHAOS TABU!” It yelled, before letting out a monstrous oink.

Red gripped his muzzle in disgust. “I never want to see that again.”

“Rinshi!” He yelled, swiping his disgustingly fat arm through the air. “Arise!”

The carpeted ground began to crack, and then burst open, tons of the undead monsters leaping from the purple glowing pit Tabu had created. The crack closed shortly after. Some of the Rinshi held spears, while some had nothing, but all of them began hopping.

Blue lifted her head up from the ground, seeing the new monster and the army. “Well isn’t this just fantastic.” She groaned, getting to her feet and pulling out her daggers. She dashed into the army of undead, and began chopping through them

Long placed his hand on Tabu’s shoulder. “You take care of them, I’ll ready the bomb.”

“But there’s not enough food yet!” Tabu said.

“It doesn’t matter.” Long replied. “It will still destroy a large chunk of the city if it goes off. It’s better to just get those two out of the way.”

“Alrighty then, sir!” Tabu said, saluting. Long vanished in a burst of flame. He turned to the Zoorangers fighting the group of Rinshi, Red having joined at some point. Tabu walked over to a table, and laid down on it, watching them fight. He’d let the Rinshi tire them out before he struck.

“These guys are still really weak.” Red complained, slashing through a few Rinshi rather effortlessly. “You think they’d make the minions stronger too.”

“Are you really complaining about the monster being too weak?” Blue replied back, confused. She leaped into the air and pulled out her Rabblasters, blasting through a handful of undeads before landing.

“I mean,” Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and blasted through a few more Rinshi. “When you put it like that, it sounds stupid.” He pulled out a red ZooTag. “But would it really take that much effort to make guys who don’t go down in one hit?” He plugged the tag into the gun.

"BRING THE HEAT!   
BURNING HEART!   
BOOM BOOM!   
VICKSCANNON!"

He fired the cannon through the last few remaining Rinshi, instantly vaporizing them. Unfortunately, the blast continued, and fired through the wall of the restaurant.

“Oops.” Red let out meekly.

The pig monster clapped, causing the rangers to turn to him. “Great first course!” He said, awkwardly getting off the table. “But I feel the next course will be even better! FLAME BREEZE!” A burst of fire came out from the monster’s oddly shaped nose, and scorched at the ground in front of the two, causing them to step back a bit.

“You can dish out the heat,” Red started, aiming the Vickscannon at the monster. “But can you take it?” He fired a fireball directly towards the pig. Before it could hit, Tabu’s mouth opened wide, ridiculously wide, wider than should have been possible, and the fireball was sucked into it.

The monster tried not to yell in pain from the fire it had consumed, but it was obvious as the pig’s entire body started to turn red, steam visibly pouring from its ears. After a few seconds of struggling, the pig leaned back, and shot the fireball back at the two. The force of it was so strong that it knocked them directly through the walls of the building.

They landed with a crash, bodies smoking from the blast. Red struggled to get up, seeing the pig monster walking through the hole in the wall. “Alright, don’t shoot stuff at him.” Red noted, standing up alongside his partner.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to take a more up-close approach!” Blue said confidently, daggers in her hands.

The pig let out a laugh, wiping its disgusting mouth with its flabby hand. “Come try it, rabbit!”

She rushed at the pig, leaping into the air and striking at its stomach. Instead of jabbing into the monster, the knife simply pushed its skin inwards. Upon realizing what was happening, the bunny’s knife sprang out and clonked her right on the head, launching her off.

She clattered to the ground, the knife shortly following her, sliding across the ground. She shook off her daze, and looked at the laughing monster. “HO HO HOOOINK!” It laughed, patting its stomach. “Whaddya think? I’m an invincible pig, not even a butcher’s knife could cut through this!”

Blue picked up her dagger, and headed back towards the fox. “I guess we’re going to have to get the big guns out.” She said, turning to him. “Not literally, I mean.”

“What?” The fox said, before realizing what she meant. “Oh, you mean THAT.” He plugged a golden ZooTag into his Zoolizer, summoning the Solar Flare Saber.

They both gripped onto the handle. “STARRY NIGHT SLASH!” They both yelled as they leaped into the air, preparing to strike the monster. They brought it down onto its head, only for it to be stopped by the monster’s thick head.

Tabu snorted, and thrust his head upwards, launching the two away. They crashed into the ground again, the Solar Flare Saber vanishing as it hit the sand.

“Whaddya think invincible means!?” The monster let out, laughing. “Now it’s finally time to prepare this meal!”

“Are you sure about that?” Asked a voice from behind him.

Tabu turned around. It was ZooSilver, still shrouded in a cloak, and with the same voice changer effect as last time. “Because I’m fairly sure it’s time for your dawn to end.” Silver said, walking closer and pulling out the Eclipse Thruster.

“But it’s night time.” Tabu pointed out.

ZooSilver ignored the pig, and rushed towards him, spinning the guard of the blade. “HOT HOT SUN” The gravelly voice of the blade let out. Silver slashed at Tabu, the bursts of fire only seeming to bounce off.

“Boy, you guys need a dictionary!” Tabu mocked. “I’m invincible. IN-VIN-CI-BLE!”

“Hmm.” Silver grunted. “Then I suppose I’ll have to be a bit more precise.” Silver placed its paw on the guard, and spun it again.

“HOT SHINE ECLIPSE”

A purple glow shone through the blade, and Silver began to jab it into the monster rapidly, and at lightning fast speeds. In only a second, dozens of holes had been poked into Tabu’s body, purple smoke pouring from them.

It shrieked. “How did you…!?”

“Eclipse Mode gives me incredible precision and speed.” Silver explained. “Using it, I was able to find all of the weak spots on your body. You are now completely vulnerable.” With that, Silver slashed at the monster, launching him back towards the other two.

The monster got up, and turned to face the Zoorangers, who were aiming their blasters directly at his face. They fired simultaneously, launching the monster backwards a bit.

It got up again, and looked back and forth as all three rangers closed in on him. “H-hold on, can’t we talk things out!?” It pleaded.

“The time for talking is over.” ZooSilver said, preparing the blade by plugging in a silver ZooTag.

“Yeah, you probably don’t have anything interesting to say anyway!” Red shot back, as the two rangers combined their weapons into the Zookaiser.

ZooSilver’s blade began to glow multiple colors, as they moved it around in a clockwise motion. ZooBlue and ZooRed prepared the cannon, locking it onto the monster.

“ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!”

“COSMIC ECLIPSE SLASH!”

They fired the finishers at the exact same time, Silver’s much faster attack striking the monster in the back first, and then the Zookaiser’s laser strike hitting it in the front. This caused an absolutely massive explosion.

The smoke and fire quickly cleared, leaving the pig monster standing in place. “Even with both your finishers, you…” He paused, and looked at himself. His skin was starting to bubble.

“What the hell ham!?” Tabu yelled, before exploding with a squeal into a pile of goop. The only things remaining besides the pink goop were a small red object, and Mr. Tramming, who was unconscious.

“Your night is over.” Silver said, sheathing their sword.

“See?” Red said, pointing towards Silver. “We need a catchphrase like that!” Blue rolled her eyes.

“My work here is done.” Silver said, turning away from them. “You must deal with the giant form by yourselves.”

“Thank you, Silver.” Blue said. “You’ve really helped us out recently.”

“Yeah, why don’t you just, y’know, join us?” Red suggested. “It’s make this whole thing a lot easier.”

Silver grunted. “It… It isn’t time for that.” They said. “I’m sorry.” They leaped off into the city, leaving the two Zoorangers behind.

“What’s that guy’s deal?” Red asked.

“I dunno.” Blue said, turning to the now floating red object in the middle of the pool of goo. “But I think we have bigger problems to deal with right now.”

The object dashed into the distance, Tabu suddenly reappearing outside of the city, nearly blocking out the moonlight with its new size. “HO HO HOOOOOINK!” It laughed, slapping its stomach. “Time to smoke this city myself!”

“Let’s cook this guy’s bacon!” Blue said, the two pulling out the ZooTags for their mechs.

They summoned them, and in a few seconds, ZooRobo was formed in front of the pig monster, sword drawn.

It stomped towards Tabu, and attempted to strike with its blade, only for it to bounce off, completely ineffective against the pig’s thick skin. Tabu let out a laugh, and slapped its stomach again. “How many times are you idiots gonna do this until it gets through your skulls!?” He yelled. “You can’t hurt me!” He slapped the robot with his palms, knocking it backwards.

“We’ll see about that.” Blue said to herself. “Red, let me take over for a second.”

“What?” He said, confused. “We can’t do anything against him!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea.” She said. The cockpits rotated around, putting Blue in the front. ZooRobo put away its sword.

“ZOOROBO, USAGI MODE!”

“Alright, porker, let’s see how you deal with this!” She jerked the controls forward, causing the robot to dash directly in front of the monster. The robot began jabbing the monster rapidly, landing what seemed like hundreds of punches in only a few seconds. None of them seemed to harm Tabu, however, only causing his flab to bend inwards.

“Seriously?” Tabu said, before headbutting the robot away.

“Great plan.” Red sarcastically said.

“I think I did enough.” Blue said confidently. “Now it’s your turn, Red.”

The controls switched back to Red, ZooRobo pulling out his sword once again. “ZOOROBO, KITSUNE MODE!”

“What!?” He yelled.

“Just hit him!”

The fox sighed, and swung the sword at the pig monster. Remarkably, it actually seemed to harm him, an explosion of sparks knocking the pig to the ground.

“ACK!” He yelled. “How’d you two do that!?” He questioned, trying to get up.

“It’s called tenderizing.” Blue replied back with a smirk.

“HOOOINK!” The monster squealed, getting to his feet. “I guess I’ll have to play the looooong game, then!” He pulled out his sausage link weapon. “The foot-long game, that is! SAUSAGE BOMBER!” He pulled a section of the sausage weapon off, and threw it at the robot, it exploding once it hit.

“Oh, there’s no way I’m losing to unhealthy food products!” Red yelled.

Tabu pulled out a few more sausage pieces, and threw them at the robot. ZooRobo responded by slashing them out of the air before they could hit. The monster stepped back in shock at his attack being blocked.

“Time for a barbeque!” Blue said, the robot moving closer.

“ANIMAL KINGDOM Z-CROSS CUTTER!”

The robot followed this yell with three quick slashes. A vertical slice through the monster’s head, a downwards diagonal strike through its midsection, and finally, another vertical slash through the monster’s lower section. A faint outline of a Z shined through, as ZooRobo finished with a jab to the monster’s gut, causing it to fly backwards.

It crashed into the ground, and unsteadily climbed back up, laughing. “You may have beaten me, but your city is still doomed!” He yelled, hysterical. “My food bomb will still explode, even without me here!” The pig began to tilt over. “WHADDYA THIIIIIINK!?” With those final words, Tabu exploded into a massive burst of fire, which cleared quickly.

“Oh.” Red said with a grimace. “That is pretty bad.”

In a flash, ZooRobo had disappeared, and the two were standing just outside the restaurant, where they had summoned the robot.

They untransformed, and turned to the hole in the building. Wolford was running out of the hole, and towards them.

“That was amazing!” He yelled enthusiastically. “That robot was incredible, where’d you get it?”

“Interdimensional god person.” Nick flatly replied. Wolford gave him a stare.

“He’s actually not joking about that.” Judy assured. “But we have more important things to talk about right now.”

“Like what?” Wolford asked. “You beat the monster; everything should be fine now.”

“Incorrect, wolfsbane.” Nick said. “His food bomb… thing is still somewhere in the city, and it’s going to explode soon.”

“We need your help.” Judy said to Wolford. “Can you smell anything?”

He sniffed the air for a second. “Nothing but sand.” He said.

“Sand has a smell?” Nick muttered to himself.

“But I do know where we can start.” He assured. “The sewers. If the bomb was in the city, it would be noticeable, so it must be under the city.”

“Good idea!” Judy said, kneeing him in the leg.

“And lucky for you two,” Nick started, thumbs in his collar. “I happen to know my way around the sewers.”

They stared at him for a second. “I’ll tell you later, we need to hurry!”

* * *

 

It had only been a few minutes, but Judy had quickly realized how bad this was going. For one, no one brought a flashlight. And second…

“Uh, I think we need to head…” Nick started, trying not to sound confused. “This way…?” He turned down a walkway, the other officers following him.

Nick didn’t exactly seem to know where he was going.

“How can you…” She nearly tripped, the clothing was also becoming a bit of a problem as well. “How can you see where you’re going? It’s pitch black!”

“Fox eyes!”

“I have night vision too, Nick.” Wolford said. “I can’t see anything either.”

“Well, I…” He stopped. “I’m completely lost, alright?”

“Well, this is a problem.” Judy groaned, sitting down against the sewer walls.

Nick sat down next to her. “I’m really sorry.” He whispered. “It’s been years since I’ve been down here, I guess I just can’t remember the layout.”

“it’s okay.” Judy assured, placing her paw on his shoulder.

“It really isn’t.” He said. “I’ve been an awful, awful person today.”

“Nick-“

“No, I need to get this out of my system.” He said, standing up. He faced Wolford, and took a deep breath. “I have been such a massive asshole to you.” He admitted. “I’ve insulted you, called you names, blamed you for things that were one hundred percent my fault, and now…” He started to tear up a bit. “And now I’m the reason why hundreds of mammals are going to die. I guess that’s karma for you…”

He placed his paws on his face, and started full on crying. Judy got up, and walked over to him. “Nick…”

“Everyone trusted me!” He sobbed. “I’m supposed to help save people, and here I am, dooming them! I’m such an idiot, if I had never blamed Wolford, this wouldn’t be happening!” He slapped himself in the face.

The other two officers backed away in shock as he continued slapping himself. “Nick…” Wolford tried to stop him, but the fox swiped at him. The wolf took a deep breath, and socked the fox in the face. “Nick, stop it.”

The fox rubbed the side of his face, and looked up at the wolf. “Yes, most of this was your fault, but it’s not over yet.” Wolford declared. “Get up, and let’s go find and stop that bomb.”

Nick got up, and rubbed the side of his muzzle. “Alright. I’m sorry for that.” He said.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you opened up to someone for once.” Wolford admitted. “If you can’t open up to people, these kind of problems happen, and-“ He paused for a second, a smell wafted through his nose.

“And?”

“Tofu. Vegetables. Seafood.”

“What?” Nick said, confused.

“Follow me!” Wolford ran off. Judy shrugged, and the two ran off to follow him.

They followed him through the sewer, twisting and turning through the tunnels, until eventually they reached a large open area. In the middle of the room sat some kind of stove like object, which glowed with a horrible, red aura.

“The bomb.” Judy muttered, looking at the massive object.

“Okay, so how do we disarm something like this?” Nick asked, walking towards it. He tried to tap it on the side, but the heat burned his paw.

“I think it’s pretty easy.” Wolford said, walking around it. “How else do you disarm a stove?” He spotted a large cord, connected to a generator in the corner.

“You have to unplug it.” He tugged at the cord, it instantly unplugging.

The bomb rumbled, and a grid on the front opened, tons and tons of food spilling out of it. Nick sniffed, looking at the pile of food. “I guess we won’t be returning the food, huh?”

“So, back to what I was saying before,” Wolford started up, walking up to Nick. “You need to open up to more people. It’s no wonder you have self-loathing issues, keeping your emotions bottled up can only lead to disaster.”

“What are you, my therapist?” Nick replied.

“You don’t have a therapist.” Judy said.

“Wait, really?” Wolford said. “You should probably get one. I think the chief would be able to set you up.”

“I’ll!” He raised his paws to the air, sounding frustrated. He then took a deep breath, and lowered them. “I’ll consider it.”

“Alright, now that we’ve got that all cleared up,” Judy started. “I have some questions for a certain goat.”

* * *

 

“What were the last things you remember before you blacked out?” Judy asked the goat sitting at the table with her and her partners.

“Well, I remember, um…” He tapped his chin. “I remember getting off the plane, and then someone tapping me on the back. I turned around and…”

“There was a monster in golden armor, right?” Nick finished.

“Yeah!” Tramming said. “He asked me about some odd things, like, contempt, and hatred at my boss. I told him I didn’t actually have any hatred for Hamsley, and he got really upset.” He continued. “He pulled out some kind of… statue… thing, and jabbed it into my head. Then I blacked out, and woke up here.”

“He was trying to manipulate you.” Judy stated. “Long is good at those kind of things.”

“You know him?”

“Uh, kind of.”

“You can go now, Tramming, we have everything we need to know.” Wolford said. The goat nodded, and walked off.

“So, all we need to do now is file the report, right?” Nick asked, Judy nodding in response.

“I just want to say, before we separate,” Wolford started. “It was a pleasure working with you both. You two are some of the best officers on the force, and seeing you in work was wonderful.”

They blushed a bit. “Best officers?” Judy asked. “Do the others really think that?”

“Yeah! You might not know it, but you two solved some amazing cases over your careers.” Wolford continued. “I feel like you two don’t understand how great you really are, even with your… quirks.”

“Thanks, Wolford.” Nick said. He reached his paw out. “I’m sorry about everything that happened today. I hope we can become fuh…”

“What?”

“Fruh… fren… frieeennnndsss??”

“Yeah, of course we can be friends!” Wolford said, shaking his paw. “It’d be a pleasure.” After a rather awkward pawshake, he stood up. “Time to head home. See you guys tomorrow, probably.” He gave them a nod, and headed out of the restaurant.

They sighed. “We should probably go home now.” Judy said.

* * *

 

Nick laid down on the couch. “Do you really think I need a therapist?” He asked the rabbit in the kitchen.

“Probably, actually.” She answered. “That was scary, Nick. I’m starting to get worried about you.”

The fox sighed. “If you’re suggesting it, I probably will. I’ll talk about it with Bogo tomorrow.”

“I have some other things I wanted to talk about.” Judy said, walking over to the couch with a cup of coffee in her hand. “Did you notice something… different, about that monster?”

“Not really.”

“I mean, different compared to Bellwether.” She extrapolated. “Bellwether seemed completely in control while she was a monster, but Tramming didn’t seem to realize what was happening when he got taken over.”

“Maybe it’s a willingness thing?” Nick suggested, causing the bunny to give him a confused look. “I mean, Bellwether probably wanted to break out of prison and kill us, but Tramming said he didn’t actually have any hatred for his boss.”

“Interesting theory.”

“Other question,” Nick started, sitting up, nearly causing Judy to spill her cup. “Who do you think Silver is?”

“What?”

“He has to be somebody under there, right?” He said. “So who could it be?”

“Hmm.” Judy sighed. “It’s probably someone we know; how else would they realize we’re the Zoorangers?”

“Let’s think about who was there when Silver showed up.” Nick suggested. “Wolford and Lupina. It has to be one of them.”

“As much as I would love to have another lady on the team, we don’t have enough evidence to suggest either of them.” Judy said. “Them being there means nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

“It’s the only lead we have, though.” Nick said, twisting around to sit on the couch.

“Who knows.” Judy responded. “I’ve had enough of today though, we can talk about this later.”

“Alright.” Nick said, watching his partner walk to her bedroom. “Goodnight, Carrots.”

“Goodnight, Nick.”

* * *

 

Long smashed the rock he was standing near with his fist, it instantly shattering under his strength. “I didn’t even get to see Savage.” He lamented.

“I see somebody isn’t planning their game very well.” Enter said, walking up to Long from behind him. “I don’t see what that little escapade had to do with anything.”

“I was trying to get them to summon Savage, to judge his power.” Long explained. “But it didn’t work, what did I do wrong?”

“Looks like you might need to plan a little better.” Enter chuckled. “I have a brilliant plan developing, I’m going to have you beat in no time.”

Long growled, and then swung at Enter, who vanished as he turned around. He roared in anger, looking around for the digital creature.

“Someone seems angry.” Another voice said from behind him. He turned around to face Kyuemon.

“I don’t entirely appreciate my privacy being invaded, fox.” Long snapped.

“What exactly is this… Savage, you and Enter were talking about?” Kyuemon asked, stepping towards him.

“It’s something one of Yogostein’s monsters discovered.” Long explained. “Some kind of powerful super form for them. Needless to say, it… intrigued me.”

“and it seems Enter found it interesting as well.” Kyuemon finished for him. “A game, though? You do realize there’s more important things going on, right?”

“I don’t conform to your plans, fox.” Long snapped back. “I’m doing this for my own amusement, not anything you care about.”

“Your own amusement!?” Kyuemon said, sounding angrier. “You baffle me, Long.”

“I have my reasons, fox.” He said. “Leave, I have some planning to do.”

“Very well.” Kyuemon replied. “I have work myself.” He disappeared in a burst of dark energy.

Long clenched his fist. “Savage…”

“You will be mine.”


	13. Rabbit Season

It was a rather lazy day for Judy and Nick.

They had gotten a day off, and, of course, it was very casual. Even more than usual considering their new status. At this point, Judy was barely comfortable with Nick walking around the apartment in his sleepwear. It was still awkward, but slightly less so. Judy, however, still preferred to wear her casual clothes on casual days.

As she usually did on days off, she decided to sleep in. Her bed was like heaven on days like this, a pillowy soft place for her to escape from everything. It was nice and silent, only the sounds of the outside world going on around her.

Sometimes it could get annoying, especially with her rabbit hearing, but she always had a decent sleep. Unfortunately, this sleep would be quickly interrupted by a loud ringing.

She sprang up from her bed, and grasped for the phone on the side of her bed. She looked at the caller ID, it was her parents. She answered it.

Outside of her bedroom, Nick sat on the couch, watching TV and eating a bowl of blueberries. As a fox, his hearing was still pretty good, and he could hear the rabbit talking from inside her room.

“You’re what? Today!? RIGHT NOW!?”

She burst out of her room screaming. She glared the fox, dressed in his undergarments and about to eat a blueberry, and pointed towards him dramatically. He dropped the blueberry into the bowl without breaking eye contact with her.

“What did I do now?” He asked.

“Shower!” She yelled. “Get dressed! NOW!”

The fox knew her tone. It was the “Not messing around” tone she usually only put on during serious events. He knew that it was probably best to follow her orders, and rushed to the bathroom.

Judy looked at herself. She wasn’t exactly any better dressed, OR clean! She rushed into her room to gather clothes. Minutes later, Nick ran out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist, and dashed into his own room to get dressed. Judy quickly ran out afterwards, going into the bathroom with her jeans and pink flannel top under her arm.

Nick exited his room in his usual green shirt, tie and grey pants. He sat back on the couch, and waited for Judy to exit the show. It was a remarkably short time, maybe about a minute after he had sat down, until she slammed the door open, dressed in her casual clothes. She ran over to the fox, and pulled him up off the seat.

She eyed him up and down. She shook her head, and patted off his clothes, and straightened his tie to a near chokehold. “Better.” She said cheerfully, pulling Nick towards the door against his will. “C’mon, we don’t have much time!”

“Until what?”

“Until my parents get here!”

* * *

 

They walked into the train station.

“So, no swearing, no rude comments, no shuffling, no snapping…”

She had been blabbing off rules the entire car ride. All kinds of rules about what not to do around her parents, like “no inappropriate jokes” or “no nicknames”, stuff that, to him, basically meant “stay quiet”.

They continued walking through the station, and got to the main plaza. “No passing gas, no baring claws…”

“Fluff…”

“No tail swishing, no making fun of carrots…”

“Carrots.”

“No mumbling, no-“

“JUDY!” He snapped.

“Don’t interrupt me!” She yelled back at him. “That was like, the third rule I said.”

“Actually, it was the seventy eighth rule.” He stated. “And I… I get it.” He said, sounding a bit drained. “You want me to make a good first impression on your parents. But why don’t you just let me be… me?”

She glared at him. “Alright, so I’m not exactly prime boyfriend material.” He admitted. “But you love me for who I am, right? So why don’t you let them see how I really am?”

She sighed. “I’m just really worried.” She said. “I haven’t told them much about you, I haven’t even told them we’re dating.”

“Why not?”

“For one, I don’t feel like they expected me to date a fox when I was little.” She started.

“Makes sense, I suppose.” He said, thinking back to seeing her being attacked by Gideon Grey during their time travel escapades.

“And for second…” She paused and rolled her paw. “It’s just kind of awkward.”

He nodded. Another reasonable reason.

“But I suppose I don’t have much of a choice but to tell them now.” She sighed. “They should be here soon.”

As if on que, the large train sped into the station, and grinded to a halt in front of them. The door slid open, a wave of mammals flooding out. The two had to dodge out of the way of way of the larger ones, but kept their eyes out for the two rabbits.

“See them anywhere?” Judy asked, stepping out of the way of an absent-minded rhino.

“Nope, not yet.” Nick replied, dodging out of the way of an elephant texting on his phone. He then spotted two grey furred creatures, the very last two to step off the train. “Oh wait, I think I see them!”

The animals soon cleared, leaving two rabbits standing there. “I told you to dress in something more casual.” The female rabbit said to her husband, who was dressed in rather dirty overalls and an undershirt.

“These are casual!” He said back. “There’s nothing more casual than overalls!”

She rolled her eyes at him, before turning to Nick and Judy “Oh, there she is!”

They ran over to Judy, both giving her a big hug at the same time, nearly crushing her. She felt the air go back into her lungs as they let go.

Her father rubbed the top of her head, he was still slightly taller than her. “How’s my lil’ officer doing?” He asked playfully.

“Pretty good, actually!” She responded, pushing his hand away. “Hey, have you two met Nick yet?” She motioned for Nick to come over, which he did.

“I believe we met at the hospital.” He stated, shaking her father’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not usually so dour.”

“It was a bad situation to first meet.” Her mother admitted. “But, hopefully, we can get to know you better over the day.”

“The day?” Nick asked, confused. “Why are you guys here?”

“Well, we wanted to check up on how Judy was doing after the… incident.” Bonnie explained. “But your father decided to make it into a bit of a trip.”

“Hey now,” Stu said. “We haven’t had a chance to visit the big city in years, might as well make it worth our money!” He crossed his arms and sighed. “You know, those train tickets are completely ridiculous!”

“Aren’t they only fifteen dollars?” Nick said.

“Back in my day, we could go from Bunnyburrow to Zootopia and back in under five bucks!” He yelled, stamping his foot.

“He’s overexaggerating.”

“I swear, the economy’s going right down the toilet.”

“He’s not overexaggerating there.” Nick joked.

“Anyway,” Judy said, trying to stop her father from ranting. “Why don’t we, say, go get something to eat, and we can discuss what we’re going to do for the rest of the day there?”

“That is a wonderful idea, Judy!” Bonnie complimented.

“That’s my girl, always a forward thinker!” Stu said proudly, hitting her in the shoulder. “Where should we go?”

“I know a pretty good diner.” Nick suggested. “Great vegetable salads.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Stu said, the two rabbits starting to walk off. Nick and Judy trailed behind them a bit, to have a private conversation.

“They sure think highly of you, huh?” Nick said.

Judy nodded. “I’d find it hard to not be proud, honestly.” She stated. “Having supportive parents really helped, I think.”

Nick sniffed. “I bet.”

“Apparently, some of my other siblings are trying to branch out and do their own things as well.” Judy continued, missing Nick’s previous comment. “Lawyers, firefighters, lots of helpful jobs.”

“Following in your oversized rabbit steps, huh?” Nick joked, receiving a sharp nudge to the side. “Well, no other Hopps will be able to claim the title of first rabbit super hero.”

Judy chuckled, and then rubbed her wrist. “I feel like something’s missing.”

“You mean the Zoolizers we forgot to bring because of you rushing?”

“Oh.”

“It’s alright.” Nick assured. “I’m sure nothing bad will happen.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Judy said, relaxing a bit.

“Hey!” They two looked up from their conversation. Judy’s parents were much farther ahead of them than they thought. “I thought you two were supposed to be quick!”

“Sorry!” Judy yelled to her father. The two rushed back up to them.

* * *

 

“What did you want to see me for, Yogostein?”

He slammed his spear against the floor, the roof of an apartment building, and walked towards the fox yokai. “I need your help for my next plan.” He stated.

“Shouldn’t you be asking Yabaiba for help?” Kyuemon slyly asked. “He is your partner, after all.”

“Please, I wouldn’t trust Yabaiba to do anything.” Yogostein laughed. “Doesn’t mean I trust you, but you’re at least more competent.”

“Such high praise.” Kyuemon said sarcastically. “So, what is this plan?”

“I call it ‘Operation: Kill Two Birds with One Bullet’.” He stated. “It’s a way to get the Zoorangers out of the way, as well as cause some chaos.”

“Interesting.” Kyuemon said flatly. “What exactly does that entail?”

“What it entails is you using that special disguise ability of yours to spy on them.” Yogostein explained. “My monster will track you, and shoot up the place they go to.”

“What monster, exactly?”

Yogostein quickly pulled out what looked like a small, flintlock pistol, as well as a gear. “This one!” He declared, jabbing the gear into the side of the gun.

It flew out of his hand, and swiftly transformed into a Banki Beast. The new monster had a large minigun gun on its back, its face distended from its main body, silver in color, with a pointed chin and a black mustache. Its head overall resembled the trigger of a gun. Its arms had two large, red gun like protrusions poking from them, and two tubes on its sides, each carrying something.

“KA-POW!” It yelled, dancing around. “Trigger Banki, at yer service!”

“You certainly come up with…” Kyuemon paused and looked at the monster. “Interesting creations.”

“The Banki Beast’s designs aren’t important right now!” Yogostein yelled, trying to hide himself feeling insulted. “This plan depends on you, Kyuemon, so get to transforming!”

Kyuemon sighed, and in a burst of dark energy, was replaced by a much smaller, yellow fox. “Alright, so I just follow them?” He asked, voice completely different.

“Hold on,” Yogostein said, pulling out a small, circular device, golden and with a large red button in the center. “You’ll need this.” He stated, handing it to the fox, who stuffed it in his pants pocket. “It’s a tracker, Trigger Banki will be able to figure out where you are if you hit the button.” He continued. “But only press it when you find a place that’s optimal for chaos, alright?”

Kyuemon rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

He snapped his fingers, and disappeared into a burst of dark energy. Yogostein turned to the gun monster, who was staring up at something. “What are you doing?”

“I’m tryina find a bird!” He explained. “I need ta shoot somethin’!”

“A test, hmm?” Yogostein muttered to himself. He tore a chunk out of the roof they were standing on with his bare hands. “Test it on this!”

The gun monster examined the rock for a second, before Yogostein chucked it off into the distance. Trigger Banki followed it precisely for a few seconds, before firing a single shot from his arm. In the distance, they could see something explode into a blast of dirt.

Trigger Banki leaped up and clacked his metallic heels. “I still goddit!”

Yogostein turned to the gun monster and nodded. “Still the best sniper in Gaiark, I see.” He complimented. “Now, when this goes off,” He pulled out an object like the one he gave Kyuemon, and slapped it onto the monster arm. “You will follow its signal, and destroy everything in the location!”

The monster gave a salute, and leaped off.

* * *

 

The four sat in the booth of a familiar diner. It was the same place Nick and Judy had been to a few weeks ago, before the magnet ninja monster attacked. This conversation was going to be a lot more awkward than the last, Judy could tell that already.

Her parents had both ordered salads, Nick, who wasn’t entirely hungry, ordered an insect burger, while Judy just ordered a coffee.

“So,” Bonnie started, pulling out a brochure. “I was thinking we could start out by going to the national history museum.” She flipped the brochure open, and passed it to her daughter. “You know, somewhere more cultural.”

“Well, I was thinkin’ we could go to central park.” Stu suggested. “Get a bit more active, y’know?”

“Those both sound like great ideas.” Judy said, handing the brochure back.

“I know the perfect place to go first, actually.” Nick interjected. “The art museum, just the place for a mind to expand its horizons.”

“Ooh, that sounds wonderful!” Bonnie said.

“I dunno…” Stu sighed.

“C’mon, dad.” Judy said. “We’ll have time to go to central park later, you should try something different!”

“Well, if everyone else wants to go… Ah, what the heck!” He slapped the table. “Art museum it is!”

They started to eat their meals. Judy started thumping her foot, incredibly nervous about what she wanted to tell them. No, she needed to tell them, it was important, she had to tell them.

“Mom, dad, I have something important I need to tell you.”

They stopped eating, and looked at her. She turned to Nick, who nodded. She took a deep breath, and said it.

“Mom, dad, me and Nick are-“

Or, at least, tried to.

“Oh, hey guys!”

Judy quickly turned to look at who had interrupted her. It was Kyle, standing next to their table, tail wagging.

“Hey Kyle.” Nick greeted. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was getting something eat here.” He stated. “And then I saw you guys here, so I wanted to say hello!”

He turned to the two other rabbits at the booth. “Are you Judy’s parents?”

“Indeed we are!” Stu said. “And you are…?”

He shook their paws, one at a time. “I’m Kyle, Kyle Izanami.” He introduced. “I’m an acquaintance of your daughter.”

“By acquaintance, he means that we see each other every now and often while patrolling.” Explained Nick. “He’s a nice guy, don’t worry.”

“I heard you mention something about the art museum?” Kyle asked. “I was actually going to head over there too, so I guess we’ll see each other again later.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Judy said.

Kyle gave a nervous wave, and then walked off.

“He seems like a nice fox.” Stu said. “How’d you meet him?”

“Apparently he’s one of our biggest fans.” Nick explained. “Showed up at our house one day to get some autographs.”

“He’s a super nice kit.” Judy assured. “Just kind of… awkward.”

“He’s a ‘fan’?” Bonnie questioned. “Police officers can have fans?”

“He was inspired by us, so I’d consider that a fan.” Judy continued.

“Maybe you should open a fan club!” Stu suggested.

“I don’t think we’re popular enough to get a fan club.” Judy stated flatly.

In a few minutes, everyone was done eating. “I suppose we should head to the museum now.” Stu said, getting up. “It’ll probably be open soon, and we have a lot of stuff do to today!”

“Thank you for suggesting we go there first, Nick.” Bonnie thanked, shaking his paw from across the table.

“No problem!” Nick replied. “I know a lot about the city, it’d be a pleasure to show you two around.”

“Yeah, you seem like a really nice guy when you’re not depressed.” Stu complimented.

“Or when I’m-“ The fox received a sharp elbow to his side before he could finish.

“Let’s just go.” Judy said.

* * *

 

“Wow, it’s a lot bigger than it is in pictures.” Stu said, staring up at the large statue.

It was a bronze rhino, sitting down, with his hand to his chin. “The Thinker, 1880.” Nick started, reading from a plaque on the side of the pedestal the statue was sat on. “Carved by Auguste Rodint, they say he carved it in only three years.”

“Why’d it take him so long?” Bonnie asked.

“He was a mouse.”

“That’s pretty impressive for how big it is.” Judy stated.

“What’s that over there?” Stu asked, looking over at another statue.

They walked up to it. It was marble statue of a lion, preparing to throw a terrified sheep. “The Sheepthrower of Myram.” Nick said.

“Who carved it?” Bonnie asked, confused and a bit frightened.

“No one knows,” Nick explained. “But he must’ve really hated sheep.”

“Have the sheep be Bellwether, and I’d be alright with it.” Judy joked.

Nick chuckled. “That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?”

“She’s tried to kill us three times.”

The moved on to a painting, a stylized picture of a bat on a bridge, screaming. “The Screech, by Edvard Muttch.” Nick started.

“Why’s he screaming?” Stu asked. “Did he see something scary?”

Nick shrugged. “I think he’s just calling a friend.”

They walked off. “You know, this has been fun so far.” Stu said. “I’m glad we decided to come here. So much culture!”

“I know, look at that one over there!” Bonnie pointed over to a painting of a can of soup. “That painting must have so much meaning to it!”

“Or the guy who painted it just liked soup a lot.” Nick joked, Judy’s parents laughing in response. “It wasn’t that funny.” He muttered.

They continued for a while, admiring nearly every piece of work the place had on display, including things like the Furry Night, a carving of Aphrodente, and the Zootopian Gothic.

Finally, they closed in on one of the last things in the museum, the main attraction, if you will.

Behind red bars, hung one of the most famous paintings in the world, the Mona Lepus. It depicted a gorgeous brown rabbit, a slight smile on her face. “The Mona Lepus.” Nick started. “1819, painted by Leonyardo da Vinci. Said to be one of the most beautiful portraits ever made.”

They admired it for a solid minute, Judy’s father taking a picture of it with his phone, before they started to walk off. Nick turned around as he walked away, noticing Judy still staring at it.

“That’s enough admiring for now, Carrots.” He said, walking over to her.

“She really is beautiful.” She muttered.

Nick looked back up at the painting, and shrugged. “Eh, I’ve seen better.” Judy rolled her eyes, and lightly jabbed the fox in the side. He gave her a small chuckle, as they walked off.

Judy paused however, looking across the hall to see a familiar yellow fox wandering around the gallery. She pulled Nick back by his shirt. “Is that Kyle?”

He turned and looked at the fox. “Yeah, looks like it.” He said. “I don’t know many other people that would wear yellow and purple.”

“Hey, Kyle!” She yelled over, waving to him.

The fox turned, and rushed over to them. “See?” He started, sounding a bit out of breath. “Told you we’d see each other here again!”

“You were correct.” Nick chuckled. “Kinda weird we decided to go to the same place on the same day, huh?”

“Complete coincidence.” Kyle said. “It’s like I’m connected to you guys for some reason.”

“Well, we have places to be.” Judy said. “Nice seeing you again! Again.” The two walked off.

As they walked away, Kyle pulled out a round object, and pressed the red button in the middle. “Hopefully we won’t be seeing each other ever again.” He growled under his breath. He looked around, making sure nobody was there, and vanished into darkness.

* * *

 

“So, how will you be paying for your pass, sir?”

“Uh…” He patted his legs. No pockets. “I don’t seem to have my wallet on me…” He didn’t have a wallet, either. “So, I guess I’ll just pay with…” He pointed both of the guns on his arms at the receptionist, who raised her paws to the air. “These puppies right here!”

He pointed one of the guns towards the entrance bar, and fired, completely eviscerating it. He turned back to the receptionist, who was shaking with fear. “If ya move an inch, I’ll blast yer durn organic head off!” He told her. She remained still as he kept his guns aimed on her, and moved into the museum.

He looked around. Just had to find those two. All these damn organics looked so similar, how could they tell any of them apart? What did a rabbit look like again? Was it big, was it small, how could he know, he didn’t get a briefing!

“Hmm, maybe if I cause a ruckus, they’ll come a runnin’!” He said to himself. He hit his face, causing it to pull back like a trigger. The massive cannon on his back began to fire rapidly. He spread the fire around the building, statues being destroyed and paintings being wrecked as he shot.

He laughed as the organics in the building ran out of the building. “Now, jus’ gotta wait for the varmints!”

“What in the world is going on out there!?” Stu yelled. They were in the side section of the museum, and were spared from the monster’s first attack.

“I don’t know, dear, it sounded like… gunshots?” Bonnie replied.

“Gunshots!?” He yelled. “I thought guns were banned from the city ages ago!”

“They were.” Judy said, before she and Nick sprinted to the main hall.

They peeked around the corner, seeing the stange gun monster just kind of… standing there. “Oh great, one of those robot bozos again.” Nick quietly complained.

“One of what again?” A voice behind them whispered. They turned around in surprise to see Judy’s parents.

“You two need to get out of here.” Judy said. “Like, right now.”

“Why?” Bonnie asked, sounding worried. “What’s happening.”

“You hear about the monster attacks?” Nick asked. They nodded in response, it was something all over the news. “Alright, we’re in the middle of one of those, and you need to get out of here!”

They gulped, and quickly scampered for the door, passing by the monster, who only barely payed attention to them.

The two stepped out, standing up to the monster. “So, I’m guessin’ y’all’re the Zoorangers?” It asked, motioning towards them.

“We are.” Nick said sternly. “And you’re going down, lock stock, and barrel!”

“ZOO ON!”

They slapped their wrists.

And then they slapped them again.

Judy cringed and Nick stood there, dumbfounded.

“Wazzat…” The monster started, sounding confused. “Wazzat pose’ta do somethin’?”

“You know, when I say something about the Zoolizers,” nNick started. “Never listen to me, alright?”

“I wasn’t planning to.” Judy responded.

The two scattered, making a break for the door. Nick took the monster’s right side, while Judy took the left. They nearly made it when the monster quickly raised its arms, and blasted the ground in front of them, knocking them back.

“So, you furgot yer tramsformationalizers.” He mocked at them as they struggled on the ground. “That just makes y’all varmints easier to take out!” It laughed, aiming its guns towards them.

Judy quickly rolled up, and performed a flying kick into the monster’s face, knocking it down. She flipped off the monster, and landed. “Who are you calling a varmint, punk?” She yelled.

The monster raised its arm, and fired at the rabbit, who dodged out of the way. He fired at her rapidly, but she ran circles around him until she was directly behind him.

“Hey, get back here!” He yelled, shuffling around as fast as he could. “I can’t shoot ya when ya ain’t infronta me!”

“Sorry, I don’t think I will.” She mocked, keeping behind the monster as it shuffled around.

“Judy! Hurry up!” Nick yelled over from the doors. While the monster was distracted, he had snuck around and gotten to the door.

Judy immediately dashed towards the exit. “See you later, sheriff!” She yelled back to the monster.

“H-hey!” The monster yelled, trying to get up. It only managed to get partway up before it fell onto its side. “Waita second! I can’t get up!”

Before leaving the building, Judy turned around, and blew a raspberry at the monster.

“You durn rascally rabbit!”

She ran out the door, and down the museum’s steps. “It might take him a bit to get up.” She stated.

“That’s enough time to get out of here.” Nick continued. “Your parents are already at the cruiser.”

She nodded, and the two ran towards the cruiser. A few seconds later, the monster stepped through the door, looking around the parking lot to try and find them. “Guh, where’d they go!?” it groaned. He stamped his feet against the ground. “CONSARN IT! They got away!”

“I SWEAR!” It yelled into the empty parking lot. “I’M GUNNA GETCHA, YOU DURN RABBIT!”

* * *

 

“Why are we stopping here?” Bonnie asked as they walked into the apartment.

“We have… things, that we need to get.” Judy badly excused. “For the history museum.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Nick followed up. “Very, very important things.”

The two bunnies looked at each other.

Nick rushed over to the table, and snatched his Zoolizer off it, clipping it to his wrist. “Alright, I got mine.” He said aloud, trying to see if Judy had found hers yet.

“I CAN’T FIND IT!” She yelled from her room, panicking.

He rolled his eyes. “That’s what you get for rushing!” He shook his head, and sat down at the couch.

“So, that’s an interesting device you got there.” Stu said, walking up to him. “You were wearing it before, what exactly is it?”

“It’s a, uh…” He wiggled his digits awkwardly. “An alarm.”

“Why do you wear an alarm on your wrist?” Bonnie asked as she looked around the apartment.

“It reminds me when I have to do… things.”

Stu looked at him oddly. He wasn’t entirely helping his case, he could tell.

“So, this is where you two live?” Bonnie asked, still looking around the apartment.

“Yeah.” Nick stated. “Is there something wrong with it?”

“Well, it’s…” She paused for a second, trying to find a word that wasn’t insulting. “… Quaint.”

“She means it’s a dump.” Stu said, arms crossed. Bonnie facepawed in response. “I have no idea how anyone could live here.”

“I lived under a bridge for five years”

They both looked at him, baffled by what the fox had just said.

He sighed. “I guess Judy never really told you about me, huh?” He chuckled. “Makes sense, I’m not exactly the kind of animal you’d probably want your daughter living with. Or, I wasn’t, anyway.”

“She mentions you a lot when we call her.” Bonnie said. “But she never really tells us anything.”

“How did you two meet, anyway?” Stu asked, sitting down next to him.

“Well, first things first, I was a criminal for most of my life, but that all changed when I walked into an ice cream store…”

He told them a cliff notes version of the first time they met, and the first case they solved, forgetting not to leave out how much of an asshole he had been, but conveniently leaving out the parts where Judy looked bad.

“You’re daughter’s really amazing.” He sighed. “I’m proud to have her as a friend.”

“She’s been very secretive with us since she moved here.” Stu stated.

“I suppose that’s just her growing up.” Bonnie continued. “We really just want to show her how proud we are.”

“You guys are really good parents, y’know?” Nick told them. “I wish mine were like you.”

“Oh, what were your parents like?” Bonnie asked. “Do they still live in the city?”

“That’s…” He paused and gulped. “That’s not something I want to talk about.”

Judy’s bedroom door slammed open. “FOUND IT!” She yelled, raising her arm to the air, Zoolizer attached. “LET’S GO!” She zoomed out of the apartment, the other three mammals trailing behind her.

* * *

 

“HOW COULD YOU LOSE TO THEM!?”

He smacked the monster in the side with his spear, knocking it into the side of a dumpster. “They couldn’t even transform!” Yogostein continued to yell. “Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find a real gun?! You’re WORTHLESS!”

“It was the rabbit!” The gun monster yelled, trying to get up. “She tricked me!”

“YOU STILL GOT TRICKED BY A RABBIT!”

He slammed his spear against the ground, the force of the slam knocking everything in the alley up into the air. “Muh-Master Yogostein!” Trigger Banki crawled across the ground, terrified of the robot towering above him. “I promise! I’ll get dat durn rabbit next time, jus’ gimme a chance!”

His eyes glowed red, piercing through the monster’s mechanical soul. They stopped, and he sighed. “One more chance!” Yogostein stated. “But if you fail…”

His spear started glowing, and he swiped it towards the monster, firing a blast of energy. The energy flew above the monster, barely missing it as it flew into a trash can behind him. There was a loud explosion.

Trigger Banki turned around to see the trash can, which was now reduced to a black stain on the wall. “Gulp!”

“…You’ll end up less than scrap metal!” He slammed his spear again, and disappeared in a burst of smoke.

The robot stumbled up, and wiped off some dust from his legs. “This ain’t kaboomin’ good!” He yelled, absolutely terrified. “I bettur get this next one right, or I won’t even be reused as a water gun!”

He leaped up to a nearby building, and tapped the device stuck to him. “That fox guy better pull through!”

* * *

 

They stepped into the museum. It was dark, but colorful, lights shining through each of the exhibits. It was massive, hundreds of things to see and do.

“You sure this is an okay idea, Judy?” Nick asked, a bit worried about the monster. “What if that squirt gun guy shows up again?”

“It’s fiiiine.” She assured. “We’ve got the Zoolizers, we can handle him easily.” In all honesty, she was very concerned about another monster attack. Less concerned about them, and more worried about her parents.

They weren’t ready for another attack, something seriously bad could happen to them. She didn’t want that to happen, but she didn’t want to send them off. They were her parents. It was a whirlwind of conflicting emotions, it was awful.

“Let’s just check out some of the exhibits.” She said

The four of them walked up to a large glass container, which housed a grey tomb. Strange details adorned it, specifically a strange lock with what looked like three slots. “What in the world is this?” Stu asked, staring at the tomb quizzically.

Judy walked over to a plaque on the side of the case, and started to read it. “A mysterious tomb found underneath the city. No one is sure how to open it, but it is rumored there is vast treasure inside.”

“Sounds like prime robbery material, if you ask me.” Nick stated.

“It’s probably a replica, they wouldn’t put something like this in the middle of the museum.” Judy replied.

“Watch, we’ll hear it in the news in a few weeks.” Nick stated. “Trust me, I know how this kind of stuff works.”

They continued through the museum, looking at exhibits as they did. After a while, Judy suddenly noticed someone familiar wandering around the museum. “Oh my god, is that Kyle again.” She asked flatly.

Nick turned to the yellow fox, who was staring intently at the tomb. “Coincidences keep happening, huh?”

“You two keep looking.” Judy said turning to her parents. “We have someone to talk to in private.” They nodded, and headed off into the museum.

The two walked over to Kyle, who was still staring at the tomb. Nick placed his paw on his shoulder, causing him to yelp in surprise. “Oh, hey, what are you guys doing here?” He asked nervously.

“We should be asking you that.” Judy said, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, this is kind of coming off creepy.” Nick told him. “It’s very… stalker-ish.”

“I’m so sorry!” He apologized, bowing down. “I don’t know why this keeps happening, seriously!” He turned back to the tomb. “I heard about this tomb thing, and I wanted to check it out.” He leaned in closer to it, squinting. “I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…”

“Alright.” Judy sighed. “If you say it’s just a coincidence, then we’ll take your word on it.”

They walked away, and left the fox behind. “Coincidences, ha.” He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the transmitter device. He gripped it in his paw, and then looked at the tomb. “This tomb definitely seems interesting.” He whispered. “I’ll need to make a note of it.” He pressed the button, and vanished into darkness.

They two walked, unaware at what had just happened. They passed by an exhibit, showing what looked like colonial times. Specifically, a scene of a dingo bandit attempting to steal a bison’s cart.

The only thing missing was the gun in the bandit’s hand.

“Did they just not have a prop gun?” Judy asked. Nick shrugged.

“It wouldn’t have been a prop gun.” A familiar voice next to them spoke.

They turned, and faced Officer Fangmeyer, accompanied by Officer Trunkaby. “Hey Hopps, hey Wilde!” Trunkaby greeted.

“What are you guys doing here?” Nick asked.

“Investigating a robbery.” Fangmeyer explained.

“What was stolen?” Judy asked. “I would’ve expected it to be that tomb.”

“It’s a very odd case.” Trunkaby said. “The only thing that got stolen was the gun in this display.”

“And like I said, it wouldn’t have been a prop gun.” Fangmeyer continued. “It’s an actual ancient gun, it probably doesn’t work anymore, but it’s still alarming.”

“So, wait, only the gun was stolen?” Judy asked. “Why wouldn’t they take anything else?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Trunkaby said. She tapped at the glass with her trunk. “When we got here, the glass was completely wrecked, and the only evidence were footprints in the display.”

“They must’ve been wearing boots.” Fangmeyer stated. “Big, ugly, blocky footprints, nothing like any mammal I’ve seen.”

Thoughts raced through her head. A specific theft, the strange footprints, the fact that they were attacked by a gun monster. It made sense now.

“What if I told you both I could get the gun back by the end of the day?”

“I wouldn’t believe you.” Fangmeyer replied.

“Well, I probably will.” She said. “C’mon Nick, we have to-“ She turned around, Nick had vanished.

“Nick?”

* * *

 

He had wandered off halfway through the conversation. A specific exhibit caught his eye. Something that spoke to him. Something that inspired him when he was little.

The Founders of Zootopia exhibit.

As a kit, the founders and their morals had inspired him to be what he wanted, a Ranger Scout. That went well, he thought to himself sarcastically. For years, he had resented their ideal of “Anyone being anything”, but he had reconsidered after the last three years.

The exhibit had statues of the three founders on display, each of them in a pose as they stood atop what looked like a mountain. Not historically accurate.

He pressed a button next to the display, which caused it to light up, and a narrator to begin speaking.

“The Founders of Zootopia, three of the bravest souls who ever lived. They made a massive pilgrimage across the continent to find a place where mammals of all kinds could join together.”

A red spotlight shined on one of them, an antelope. “The founders consisted of Elliot Stamper, noted navigator and bird enthusiast.” A second, blue light shone on the second founder, a wolf. “Herman Trufield, sailor and survivalist.”

A final, yellow light shone on the figure in the middle, a large, boisterous looking lion. “And finally, the leader of this expedition, Terrance Manning, who is considered one of the bravest historical figures.”

“A buncha blowhards, more like it.” Nick said to himself.

“These three found the plot of land that Zootopia was built on, inspired by the massive Mt. Animalia. In its bathing shadow, they declared that if a mountain could form on a flat plateau, then this was a place where anyone could be anything.” The narrator finished.

Maybe he shouldn’t have reconsidered, these guy’s kind of seemed like jerks. Ugh, there was his cynicism talking again.

Suddenly, something big slammed into him.

“Oh, sorry sir.” Said the mammal, a large bison dressed in a janitor’s uniform.

He looked up at the bison, he seemed familiar. “Bullhorn?” He said. “Is that you?”

The bison looked down at the fox. “Wilde?” He said. “Never thought I’d see you again.”

“Yeah, haven’t seen you since the… incident.” He stumbled as he tried not to bring it up. “I thought you and the gang were in prison?”

“You heard that from Clawbick, didn’t you?” He rolled his eyes. “Me and Ariana have been out volunteering, Clawbick doesn’t know. Don’t tell him either.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Bullhorn.”

“Don’t call me that.” He said sternly. “It’s just Henry.”

“Trying to distance yourself, huh?” Nick replied. “Makes sense if you’re trying to make a new life.”

“That’s what you did, isn’t it?” Henry asked. “I hear you’re a cop now, that’s a real one-eighty.”

“I suppose. But it’s been going well, y’know?” He sighed. “It feels a lot better to do… good things, as cheesy as that sounds.”

“I’ve been working as a janitor here for a while.” Henry started. “I get it, it does feel nice to actually help, instead of…” He clutched his broom and shivered.

“It’s alright, we were kids, and…” Nick gulped. “Yeah, that was years ago, everyone changes as they get older, just look at me.”

“Anyone can be anything, I suppose.”

Suddenly, there was the sound of glass breaking. A lot of glass breaking.

Nick gulped. “I have to go, something’s come up.” He excused. Henry raised his brow as the fox ran off.

* * *

 

Bonnie and Stu walked into a large, rounded room of the museum, exhibits lining the walls. The only source of light was the sun beaming through a massive glass ceiling.

“Do you think it’s alright we left Judy and Nick behind?” Bonnie asked, worriedly.

“They’re adults, they can do what they want.” Stu replied. “Maybe its best if we look around on our own.”

She sighed. “It’s just… strange.”

“How? We have over a hundred kids, tons of them have already grown up!” Stu said.

“But…” She gulped. “None of them were so distant.”

He sighed. “It had to happen eventually, Bonnie.” He looked at her. “We can’t keep everything the same forever.”

They hugged, Bonnie starting to cry. “Let’s just enjoy our time with her while it lasts.”

Meanwhile, far above the museum, on top of a nearby skyscraper, Trigger Banki was looking into the museum room from above. He had a scope over his eye, letting his view extended directly through the glass ceiling.

He watched the two rabbits. Was one of those the one he was after, or was it the ones who ran past him before? He couldn’t tell any of these organics apart, but even if it wasn’t, he’d be seeing her soon enough.

“H’alrighty!” He let out, aiming one of his gun arms at the rabbit. “Firing shot!”

The bullet flew, crashing through the museum’s ceiling as the deafening sound of glass breaking surrounded the two bunnies. An explosion, and the two were flung to the ground, unconscious, completely unaware of what had just happened.

The monster leaped through the hole it had created, landing on the ground with a loud thud. Tons of organics ran in panic as it closed in on the two knocked out rabbits. He examined them. “Kay, definitely not the right rabbit.” He said. “But she should be here soon!”

As if on que, he turned to the entrance of the room, seeing the fox and rabbit run in. They stopped in shock at the scene.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PARENTS!?” Judy yelled at the monster, terrified, confused, and utterly angry.

“Bait!” It lied. “I knew you two’d come runnin’!”

“I’m not entirely sure you realized how big of a mistake you made.” Nick said flatly, crossing his arms.

Judy was absolutely tense with anger. Her paws clenched, her teeth gritted. This was the angriest she had ever been in her life.

“I’M GOING TO SCRAP YOU DOWN INTO A BUCKET!” She yelled.

“Okay, Carrots, I think you need to-“

She violently shoved the fox to the ground, and stomped towards the monster. Nick felt his head hit the ground, and sat up, rubbing it. “Judy?” He whispered. He had never seen her like this. He had a horrible sense of dread creeping up his spine as he watched the rabbit raise her arm.

She slapped the button on the Zoolizer, and instead of the usual blue flash, there was a shock of pure black electricity. She struggled for a second as she began to transform... only, it didn’t look right.

She let out a monstrous roar, a mouth appearing on her helmet.

“Oh no.”

“Wuh-what in tarnation is goin’ on here!?” The monster let out, stepping back from the transformed rabbit.

“Oh, nothing much.” It said in a snide voice. “I’m just going to tear you, limb from limb, and tear your entrails out and wrap you in a nice coat of your own insides.”

“I don’t have organs.”

The monstrous rabbit’s glowing blue eyes pierced through the robot. “Well,” It started laughing. “That makes it more interesting, doesn’t it?”

The rabbit dashed forward. The Banki Beast quickly fired at it, but Savage dodged out of the way of each shot, in a disturbingly elegant fashion. It stopped inches from the monster. The monster stumbled back a bit.

“Don’t get any closer!” It yelled. “WATER MAGNUM!”

It aimed its arms at the rabbit beast, and fired quick streams of water onto it. The now soaked Savage simply raised its arms up in confusion.

“What was that!?” It asked angrily. “Is that the best you’ve got!?”

The monster seemed surprised that the water burst hadn’t worked. “It worked on th’ Go-Ongers…” it muttered to itself. He quickly followed by smacking his own face, causing it to push inwards. The large gun on the monster’s back began to rotate and fire, aimed directly at Savage.

The rabbit monster somehow managed to outrun the flurry of bullets, a trail of bullets leading behind it as it circled around the museum room. Savage quickly zigged and zagged, leaping as soon as it was close to the robot and kicking it in the face.

Trigger Banki stumbled backwards again, watching as the rabbit let out an awful laugh. “You’re still gonna have to do better!”

“Looks like I’m gunna hafta resort t’ my secret weapon!” Trigger Banki pushed the plungers on its legs downwards. The tubes on his hips suddenly started shooting out large yellow missiles, absolutely tons of them.

They flew around the room, leaving thick smoke trails behind them, nearly clouding the room. Savage watched at the missiles, and scratched its chin. Quickly, all the missiles started homing in on the rabbit, who gave a smirk.

With lightning fast reflexes, Savage began plucking the missiles out of the air as they approached him. It tossed each one out of the way, the missiles crashing and exploding all around the room. As the last two missiles flew towards the rabbit, they were grabbed, and tossed into the robot’s face.

It flew back, and into a wall, collapsing onto its side. Savage stretched its arms, and creeped towards the cowering monster. Claws extended from its paws, and the rabbit began tearing into the robot, cleaving metal off with every strike.

Savage then noticed something on the monster’s arm, a round device. “Ohh, what’s this?” Savage asked, tearing it off the monster’s arm, complete with a chunk of its metallic skin.

“Hey, don’t touch that!” The gun robot yelled, trying to get up, only for Savage to push him back to the ground while admiring the device.

“Sounds important.” Savage glared at it for a second, still holding the monster down effortlessly. In a quick motion, Savage threw the chunk of metal away. “Whoopsie!”

The chunk landed next to Nick, who was still on the ground. He crawled over to it, and examined it.

“Anyway, time to finish you off, squirt.” Savage growled. The paw on the monster suddenly had its claws extend, digging into the monster’s skin. It tried not to yell in pain as they dug deeper. “Enjoying it, huh?”

“Stop this, Savage!” A familiar voice cried.

Everyone turned to look at ZooSilver, who had walked through the entrance, blade drawn. “Let her go.” Silver demanded, pointing his blade towards the rabbit.

“Oh, if it isn’t the glamrock.” Savage mocked, releasing his grip from the monster. “If you want me to leave this rabbit, you’ll have to put up a better fight than this loser here.”

The Banki Beast moaned in response.

“I don’t want to fight you.” Silver stated. “But if I must…” Silver dragged their paw across the guard, causing it to spin around.

“SHINE SHINE MOON”

The blade shined with blue energy, and Silver swung it at the beastly rabbit. A lash of energy extended from the sword, thwipping around like a whip, Silver cracked it across the ground, and then attempted to strike Savage.

As the whip lashed towards it, the rabbit reached out and slashed the energy whip, destroying it in one fell swoop.

“C’mon glitterboy, I know you’re better than that!” Savage said, starting to laugh. “Or, maybe you aren’t. Maybe I’m too good for you.”

“It’s gotten stronger…” Silver muttered. “I might have to go all out.”

Silver rushed forward, and struck the rabbit with their blade, only for Savage to catch it in its paws. The blade was throw up, and the rabbit kicked the silver ranger in the stomach. Silver stumbled back, but quickly returned an attack, striking the rabbit with the sword.

As the two continued to exchange blows, Trigger Banki rose up and watched. He pulled out two handfuls of nuts and bolts. “UGUTZ! Distract ‘em!” He threw the nuts and bolts, which scattered around the room. They rose into the air, and formed into an army of Ugutz.

The two looked around at the sudden army. Savage chuckled. “This makes things more interesting, doesn’t it?”

Silver quickly spun the guard around again. “HOT HOT SUN” They swung the sword around, slicing a few Ugutz in half.

“They won’t distract me from taking you out.” Silver stated.

“Well, they won’t distract me either!”

Savage quickly leaped onto the shoulder of a nearby Ugutz. It tried to get the rabbit off, but Savage quickly plucked off its head, and threw it towards the ranger. Silver quickly slashed the head in half as Savage hopped over to another one, this time tearing off one of its arms, the one that carried the club-like weapon.

Savage leaped off the robot, and rushed towards Silver, swinging the arm like a weapon. The club and blade clashed several times, before Savage pulled the arm back, and socked the ranger in the gut with it, knocking him backwards.

While this was happening, Nick was trying to peel the device off of the chunk of metal. It seemed to be magnetically attached, so he was running one of his claws through it to find the weak spot. After a few rather painful minutes, he managed to demagnetize it, and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Alright, enough sitting around.” He said to himself. He slammed the button on the Zoolizer, and transformed into ZooRed. Hea leaped into the army of robots, launching off the shoulders of one of them.

He pulled out the Vickscannon while in midair, and fired a blast at the rabbit before it could strike again. The rabbit flew back into the crowd of Ugutz, dropping its armed arm weapon, and turning back into Judy. Red landed next to the silver warrior.

“Thank you, Red.” Silver said.

“Well, if you hadn’t distracted her, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.” He replied back. “It’s a teamwork thing, I guess.”

Silver shook their head. “Let’s just finish off these grinders.”

Red nodded, and blasted a few more of the robots away with his cannon. Silver followed by switching to Eclipse Mode, and slicing a number of the bots to ribbons. This continued for a bit, until eventually they were all cleared out.

Nick untransformed, and looked around. “Great, the gun nut got away.” He groaned. He turned around, seeing that Silver had suddenly vanished. “Never a goodbye with that guy, huh?”

He ran up to the unconscious Judy, and shook her. She slowly opened her eyes. “What happened?” She weakly asked.

“Savage happened.”

She closed her eyes again, and took a deep breath. Then, they burst open again. “My parents!” She got up, and ran over to them. They were still unconscious, and slightly burned. She felt their pulse, and sighed in relief. They were, at least for now, alive, and that’s all she could’ve hoped for.

“We need to get them to a hospital.”

* * *

 

She thumped her foot rapidly as she sat in the waiting room.

“Do you really have to do that?” Nick asked.

“Let’s see, I’m under a lot of stress, and terrified out of my mind.” She sarcastically replied. “Yes, I do have to.”

“Whatever helps you not start screaming, I suppose.”

The door opened, causing them both to look at the doctor who entered. A familiar looking wolf. As she entered the room, her expression drooped. “Oh, you again.”

Nick put on a fake grin. “Coincidence of coincidences, am I right?”

“Do you know her?” Judy asked, a bit confused.

“I was your doctor when you were put into a coma a few weeks ago.” The wolf stated. “Dr. Furnandez.” She turned to Nick with a skeptical glare. “And I suppose you’re still her not-boyfriend?”

“Well, funny story…”

“WHO CARES!?” Judy blurted out, startling both of them. “Are my parents alright!?”

“Oh, yes, they’re alright.” Furnandez said, clearing her throat. “They’re still unconscious, but they should live. You can go see them if you…” The rabbit dashed from her seat at incredible speeds, nearly knocking the wolf off her feet.

“Bunnies, am I right?” Nick said, walking up to the doctor. “So emotional.”

“So, you two are dating?”

She rushed down the hall, and into her parent’s room. They laid in two separate beds, completely motionless, and covered in seared fur. The only sign they were alive was the ECG’s beeping. Tears started to roll down her face as she approached the beds.

“This is all my fault.” She whispered to herself, the tears starting to come out faster. “I should have just told them to go home, that it was too dangerous…” She planted her head on her father’s bed, and started weeping in full. “I just wanted them to have a good time! I just wanted to spend time with them… I wanted to tell them…”

She clenched her paws, and slammed them against the bed, raising her head, tears still flowing. “I’m going to beat that monster, and get you two out of here. I promise.”

After a few more minutes of grieving, she stomped out of the room, completely determined.

“…And that’s how I managed to swindle the owner of that car dealership out of his favorite potted plant.”

“Why are you still talking to me?” Furnandez questioned.

“You know, that’s what my therapist said during our first meeting.” Nick said, seemingly oblivious.

She groaned loudly.

The bunny dashed down the hallway, and grabbed the fox by the arm, pulling him away from the incredibly annoyed doctor.

“Whoa, not so hard, Fluff.” He said, unlocking the rabbit’s grip from his arm. “Where’re we going?”

“We need to think up a plan.” She said. “So, we’re heading back home to come up with something. I just… don’t know what.”

The fox gave a smirk. “Well, I think I might have something for that.”

* * *

 

The monster fell to the ground, clutching the chunk of metal that had been torn from its arm. “Master Yogostein’s gunna kill me!” It yelled in despair.

“You have one last chance, Trigger Banki.” A calm voice sounded from the other side of the alley. He turned to see Kyuemon strolling down.

“Kyuemon?” The gun beast said, standing up. “Did Yogostein send ya?”

“No.” He stated. “I came here of my own volition. I see potential in you that Yogostein couldn’t.”

The Banki Beast looked at the fox yokai in confusion, before he pulled out a small red object. The fox tossed it directly into the monster’s hat-like upper head.

Red electricity shocked through the monster, causing its body to change. Its arms melted, and reformed into two large miniguns, similar to the one on its head. Said head retracted in, removing the distended face permanently. Its face also started to change, the mustache design growing bigger and going off its face.

The hat part grew larger, and the symbol of the Chaos Bade appeared on it. The rocket tubes on its side flipped around and up, and then multiplied by two in a triangular shape, turning into shoulder mounted rocket launchers. It grew a bit bulkier, its already boot like feet gaining gear shaped heel spurs.

“CHAOS TRIGGER BANKI, KAPOWEE!” It yelled. “Now THIS is how a sharpshooter should look!” It started laughing.

“I’m glad you enjoy it.” Kyuemon stated flatly. “Let’s just hope you can actually make use of it.”

“Oh, hang on a sec…” The monster placed a minigun arm to its chin. “How’m I ‘sposed to find the varmints without the tracker?”

“I watched the fox pick it up in the museum.” Kyuemon explained. He pulled out the transmitter device, and tossed it to the monster, who couldn’t catch it with his new gun arms.

Kyuemon groaned, and picked up the device, slapping it onto the side of the monster’s head. “If you hit the button on this, it will cause the receiver to emit a sound. Follow that noise.”

“Got it, hoss!” Trigger Banki saluted.

“Don’t call me that.” Kyuemon said, before disappearing in a burst of darkness.

“Hmm, time t’ test if this thing works!” He hit the button, and a sound began ringing in his mechanical head, pointing him towards the direction of the receiver. He let out a laugh.

“Time t’ hunt some rabbits!”

* * *

 

“So, what do you think this thing is?” She asked, eyeing the strange device in her paws.

“I have no idea.” Nick said. “But considering it was attached to the monster, and how it reacted when you…” He paused and gulped, noticing the rabbit’s somewhat angry expression at what he had just said. “When SAVAGE, tore it off him, I’d say it was pretty important.”

The rabbit squinted angrily at the fox.

“It was a mistake, alright?” He excused. “I know that whatever that thing isn’t you.”

She sighed, and continued. “So, it was attached to the monster, right?” She said, placing the device on the ground. “It could be some sort of…”

Out of nowhere, the object began rapidly beeping, startling the two and nearly knocking Nick off his chair. He quickly recovered, and cooped the object underneath his paws. “Alright, so it does that!” He yelled over the high-pitched beeping.

“What if it’s some sort of tracking device?” Judy asked loudly, still pulling her ears down.

“That would explain why the monster was following us everywhere!” Nick responded, shortly before the tracking device stopped beeping.

“So, as long as we have this,” Judy stated, letting go of her ears. “We’re in danger of being attacked again.”

“Want me to just get rid of it?” The fox asked, scooping it up in his paw.

“No!” Judy let out. “No, this is good! We can use this.”

“We can use it to get our hides shot up.” Nick said, obvious skepticism in his voice. “C’mon Carrots, having something lead the villains directly to your base is a bad idea!”

“Well, then we better get moving!” Judy said, sticking the device in her pocket hopping out of her seat.

The fox, although confused, hopped down from his seat as well, and followed the rabbit as they rushed out of the apartment.

“What are we doing!?” He asked as they skittered down the stairs.

“You ever see those old cartoons from the 50s?” She asked as they clattered to the bottom floor and ran for the door.

“I guess?” The fox replied as they ran out the door. “But what does that have to do with beating the monster?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Judy said, as they stopped at the cruiser. “We’re setting up a trap!”

* * *

 

Trigger Banki had been chasing the signal all over the city. It had been moving all over the place and he could just never catch up. Until now. It had finally stopped in the middle of central park.

He stepped into the park, looking around with his scope. “They gots ta be ‘round here somewheres…” He then spotted them, the fox and the rabbit, just standing around near a lake. “Ah ha! Time to finish those varmints!”

He ran up to a hill overlooking them, and took aim with all three of his miniguns. He fired round after round at the two, tearing them up into pieces. After a few seconds of extra shooting to make sure, he stopped, and admired how he had reduced the two to smithereens.

“KABOOM!” He let out, jumping up and clicking his heels. “I got ‘em good, now it’s time to…” He took a second look. Something was off about this.

He ran down the hill, and up to the remains. Getting a better look at them, they weren’t real. It was stuffed animal parts littered across the ground. “What in tarnation is-“

Something suddenly struck him in the back, knocking the Banki Beast into the air. He splashed into the water, and flailed around, turning around to see the Zoorangers, both carrying smoking guns.

“YOU!” The monster yelled, pointing towards them.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.” Red said, baffled.

“What can I say, those stuffed animals can be pretty realistic when you dress them up right.”

“YOU RASCALLY RABBIT!” The monster practically screamed, getting up from the water. “YOU TRICKED ME!”

Blue smirked from beneath her helmet. “Ain’t I a stinker?”

The Banki Beast growled in response. “I’ll rip ya both t’ RIBBONS!” He began firing at them, each hand aimed at a different Zooranger. Red leaped to the left, while Blue went right, the monster keeping its sights on them as it continued to fire at them, each arm tracking them down.

Blue circled around the edge of the lake, managing to outrun the bullets. She pulled out and twirled her blasters, and fired at the arm that was shooting at her. The monster flinched backwards, in pain, causing it to stop shooting from both arms. Red followed this up by blasting it in the side while it was distracted, knocking the monster back into the water.

It got back up, and leaped onto dry ground. “Why don’t y’all try this on fer size!?” The rocket launchers on its shoulders began to fire a plethora of missiles, even more than before. They swirled and whipped through the air, clouding the skies, before every single one of them suddenly turned towards Blue.

“Wow, he’s really got it out for you!” Red yelled from across the lake.

Blue glared at him, and then quickly began running for her life as the missiles began to rain down.

She managed to outrun most of them, the missiles crashing down into the grassy ground, leaving large chunks of barren, wasted land around the park. One missile nearly hit her, nearly knocking the rabbit to the ground and resulting in her hopping away on all fours.

“ARE YOU GOING TO HELP!?” She yelled to Red.

“I thought you were doing pretty well!” He replied. “But since you asked for it…”

He aimed the Vickscannon towards the cloud of missile, and fired several blasts, clearing large chunks of them with each shot.

Trigger Banki turned to the fox. “Don’t get in th’ way a this, fox!” He yelled. He aimed all three of his guns at the monster, and began to fire at him. The fox dodged out of the way, and turned into a run.

He pulled out his sword, and started to circle onto the monster. As he got close, he thrust the sword forward, causing it to detach and fly into the side of Banki Beast. The monster stopped shooting and stumbled backwards, before the fox tugged the sword back.

“So that’s how ya wanna play, huh?” The monster said, turning to the fox and banging his long arms together. “I’ll have ya know I’m not jus’ good at shooting!”

He rushed to the fox, swinging his gun arms at him. Red blocked a few swipes with his blade, and returned them by jabbing the monster in the face. It stumbled back a bit, and then performed an overhead swing, the fox barely stepping out of the way as its arm hit the ground.

“So, what else are you good at?” Red joked, ducking under another sweep. “Because it can’t be close combat.”

The Banki growled, and started firing from his head gun, still swinging at the fox. “I’m pretty good at MIXIN’ IT UP!”

The monster continued shooting and sweeping at the fox, making it a bit more difficult not just to dodge, but to land in hits as well. He dodged and leaped around as the monster kept close to him.

“INCOMING!”

The gunfire and swipes stopped as the two enemies looked over to see Blue running towards them, missiles still following her. She slid under the gun robot, and quickly leaped onto his back.

“Whatthe?” It let out, unable to reach the rabbit on his back. “Get offa me!”

“Red, get out of here!” She yelled to her partner, who quickly complied and ran away.

She braced for impact as the monster continued to try to reach her, unaware of the missiles headed directly for him. It was too late when he did notice, as missile after missile slammed into his face. As the last missile hit, the two flew through the air and crashed down.

The monster rolled across the ground awkwardly, while Blue turned her fall into a graceful roll that ended with her up on her feet.

“You… razzafrazzin’…” The monster mumbled as it got up. “I don’t appreciate being made a joke of like this!”

“Well, I guess you need to rethink your life plan!” She joked.

The monster looked confused for a second, and then suddenly started growling. “Hey! That was another insult!” It yelled. “I’m gonna blast you right in the skull.” He aimed his guns at her, and she braced herself.

There was a clicking noise.

“What!?” It yelled, trying to fire again. “I’m out of bullets!? That’s impossible!”

He felt something touch the back of his body. “You really need to know how to conserve ammo.” Red pulled the trigger, and blasted the monster away.

It flew over Blue’s head, and crashed into the ground, struggling to get up. “I’m not done yet!” It said weakly, managing to get up.

“Wanna finish this?” Red asked, pulling out both his weapons.

“Actually, I’d like to try something a bit different.” Blue responded, twirling both of her blasters. “How about we give this guy a taste of his own medicine?”

She tossed one of the guns up into the air, pulling out a blue ZooTag, and sticking it into the slot on the other gun. The gun she threw landed back in her hand, and she placed them together.

“Oh, I see.” Red said, pulling out a red ZooTag and sticking it into the Vickscannon.

They pulled the triggers at the same time.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

The Rabblasters fired first, their blade like laser shot slashing directly through the monster’s face, causing it to yell out in pain. The Vickscannon fired just after, its fireball blast striking the monster in the face again, causing a massive explosion.

The Banki stumbled out of the explosion, crackling with electricity. “I’M NOT DONE YET!” It yelled, stepping forward. “I STILL HAVE THESE PUPPIES!”

He fired out a bunch of missiles towards the two unprepared rangers. However, a quick blur flashed in front of them, and the missiles had suddenly been cut to pieces.

“Sorry I’m late.” Silver said, landing on the ground as the missiles collapsed.

“Always nice to see you, Silv.” Blue said.

“’Silv’?” Red chuckled. “You’re already giving him a nickname?”

“It’s better than just calling him Silver.”

Silver quickly dashed towards the monster, and performed three quick cuts. They stepped back, and the monster’s weaponry fell to the ground. “Augh!” It yelled, looking at its stump hands. “What the!?”

“You two have the honors of finishing him off.” Silver told them “I wouldn’t want to interrupt this.”

Silver quickly dashed away. Red rubbed his paws together. “Great, I thought of a perfect finishing catchphrase for this!” He said cheerfully.

He pulled out both weapons, and tossed them into the air. Blue rolled her eyes, and tossed her weapons up into the air as well, where they formed into the Zookaizer. The bazooka landed in their hands, and they aimed it at the now completely weakened monster.

“ANIMAL KINGDOM BLAST!”

The bazooka fired a massive laser at the monster, ripping right through it and causing it to burst into a massive explosion.

“Alright!” Red yelled, pumping his fist. “That was…”

“Oh no.”

“ZOOTASTIC!”

She groaned.

From the explosion flew an antique gun, which Blue leaped up and caught in her paws. “Better return this to the museum!” She said as she landed.

“Gonna have to worry about that later, Carrots.” Red said as the red object also left behind flew up into the air.

“You know, this giant monster stuff is really stressful.” Blue admitted as the monster reappeared on the horizon. “Can’t we just go back to them being dead for real after the first time?”

“It’s probably some contractual thing.” Red replied, causing the rabbit to give him an odd look.

She shook her head. “Whatever, let’s just finish this guy off before he does any real harm.”

They both pulled out their mecha ZooTags, and in a few seconds, ZooRobo was facing the gunslinging monster outside of the city.

“YEEEEE-HAW!” The monster let out, firing blasts into the air, before pointing towards the robot. “There’s no way y’all can beat me now!”

“I bet you think you’re a pretty hot gunslinger, right?” Blue asked the monster, getting its attention.

“’Pretty hot’? I’m the best sniper in Gaiark, and the best gunslinger in this whole dang world at this point!” It boasted.

ZooRobo lowered its head, and shook it. “I’m really sorry to say, but you aren’t the best gunslinger in the world.” Blue said, a bit mockingly.

The monster stomped forward. “Okay then, who’s th’ BEST gunslinger then?”

The rabbit let out a laugh. ZooRobo then pushed its head upwards, and then pointed at itself with its thumb.

The giant gun monster laughed. “You don’t even have any guns; how could you possibly be the best gunslinger!?”

“Carrots, what are you-“

“Shh!” She said quietly. “I have a plan.” She pulled out the ZooBison ZooTag, and plugged it into the console.

ZooBison appeared, and flipped into the air, forming armor and weapons for the robot.

“ZOOROBO, BISON MODE!”

“Huh, so y’do have guns.” The monster said, a bit impressed. “But what’s yer point?”

“If you want to prove yourself as the best gunslinger, then why don’t we have a duel?” Blue asked.

“A duel?” The monster questioned. “What kind?”

“A classic duel!” She said excitedly. “Five paces, a single shot, whoever drops dead first is the loser.”

“Fluff, this is a really bad idea.” Red told her bluntly.

“It’s going to work, don’t worry!”

The monster chuckled. “H’alrighty, a classic showdown!” It rubbed its gun arms together. “I’ll have y’know, I’m a very good shot!”

“Perfect timing for this too.” Red said, noticing that the sun was starting to set. “All we need now is…”

Suddenly, a western string started to play through the air. All three parties looked around to see where it was coming from.

“All we need is a soundtrack, yeah.”

“Alright.” Blue started. “Let’s do this.”

The two lined up in the middle of the open field, back to back. Two robotic giants, preparing for what would be a final showdown for one of them.

One pace.

Two paces.

Three paces.

Four paces.

“HA!”

The gun monster quickly turned around, and fired a single bullet from its head gun, attempting to catch ZooRobo off guard.

In response, ZooRobo quickly spun around, and blasted the bullet out of the sky. The monster stepped back, shocked.

ZooRobo wagged two of its fingers at the monster. “Looks like SOMEONE broke the rules!” Blue said in a sing-song tone.

“I was expecting him to do it earlier, honestly.” Red admitted.

“We have ways of punishing people who break the rules around here!” Blue yelled, punching her palm.

“Uh, what’re you gonna do?” The monster asked nervously, backing away a bit.

“Well, normally I’d just lock you away for the plethora of crimes you’ve committed…” She started. “But you’re way too big for that, so, you’re just going to get this instead.

ZooRobo placed the barrels of its guns together, a mass of golden energy building up at their tips.

“BISON RAMMING SHOT!”

They fired the energy, which formed into a large, glowing bull’s head, and rammed right through the gun monster, causing it to spark and flail.

“All I wanted!” It started to yell. “Was a fistful of dollars!” With a final bad joke out of its system, the monster fell to the ground, and exploded.

ZooRobo spun its smoking guns around. “Nature, defended!” Blue said.

“Eh, I like mine better.”

* * *

 

She helped her father out of his hospital bed. He groaned in pain as his feet hit the ground. “Ah, oh yeah, that still hurts a lot.”

“I’m amazed at how fast you two recovered, honestly.” Furnandez said. “By all accounts, you should be here for another month. Or dead, whichever came first.”

“You’re just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you, doc?” Nick said sarcastically as he helped Bonnie across the room.

The two grabbed a pair of crutches each, and started hobbling down the hallway. “I am so sorry about today.” Judy apologized.

“Why are you apologizing?” Stu asked. “It’s not your fault that there was a sudden monster attack.”

“Actually, it kind of is.” Nick admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

The two older rabbits turned to them, stopping in their tracks. “What do you mean, Nick?” Bonnie asked.

“Well,” Judy started, rubbing her arm and looking around nervously. “You know those super heroes that have been fighting those monsters?” She asked, a fake grin on her face.

“Yeah, those guys are all over the news!” Stu stated. “What about them?”

“Well, uh…” She took a deep breath. She needed to tell them for their own safety. “We’re those super heroes.”

They both stared at her, horrified. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Bonnie asked.

“And, and why are you doing that stuff in the first place?” Stu asked, sounding more worried than his wife.

“Oh, you know, chosen one kind of stuff.” Nick halfheartedly explained.

“But, it’s dangerous, and…”

“It’s okay, dad!” Judy assured. “Nothing will happen to us. Just think of it as… an extension of our police duties!”

That didn’t seem to make them feel better.

“Okay, basically I’m telling you this because…” She tried to look for the right words. “It’s too dangerous, I don’t want something to happen to you.” She started to feel herself tear up a bit. “You almost died today, I don’t want something like that on my paws, alright? So just… leave the city for a while, don’t come back!”

There was a deafening silence through the hall, caused by Judy’s rather emotional outburst.

Nick cleared his throat. “So, now might be a bad time to say this, but…” Judy looked up to him. What was he going to say?

“Me and your daughter are, officially…”

Oh no.

“A couple.”

“NICK!” She yelled, embarrassed. “Now’s not the time!”

To her surprise, she heard her parents sigh in relief.

“Oh, that’s some weight off our shoulders at least.” Bonnie admitted.

“Wait, what?” Judy asked, confused.

“Part of the reason we came here was to see what was really going on with you and Nick.” Stu admitted. “It’s nice to have some confirmation.”

“You’re not upset at me for having a predatory for a boyfriend?” She asked, surprised.

“Why would we be upset at you for that?” Bonnie asked, laughing a bit. “After all you’ve done, we can’t really be upset at your life choices.”

“Except the super hero thing.” Stu admitted. “That’s a bit iffy.”

“But we’ll take your judgement on it.” Bonnie said. “We were going to head back home tonight anyway.”

The four said their goodbyes, and Judy’s parents walked off.

“That was something, huh?” Nick said, putting his hands in his pockets.

“I wanted to tell them.” Judy muttered.

“What was that?”

“I wanted to tell them we were dating.” She said louder, crossing her arms.

“You already did a shocking reveal, it’s not fair for you to get both of them.” Nick explained. “Also, hey, what did you think of my catchphrase?”

“It was awful.” She said bluntly, causing the fox’s ears to droop.

“You just don’t get the majesty of it.” He said.

“It’s a pun, there’s no majesty to that.” She replied. “My catchphrase was better.”

“Your catchphrase was boring and unmemorable.” Nick said bluntly.

The two started walking down the hall, continuing to argue about who’s catchphrase was better.

“See, I was going for something like Silver’s catchphrase.” Judy said as they exited. “Something cool, but memorable.”

“How is mine not cool and memorable?” Nick asked, sounding insulted.

“It sounds like a bad movie trailer.” She said. “See, if Silver…” She paused for a second. “Silver…”

“What about Silver?” Nick asked.

“I think we have a third suspect.”

“What?” Nick said, confused. “About who Silver is? Who is it?”

“Kyle.” She said. “Lupina, Wolford, and Kyle are the only ones that could possibly be ZooSilver!”

“That would explain why Kyle was following us around.” Nick suggested. “He could’ve been watching out for us.”

“Kyle definitely seems like the kind of person who would jump at the chance to be a super hero.” Judy continued.

“They all seem likely, though.” Nick said. “Who knows, we probably won’t find out for a bit.”

“Silver doesn’t seem to want us to know his identity, so yeah, probably not.”

Nick sniffed. “I wonder why that is?”

“Probably some personal reason.”

* * *

 

Kyuemon strolled across the edge of the mountain. After a few minutes of walking he found what he was looking for. It was Long, standing on the side of the mountain, as he usually did at night.

“Hello there, Long.” The yokai greeted.

“Kyuemon.”

“About as social as usual, I see.” The fox joked.

“Leave.”

“Very well.” Kyuemon said, starting to turn around. “I suppose I won’t be able to tell you about what I learned about Savage.”

He suddenly felt a warm hand on his shoulder. “What did you learn, fox?”

Kyuemon smacked Long’s hand off, and turned back around. “I’ve learned how he works, and why you weren’t able to summon him on your last mission.”

“What’s the reason?” Long asked, intrigued.

“You assumed Savage is something they want to use.” Kyuemon stated. “But it’s the exact opposite.”

“Why would they not want to use the power Enter told me about?” Long questioned.

“What I saw was not either of them when Savage took over.” Kyuemon continued. “It was something else, an out of control monster.”

“You’re telling me things I already know, fox.” Long said, starting to get annoyed. “You know how to activate it, so tell me.”

“You need to get to them emotionally.” He replied. “Savage seems to be caused by stress and anger. You need to take advantage of them.”

Long laughed. “That’s something, at least.” He said. “Thank you, Kyuemon.”

“You are very welcome, Long.” Kyuemon politely said. “But just because I helped you this once, doesn’t mean I’ll help you again.

“Don’t worry.” Long started, turning around. “I won’t need you in my plan.”

“Very well.” Kyuemon said. “I’ll take my leave now.” He vanished into a burst of dark energy.

Long let out a loud laugh. “My plan.” He said to himself.

“Oh, I’m planning something wonderful.”


	14. Smile, You're on Camera!

“So, why did you want to go see that movie again?” Nick asked as they walked out of the movie theater again. He was still wearing his 3D glasses.

“Take those off.” She calmly demanded. The fox responded by quickly tossing them off his face.

“There.” He smugly said, giving a sarcastic smirk.

She rolled her eyes. “I wanted to see it because it looked good, and I think it was.” She explained.

“I thought it was awful.” Nick said in a direct tone. “I don’t know what people see in animated films.”

Judy stopped in her steps. “Seriously? Do you know how much animation can do as a medium?”

“I do, Carrots.” He replied. “I just don’t like it that much. Like, why would you make animated animals when you could just hire actors?”

She sighed. “I’m pretty sure they couldn’t do the giant lava monster bits in live action.” She said.

“It’s called CGI, Fluff.” Nick said. “It’s like animation for adults.”

“It’s like animation, except most of the characters don’t fit in.” Judy retorted.

“Obviously you didn’t see Dr. Strange.” Nick said back. “Great effects.”

“When I go to see a live action film, I like to see practical effects.” Judy said. “CGI’s just a cheap way to do bigger effects, even if they don’t look as good.”

“In the hands of a good director, CGI can be used to make bigger stories.” Nick retorted. “Besides, all animated films nowadays are CGI anyway.” He paused for a second. “Also they’re all musicals, what’s with that?”

“I thought the songs were good.” Judy said.

“Eh, they were alright.” Nick shrugged, before pausing again. “Actually, that one song was pretty good.”

“Which one?”         

“The one with the crab.” He said. “Villains always get the best songs.”

“I liked the main song better, actually.” Judy admitted.

“They really didn’t have to use it three times, though.” Nick said.

“You have to admit,” Judy started. “It was better than Floatzen.”

“Carrots, a punch to the mouth was better than Floatzen.”

The two continued walking back to the car, unaware of a suspicious looking figure standing by the entrance. A tan cheetah dressed in a movie theater uniform. He had heard everything they said.

“Thanks for the inspiration.” He chuckled to himself as he strolled into the theater. He walked past the staff, who didn’t seem to care about the stranger walking into their theater. He continued into one of the screening room, and walked up to the projection room.

He opened the door, spotting an antelope in there who quickly turned to him. “Oh, hello.” He said. “Are you here to take over film projection duties?”

“In a way, yes.” Enter replied.

“Okay, the projector’s right over there.” He motioned over to the side of the room, where a flat, boxy projector sat next to a window. The antelope started to leave the room, but then turned back as he exited. “Say, I don’t recall seeing you here before, are you new?”

Enter chuckled, before rushing up and punching the antelope in the face, the mammal flying into the wall behind him, unconscious.

“Guess you’ll never find out, mon amie.”

Enter quickly grabbed the projector, cutting the wires connecting to it with his claws. “This form does come in handy some times.” He mused, before disappearing with the projector in hand.

* * *

 

“…And THAT is why Nightmare Befur Christmas is the greatest animated film ever made!” Judy concluded as they approached the apartment door.

“You sure have a lot of opinions about your kid’s films, Carrots.” Nick joked.

“It’s really all my parents let me watch when I was a kid.” She admitted. “Mostly a lot of the old ones.”

“Let me guess, you watched them on VHS.”

“Yes, DVDs didn’t exist back then.”

“Good point.”

She grabbed onto the doorknob, and paused. Her ears perked up. She heard footsteps inside the apartment. “There’s someone in there.” She stated, placing her head closer to the door.

“Thank you, super rabbit hearing.” Nick said sarcastically. “Probably just some robbers.”

“You do know that’s not a good thing, right?” She asked quietly.

“There’s nothing valuable in there to steal, Hopps.”

She tried to respond, but couldn’t think of anything really valuable in their apartment. All they really had was the bare essentials of living.

“Well, there’s the time we spent together.” She finally replied, jokingly.

“Don’t make me puke.”

“Alright.” She said quietly. “On three, I’ll open the door.” She took a deep breath. “One…”

“THREE!” Nick yelled, running up and kicking the door open.

“Oh, come on, seriously?” Judy yelled.

“Hey, I always wanted to do something like that.” Nick replied as he walked in. They spotted three odd looking figures in the apartment as soon as the door swung open. All three of them turned to face them.

The first was an odd mechanical creature, rounded and chunky. Its face resembled a steering wheel, and it rather delicately carried a cup on top of its large fist. It was walking through the middle of the apartment, and dropped the cup when the door slammed open,

The second was a tall silver creature sat on the couch. Hard to tell if it was mechanical, but judging by its very stilted head turn, it probably was. It had very angular horns over its body, and had sleek black streaks going over part of it, as well as golden sections.

The third was a tall blue creature, bending down near the window. It was definitely a Sentai Ranger, Judy could tell, though the spandex it wore looked a bit different. Its helmet was decorated with a similar face to the first robotic creature.

“Oh, it looks like they’ve returned!” The first creature said, waddling over to the Ranger. “What… what should we do, sir?”

“I say…” The silver figure started, standing up. It hit its head on the roof, and awkwardly bent downwards. “I say we introduce ourselves. So they don’t panic.”

“A bit too late for that.” Judy said.

“That’s a great…” The ranger started, trying to stand up. He hit his head on the ceiling. “That’s a great idea, Beet.”

“You aren’t gonna sing, right?” Nick asked.

“Why would we sing?” The blue robot asked. “I think a simple greeting is all we need.”

The ranger rubbed his head and nodded, shuffling up to the two mammals. “I’m Ryuuji Iwasaki, member of Spec-Ops Sentai Go-Busters. Blue Buster, to be exact.” He extended his hand down towards them. “Pleasure to work with you both.”

“Hello there, Ryuuji.” Judy greeted, shaking his hand. Nick followed up, a bit awkwardly and wordless. “Who, uh, are your friends here?” She asked.

He motioned towards the first robot. “This is my partner, Gorisaki Banana.”

“Hello!” Gorisaki said, bowing towards them.

“’Banana’?” Nick said, a bit amused. “Why’s he named that?”

“Oh, you see,” Gorisaki started. “I’m based on a gorilla, a primate, and primates usually eat bananas.”

“We don’t have any gore-las in this timeline, I guess.” Judy said. “All the primates went extinct ages ago.”

Gorisaki tapped his fists together. “I guess my pun doesn’t work here…”

“It’s okay, Gorisaki.” Ryuuji assured. “And over there is Beet J. Stag.” He continued, motioning towards the silver robot, who was now laying on the couch. “He isn’t supposed to be here.”

“Greetings.” It said flatly.

“He’s called Beet J. Stag because-“

“Yeah, stag beetle.” Nick interrupted. “I get it. What’s the J stand for, though?”

“Juice.” Stag answered.

There was a moment of silence, before Ryuuji cleared his throat. “So, me and Gorisaki were sent here to help you with this next mission.” He explained. “Beet kind of just stowed away on the Rainbow Line while I wasn’t looking.”

“It was getting boring.”

Another moment of silence.

“But yeah, you can call me Blue Buster, and I already know who you two are.” He continued. “Judy Hopps, ZooBlue, and Nick Wilde, ZooRed.”

“That’s nice and all,” Judy started, a bit awkwardly. “But why did you, y’know…”

“Why did you break into our apartment?” Nick asked bluntly.

“The train stopped at your open window.” Beet explained, getting up.

“Uh… huh.” Nick let out. “You do know that’s still illegal, right?”

All three of them nodded, letting out sounds of affirmation.

“Of course, we know you guys aren’t here to do anything bad, so I guess we can’t arrest you.” Judy said.

“They still broke the law.” Nick replied. “We really, really should.”

“Let’s just sit down, have some tea, and talk this over.” Ryuuji said. “We really don’t want confrontation right now.”

* * *

 

“Time to get filming.” Enter said, as he pulled out a small card.

He jabbed the card into the projector, and tossed it up into the air. The projector started expanding outwards, a humanoid, orange and silver body forming around it. The new monster landed, two large ridges protruding from its head, and a camera in its chest.

“Say cheese!” It said in a cheery voice, snapping a picture of the cheetah.

“Still as cheerful as ever, Filmroid.” Enter said flatly, raising his brow. “I hope you don’t mind working for a bit.”

“Working?” The monster asked inquisitively, placing its finger on its closes approximation of a cheek. “What kind of work? Like a new movie?”

“I suppose you can call it something like that.” Enter retorted. “I just need you to do something for a bit. Anything that can cause trouble.”

“So, you want a disaster movie?” Filmroid asked. “Sorry, I don’t have any scripts for that.”

Enter’s eyes dilated. He walked over to the robot and lifted him off the ground with one paw. “Then you’ll have to come up with one, won’t you?” He growled.

“Uh, wait!” The robot pleaded. “I-I think I have a script I can make work, don’t worry Master Enter!”

He dropped the robot back to the ground. “Good.” He said as the robot rolled on the ground. “Go do it, and fast.”

Filmroid sat up. “But film making takes time!” He tried to explain. “I can’t cause any decent destruction fast!”

“Think of it like this,” Enter started. “I want you to do this first fil, and then I’ll let you make whatever you want.” He smirked a bit. “A real auteur, if you will.”

“An auteur?” Filmroid whispered, thinking it over. He quickly got to his feet. “Deal! I’ll whip up my next script, and then go for my masterpiece!”

“I do have one caveat, however.” Enter said with a grin. “I have some specific actors I want you do work with.”

“Hmm?” Filmroid leaned in closer. “Who would they be?”

“Well,” Enter started, chuckling. “Have you ever seen Zootopia?”

* * *

 

A few minutes later, Nick, Judy, and their new guests were all drinking tea. The two mammals were sat on the couch, while Ryuuji was sat on the other side of their coffee table. He was still tall enough sitting down to look them directly in the eyes. Gorisaki was in the kitchen, preparing more tea.

Meanwhile, Beet was splayed against the wall, making… noises.

“Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.”

All three of them stared at him. “He pretends he’s a beetle sometimes.” Ryuuji tried to explain.

“I didn’t realize it was possible for a robot to be eccentric.” Nick stated, absolutely baffled.

“So, uh,” Judy tried to start, attempting to draw attention away from the buzzing robot. “Why are you here, exactly?”

“AkaRed contacted me.” Blue Buster explained. “Said you might be dealing with something tougher soon.” He took a sip of his tea. “Something about you needing help.”

“Sure.” Nick said, sniffing the tea. “I don’t feel like we need help right now, we have things pretty sorted.”

Judy glared at him.

“What?”

“Are you forgetting about what happened last week?” She asked. “I wouldn’t exactly say we have things ‘sorted’.”

“What happened last week?” Ryuuji asked.

“Her parents almost died.” Nick answered, very bluntly. The rabbit quickly gave the fox a sharp nudge to his side.

“That’s…” Ryuuji took a deep breath. “That’s not something you joke about.”

The fox’s ears drooped a bit. “Uh, sorry.” He said, completely sincere.

Ryuuji cleared his throat. “Anyway, if AkaRed says I need to help out, then I probably should.”

“It’s usually best to follow the advice of an inter-dimensional god.” Gorisaki stated, bringing them in a few more cups of tea. Nick was now carrying two full cups of tea.

“Not always.” Beet said, interrupting his… business.

Everyone turned to stare at him again. He quickly returned to buzzing at the wall.

Judy cleared her throat. “It’s always nice to have help from one of you guys.” She said, sipping her tea. “Hopefully Nick won’t be a jerk to you like the last guy who wanted to help.”

“Wait, which one are we talking about?” He asked. He took a sip of the tea, it was absolutely disgusting, but he had to gulp it down.

“Is there something wrong with the tea?” Gorisaki asked, his head spinning around.

“No, it’s…” He bit his tongue. “It’s great!”

Judy looked at him. He looked back at her with a fake grin.

“Oh, that’s good!” Gorisaki said in relief. “I was worried you didn’t like it! I would’ve been very upset if you didn’t.”

Nick gave a thumbs up.

Suddenly, the alarm on the Zoolizers began ringing, causing Nick to drop his drink to the ground, where it spilled across the crapet. “Aw man, now I’ll never be able to finish it!” He said, feigning distress.

Judy rolled her eyes. “That means that a monster’s been created.” She explained, cuffing the incessant beeping with her paws. “Which in turns means we have to go stop it.”

“How do you know when the Megazord’s been summoned?” Ryuuji asked.

The two stared at him.

“Ryuuji,” Gorisaki whispered to him. “I don’t think they have Megazords.”

“Oh.” He said. He quickly stood up, slamming his head against the ceiling. “We should go stop it.”

“Good idea.” Nick said, getting up, kicking the teacup out of the way.

Beet quickly rushed over to the fox, knocking him to the ground. “I will go with you.” He stated.

“Are you sure, Beet?” Ryuuji asked. The robot nodded in response. He sighed. “I guess we don’t have a choice.”

“What about Gorisaki?” Judy asked as they headed for the door.

“I’m just here for moral support!” He said. “Go team, go!” He pumped his fist up and down, smacking it against the ceiling.

Judy chuckled. “Alright, let’s go stop a monster!”

* * *

 

“You have dishonored my family.” One Bugler beeped robotically. It was wearing a very heavy set of samurai armor, complete with katana.

“This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.” The other Bugler beeped. This one was dressed in a cowboy hat and poncho. It carried a small pistol.

The two stood across from each other, and stiffly drew their weapons. The cowboy fired at the samurai, who attempted to cut the bullet in half with his blade, only for it to strike him in the head, causing him to blow up.

“Ugh, CUT!” Filmriod yelled through his megaphone, he got up from his director’s chair. He stepped over the remains of the samurai Bugler. “That was just awful. BRING IN THE NEXT ONE!”

Another Bugler dressed in samurai armor quickly appeared in the burnt remains of the previous one.

“Alright, let’s take this scene from the top!” He clapped his hands, and pointed to the cowboy. “You, shoot that building over there!” He pointed to the samurai. “And you, slice up that building. Chop chop!”

The two Buglers nodded, and turned to the buildings surrounding the plaza they were in. The cowboy fired a shot at one of the buildings, causing a massive explosion. The samurai quickly sliced with his blade, causing another building to be cut clean in half.

“Perfect!” Filmroid yelled, giving the okay sign with his hand. “Now, meet back up in the middle, and try the big showdown scene again!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Said a confused voice from behind the robot. He turned around to see the 3 rangers and Beet.

“It’s called film-making!” He declared. “And you’re interrupting me while I’m shooting for my epic spaghetti western samurai romantic comedy revenge story!”

The three tilted their heads in confusion.

Red shook his head. “Have you ever thought of trimming it down a bit?” He asked. “That might be too many concepts at once.”

Blue nodded. “Audiences usually like something they can put into a singular genre.”

Filmroid scoffed. “Please, I’m an auteur, I can do whatever I want!” He yelled, sounding insulted. “Now, if you excuse me, I’m waiting for my other actors to show up.” He turned back to the Buglers, and yelled into his megaphone. “ACTION!”

“Let’s cut this guy’s film short.” Red said, putting his blade on his shoulder.

“Hold it.” Blue Buster said, stopping them. “I remember this guy.”

“Mission 20, July 8th, 2012.” Beet started. “That is when Filmroid originally attacked.

Ryuuji nodded. “He’s tricky. His main power is that he can create illusions of your deepest desires.”

“I don’t entirely see what the big deal is.” Red admitted. “That doesn’t seem that dangerous.”

“It is.” Ryuuji said. “At least, it probably would be. We managed to not be distracted by them.”

“Alright, so if he does that, just ignore it.” Blue said. “Sounds easy enough.”

She twirled her blasters around, and shot the monster in the back. He fell to the ground, and got up. “Hey, can’t you see I’m working!?” He looked at them again. “Hey, wait a second…”

He hopped up, and walked over to the two animal rangers. He tugged at Blue’s ears. “Rabbit ears…”

“Ow!”

He twirled the fox around, and tugged on his tail. “Fox tail…”

“Do you know how rude that is?” Red yelled, quickly jabbing his blade into the monster’s face.

He stumbled back, and started laughing. “Aw man, you two are the actors I was waiting for!” He yelled, pointing at them. “Why didn’t you tell me you were here? I have the perfect spot for you in the movie!”

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly an army of cowboy and samurai Buglers appeared around the plaza. “It’s the scene where the cowboys and samurai join forces to take down the traitorous main characters, who are played by you two!” He explained. “It’s the big finale, and, spoilers, the main characters don’t live.”

“I think your film needs a few rewrites.” Red smugly stated, pulling out his blade. Blue spun her blasters around again.

“Especially when you have two extras to deal with!” Blue Buster yelled out.

Beet nodded. “Prepare to face the might of Beet Buster!”

“Wait, what?” Blue said, turning around.

“IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!” A voice yelled out.

“Let’s morphin’.” Beet said. Quickly, the gold sections of his body flew off, leaving him with a sleeker, more ranger-like form. The form was still silver, but now had blue highlighting instead of black and gold. The pieces that flew off tried to vaguely form into a humanoid shape next to him, but they collapsed on the ground.

“That happens sometimes.” He said, before striking a pose. “BEET BUSTER!”

Ryuuji also struck a pose. “BLUE BUSTER!”

“CHAMPION OF THE SUN!” Red struck a pose as well. “ZOORED!”

“DEFENDER OF THE MOON!” Blue also yelled and posed. “ZOOBLUE!”

The four rushed into the army of Buglers, Blue Buster pulling out a pair of binoculars that he unfolded into a sword, while Beet Buster pulled out a steering wheel that also unfolded into a sword.

As they charged towards the army, Filmroid quickly ducked into the crowd, moving backwards through it.

Red slashed through a few of the cowboys and samurai, clearing out a clean circle of them in only a few seconds. Blue leaped onto one of their heads, and began blasting tons of the army in their faces, causing them to quickly clear out.

“Pretty good.” Blue Buster said, giving his colored counterpart a thumbs up. “But let’s see how they handle this!” He wound his arm up, and quickly slammed it into the pavement.

The ground cracked, and nearly the entire army, other rangers included, were launched into the air a bit. Ryuuji then prepared another punch, striking a Bugler in the stomach. It flew through the air, striking other Buglers as it went. A large section of the robots had been cleared out in only two swift moves.

Red hit the ground, and got up. “Holy smokes!” He yelled, getting his bearings. “What was that?”

Blue shook her head. “We can ask him later, let’s just take care of the rest of these guys.”

Beet Buster suddenly popped up in front of her. “Allow me to show off my own skills!” He swung his blade at a group of closing Buglers, eradicating a number of them in only one swipe. He turned back to the two. “How was that?”

“Eh.” Red let out, shrugging. “Not as impressive as your friend over there.”

“Then I will work harder to improve it.” Beet stated. He rushed back into the fray, continuing to slice up the monsters.

“What a weirdo.” Red said.

“Don’t be rude to our guests, Nick.” Blue retorted.

“But he is!” Red insisted. “I have never seen anyone act like that.”

“He is a robot.” She said back. “But, let’s just finish these guys off, alright?”

Red rolled his eyes beneath the helmet, and the two dashed back into the battle. Red pulled out the Vickscannon, blasting a few of the robots away, while Blue effortlessly dashed through them with her blades.

In a few seconds, the army of cowboys and samurai had been completely cleared, leaving only Filmroid standing in the middle of the plaza.

“Time to finish filming!” Blue yelled, pointing her dagger at the monster.

Filmroid backed up a bit nervously as the four moved closer. He stopped, and fell to his knees, bowing down. “I’m sorry!” He yelled. “I won’t do it again!”

“You aren’t a good director, or a good actor.” Red said, aiming the cannon at the monster.

“AH!” It yelled, getting to its knees. “I guess I’ll just have to improvise!” It spread its arms out. “SAY CHEESE!”

The lens on its chest fired out two bursts of energy, which flew directly into the mammals and knocked them away. “Oh no!” Blue Buster yelled, watching as they flew off.

The two got up, in pain. Blue looked up, her eyes foggy, as a large figure walked up to her.

“Hopps, get up.” Said a stern voice.

“Chief?” She said, a bit confused. Then she realized who she was talking to, and stood to attention. “Chief Bogo, sir! Why are you here?”

“I’m here to congratulate you on being the best officer on the force.” He said.

“Wait, really?” She said, completely ecstatic to be hearing that from her boss. “How’d this happen?”

“It just happened.” Bogo said. “And because of it, I have decided to hand over chief duty to you.”

She let a gross sound of delight at hearing this. “This is so sudden, I don’t even have as much experience as you…”

“Keep dreaming, Carrots.” Said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see Nick. “Remember what Blue Boy told us?”

She smacked her helmeted head. This didn’t make any sense because it wasn’t real. The fake Bogo vanished into red particles as soon as she looked back. “Well, that was good while it lasted.” She said sadly.

“You’ll get over it eventually.” Nick said.

“Wait, he hit you too right, what was your wish?” She asked.

“All it did was knock me out of my transformation.” He shrugged. “I guess that says something.”

The monster yelled in defeat. “That wasn’t even good enough for a filler scene!” He shouted at them.

“Alright, let’s finish you off.” Blue Buster said, running up to the monster and punching him in the face.

There was a loud clang as it hit, and the monster stumbled backward. Blue Buster attempted to hit it again, but the monster quickly ducked out of the way. Another swing, another dodge.

“Looks like I’m too quick for you, Tarzan boy!” The monster mocked, dodging another strike.

Blue Buster’s armor began to emit steam. Suddenly, the object on his wrist began to beep. “Ryuuji!” Gorisaki yelled through the device. “You need to take a break, or else…”

Blue Buster panted a bit. “Thanks for the reminder, Gorisaki.”

“Oh, looks like you’re having a bit of a malfunction!” Filmroid pointed out. “I actually have an appointment with my producer now, so see you!”

“Wait,” Blue Buster said. “Producer?”

“You know, your old friend, Enter!” Filmroid gave a wave, and disappeared into a flash of light, film reels flying out.

“Enter!?” Blue Buster yelled. “We need to regroup.” He stated, turning to the other rangers.

-

“So, you know about Enter?” Judy asked.

Ryuuji laid on the couch, covered in ice packs. He nodded. “Enter was one of the toughest, most scheming villains we had to face.” He thought for a second. “Well, he didn’t have much competition, but he was a nightmare to deal with.”

“To put it simply,” Beet said, turning from the wall he was still splayed against. “He betrayed his own master, Messiah, and nearly destroyed Earth.”

“So, he betrayed his own boss?” Nick said. “Sounds like a scum bag.”

“We’ve actually ran into him once.” Judy said. “He nearly killed us.”

“Something to know about Enter is that he always has an ulterior motive.” Ryuuji said. “If he didn’t kill you then, he’s using you for something.”

The two gritted their teeth, and stared at each other. What was this guy planning?

“Hold on a sec,” Nick let out. “I thought you guys didn’t have evolved animals in your world?”

“What?” Blue Buster responded. “Enter usually looked like a human, but he was more of a machine.”

“When we encountered him, he was a cheetah.” Judy explained.

“A… a cheetah?” Ryuuji said, sounding somewhat amused. “That’s ironic.”

“How is that ironic?” Nick started, a bit confused. “Did he lose to one in a foot race?”

Ryuuji sighed. “My friend, our team leader, Hiromu.” He began. “He was Red Buster, he had powers based around a cheetah. Super speed and such.”

“You know, not all cheetahs are fast.” Judy started. “We know a cheetah who’s pretty slow on his feet.”

“I guess generalizations happen a lot here.” He said.

“You have no idea.” She replied, looking at Nick.

“Yeah, I have a question.” Nick started. “What’s the deal with your set up here?”

Before Ryuuji could answer, Gorisaki ran up with another ice pack. He placed the pack gently onto his chest. “Ryuuji has a condition where if he fights too much, he overheats and goes wild.” He explained, turning to them.

“It usually happens when I use my super strength too much.” Ryuuji continued.

“Hang on, that brings up something else.” Judy stated. “Why do you have super strength?”

“All three of the original Go-Busters had special programs installed in them to fight against the Vagras.” He explained. “I have super strength, Hiromu had super speed, and Yoko, Yellow Buster, had super jumping.”

“Let me guess,” Nick started, eyeing Judy. “Rabbit based?”

He nodded.

Please,” Judy said, rolling her eyes. “Everyone knows that a rabbit’s real super power is their hearing.” She pointed to her ears smugly.

“Question numero tres.” Nick started again, holding up three digits. “So, you also have a dangerous evil side?”

“Do you guys?” He asked. They nodded in response.

“It’s not exactly… us, though.” Judy said, rubbing her arm. “It’s some kind of… thing that takes us over sometimes.”

“Let me guess, this only happens during emotional stress?” Ryuuji guessed.

“Well…” Judy started, trying to come up with a situation where that wasn’t the case. Nick’s own stress when he thought she was dead, her own emotional reactions to being manipulated and having her parents attacked. That did seem like the most plausible theory.

“I suppose so, yeah.”

“Yeah, that’s also another way I overheat.” Ryuuji continued. “I may not seem like it, but I’m very emotional. It only comes out when I get very angry, though.”

“You must be good at controlling your emotions then.” Nick said. “Unlike a certain bunny over here.” She quickly nudged him in the side.

Ryuuji quickly sat up, the ice packs falling off him. Gorisaki quickly ran over, panicked. “Ryuuji, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve cooled down enough.” He said, stretching a bit. “Thank you, Gorisaki.”

He turned to the two mammals, and let out a sigh. “It’s hard to control your emotions after going what I’ve been through.”

“Ooh, backstory time.” Nick said, a bit too cheerfully.

“It all started one Christmas Eve, when a computer virus, Messiah, attacked the research center our parents worked at. They had to sacrifice themselves to prevent it from destroying the world, and to save us.” He sighed again. “We spent the next 13 years of our lives training to defeat the Vagras, and save our parents.”

“Well, at least there was a happy ending, and you saved them.” Judy said, really, really hoping that was the case. Ryuuji looked at his hands, and clenched them. “Right?”

“Not everything can have a happy ending, Judy.” He said, frustrated. “Our parents had been held captive in the digital world of Hyperspace, and when we finally managed to get in and save them…”

Judy braced herself for the worst.

“They had to sacrifice themselves again in order to stop Messiah for good.” He sighed again, remembering it was clearly getting to him. “We managed to save the world, but…”

“Okay!” She yelled. “You don’t have to tell us any more, alright?” She sighed, and walked up to him, placing her paw on his knee. “You don’t have to make yourself uncomfortable just for us.”

“Actually,” Nick started, sounding a bit more serious. “I need to talk to him. In private.”

“What?” Judy let out, confused. “Why do you want to-“

“That’s for him to know, and you to not.”

* * *

 

Nick stood on the roof of the apartment, staring at the sunset. Ryuuji walked up to him. “Why did you want to talk to me?” He asked.

“Your parents are… gone, right?” Nick asked back, ignoring Ryuuji’s own question. “You… you know they’re gone, forever?”

“Yes.” Ryuuji said, a bit confused. “They’re dead.”

“You are so lucky.” Nick continued, his tone dropping. “To know what happened to them, I mean.” The Go-Buster looked at him, confused.

“Oh, I see.” Ryuuji said, starting to understand. He sat down next to the fox. “You wanted to talk about… your own parents? What happened to them?”

“Well, I know my mom’s alive.” He stated, sitting down. “At least, last time I checked she was.” He sighed. “But this isn’t about my mom, it’s about my dad.”

“What happened to him?”

“No one knows.” Nick said. “He stepped out one day, and… poof, vanished.”

“Wait, do you mean nobody’s seen him since?”

“Exactly.” Nick sighed. “Nobody has seen him in years, no evidence of what happened to him.”

“That’s… strange.”

“It’s something that’s haunted me every day.” Nick stated. “You got to see your parents one last time, you got to find out what happened to them. I’m not that lucky.”

“I imagine you’ll find out what happened to him eventually.” Ryuuji assured. “You just need to look for it.”

“And you don’t think I’ve tried that?” Nick asked, a bit irritated. “I’m a cop, I can actually look for him now, but there’s nothing. Not even a case file.”

“Have you… asked anyone else about this?” He asked.

“The only other person that knows about this is my therapist.” Nick stated. “Judy doesn’t even know.”

“Maybe you should-“ The fox raised a paw to the ranger’s helmet.

“This isn’t something she needs to know about right now.” He said wistfully. “Not now.”

“Well, why did you tell me?” He asked. “We’ve known each other for two hours.”

“It’s just…” He cleared his throat. “I never really had someone who could… relate, I guess.”

Ryuuji nodded. “I guess that makes sense.” He put his hand on the fox’s much smaller shoulder. “But you should tell her. Open up a bit.”

“Yeesh, again with the ‘opening up’ thing.” He said, irritated. “I’ve been trying to be more open, but I know exactly how she’d react to something like this.”

“How would she?”

“She’d get all upset at me for not telling her, then she’d spend all of her time trying to find out anything about where he could’ve gone.” He explained. “She’s a very determined little thing, and we have bigger stuff to worry about than my issues.”

Ryuuji patted him on the back. “Your issues are important, Nick.” He assured. “Maybe not right now, but they are. Tell her when you get a chance, she’ll understand.”

He sighed. “Thanks, blueboy.”

* * *

 

The monster dropped to his knees. “I’m sorry Master Enter!” It pleaded. “I couldn’t complete the film or destroy the Zoorangers.”

“You did fine.” Enter stated plainly, ignoring the pleading robot and walking to the side of the rooftop. “You did enough damage for right now. Just consider that a dress rehearsal.”

Filmroid tilted his head in confusion. “But, they broke out of my illusions, how can I do better?”

Without warning, Enter quickly threw something at the robot, directly piercing its camera lens. Instantly, the robot fell to the ground, twitching with red electricity. It turned onto its back as the upgrades started.

Its lens got bigger, taking up most of its chest, and the symbol of the Chaos Badge appearing in the middle of it. Its orange coloring turned to red, and curved spikes sprouted across its arms and legs. A large lens grew over one of its blue, diamond shaped eyes, and a large ridge sprouted from the middle of its head.

The monster instantly hopped up to its feet, fist raised in the air. “Chaos Filmroid, now rolling!”

The newly upgraded monster looked around, in absolute awe at everything. “Holy smokes, I can see everything!”

Enter’s feline ears perked up at this statement. The monster then turned to him, and walked over, groping at his body.

“This is an amazing model, look at the detail on the fur!” It said, completely enraptured.

Enter freed himself from the monster’s grasp, and swatted him away. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The monster rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, Mr. Syo!” He apologized. “I just can’t believe how detailed everything is!”

“I was expecting him to just power up,” Enter muttered to himself. “Not go completely insane.”

“So,” Filmroid started. “What’s the next scene?”

“I need you to trap the Zoorangers.” Enter explained. “Your wish granting power has been upgraded, they won’t be breaking out if you use it on them again.”

“Again?” The monster said, sounding disappointed. “But everyone knows sequels aren’t as good!”

Enter glared at the monster, and stepped forward. “This isn’t a game, Filmroid.” He growled. “I am your master, and you do what I say.”

“I could just write you out of the script!” Filmroid said, turning his back to the cheetah.

Enter performed a single quick slash across the monster’s back, leaving massive claw marks engraved into its back. Filmroid yelled out in agony.

“I’m still stronger than you.” Enter declared. “And if you don’t follow my orders, I’ll have YOU CUT ENTIRELY!”

“S-sorry, Master Enter!” Filmroid apologized, absolutely terrified. “I’ll go trap them, don’t worry!” He turned to look at the city. “But first, I need to get some data!”

He aimed his lens across the city skyline, rapidly snapping pictures with his eye lens. The monster turned back to his boss, and gave a wave, which Enter did not return. Filmroid then leaped into the city.

Enter sighed. “Why are all the monsters I make so off?”

* * *

 

“So, what were you two talking about up there?” Judy asked as the two entered the apartment.

“We were talking about-“

“Nothing!” Nick interrupted. “Absolutely. Nothing.”

Judy gave him a look from the couch. “Well, while you two were talking about ‘nothing’, I had to deal with Beetlejuice over there.”

The two looked over, seeing Beet, strapped to the wall via duct tape. His mouth was covered up, but he was still trying to buzz.

“How do you put up with that guy?” She asked.

“To be honest, we usually don’t.” Ryuuji admitted. He rubbed his gloved hands together. “So, what’s the plan to deal with that Metalroid?”

“Actually, this is the first time in a while we’ve had absolutely no leads.” She admitted. “Usually the monster comes to us.”

“So, that alarm thing only works once?” He asked. “That kind of seems… unintuitive.”

“Eh.” Nick let out as he sat on the couch. “We’ll find him eventually.” He flicked on the TV. “Behold, our advanced tracking technology.”

“I guess I probably shouldn’t have expected you two to have government level equipment.” Ryuuji said.

“I’d tell you where the monster is,” Gorisaki started, walking into the room. “But I’m not connected to HQ, can’t get any data on it. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Gorisaki.” Judy assured. “This is how we do things.”

Suddenly, her cell phone started to ring. She looked at the ID, something she usually did after the last few incidents. It was… Chief Bogo?

She held the phone up to her ear. “Hello, Chief?” She said.

“Hopps!” He yelled, causing her to pull back the phone. “We need you and Wilde at Baobab Avenue. NOW!”

He quickly hung up, and the second he did the rabbit sprung up. “WE HAVE TO GO!” She yelled, rushing towards the door.

“Whoa, where’s the rodeo, Carrots?’ Nick asked.

“Bogo called. We have to go to Baobab.” She explained.

He nodded, and then turned to their guests. “Really sorry about this, but this is the life of an officer!” He shrugged, and the two ran out the door.

As soon as they left, Beet burst from the wall, shredding off all of the duct tape stuck to him. He tore the strip covering his mouth off as well. “I believe this is a trap.” He stated.

“A trap? How do you know?” Ryuuji asked.

“It’s just a hunch.”

Ryuuji crossed his arms. “We can’t be too lax on this.” He said. “Let’s follow them, just in case.”

Beet nodded, and the two ran through the door, leaving Gorisaki behind.

“Oh, uh…” He said to himself. “See you guys later!”

* * *

 

The cruiser ground to a halt against the pavement, leaving thick marks. Judy quickly leaped out of the cruiser, and rolled across the ground. “ALRIGHT, WHERE’S THE EMERGENCY!”

She glanced around. There was nobody in street. She felt someone tap against her shoulder.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here, Fluff.” Nick said. “You sure this is the right place?”

“Let’s see, he definitely said Baobab Avenue…” She glanced around again, spotting one of the trees the road was named after, large and rounded, growing on the sidewalk. “And those are definitely baobabs.”

“I think you might have fallen for a prank call.” Nick suggested. “Probably someone pretending to be Bogo.”

They turned back to the cruiser. “But it sounded exactly like him…” She said.

“You’re right,” A sudden, deep, gruff, familiar voice said from behind them. “It did sound exactly like him.”

“Bogo?” Judy let out, turning around.

Instead of the buffalo, they saw the monster from earlier, with new upgrades. “Plot twist!” It cheerfully yelled, going back to its original voice. “It was me, I was pretending to be your Chief!”

“So, I was right then.” Nick said to the facepawing rabbit.

“How did you even do that!?” She yelled at the monster.

“It’s pretty easy, actually!” The monster started. “I just went to IMDB, figured out who Bogo’s VA was, and pulled it from my infinite database of actors!” He pinched his throat. “And now I sound like Idris Elba!” It now spoke it what was clearly Chief Bogo’s voice.

The two tilted their heads, absolutely baffled.

“I guess you guys don’t understand what it’s like to be enlightened.” The monster said, a bit disappointed. “But I will say…”

He quickly skipped over to the rabbit, falling to his knees and clutching her paws. “It’s an honor to be working with someone like you, Miss Ueto! You were great in Azumi.”

Judy pulled her paws back from the monster. “Who are you talking about?” She asked, both backing away from it. “That’s not my name.”

“And you!” Filmroid pointed towards Nick, who felt his back slam into the car. “Mr. Morikawa, you’re a wonderful VA, love your work!”

“I’d feel flattered if I knew what the hell you were talking about.” Nick said, somewhat terrified at the nonsense the robot was spouting.

“Calm your language, this film is PG!” He looked up at nothing for a second. “Oh, wait, I guess this is rated T, you can swear a bit.”

“Yeah, he’s gone insane.” Nick said aloud. He held up his wrist, flashing the Zoolizer. “Let’s finish this guy off.”

“Alright, we need a fight scene before the rest of the episode!” Filmroid said, clapping. He then spun around, pulling out a large spiked club, slamming its sharpened end into the ground. “Maybe we can actually finish it up before the deadline!”

“Oh, god do I want you to shut up.” Judy declared.

They transformed and rushed at the monster with their weapons. They attempted to strike the monster, only for him to deftly twirl around, blocking their strikes with the staff. They locked weapons, and Filmroid pushed them backwards.

The monster laughed. “Martial arts are impressive, but audiences nowadays want to see spectacle! Like this!” He spun the club around, a trail of purple orbs trailing behind it. He flicked the club forward, causing the purple orbs to fly towards the two.

Due to them being in relative close range, the orbs managed to hit not only them, but also the cruiser. While the two rangers stood, Blue turned around, watching as the force of the blast lifted the car off of the ground, flipping it over. The glass sprayed behind them, Blue falling to her knees.

“Do you know how long that’ll take to fix!?” She yelled. “That car was EXPENSIVE!”

“Props are meant to be broken, Goodwin!” The monster mocked.

She pounded her fists against the ground, and clutched her head, growling. “THAT’S NOT MY NAME!”

She leaped into the air, and gave the monster a swift kick to the head, knocking it back. She pulled out her blasters, and shot the monster in the chest a couple times.

“You know it was just a car, right?” Red asked, walking up to his angry partner.

“A car I spent a good chunk of our money trying to keep in decent shape!” She yelled, nearly fuming.

“I don’t think you should take a car being wrecked so seriously.” Said a flat voice.

They turned, seeing Blue Buster and Beet Buster walking towards them. “What are you two doing here?”

“We assumed, correctly it seems, that this was some sort of a trap.” Blue Buster explained. “Sorry about your car, by the way.”

“At least someone understands.” She sighed.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Ryouma and Mr. Daisuke, excellent that you could make it!” The monster cheerfully greeted. He ran up and shook Beet Buster’s hand. “I thought I might have to ‘pirate’ you!” He quickly let go of the robot ranger’s hand and burst into laughter.

“I don’t understand.” Beet said, monotone, but obviously confused. “I am not a pirate, and I am not named Daisuke.”

Filmroid turned to look at… something. “Boy, he’s a real fun killer, ain’t he folks?”

Blue Buster walked up to the two mammal rangers. “What happened to him?” He asked, pointing towards the monster, who was starting to get into a verbal argument with Beet.

“We should’ve probably told you that the monsters here get upgrades.” Blue said. “That’s what happened to him.”

“He also might have gone insane.” Red chipped in. “I have no idea what he’s even talking about at this point.”

Filmroid quickly turned to the three, pushing Beet away. He stomped over and pointed angrily at the fox. “Uh, excuse you, Mr. Bateman, it’s called ‘enlightenment’, got it?”

“Well, to me,” Red started, stepping up to the robot. “You’re talking in tongues, and I’d consider myself pretty smart.”

“You’re at the very least clever.” Blue added in. “There is a difference.”

Without warning, Blue Buster pushed the fox out of the way, and delivered a swift punch directly to the monster’s face. The robot was not only knocked off its feet, but it spun around in the air a few times before landing on its back.

“You may be ‘enlightened’ or whatever, but you’re still not that strong.” He turned to look at Beet.

“…And if I was in a TV show, I feel I would be one of the most enjoyable, entertaining characters in-“

He turned to look at the three rangers staring at him. He then noticed that there was nobody in front of him anymore. “Sorry.”

The monster crawled away as they were distracted, and hopped back up, instantly recovered. “Now it’s time for the feature presentation!” He yelled, getting all of their attentions.

Filmroid spun around, and struck a pose. “Mind if I play something for ya?”

Before anyone could answer, he leaned over, hand cuffed to non-existent ear. “Sorry, I can’t hear you!” He nearly tripped over in shock at his own words, and rubbed his head. “Wait, who am I again?” He popped back up, and did a little dance. “Oh yeah, Filmroid!”

Everyone stared at him, confused. “Did that seem… familiar?” Blue asked her partner, who shrugged in response.

“Sorry about that, got my continuities crossed.” Filmroid apologized. “Now, it’s time to play the greatest films ever made!” He placed his finger to his chin in thought. “I think I’ll call them ‘Zootopia 2’, and ‘Zootopia: The Wilde Chronicles’! I would’ve gone with ‘Born to be Wilde’, but that’s already been taken.”

Red rubbed his temples. “What are you talking about?”

“I’M TALKING ABOUT THIS!” the monster said quickly. Before he even finished, he fired two glowing balls of light towards the two mammals.

The orbs hit the two, instantly knocking them out and untransforming them. Blue Buster ran over to them. He tried to shake Judy awake, unsuccessfully.

“What did you do to them!?” He yelled at the monster.

* * *

 

He rubbed his eyes, wiping the tears away. Where was he?

He looked around. It was night, and he was cowering next to a building. There was a muzzle on the ground. He remembered.

He had just been laughed out of the Ranger Scouts, for no reason other than being a fox. He was mortified. He started crying again.

There was the sound of a car stopping, and he looked over. It was a familiar looking blue clunker, one of the lights seemed to be broken.

It was his dad’s car.

An older looking fox stepped out of the car. “My god, Nicholas, is that you?” He shouted as he ran over to the young fox. He lifted him up and cradled the child over his shoulder. “What are you doing out here?” He asked.

The young fox cried into his father’s shoulder. “I wanted to join the Ranger Scouts, but… they kicked me out.”

“Why did they do that?’ His father asked. “You’d make a perfect Ranger Scout.”

“They did it because I was a fox.” He sobbed. “And they put… that on me…” He pointed over to the muzzle laying on the ground.

His father put him down, and picked up the muzzle. He let out a growl. “Nicholas, we’re going in there, and I’m going to talk to the supervisor.” He tossed the muzzle at the wall. “How did a bunch of kids even get a muzzle?”

He stomped up the stairs, and looked at the young kit standing there nervously. “C’mon, Nicky.” He said. “Everything will be alright, your dad’s here.”

The fox gave a nod, and followed his dad into the building.

* * *

 

She jolted out of bed.

She looked around. She was in her house, a rather moderately sized place with nice white furnishings. More specifically, she was in her bed.

She fell back onto her pillow, taking deep breaths.

“What’s going on, Fluff?” A voice next to her groggily asked.

She turned to Nick, who was laying on the other side of the bed. “Nothing. Just had a bad dream.”

“You’ll have to tell me about it later.” He replied, twisting around in bed. “Just head back to sleep.”

“I need to get something to drink.” She said, sliding out of bed. She exited the room, and headed down the hall to the bathroom.

She stopped to look at some pictures hanging on the wall. They showed her memories she thought of fondly. Her graduation, Nick’s graduation… Their wedding day. She sighed, remembering them all. It had calmed her down from that dream. The contents of it seemed to have slipped her mind already.

She walked into the impeccably clean bathroom, and started to run the water. She took a sip from it, and swallowed.

She looked at her paw, placed on the counter. A diamond ring adorned her ring digit. She thought about how much Nick must have spent on it. It was absolutely beautiful, even after a few years.

She took a deep breath, and looked at her reflection in the mirror. The dream must’ve been caused by stress. “Tomorrow’s the big day, Judy.” She said to herself. “The day you’ve been working towards for years. Chief.”

She couldn’t contain her excitement, she was going to be police chief! She had never expected to get that far, but like her parents said, she was always a trier.

She walked into the hallway, and admired the pictures again. Tomorrow, another picture would be adorning the wall. A picture of her at her promotion.

She headed back to bed.

* * *

 

Filmroid laughed. “Your animal friends just got hit by the hit sequel to my original attack!” He explained. “I call it ‘Sweet Dreams 2: The Revengening’!”

Beet’s armor reformed back onto him, and he walked over to the two unconscious mammals, scanning them. “They’re in some sort of hypersleep.” He explained.

“I’ve granted them their greatest dreams!” Filmroid continued, dancing cheerfully. “They’ll be asleep forever! Well, maybe not forever, at least until they-“

“Until they inevitably die.” Beet finished for him.

“Aw, spoilers, no fun!” Filmroid whined.

Blue Buster clutched his fist, and pounded it into the ground, leaving a small crack. “You won’t get away with this!” He yelled.

“Already have!” The monster said. “There’s no way you can wake them up, ever!”

Blue Buster ran up to the monster, and gripped onto its club by the handle. They struggled, but Blue Buster managed to lift Filmroid off of the ground by the club, and slam him back into the ground.

He stomped on the monster’s chest several times, it yelling in pain each time. “Ryuuji!” Gorisaki yelled from the communicator. “You’re overheating again, you need to get out of there.”

“But I can’t just leave the Metalroid here!” Blue Buster said back. While he was distracted, Filmroid swung his club at the Buster’s feet, rolling out of the way as he fell.

“Ha ha!” It laughed. “I’ve got this whole thing planned out, there’s no way you can win!”

“I beg to differ.” A deep voice said from behind the monster.

Blue Buster lifted his head from the ground, spotting a cloaked figure.

“Who are you supposed to be?” Filmroid asked, approaching the figure.

“Just a wanderer who wants to help.”

Before the monster could say anything, the figure pulled out a blade and slashed at the monster, knocking it to the ground.

The figure leaped over the monster’s writhing body, and helped Blue Buster up. “Go, I’ll handle this monster while you take them to safety.”

Ryuuji nodded. “Beet, take them and run, I’ll be right behind you!” Beet responded by hoisting the two animals over his shoulders and… well, running wasn’t exactly the best word to describe it. It was more like an awkward jog. He sighed in response as he watched.

Filmroid sat up and watched. “Y’know, that guy’s pretty good at acting like a robot.” He rolled onto his feet, watching as Blue Buster quickly ran off. “And there goes the other one.” He glared at the cloaked figure. “And now I’m stuck fighting an extra.”

“I’m not an extra, monster.” The figure said, drawing its blade again. It used its free hand to throw off its cloak, leaving the monster stunned.

“Oooh hoo, nice plot twist!”

Blue kept running, only concerned about the safety of his new teammates. And about how slow Beet was moving, but he had fixed that by lifting the robot, still carrying the unconscious mammals over his shoulders, over his own shoulder.

“Gorisaki,” Ryuuji yelled into the communicator. “We need you to bring the truck, we need all the equipment we can get!”

* * *

 

Maybe the truck was a bit too overkill.

The back of it was absolutely massive, especially considering it was currently only being used to carry two much smaller mammals. It was mostly what you’d expect the carrier of a truck to look like, but much bluer, many neon blinking lights lining the corners, and of course, a small table they had set up to place the unconscious animals on.

“Ryuuji, I think some kids are throwing fruit at me.” Gorisaki’s voice rang through the back of the truck.

The 40-meter-long truck hadn’t exactly been conspicuous, especially when they parked it in the middle of an open field.

“It’s okay, Gorisaki.” Ryuuji said. “We won’t be here for long. Hopefully.” He walked over to Beet, who was scanning the two. “Can you figure out what’s going on with them?”

“I said it before.” Beet retorted. “They’re in a hypersleep.”

“And what does that mean, exactly?”

“Functionally, it’s like the reverse of what happened to Jin.” Their old teammate, and Beet’s creator, Masato Jin.

He had become stuck in Hyperspace at the same time as their parents. He managed to survive by putting himself into stasis, and projecting an avatar into the real world. Beet must have meant the reverse of that, they were put into stasis in the real world, and projected into Hyperspace.

“But…” Ryuuji started, confused. “We destroyed Hyperspace. How can they be there?”

“Remember the Filmzord?” Beet asked. “It was able to project Hyperspace into the real world.”

“But only the Megazord could have done that. How did the Metalroid do this?”

“It seems that its upgrades have made its projecting powers strong enough to project Hyperspace on its own.” Beet explained. “It only seems to be a small projection of it, and I can’t place the location.”

“So, can we save them?”

“It’s entirely possible.” Beet stated. “We could make a neural connection to their minds, and find a way out for them.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Ryuuji asked.

Beet nodded. “Jin programmed it into me. Just in case something like this happened.”

“Okay then.” He punched his palm. “Let’s go do this.”

“Incorrect.” Beet said, causing the Buster to look at him, confused. “I will be going. As a Buddyroid, I have backup data. You do not.”

“I can’t just stand here and do nothing about this, Beet.” Ryuuji responded. “How about you test it first, and then I’ll go?”

Beet tried to let out a sigh, but it didn’t happen, because he’s a robot. Instead, it was more of a silent stare. “Very well. I’ll take the fox, and you can take the rabbit.”

Around a half hour later, they were all set up. Beet stood next to the table, a series of wires connecting from his head to Nick’s, flat ends placed to both their temples. Of note was a special wire connected from beet’s forehead to a large orb in the middle of the wires.

“The program to do this is inside me.” Beet stated. “All I need to do is activate it. That’s what this wire is for.” He pointed to the wire on his forehead.

“But how will you get out?” Ryuuji asked.

“There should be some sort of exit inside of the Hyperspace.” He explained. “If I don’t return, then I have died.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Making neural connection in three, two, o-“ The robot’s glowing yellow eyes vanished and its arms fell to his sides.

“Good luck, Beet.”

* * *

 

Beet looked around. He was standing in the middle of a lawn, in front of a very non-descript house, with a literal white picket fence. “The fox’s dream is certainly a lot brighter than I expected.” Beet said to himself as he stepped through the lawn.

“Judging by the fox’s personality, data, he should be having a dream about the criminal underworld, not a middle-class family.” He stepped to the front yard, and looked through one of the windows.

Inside were two… things. Glitchy, black and white things that shifted shape rapidly. “Interesting.”

He looked at the road in front of the house, a large, yellow bus driving closer. He quickly ran to the side of the house as it closed in.

The bus parked, and a small fox skipped out, backpack clung to his back. He turned around and waved to the driver. “See you tomorrow!” He ran towards the house.

Beet peeked through a side window, watching as the glitchy blobs quickly molded themselves into a pair of much older looking foxes. One, a female, was dressed in a pink dress, and the other, male, was dressed in a nice suit.

The door opened. “I’m home!” The young fox yelled.

The older male fox walked over to his child, and patted him on the head. “How’s my boy doing?” He asked.

“Great!” The kit shouted. “We had gym class, and art class, and…”

His mother laughed, getting up from her seat. “Nicholas, you’ll have to save your stories for dinner.”

“That’s right, Nick.” His father said. “I’m going to a business deal now. You can tell me all about your day when I get home.”

The fox’s ears drooped. “Alrighty.” He put his bag down, and went to his room.

“Don’t forget!” His mother yelled up to him. “You have a Ranger Scout meeting tonight!”

“So, this is Nick’s dream?” Beet whispered to himself. “He’s just living his life over, I don’t entirely understand. But I need to get him out of here.”

He ran to the back of the house, and started climbing up the wall, his metallic fingers digging into the concrete. He reached a window, and looked through. The small fox was laying on his racecar bed, reading a comic book.

He threw himself through the window, using the windowsill as leverage. He crashed into the room, startling the young fox.

“Who are you?” He asked, more curious than scared.

“I am Beet J. Stag.” Beet declared, once again.

“Are you a super hero?”

Beet thought for a second, before nodding. “Yes, I am. And I’m here to rescue you.”

“Rescue me?” The kit tilted his head. “From what?”

“This place isn’t real, Nicholas.” Beet continued, kneeling. “This is an illusion created by a monster.”

The fox stared at him for a second.

“MOOOOOOOOM!”

Beet reacted quickly, leaping through the window again as the fox’s mother entered the room. “What’s wrong, Nicholas?” She asked.

“There was a weird bug man in my room.” He explained, pointing to the window. “He jumped out the window.”

She looked out the window, seeing nothing but the back yard. She laughed and turned back to her son. “Nick, you have such an imagination some times.” She said. “Don’t ever change that.”

She left the room, and the young fox looked out the window himself, also seeing nothing. He quickly went back to reading a comic book.

Beet had run back to the side of the house. “That was close.” He said. “I don’t know what those things are, but they pose a threat. Perhaps I should stake it out until I get an opportunity.”

* * *

 

It had taken what felt like hours, even though his internal clock only showed a few minutes going by, before Beet saw a chance.

Young Nick had exited the house, dressed in a uniform, alongside his father, now dressed in casual clothes. They entered a rather busted, old car. Nick’s father attempted to start it up, but it sputtered in response.

“Ah, dumb old thing.” He let out, smacking the dashboard.

“Ah man, I’m gonna be late!” The young fox cried.

Beet saw his chance. He crawled across the lawn and onto the driveway, heading to the underside of the car. He managed to fit underneath it, and grabbed onto the bottom of it, seconds before it started up.

“There we go!” The older fox said. “Let’s get going.”

The car drove off, skidding Beet’s face and chest across the road. Luckily, he was made of the literal toughest stuff.

After a few minutes of driving, the car stopped. Beet dropped to the ground with a small thud, and the young fox stepped out of the car.

“Alright, Nicky, I’ll pick you up in about two hours.” His father stated. “And if anything goes wrong, just give me a call.”

The young Nick nodded, and walked into the building, unaware of the body of the robot the car had left behind. Beet quickly got up, and dashed to the side of the building. He spotted a window to the basement, and peered through it.

He watched as the fox skipped down into the basement, and into a crowd of other children, all wearing the same uniform, as well as a much older yak, also dressed in the same uniform.

He continued to watch as they did a variety of activities, which lasted for nearly an hour. A normal being would have probably fallen asleep by this point, but Beet wasn’t a normal being.

He was a Buddyroid. One named Beet J. Stag. And he was the best one ever.

The bot continued watching, until noticing young Nick head upstairs. “Chance get.” He whispered, standing up. He rushed into the house, and grabbed the young fox as he walked down the hall. He clasped his metallic hand over the fox’s muzzle, preventing him from yelling.

That didn’t stop the fox from struggling though, and his claws were a lot sharper than he’d expected.

He rushed out of the building, and headed around the back. He let go of the fox’s muzzle.

“AAAAAAA HELP I’M BEING KID-“

He shut the fox’s mouth again.

“You need to stay quiet.” He told the child. “You are in danger just by being here. I’m getting you out.”

The fox clawed his way out of the robot’s grasp and fell to the ground. “I thought I just imagined you!” The child yelled, terrified. “Why can’t you just leave me alone, I’m happy here.”

“That explains it.” Beet said. “That was your dream.”

The fox looked at him, confused.

“You wanted a normal life.”

The fox continued to stare at him, but before he could say anything, a small voice sounded.

“Nick? Where’d you go?” They turned to see a small rabbit, dressed in a similar uniform. She turned down the alley. “Oh, there you are!”

“Judy!” The fox yelled, causing Beet to look at her closer.

She ran up to them, and looked at the robot. “Is this the bug guy you told us about?”

“Yeah, he tried to kidnap me!” The fox said.

“What!?” The rabbit yelled, kicking the robot in the foot. “How dare you?”

Beet looked down at the rabbit, scanning her. No vital signs, it was a fake, not the real Judy. This place didn’t exactly mean much to her, after all, it was most likely part of Nick’s dream.

“So, you’re Judy Hopps, correct?” He asked.

She nodded. “How do you know my name?”

“I’ve met the real you.”

“What does that mean?” She asked.

“I really don’t want to do this to a kid.” He said. “But I suppose I don’t have a choice. Young Nick, watch.”

He swiftly kicked the fake rabbit in the stomach, but instead of anything gruesome happening, she instead burst into a blob of static that parted out of the way of his foot. The fox let out a shrill scream at the sight of this terror.

“YOU KILLED HER!”

“She wasn’t real, Nick.” He said, kneeling in front of him. “None of this is real, it’s all a dream. You need to remember.”

He gripped onto the fox’s shoulders, and stared him down. “Remember.” He started repeating the word, over and over.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” The fox yelled, starting to cry. “I don’t remember anything!”

Beet stood up. “Maybe I need to disrupt the dream more.” He said to himself. “Maybe that’ll help.”

He turned to the side of the building, and delivered a quick kick to the building. It briefly flashed black and white, distorting into static. “Hmm. I have an idea.”

He quickly ran into the building, the fox trailing behind him. “Don’t hurt anyone else, please!” He pleaded.

“I won’t!” Beet said, stopping at the entrance to the basement. “I have something a lot more disruptive in mind.”

He kicked the door open, and ran down the stairs. Everyone there turned to him. “Excuse me, sir, I’m afraid you seem to be in the wrong-“

“No, I am in the correct destination.” Beet said to the yak. “I am here to disrupt your meeting. Beet pounded his chest, and music started pouring out of him.

“Go on, Go-Busters!” He tried to sing, it coming off stilted and gravelly. As he sung, he performed an odd dance. “Soar high, Go-Busters! Today, tomorrow, and forever more!”

“What are you doing?” The young kit asked.

Charge up your smile, because I know if we have, we’ll do a good job!” He stomped a few times and gave a thumbs up. “Go, let’s go!”

Suddenly, everyone in the room began to flicker black and white, and then quickly turned into a static blob. “You’re singing killed them!” Nick yelled.

“CUT, CUT, CUT!” a voice from somewhere yelled out. The two watched as one of the walls slid backwards, and split in two.

Filmroid strolled in, looking at the static blobs. “How’d this happen, everything was going on script!” It yelled, pulling out a stack of paper. He then spotted the two. “You!? How’d you get in here!?”

“I’m Beet J. Stag, I always have a plan.”

The monster growled. “Alright, Buglers!” It yelled. The static blobs suddenly reformed into a small group of Buglers. “Get’em!”

“What’s happening!?” The young fox yelled, hiding behind the robot.

“Don’t worry.” Beet assured. “I will protect you.”

“IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME”

“Let’s morphin’.”

Beet quickly transformed into Beet Buster, and pulled out a small, yellow cellphone. “Only around eight Buglers, difficulty level, none.” The phone quickly unfolded into a gun, and Beet effortlessly shot most of the Buglers down.

“God, you guys are pathetic!” Filmroid reprimanded. “But you two will never escape! There’s only one way out, and neither of you is going to figure it out!” The monster cartwheeled back into the black pit behind the wall, which closed behind him.

“Nick, I’ll need your help.” Beet said, turning to the fox, who was now in a fetal position.

He popped up quickly. “I remember!” The fox yelled triumphantly.

“Really?” Beet asked, confused. “How did that happen.”

“Seeing the monster must have triggered my memory, and…” He looked down at himself. “And I’m still 9.” He said, incredibly disappointed.

“That’s most likely part of your mental projection” Beet suggested, shooting down the last remaining Bugler. “You’ll return to normal once we leave this place.”

“So, how do we do that?” Nick asked. “I don’t have my Zoolizer, and Steven Fearburg over there said we can’t escape.”

“There’s a chance it has something to do with your desire.” Beet stated. “Maybe finding and destroying the basis of the dream will bring us back.”

“Why do you think that?”

“There needs to be some sort of tether point, or else Hyperspace simply can’t exist.” Beet explained. “We just need to figure out what it is.”

“It’s my dad.” Nick said, rather bluntly.

“Oh.” Beet let out. “You’d know, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Nick said. “I’ve always wanted to see him again. In real life, though. Not some fake, virtual, dream place.”

“Then we better hurry and find him.” Beet said, heading up the stairs. “The more time we spend here, the more danger Hopps is in.”

“There’s probably a car up there we can use!” Nick suggested, following him up.

They ran out of the building. “There’s one!” Nick yelled, pointing over to a red truck on the side of the road. He ran up to it, and hopped up, trying to reach for the handle. He missed, despite being right next to it.

Beet walked to the car as the fox continued trying to open it. He walked to the front of the car. It was completely flat, thin as cardboard. “Don’t bother.” Beet said. “It’s just a background, we can’t interact with it.”

“What?” The fox said, confused. “How can we not interact with something?”

“When we’re not meant to.” Beet explained, hitting the car, causing it to tip over. “This is Filmroid’s movie, if he doesn’t want us doing something, he can change the rules.”

Nick stepped onto the flat car, absolutely baffled. “Alright, how are we supposed to get to my dad?”

“I think I have an idea.” Beet said, turning to look at the road. A large path had been carved into the ground from Beet’s ride under the car.

“So, we follow that, and it leads to the house.” Nick guessed. “Alright, let’s get going!”

* * *

 

“What was that?” Nick asked, looking around. One second he was outside the Ranger Scouts meeting place, and as soon as he finished speaking, he was now at his dream house.

“I believe that was a scene change.” Beet stated. “Filmroid’s messing with us.”

The front door slammed open, revealing Filmroid, who waved at them “Totally am!” He yelled, hopping down the stairs. “I don’t enjoy people messing with me, but I love doing it to other people!”

Filmroid’s cheery mood suddenly turned dark. “Now, I will give you one chance, Wilde.” It stated, its blue eyes turning red. “You can stay here, in the perfect world I created for you, or you can go back to your awful reality. And spoiler alert, you’re going to pick option two.”

“How do you know that?” The kit asked. “I want to go home, obviously I’ll pick option one.”

Filmroid laughed. “It’s because I know you don’t have the heart to do what you have to escape.” He motioned to the door, and a rather distressing sight appeared.

Nick’s father floated out of the door, arms locked outwards, legs clamped together, and eyes dead white. “I know you can’t bear to lose your dad again.”

Nick stepped back at the sight. He couldn’t do it. It was the first time he’d seen his dad in over 20 years, but he wanted… no, needed, to get out of here.

Beet Buster stepped forward. “He might not be able to do it.” He stated. “But I can.”

“Beet, you don’t…”

Without a word, Beet aimed his cell phone gun up at the floating figure.

“Wait, don’t!” The monster yelled.

It was too late, Beet had fired at the fake creature, causing it to explode. Filmroid let out an ear splitting shriek.

“YOU IDIOTS!” It yelled. “I HAD THIS WHOLE THING PLANNED OUT PERFECTLY!”

“Actually, it’s very clear you didn’t.” Nick stated, trying to ignore what had just happened. “Like, what was up with Judy being here?”

The monster tilted its head, confused.

“At this point in time,” Beet started, his armor reforming on him. “Judy wouldn’t have been born.”

“W-wait, seriously!?” Filmroid let out, genuinely surprised. “I was gonna have her be your childhood crush, but now it’s just kind of weird.”

“Your story obviously has no respect or consideration for the original.” Beet said. “It’s best you go back to the drawing board.”

Filmroid growled. “It doesn’t matter anyway, this whole place is going to come down around you, and you’ll never get out!” It said, trying to sound happy, but failing. “See you chumps later!” It leaped into the air, a black pit forming beneath it, which the monster fell through.

The two looked around. Everything besides the house was gone, floating in a black void. Nick looked at the edges of the land mass they were standing on, noticing those were also rapidly disappearing.

“We need to find the exit.”

“Follow me.” Beet said, running into the house. The fox quickly followed behind him.

“So, you know where the exit is?” He asked.

“I have a hunch.”

Beet slammed the door behind them, and then opened it again, revealing a mass of white light.

“The exit was the exit.” Nick said to himself, dumbfounded.

The both ran through the mass of light, and vanished.

* * *

 

Nick burst up from the table, and Beet’s eyes lit up again. They were back in the truck.

“Wow, that was fast.” Ryuuji said, surprised.

“I was in there for what felt like years.” Nick said. He clutched his throat, his voice was normal. “Oh thank god, I’m a rational adult again.”

“According to my internal clock, we were there for exactly 7 minutes and 28 seconds.” Bee explained. “It seems time moves both faster and slower in there.”

“Alright.” Blue Buster started. “I suppose I should head into Judy’s head now?”

“Well, there’s probably some things we should tell you first.” Nick suggested. “Like, she isn’t going to remember you.”

Beet nodded. “You’ll need something to jog her memory.”

Nick pounded his fist into his paw. “I got it!” He took off his Zoolizer, and threw it into Ryuuji’s hands. “Use my Zoolizer! That should get her to remember easily.”

“Also, you need to find a tether.” Beet continued. “An object holding the Hyperspace together.”

Ryuuji nodded, strapping the Zoolizer to his wrist. “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.” He pulled the wires connected to both of their faces off, aside from the one connected to Beet’s forehead, and began setting them up for him and Judy.

“I think you just tore off some of my fur.” Nick said, rubbing his temples.

“I am a robot, and do not feel such small pains.”

“Trust me,” Nick started, getting up from the table. “Having your fur pulled is the most painful thing in the universe.”

Ryuuji laid down on the table, where Nick once laid. “Alright, Beet.” He said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Ryuuji, are you sure you want to do this?” Gorisaki the truck asked, startling the fox. “It’s super dangerous.”

“Wait, where are we?” Nick finally asked.

“You’re in by trailer!” Gorisaki said cheerfully, the fox not being able to respond.

“Yes, I am sure, Gorisaki.” Ryuuji said. “Go-Busters never give up a mission.”

“Activating neural connection in three, two-“

He blacked out before he could say one.

* * *

 

He opened his eyes, and looked around. He was in the middle of a field, a large stage set up on one side of it, a crowd of mammals watching, some crying, and some clapping.

“And in addition to my retirement,” The buffalo on the stage announced. “I’d like to announce our new Chief of Police, Judy Hopps!”

Ryuuji quickly pulled out a pair of binoculars, and looked through them, seeing Judy hop onto the stage, and take the podium the buffalo was previously at. She cleared her throat. “It is an amazing honor to be here today, and to accept this promotion.” She announced into the microphone. “But, honestly, I don’t know if I’m the one who should be taking all of the credit for being one of the best officers in history. I feel part of the honors should go to my wonderful mate, NICK!”

She motioned to the fox, sitting in the front, a resounding cheer pouring through the audience.

Ryuuji pulled the binoculars down. “…Mate?” He shook his head. “Let’s just get this over with quickly.” He ran towards the crowd… but suddenly found himself running down an alley.

“What the?” He looked around at the dark alley. “How did I…?” He looked to the exit of the alley, and ran towards it… only to find himself back in the field, standing behind the stage this time.

“I already hate this.” He said to himself. He noticed the two walking down the steps, and huddled to the back of the stage.

“Can you believe it, Nick?’ Judy said, absolutely ecstatic. “Chief of Police already, I haven’t even become a detective yet!”

“Well, that’s what happens when you manage to stop almost every known criminal in the city in only a few years.” The fake Nick said.

“Well, it wasn’t all me, it was mostly you.” She admitted.

“No, it was definitely mostly you.”

“So this is her dream?” Blue Buster said to himself. “I need to get her out of here before her ego inflates too much.” He tried to step out to confront her, only to find himself in the middle of a street. “Seriously?”

He heard a horn honk, and leaped out of the way as a massive truck passed by him. “What in the world is going on?”

He heard a ringing sound from behind him, and turned to a nearby manhole cover. The cover slowly raised, covering a cylindrical elevator. The doors on it slid open, and out stepped Filmroid, wearing a beret. “I’m going on!” It announced, tossing the hat off. “You’re in my world, and I’ve made sure you’re in the script, so you can’t mess this up!”

“What script?” Ryuuji asked, confused.

Filmroid pulled out a stack of paper. “THIS SCRIPT!” He yelled. “Every film needs a script, and I’m the best screenplay writer in the universe!”

“Sorry, but your story seems very contrived so far.” Ryuuji criticized. “I mean, Judy stopped every criminal in the city in only a few years? How does that happen?”

The monster scoffed. “Everyone’s a critic. Doesn’t matter though, I’ve got the perfect role for you!”

“Is it as the guy who kicks your ass?” He cracked his knuckles. “Because that’s what’s gonna happen right now!”

He rushed at the monster, striking it several times in the stomach, causing the script pages to fly out of its hands. Blue Buster finished with an uppercut, launching the monster into the air. As it fell down, he landed another punch on the robot’s stomach, launching it into a nearby car. This caused an explosion.

The monster stumbled from the fire. “I guess you still have your free will in here.” It mumbled. Filmroid spotted a piece of the script floating through the air, and grabbed it.

He pulled out a pen, and started writing down on it. “And then Filmroid was completely healed…” It said as it wrote. Suddenly, the monster spun around, revealing any injuries that Blue Buster had caused were gone.

“This is the power of the script!” The monster yelled. “I’m a god in here!”

“Great, another wannabe god.” Ryuuji said sarcastically.

“So yeah, you’ll be finding out what your role is when we get there!” The monster laughed. “Which should be…”

Ryuuji stepped forward, and then instantly disappeared.

“Now!”

* * *

 

“This has been really wonderful, Nick.” Judy said, looking out to the pristine lake as the sunset shone down on it, making it sparkle.

Hey, what can I say.” The fox said, putting his arm around her shoulder. “I just wanted to give the new chief a good first day.”

She chuckled. “It has been a good day, don’t worry.”

There was a bit of silence as they continued to look out at the lake from the bench. It was eventually broken when Nick started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” She asked.

“Oh, I was just remembering when we stopped a drug dealer here.” Nick stated. “You know, the weasel who was trying to sell Nighthowlers just… in the middle of the park during broad daylight.”

“Oh yeah, that was hilarious.” She said. “What kind of a drug smuggler just shows up during daylight hours in the middle of a place thousands of people visit a day?”

Nick shrugged. “Remember the one guy who was trying to smuggle stuff through ice cream?” He said, laughing. “Now that guy was clever!”

“Not as clever as us when we took him down!” Judy said enthusiastically, hopping from the bench. “I didn’t realize a bucket and a ball point pen could do that much damage to an ice cream truck.”

“The best time was our wedding day.” Nick stated. “Remember that?”

“How could I forget.” She said, amused at the fox assuming she could. “Bellwether breaking out of prison and coming to assassinate us was definitely something I didn’t expect.”

The two continued reminiscing for a while after, walking around the park. Before they knew it, it was almost night.

“Holy smokes!” Judy yelled, starting to panic. “I have to get back to the station, I have important stuff to do now!”

“What?”

“I have to prepare assignments for tomorrow, read all the reports, file paperwork…” She listed off. “It’s all very, very important duties!”

“Alright, I’ll drive you over.” Nick offered.

“That’d be wonderful.”

Before the two could even step forward, Judy’s radio began buzzing. “Hello?” She answered.

“Chief Hopps, we need your help over at the national bank!” Another officer yelled. “We need it ASAP!”

“Looks like we have one more case left, Nick.” She said. The fox nodded, and they ran off to the cruiser.

* * *

 

“Great, where am I now?” Ryuuji said to himself, looking around. He was in what looked like a very large bank, very… plain looking.

What wasn’t plain looking was the bag of money hoisted over his shoulder, and the number of injured people on the ground.

He dropped the sack, and ran over to a rhino in a police uniform. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“Get away from me, you psycho!” The rhino yelled, swatting at the Buster. “When Hopps and Wilde get here, you’ll be sorry!”

“What?” Ryuuji got up and looked around, measuring the evidence of the situation. “I suppose this is the ‘role’ the Metalroid was talking about. A bank robber.”

He heard the door burst open, and the two mammals walked in. “Hold it right there, bank robber!” The fake Nick yelled.

“Hold what?” Ryuuji asked. “I haven’t actually done anything.”

“Good one, Supermammal.” Judy snarked. “We know you’re attempting to rob this bank, and have injured over a dozen innocents and officers!”

“No, I didn’t.” He replied. “I can guarantee you that it was like this when I got here. In fact…” He picked up the sack of money, and tossed it behind the receptionist counter behind him. “There, I returned your fake money.”

“Fake money?” Judy said, confused.

“It’s like these fake people here.” He continued, motioning to the injured. “None of this is real, Judy.”

“How do you know my name?” She said nervously, backing up.

“We met like 8 or so hours ago.” He reiterated. “I was helping you fight a monster, and you got hit by one of his attacks, and are stuck here.”

“That sounds like crazy talk.” The fake fox stated.

“Nick’s right, you’re obviously not mentally well.” Judy continued. “Just come with us, and we’ll take you to a hospital.”

“Alright, I have one question for you, ‘Nick’.” Ryuuji said, walking up to the fox. “What happened to your father?”

“What?” Judy let out, watching as the fox stared at the criminal, dead eyed. “What happened to your father, Nick?”

“he lives with my mother.” The fox said, in an unusually monotone voice.

“Sorry, but that’s wrong.” Ryuuji said, shrugging. “You told me earlier that he disappeared.”

Judy continued watching as the fox opened its mouth, as if to say something in response, but only a horrible screeching sound emerged. The thing that looked like a fox began to fizzle out, turning into a morphing blob of static.

“What did you do to him!?” She yelled, nearly bursting into tears. “Bring him back!”

“That wasn’t Nick.” He said. “None of this is real, like I said You need to trust me.” He pulled the Zoolizer off his wrist, and handed it to her.

The bunny stared at it for a few seconds of silence, she had remembered everything. “Oh god, then that means that nothing was real?” She started crying. “But… I can remember everything, the last five years…”

“You’ve only been here for about an hour.” Ryuuji said. “And now it’s time for us to get out.” He ran towards the door, but stopped, looking back the motionless rabbit, ears dropped. He sighed. “Take your time, I understand how you feel.”

“Thank you, Ryuuji.”

* * *

 

It took around 40 minutes for her to exit the bank. When she emerged, she was still wiping tears from her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Ryuuji said thoughtfully.

“It’s…” She took a deep breath. “It’s fine. None of it was real.” She tried to hold back her tears. “So, what’s the plan to get out of here?”

“Beet said there was some sort of tether connecting you to this hyperspace world. Something connected to the dream.” Ryuuji explained. “If we destroy the tether, then we’ll be able to get out.”

“What do you think the tether is?” Judy asked.

“Well, I, uh…” He rubbed the back of his helmet. “I kind of assumed Nick was the tether.”

She gave him a look. “Your first instinct was to kill him?”

“Look, it sounds a lot worse than it is.”

She rolled her eyes. “So, the tether should be something connected to this… dream, right?” She pulled out a golden badge from her pocket. “This is the Police Chief badge, maybe it’s the tether?”

Ryuuji grabbed it, and effortlessly snapped the piece of metal in two. Nothing happened, so he tossed the pieces over his shoulders. “Nope, that doesn’t seem to be it.”

“Then what could it be?” She wondered. He thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a bell sounding.

“CUUUUUUUUUUUUT!”

And a familiar shrill voice yelling.

Before their eyes, a piece of the air in front of them slid up, revealing a black void. Out of the void stepped Filmroid, holding a stack of papers.

“How many times do I have to tell you people, follow the script!” He shouted at them, smacking the stack of papers. “How did you even break from the part I wrote for you, Go-Buster!?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m just an extra.” He chuckled back.

The robot growled and threw the papers to the ground. “I gave you everything you ever wanted, you wretched rabbit!” He yelled at Judy. “I gave you a perfect utopia, I gave you a perfect mate, I even gave you the job of your dreams! What more do you WANT!?”

“But that’s not what I wanted.” She stated, stepping forward. “None of that is anything I ever really wanted.”

“Hah, I read your mind, I know this is what you really want!” The monster retorted.

“Some of this would be nice at some point.” She continued. “But not now. All I want to do now is to make the world a better place.”

“Aw, but that takes WORK!” The monster whined. “Isn’t it better to take the easy way out? Just stay here, it’s great!”

“But I can’t take the easy way out.” Judy said. “I am a trier. I try, and what I’m trying to do now is protect the world!”

“Augh, I HATE stubborn actors!” It yelled. “Buglers, cut them out!” He motioned, and suddenly an army of Buglers appeared in front of them.

“Alright Ryuuji!” Judy yelled. “Let’s take care of these bugs and get out of here! ZOO ON!” She slapped the button on her Zoolizer.

Nothing happened.

In a panic, she started slapping it repeatedly, as the monster and his minions looked on, confused. “Why isn’t it working!?”

“This is just some sort of mental projection, Judy!” Ryuuji explained. “I don’t think you can transform in this state.”

“Well isn’t that just….” She grunted. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Try to figure out what the tether is while I take care of these guys.” He said, pulling out a pair of binoculars, which he unfolded into a sword.

As Blue Buster rushed towards the monsters, Judy stayed back, and thought to herself. ”Something connected to the dream…” She muttered. If it wasn’t the fake Nick, or the badge, then what could it be?

Blue Buster continued slicing through what seemed to be a never-ending swarm of Buglers. “I can do this all day!” He yelled.

It had to be something important to the dream, something valuable to her fake life. She stared down at her paw.

The ring.

“RYUUJI!” She yelled, pulling the ring off her digit. “DESTROY THIS!”

She tossed the ring into the air, where it soared right over the Buster. Blue Buster quickly pulled out a camera, which he unfolded into a gun, and shot at the ring.

“NO!”

There was a massive explosion, much larger than the tiny ring itself. A shockwave crashed through the area, causing everything to be reduced to a flat, gray block. The Buglers vanished as the shockwave hit, leaving only the monster, Judy, and Ryuuji standing in the featureless world.

“AUGH, LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” It yelled at the two.

“What in the world just happened?” Judy asked, looking at the gray blocky world that now surrounded her.

“Looks like the Hyperspace has been disrupted.” Ryuuji stated. “Now we just need to find the exit.”

As soon as he finished, a gray block rose from the ground, a perfectly rectangular hole carved in the middle of it, emitting a light.

“The exit!” All three of them yelled.

“You’re not getting away!” Filmroid yelled, picking up the script. He pulled out a pen, and started writing down on it. “And then the exit VANISHED, FOREVER!”

With that, the block disappeared back into the ground.

“And that’s not all I’ve got!” He quickly wrote something down, and threw the script back to the ground again. He started laughing, and in a literal flash, was suddenly giant sized.

“Oh great!” Judy yelled, the two dashing out of the way as the monster attempted to squish them with its foot. “This usually doesn’t happen until we beat the monster!”

Blue Buster glanced over at the script. “I have an idea!” He rushed over to the script, dodging another stomp, and grabbed the script. “I don’t have a pen!”

“Here!” She yelled back, pulling out her carrot pen. “Take this!” She threw it to him.

He caught the pen, and wrote something down on the paper. “Alright, you’re ready to go, Judy!”

“What?”

In another flash, Judy suddenly found herself staring directly into the monster’s crystal-like eyes. She looked at herself, she was in her ranger form, and also, well, giant.

“This feels very unnecessary!” She yelled down.

“Just distract him for a minute!”

“Hey, I thought this was Super Sentai, not Ultraman!” The monster said in disbelief.

“I don’t know what that second thing is at all!” She yelled, punching the monster square in the face.

“You’ll pay for that!” Filmroid retorted, attempting to strike the rabbit. Blue quickly ducked under it, and kicked him right in the stomach.

“Even when I’m giant, I still have my agility!” She said, smugly. “You still wanna take me?”

The monster growled and tried to perform another swing, only for a bright flash to hit him. Suddenly, the monster was back to normal size, facing the massive rabbit.

“Uh oh.”

She raised her foot, and promptly squashed the monster flat. She lifted iy up to check, and Filmroid had completely vanished. In another flash, she was suddenly back to her normal size. “Aw man, I was kind of enjoying being giant.”

“That’s weird.” Blue Buster stated. Suddenly, the gray block that had previously risen rose again.

“How’d you do that?” Judy asked.

“I wrote it down in the script.” He explained. “It has ultimate power here, I guess.” He promptly tore it in two, and tossed the pages away. “Let’s just get out of here.

She nodded, and the two ran into the light.

* * *

 

The two bolted up from the table. “We did it!” Ryuuji yelled, getting up.

“We can see that.” Beet replied.

“What was going on in there, anyway?” Nick asked.

“What do you mean?” Judy asked. Nick awkwardly pointed at her. She looked at herself, she was in her ranger form. “How’d…?”

“You were transforming and untransforming in your sleep.” Beet explained.

“Yeah, it was kind of making me worried.”

She untransformed, and leaped from the table. “Alright, next objective,” She started, pumping her fist. “Find that monster, and beat him good!”

“That might take a bit.” Gorisaki said, his voice booming through the truck and startling Judy.

“Gorisaki? Where are you?”

“We’re in Gorisaki.” Ryuuji explained. “This is his vehicle form.”

“And he’s right.” Beet continued. “It will take a while to track him, so two should relax for a moment.” The two Busters walked through a door at the front of the truck.

Judy scoffed, and sat down. “I really wanna go kick that guy’s ass.” She stated, frustrated.

“Well,” Nick started, sitting next to her. “Why don’t we talk about what happened in our dreams?”

“I’d rather not.” Judy replied quickly.

“Oh, come on,” Nick shook her, trying to egg her on. “It couldn’t have been that weird, right?”

“Oh, yes it was.”

Nick looked at her, confused. “Alrighty. Just wanted to see if we could get any deeper meaning from our psyches.”

“Well, there was one thing I found out in there that I want to talk to you about.” She admitted.

He turned back to her. “Lay it on me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your dad?”

He stared at her, wide eyed, and mouth partially open. He wasn’t ready for that.

“Seriously, why didn’t you ever tell me about that?” She asked. “It’s kind of an important thing.”

“Because its none of your business, Carrots.” He said rather forcibly, getting up. “How’d you learn that anyway? Did Ryuuji tell you?”

“Yes, actually.” She said. “Is that what him and you were talking about earlier?” He nodded. “Listen Nick, we can find him, we-“

“This is the reason I didn’t tell you!” He shouted. “We have more important stuff to deal with now, I don’t want you getting distracted with my personal issues.”

“Nick…” Before she could continue, the door at the back of the truck opened, Ryuuji running through.

“Alright, we locked onto the Metalroid!” He announced. “We’re heading to his location right now!”

“Thank god.” Nick mouthed. “Alright, so, where is he?”

“The middle of a field.” Ryuuji said.

“Exciting.” The fox sarcastically replied.

“We’re heading out now, anyway.” Ryuuji continued. “So, get ready.”

“Wouldn’t want to do anything else.” He said, looking directly at Judy. She rolled her eyes, and got up.

* * *

 

The back of the truck quickly plummeted to the ground, letting natural light flood in.

Nick reacted in pain, quickly covering them. “AHHH! MY SENSITIVE NOCTURNAL EYES!”

Judy nudged him in the side. “It’s not that bad.”

“IT IS ACTUALLY!”

“Just transform.” Ryuuji suggested. “It’s like sunglasses.”

Nick complied, transforming. He let out a sigh of relief as he stared into the light. “Much better.”

Judy transformed as well, thinking that it would be weird for her to be the only one not transformed. The four rangers walked out of the truck, which quickly closed behind them.

“Hey guys, wait for me!” The truck quickly spun around, revealing its gorilla head. It popped off the truck, and unfolded into Gorisaki. “I want to help out!”

“This is dangerous, Gorisaki!” Ryuuji told him. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“But we could use Powered Custom!” He suggested.

“If I was doing this by myself, then we would.” He looked back to the other rangers. “But I have a team.”

“Aw…” Gorisaki sulked, and walked back over to the truck.

Ryuuji sighed. “Alright, if we need your help, I’ll come and get you. Deal?”

Gorisaki cheered, clapping his fists together. “I won’t disappoint you, Ryuuji!”

He sighed. “Alright, let’s find that Metalroid.” The other three nodded, and they ran into the barren, desert-like field.

It wasn’t exactly hard to spot the monster; a red and gray creature dancing around was definitely something that stood out against the beige and greens of the rest of the field.

“Well, if it isn’t the Directator himself!” Red joked, swinging his blade around.

The monster let out a disappointed sigh, and shook its head. “Really? Is that the best you could do?” It asked, looking up at nothing. “A reference?”

“Who’s he talking to?” Ryuuji asked.

“The voices in his head, probably.” Judy responded.

“Alright,” The monster started, pulling out his club and stepping forward. “Let’s just finish this episode off already!”

The two mammals rushed towards the Metalroid, weapons drawn. They struck at the monster, who blocked with his club, pushing them backwards. It twirled the weapon around in the air, creating a circle of purple orbs. It swung its hand forward, causing the orbs to fly at them. The two deftly swung their weapons, knocking each orb away.

“I thought you of all monsters would realize using the same trick twice never works.” Red said, dashing forward the monster and striking him in the leg.

“Hey, we need to pad out this fight scene somehow!” Filmroid retorted, kicking the fox away.

“Your self-referential humor is getting really aggravating.” Blue stated, leaping into the monster with her daggers.

The monster smacked her back, and she tumbled to the ground. “I suppose you want to get straight to the climax, huh?” It asked.

“Ugh, please, no more climaxes.” Red groaned, getting up.

“Too bad!” It yelled. “Prepare to face your worst nightmare!”

Before the monster could follow up on his threat, Blue Buster and Beet Buster leaped through the air, striking the monster in the chest at the same time. The Metalroid flew backwards, and crashed against the ground.

“Rule one of fighting a Sentai,” Blue Buster started, pulling at the strap on his chest. “Always keep your eye on the entire team!”

The monster grunted and got up. “I’m going to finish those two off, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” It declared. It then thrust its hands forward, an army of Buglers appearing in front of it. “Distract them, you extras!”

The group of robots rushed towards the two rangers. “This should be easy.” Beet declared.

Blue Buster nodded. “Shouldn’t even be much of a distraction, honestly. Alright.” The two kneeled down a bit. “Busters, ready…” He slapped his wrist. “GO!”

The two rushed into the crowd of robots, Beet punching some away, while Blue Buster tossed and spun them around.

“Alright,” Red started, hoisting his blade up. “Let’s get in there.”

“Not so fast!” The monster yelled, flipping into the air. It somehow managed to clear the entire crowd of Buglers.

“DRAMATIC EDITING KICK!”

It exited its curled jump into a jumping kick, flying directly into the side of Red’s face. And as soon as it hit, it hit again. And then again. With the third kick, the fox smashed against the ground, and slid off.

Filmroid landed, however, and gave a laugh. “What the hell was that?” Blue asked.

“It’s called movie magic rabbit!” The monster retorted. “Now, let’s get this finale started!” The monster strained for a second, a large, red sphere emerging from its lens. The orb expanded, eventually enveloping the two.

Blue Buster looked back from the fight. “What the!?” He yelled, punching a Bugler away. “What is that!?”

“It’s hyperspace.” Beet announced, suddenly popping up in front of Ryuuji. “I didn’t realize he could create hyperspace on his own.”

“We need to get them out of there.” Blue Buster said, tossing another Bugler away. “You handle the rest of these guys, Beet.”

“I’m not sure if-“

Blue Buster rushed towards the orb of crackling red energy, and smacked right into it, a pulse shooting him back. “Alright, not a good idea.” He stated, rubbing his head as he got up. “What could be going on in there?”

* * *

 

Judy opened her eyes. She was somewhere dark, but also bright. She tried to get up, but found her leg was killing her. She managed to sit up, though. It was a familiar place, trees lining the walls, it was trying to replicate a forest.

She turned, seeing Nick next to her, who was also getting up. “Where are we?” He asked.

“I think we’re in the Natural History Museum?” She guessed. “But… why are we here?”

They heard chuckling, and looked up to the edge of the pit. “Well, you should’ve just stayed on the carrot farm, huh?”

It was Bellwether, carrying a briefcase, three rams standing next to her. “Oh, well this is just fantastic.” Nick deadpanned.

“It’s too bad, I did like you.” The sheep continued.

“I highly doubt that.” Judy said through gritted teeth, clutching at her leg.

Inexplicably, the sheep started laughing again. “Oh, no, of course not.” The two trapped mammals looked at each other, before seeing her pull out a gun. “He is.”

She shot at the fox, the blue projectile slapping him right on the face. “Ahhh. Oooh nooo.” He scraped some of the juice off his face, and stuck it in his mouth. “Hmm, still tastes good.”

“Yes, police!” Bellwether yelled into a phone. “There’s a savage fox at the Natural History Museum! Officer Hopps is down! Please hurry!”

“What’s happening?” Nick asked, incredibly confused.

“It looks like she’s just repeating herself."

“Oh, but he can’t help it, can he?” She continued. “Since preds are biologically predisposed to be savages.”

“You know, this speech was a lot more effective when something was actually happening.” Nick said, crossing his arms.

“How is this supposed to be our worst nightmare?” Judy asked as Nick helped her up.

“CUT!”

“Oh great, here comes Mr. Wood.” Nick sighed. Everything around them froze, including Bellwether, who was mid-speech. Filmroid approached from above.

“Did you switch out the props, Mr. Bateman?” The monster asked, hopping down from the ledge. “That’s just naughty!”

It walked up, and grabbed the fox by his green shirt collar, smacking Judy away before he lifted him up. “So, where’s the real Nighthowler syrum?” He looked the fox up and down, before reaching into his shirt pocket. The monster pulled out a small, smooth blue orb. “Not good at hiding things, hm?” he dropped the fox to the ground, and leaped back up to the edge of the pit. “Alright everyone, from the top!”

Suddenly, the two were flung into the air, landing back to where they were originally laying. Bellwether, walking backwards, moved back to the point before she shot at Nick. Filmroid walked over to her, and opened the gun’s back, flicking the blueberries out of it, and placing the Nighthowler bullet into it.

“There we go!” It said gleefully. “Absolutely perfect! Showtime!” It snapped its fingers, and everything began moving again.

“He is.”

“Aw pumpernickel.” Nick let out, just before the bullet hit him.

He fell to the ground, writhing and hissing in pain. “Nick!” Judy yelled, as the fox’s eyes dilated, and he writhed onto all fours, growling at her, no mercy in his eyes.

“NO!”

She closed her eyes, waiting for the fox to finish her off. Instead, she heard a loud clang. Opening her eyes, she looked up to see Beet standing in front of her, blocking the fox.

“What!?” The monster yelled, leaping down from the edge. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, Judy couldn’t move. It walked up to Beet. “You’re not supposed to be in this scene, you just ruined a perfectly good shot!”

“I apologize.” Beet said. It was impossible to tell if he was being genuine or sarcastic. “But I felt that a star like me deserved some spotlight in the big, final scene.”

“Star!?” The monster yelled. “You’re not a star!”

“I have to at least be a good actor to distract you for this long.”

“What?” The monster looked around, the rabbit and fox were gone.

“Up here!”

He looked up, seeing Blue Buster, now wearing a rather bulky piece of torso armor, and carrying the animals under his arms. “You tricked me!” It yelled up. “How did I not see that coming?”

“Because you’re an idiot, and a bad director!” Blue Buster shouted down. The monster placed its hands to its head and gave an overexaggerated scream.

It stopped. “Wait a second!” The monster snapped its fingers again, causing time to become unfrozen. Meaning that Blue Buster was now carrying a very angry fox under his arm.

He accidentally dropped Judy to the ground as he struggled to contain the fox. “Beet! Catch!” He tossed the fox into the pit, Beet holding out his arms as he fell into them.

Now Beet had a rabid fox scratching and biting at him. “Please stop.”

Blue Buster looked down at the rabbit. “Uh, sorry about that.”

“No prob, bob.” She replied. “How did you two get here, anyway?” she asked.

He motioned towards a large hole hanging in midair, leading out into the field. “I punched my way in.”

Filmroid leaped up out of the pit. “Alright, big guy, you wanna go!?” He raised his fists. “Put up your dukes!”

“Please.” Blue Buster dismissed. “I just need one punch to beat you, buddy.”

“What?”

Before he could do anything else, Blue Buster rushed up to the monster, and punched him right through the lens in his chest. In a flash, the museum locale had vanished, replaced by the field.

Nick was still being carried by Beet, and the fox was gnawing at his hand. He quickly realized what he was doing, and awkwardly stopped. “Just put me down.” He said. The Buddyroid responded by dropping the fox to the ground.

“MY LENS!” The monster yelled as Blue Buster pulled his fist from it. “MY BEAUTIFUL LENS!”

“Looks like your reel’s been cut.” Blue Buster quipped.

The monster growled, and hit the Go-Buster back with its club. “Just because I don’t have my lens, doesn’t mean I can’t kill you!”

The other three rangers ran up to Blue Buster, Nick and Judy having transformed on their way there. “So, what’s with the armor?” Red asked.

“This is Powered Custom armor.” Blue Buster explained. “Gorisaki and my Go-Buster form fused together to make it.”

“You guys must have a pretty special bond, huh?” Blue said.

“It’s a lot like your bond with Nick.” He explained. “We’ve been through a lot, and so have you two.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Nick said in a faux-sing-song voice. “But let’s get back to finishing this guy off.”

Blue nodded, and pulled out her daggers, which suddenly started to glow. “This again?” She said, turning to Blue Buster, whose armor was also glowing.

“This is new.” He said, as the armor pulled off of him and floated into the air.

“Not for us it isn’t.” Red replied.

Blue threw her daggers into the glowing piece of armor, causing them to form into a ball of light. The ball flew directly towards the rabbit, striking her.

She opened her eyes, and on her paws, were what appeared to be two slightly oversized blue boxing gloves. The gloves weren’t made of leather, but instead felt like they were made of metal. On the front of the gloves were the face of an angry stylized gorilla.

She punched the gloves together, causing sparks to shoot form them. “Hey, you’re a film expert, right?” She asked the monster, walking towards it.

“Uh, I guess?” It responded, taking a nervous step back.

“Well, have you ever seen Rocky Boarboa?” She continued.

“Which one?” Red asked. “Please say you’ve only seen Rocky Boarboa 4.”

She rolled her eyes from behind her helmet. “Basically, I’m gonna box your face in!” She yelled. She rushed towards the monster, and leaped up, striking him in the face with one of the gloves. The force of the punch caused him to bounce off of the ground and land on his stomach.

“Holy mackerel.” Red let out, stunned at the punch’s power.

The rabbit’s ears perked up as she heard a bell dinging. “What was that?” She looked at the monster, who was swaying from side to side. “Oh, I guess it means it’s time to finish you!”

“Let’s do this together, Judy!” Blue Buster yelled to her. She nodded, and ran to the Go-Buster, leaping up into the air.

The Buster punched her, launching the rabbit high into the sky. She pulled back her fist. “PUNCH DELETE!”

“BUSTERS EDITION!” Ryuuji finished for her.

The rabbit punched forward, launching her towards the monster. On the ground, Blue Buster ran to the monster. They met at the exact same spot, directly in front of the monster, and punched at the same time.

There was a visible shockwave as the two punches hit, nearly knocking the fox off his feet. The robot, who felt the full force of the two superhuman punches, smashed into the ground, and bounced off so hard that he flew through the air, and into the horizon.

“And he’s going!” Red yelled, watching the monster’s body. “And going! And going. And going.”

The monster vanished into the horizon, the fox continuing for a bit as the two other rangers settled back down from the ridiculous punch.

“And going, and go-“ Red was interrupted by a crash behind him. The monster’s body flew over them, and fell into the ground, exploding. “And he’s back!”

“Did we just punch that guy around the Earth?” Blue asked. Ryuuji nodded in response, about as dumbfounded as she was.

Suddenly, the gloves on Blue’s paws flew off, splitting back into her daggers, and Gorisaki, who fell to the ground with a thud. “Whoa, what happened?” He asked, getting up.

“You just helped us beat the monster, Gorisaki.” Ryuuji explained. “Thanks for that.”

Gorisaki leaped up, and started dancing. Another, smaller object landed in the dirt. Blue picked it up, it was a ZooTag, with a picture of one of the boxing gloves on it.

“Now’s not the time to celebrate, Wonder Bunny.” Red said, walking up to them. “We still have the giant form to deal with before we’re done for good.”

She nodded, and the two watched as the red badge flew off into the distance, forming the monster in the distance. “TIME FOR THE SEQUEL!” It roared.

The two quickly plugged in the ZooTags into the Zoolizers, and in a few seconds, ZooRobo was staring the monster down.

“Everyone knows the sequel is worse than the original!” Blue yelled, thrusting the controls forward. The robot stepped forward, and lashed its sword at the monster, causing it to stumble backwards.

“Sorry, but I have a sequel you mangy animals will find really entertaining!” It said. Its lens, now completely restored, began to glow. It shot out a red orb, which quickly transformed into an exact replica of ZooRobo, down to the exact detail. The only difference was that it was now colored black and gold.

“Behold, ZooRobo, Legacy Edition!” It announced. “There’s no way you can beat yourselves!”

“Ugh, what an ugly color scheme.” Red let out.

“Yeah, it’s a real eyesore.” Blue followed up. “I feel like the red and blue of our version makes it stand out more.”

The monster let out a series of noises, trying to imitate the two. “SIC EM!”

The black recolor stepped forward, and swung its sword at ZooRobo, who tried to block it with its own sword. They struggled, but the recolor proved to be more powerful, pushing the sword out of the way with little effort and following up with a slash.

“Oh, did I forget to mention he’s even stronger than you?” Filmroid playfully said.

“I really hate this guy!” Red yelled, motioning the controls so that ZooRobo would jab its blade into the copy’s midsection. The recolor simply knocked it out of the robot’s hands.

“This is bad.” Blue Buster said from the ground. “Gorisaki, I’m going to need you help again.”

“Got it, sir!” He responded, folding back up into his head form and attaching to the truck. Ryuuji leaped into the seat of the truck, grabbing the steering wheel, which also happened to be Gorisaki’s face.

“We might not have the other Buster Machines, but we can at least give some support.” He stated as the truck drove towards the battle. It quickly flipped into the air, unfolding into a large primate-like form.

“Wait, the truck is also a robot?” Blue said, amazed.

“Wow, it’s like Transfurmers.” Red joked. “You here to help us, blueboy?”

The gorilla mech pounded its chest, and leaped towards the black recolor, striking it in the face with one of its fists.

“That’s a yes!” Ryuuji yelled from the mech, raising his thumb.

Gorisaki let out a bit of a groan. “Ryuuji, I feel weird…”

Blue Buster watched as the cockpit began to glow white, eventually enveloping him and the rest of the mech. It formed into an orb of light, and flew into ZooRobo.

Their cockpits shuffled around, a third one rising. It had Blue Buster sat in what was basically a miniature version of the usual cockpit, complete with Gorisaki’s steering wheel head.

“Ryuuji, I can’t feel my legs!” Gorisaki whined.

“What just happened?” He asked the other two rangers.

“That’s not entirely important right now.” Blue said, turning to him. “Do you have a little tag thing on you now?”

He felt around for a second, and pulled out a ZooTag. He noticed a new slot formed in Gorisaki’s mouth, and plugged it in.

“JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!”

A large blue gorilla robot appeared in front of them, resembling a slightly less hunched over version of Gorisaki’s giant robot form. It raised one of its giant fists to the monster’s knockoff ZooRobo, and punched it backwards.

It then leaped into the air, as the upper half of ZooRobo split off. The gorilla’s arms extended out a bit, as the rest of its body folded up into a rather bulky body. The gorilla head slid down, forming a chest piece.

The upper half slammed back into the new torso, the arms folding into large spikes on the back. The robot punched a few times with its massive fists, as a crowd cheering and a bell ringing sounded from nowehere.

“ZOOROBO, SARU MODE!”

“Sweet, a new mode!” Blue said. “And it’s blue!”

“Would’ve been better if it was red.” Red voiced. “Or maybe green.”

“Color doesn’t matter right now, guys!” Blue Buster said. “With this, we can take care of both these guys!”

Blue nodded. “I bet your copy can’t deflect this!” The robot punched the copy a few times, causing it to instantly shatter into pieces.

“Augh!” The monster yelled. It looked as the mech slowly approached. “Hey now, we can work out a deal, right?” It begged. The mech stopped for a second.

“Red, what are you doing?” Blue asked, confused at why the fox had stopped the mech.

He had his paw to his chin. “Let’s see what his offer is, at least.”

“How about, if you don’t kill me,” The monster started. “I tell you who ZooSilver is?”

“I thought you said you didn’t like spoilers?” Red replied. “Are you assuming that WE like spoilers?”

“Well, uh, um…”

“Offer rejected.” He finished. “Time to finish this.”

“MUSCLE BUSTER BLAST!” The three yelled.

The robot punched once with a giant fist, launching a blast of energy at the monster. It then fired another from the other fist, which also struck the monster. Then, ZooRobo pulled the fists back, and launched both of them off. The flying fists flew through the monster, creating a massive explosion, before flying back onto the robot’s arms.

Filmroid writhed and screamed for a second as it sparked. “And that’s…” It started, raising its hands to the air. “A wrap!” IT teetered over, bursting into a massive explosion before it hit the ground.

“And that,” Red started up. “Was Zootastic.”

“Seriously?” Ryuuji started, baffled by the catchphrase.

“Just let him have it.” Blue said, rubbing her temples.

* * *

 

“Here’s your tag… thing.” Ryuuji said, handing the rabbit a blue tag, with a gorilla engraved onto it.

“Thank you.” She said, placing the tag into her pocket.

“That certainly was a day, wasn’t it?” Nick chimed in from the couch. “Very mentally exhausting.”

Judy chuckled, and then sighed. “I never want to go through something like that again.”

“I enjoyed working with you both.” Ryuuji said. “But we have to head out now. We have a train to catch.”

“Totally get it.” Nick said. “But can you take him with you?” He motioned to Beet, who was back to clinging to the wall and making buzzing noises. “I don’t think we can take care of him.”

“Beet, c’mon.” Ryuuji said, exasperated. “We have to go right now.”

Beet almost instantly stopped, and headed to the door. “Very well. We will head out now.”

“Hey, I actually have a question.” Nick said, tapping the robot on the leg. “You really didn’t hesitate in destroying my fake dad in my dream, why was that?”

“It was my mission.” Beet plainly answered.

“I doubt that.” Gorisaki chimed in. “He probably didn’t want someone else to die because of Hyperspace.”

“Someone else?” Judy asked, a bit worried.

“Beet’s creator, Masato Jin, was killed in Hyperspace.” Ryuuji explained. “It kind of devastated Beet for a while.”

“We’re leaving.” Beet said almost instantly after Ryuuji finished. “Goodbye, Zoorangers.” He grabbed Gorisaki, by the arm, and pushed him through the apartment door.

“Ahh, goodbye you guys!”

Beet then grabbed Ryuuji, and pushed him out as well. “Good luck, and remember, you need to defeat Enter!”

Beet stepped out, and slammed the door behind him.

“I think I hit a chord with that guy.” Nick said, a bit worried.

“I didn’t even realize robots could feel emotion.” Judy admitted. “I guess those guys proved me wrong.” She cleared her throat, and turned to her partner. “I have a question for you, actually.”

“If it’s about my dad, then I’m not answering.”

“No, it’s about what happened during the big robot fight.” She said. “Why didn’t you let him tell us who ZooSilver was?”

“Did you actually believe him, Carrots?” Nick responded, amused. “I honestly doubt he actually knew.”

“But what if he did?”

“Then we missed out, I guess.” He shrugged. “I just thought beating the monster was the first priority.”

She sighed. “You’re such a dumb fox.”

“Can’t help it, sweetheart.”

* * *

 

“Merde.”

Enter kicked a rock rather hard, causing it to fly off the top of the mountain. “Not only did that idiot not destroy them, but I didn’t even get to see Savage.” He lamented. “What an absolute waste of a plan that was.”

“Maybe you need to think ahead a bit more.”

He turned around to face Long, who was chuckling. “Trust me, Long, I am.” He stated.

“Considering your past failures, I doubt that.” He smugly said. “At least, you aren’t planning ahead as much as I am.”

Enter was intrigued. “What exactly do you have planned?”

“I have the ultimate destruction of the Zoorangers planned.” He said. “I will take away everything they love, everything they have, with the help of Savage.”

“And how, exactly, will you do that?”

“As your idiot monster said,” Long started. “I hate spoilers. Sayonara.” Long vanished in a burst of fire.

Enter scoffed. It wasn’t his fault that the Omnipotence kept choosing him to cause chaos. And it definitely wasn’t his fault that the Go-Busters showed up.

His anger quickly turned to amusement as he thought. A grin crept across his lips as he started chuckling.

“Oh, trust me, Long. You have no idea how far ahead I’ve planned.”


	15. Time and a Place

"And so I said to the guy, ORGETTABOUDIT!"

The Org motioned around the room, trying to get a response from any of the other villains. Absolute silence.

"I know my man Yogostein got it!" He pointed to the golden robot.

"I hate you."

Well, it was a response, at least.

"Alright, time for my next joke!" There was a loud groan from everyone in the room. "What do you call an org with a dunce cap?"

" **YABAIBA** "

"Hey, that's rude-" A sudden shock of pain coursed through his body, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"Finally." Sambash let out, pounding his latest bottle on the table. He stood up. "Your great Omnipotence, I would-"

" **YABAIBA, YOU ARE TO GO NEXT** "

"WHAT!?" Both the Org and the biker let out at the same time.

"He's an incompetent bumbler!" Sambash yelled. "Why should he go next!?"

" **LAST I CHECKED YOU AND YABAIBA BOTH SHARED SIMILAR SUCCESS RATES** "

The biker grunted, and satback down, muttering to himself.

" **YABAIBA, I WANT YOU TO FINALLY GET RID OF THOSE RANGERS FOR GOOD** " The Omnipotence shouted at the recovering Org. " **AND DO IT QUICKLY** "

"Y-yessir!" Yabaiba said, rushing to the door. "I'll have it done before you have time to finish cleaning your tube!" He paused for a second. "Time…"

The gears in his head finally clicked, he had come up with a completely fool-proof plan to get rid of them. The Org began to laugh madly. "I'll show you all who's incompetent!" he yelled, running out the door. "I'LL SHOW YOU ALL!"

There was silence in the room, as all the villains looked at each other awkwardly. "How long until his plan backfires?" Sambash questioned.

"I'd give him until 3 PM." Yogostein answered. "4 PM, tops."

"If he's truly impressed by his own idea," Long started. "Then I imagine it will take longer than that."

* * *

Nick walked into the hall, looking for Judy. She had stayed at the station overnight, for a reason she wouldn't tell him. He could probably assume what it was, anyway. He headed for her desk, and sure enough, there she was.

She was completely passed out, head on the desk, ears draped across her keyboard. She really wasn't a loud snorer. The fox rolled his eyes, amused at the sight, and quickly tapped her on the shoulder. She instantly jolted up.

"AUGH!" She yelled. "WHO'S THERE!?"

"Relax." The fox said. "S'just me."

"Nick?" She seemed genuinely confused at his presence. "What are you doing here so early?"

He sighed. "What time do you think it is, Carrots?" He asked, leaning onto her desk.

"Uh, midnight?"

"It's 5 AM."

She pulled her ears down in frustration. "But, I was just…" She growled. "I must've passed out!"

"Looks that way, Fluff." The fox said, taking a sip of the coffee in his hand. "What were you even doing at the station that late?" He was merely asking out of decency, he already knew.

"Uh, I was…" She stammered for a second. "Trying to find a lead on the monsters?"

The fox stared at her, and then glanced at her computer screen, which displayed a file on a certain fox. "I highly doubt that." He responded.

"Alright, yeah." She started. "I was trying to find out something about your dad."

"Told you, Carrots, it's pointless to." The fox said. "I've already tried, there's nothing about him anywhere."

"How does something like that happen?" Judy questioned, staring at the fox's portrait. "You can't just disappear forever."

"Sometimes there's just things we can't answer." The fox proposed. "And this is one of them."

"I just wanted to help you." She said. "Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you, Carrots." He sighed. "I just don't want you dealing with something that doesn't involve you."

She took a deep breath, and let it out in relief. "But you know who will be mad at you?" She turned to the fox in confusion.

"Who?"

"Bogo, when he realizes you didn't sign in."

"I still have time." She chuckled.

"You have about ten minutes."

The rabbit's eyes widened, and she gulped loudly. In a split second, she was dashing down the hall, racing towards the main hall. The fox shook his head and sighed.

"Dumb bunny."

* * *

"So, are we just Bogo's 'Handle weird stuff' guys now?" The fox questioned, pushing his sunglasses up.

The two had been tasked with an undercover assignment. Over the last night, there were reports of strange movements throughout the national history museum. Bumps in the night, loud crashes, that sort of stuff. There wasn't anything found, but the manager was worried about a potential robbery.

As such, the two were undercover as… normal visitors, waiting for something odd to happen. At this point, there wasn't much.

"Maybe it's good we're the ones who handle weird stuff." Judy suggested. "It usually turns out to be a monster attack anyway."

"I mean yeah, but why does Bogo always push it onto us?" The fox asked, his sunglasses falling back to his face. "Do you think he…?"

"I doubt he knows." Judy said, starting to stroll down the museum's main hall. "He has no reason to suspect it's us."

"Aside from the two times we acted weirdly in the bullpen."

She shrugged and tried to say something, only to come out with a loud "Ehhhhh."

"I'm honestly surprised nobody's figured it out yet." He continued. "How many bunny fox duos could there be in the city?"

"I mean," She retorted. "From what I read in the Sentai Encyclopedia, most Sentai teams tend to be made up of people who don't know each other. They could just be assuming that we're similar."

"It's still a very specific combo."

"I don't think we should be talking about this in public."

"Carrots." He sighed. "There's nobody else here."

They were completely alone in the large museum, they were basically the first to show up. In fact, due to Judy's rather obsessive punctuality, they arrived almost on the dot at the opening hour. Nick knew this punctuality was going to lead them to trouble sometime soon.

He didn't know how soon it would be, however.

The two undercover officers continued walking through the museum. Judy, personally, didn't want to come back here after the previous events that had happened. Unfortunately, she couldn't refuse an order from the chief. In both the "she's dedicated to her job" way, and the "she didn't want to be fired" way.

So when they entered the room where it happened, all she could do was stare and remember.

They had managed to clean up in only two weeks, but the image of her parents laying on the ground, nearly dead, still clung to the area.

"You didn't tell Bogo about what happened, did you?" Nick asked. The rabbit didn't respond, meaning it was a definitive yes. He sighed. "So, what are we supposed to be doing now?"

"Just waiting." She calmly answered. "It's more likely for the break-in to happen in the morning if the thieves didn't steal anything last night."

"Alright, waiting it is."

They didn't have to wait very long. The rabbit's ears perked up, she heard something coming from the main hall. A loud crash. "I think we got our guy." She whispered, before running off. The fox, confused, nonetheless followed her.

In the main hall, they found something they weren't really expecting. Admiring the old west exhibit was a creature, shrouded in a cloak, and wearing a large, cone-shaped straw hat. The articles of clothing covered the creature's oddly bulky body.

The thing quickly turned to them, and let out a small noise. It nervously backed away from the two as they approached.

"You're under arrest!" Judy yelled, pulling out her badge. "You have the right to remain silent!"

The thing glanced back at the exhibit, and popped its hands out from beneath the cloak. One hand was red, while the other was silver, and appeared to be wearing a wrist watch. Both hands were unusually thick, and they created a metallic noise as it rubbed them together.

It thrust its hands forward, causing a swirling blue portal to appear on the glass of the exhibit. Out of the portal jumped a handful of old west styled bandits, dingoes and coyotes of various shades and builds, but all dressed in very stereotypical bandit garb.

"Take care of them!" The thing yelled, running off.

The bandits pulled their guns on the two, who rose their paws in shock. "So, not a normal thief, I suppose." Nick joked

"Not the time, Nick!"

The two quickly pressed the button on their Zoolizers, transforming. "Alright, now can I joke?" Red asked.

"Eh, sure."

"Yeehaw."

He quickly pulled out the Vickscannon, and aimed it at the bandits. They backed away, shocked at the massive gun. "Who wants a piece of this?" The fox smugly asked.

The bandits answered by firing their guns rapidly at the two, smoke filling the area. It cleared, and the two rangers were still standing, completely unharmed.

"Normal bullets don't work on superheroes!" Blue cried out, pulling out her daggers. She quickly tossed one into one of the bandits, causing it to vanish in a puff of yellow sparkles.

"Alright, so they aren't real." Red said. "Which means I can do THIS!" He quickly fired at the rest of them, instantly clearing them all away.

Unfortunately, this also left a massive scorch mark on the museum floor. "Janitor can clean that up, c'mon!" The fox excused, rushing off.

The rabbit rolled her eyes, and quickly followed. They chased the monster into another room, it standing above them on a flight of stairs, surrounded by more exhibits.

"Yipe!" It let out. The creature started waving its hands around again, summoning another portal.

"Let's see what's behind door number two." Red joked. "I'm betting more cowboys."

Out of the portal ran a handful of large bears, each wearing heavy armor, and carrying an absolutely massive weapon. "You were wrong, Red." Blue stated frankly as the fox took a deep gulp. "It was barbarians."

One of the barbarians let out a roar, and leaped into the air, bringing down a large axe onto them. They jumped out of the way as the axe hit, leaving a sizable divot in the ground.

"Hey, can't we talk this out?" Red pleaded as the bear approached him. He quickly ducked as it swung the axe at him. "I guess that's a 'no'!"

Blue looked back and forth at the barbarians, as they closed in on them from the stairs. "Guess it's time to use that!" She pulled out a blue ZooTag, and plugged it in to the Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

A bell sounded, as the boxing gloves appeared on the rabbits paws. She hopped from foot to foot, punching quickly. She leaped into the air, and thrust her fist directly into the back of the bear's head, causing it to vanish.

"When you'd get so good at boxing?" Red asked.

"Please," She dismissed. "I was a top boxer in the academy!"

"Really? I sucked at boxing." He admitted.

She pulled her fist back, and thrust it forward, launching a burst of energy towards another of the barbarians. She did it again with her other hand, launching it into the other barbarian. They both vanished into yellow lights.

"Round, finished!" She yelled, pumping her boxing glove-clad fist. The two ran up the stairs, chasing after the monster. Finally, they had it cornered to the back of a hallway.

"Again, you have the right to remain silent!" Blue yelled. "Even though you're probably not going to jail. I didn't really think that through."

"Looks like time is up!" The monster lamented, throwing off its cloak and hat. It revealed its true form, its body consisted of mostly a clock, with a singular bulging eye on the right side of its literal clock face. It had two horns protruding from its head, and had two dangling bits hanging from below its face. "For you, that is!"

"Ugh, time puns." Red groaned.

"Well, we're going to punch your clock!" Blue retorted, jabbing one of her fists forward.

"Too bad, so sad!" A voice from behind them yelled. They spun around, seeing the horned, clown-like monster. He was surrounded by an army of Orgettes, each one patting its head. "I don't believe I introduced myself last time we met," The monster stated. "I am-"

"Yabaiba, yeah we know." Red told him. "We read about you."

The monster pushed its jaw down, and slapped its hands against its face, mimicking a surprised face. "Whaaaaat!?" It pushed its jaw back up again. "I was going to do a thing were I introduce myself, and then I beat you, it would've been cool!"

"Not coming from somebody like you, it wouldn't." Blue stated, jabbing one of her fists towards him. "You're kind of a loser."

The monster cleared its throat. "Anyway, your time is-"

"Already used that one, boss!" The clock monster yelled. The clown Org yelled, frustrated, and stomped its feet.

"Even when I'm about to win I can't look cool!" He complained. "It doesn't matter, in a moment, you two will be long gone!"

"Yeah, how do you plan on defeating us, exactly?" Red questioned. "Your clockmaker over there hasn't exactly been putting up much of a fight."

"I'll show you!" Yabaiba said, clasping his hands together. He aggressively pointed towards the clock monster. "CLOCK ORG, OPEN THE PORTAL!"

"Got it!" The monster quickly spun the clock hands on his face around, counter-clockwise of course. "BUST A RHYME TO REWIND TIME!"

The clock hands spun around incredibly quickly, forming a blur that covered the monster's entire face. They soon began glowing blue, as a large blue portal emerged from the monster. It thrashed around, attempting to suck the two rangers into it.

Red dug his claws into the ground, gripping against the tiled floor. Blue attempted to do the same, only for her boxing gloves to get in the way. In a moment, she was swept off her feet and sent hurtling towards the portal. The fox watched as it happened.

"JUDY!" He yelled, before turning around to see Yabaiba staring down at him.

"Sayonara."

The clown gave the fox a quick kick to the jaw, causing him to let go and fly into the portal. It quickly closed afterwards.

"Good job, Clock Org!" The Duke Org complimented, giving it a thumbs up. "Now let's go and CELEBRATE!"

* * *

Judy opened her eyes. The sky was unusually grey.

Wait, wasn't she inside just a few seconds ago?

She jolted up and looked around, she was in the middle of a very barren field. She could spot buildings a ways off, but they looked off. They looked gloomier than normal, more industrial, with large stacks coming out of the top, billowing massive plumes of smoke.

"Ugh, what happened?" Nick asked, raising from the grass. He looked around, confused. "How did we get here?"

"I don't know, but I'm fairly certain whoever owns that building is breaking the law." Judy stated, getting up and heading for the building. As she approached, the smoke got thicker. She wasn't used to this kind of air, and started hacking.

"You alright?" Nick asked, helping her stay up.

"Ugh, I can't breathe here." She weakly said, letting out a cough. "The smoke's too thick."

She covered her mouth, and headed to the front of the building. The doors were just a large, sliding, orange door. She pushed it open, a horrible shrieking noise sounding from it. She cringed, hard.

"Oi, what the heck are you doing!?" A large bull sounded, walking up to the rabbit. She looked around, spotting a number of different mammals, of all shapes and sizes, working at odd machines.

"Sorry to halt your operation," She started. "But I'm afraid you're breaking the law!"

"Who gives ya the right to call me a law breaker?" The bull asked.

She pulled out her badge. "ZPD, Officer Hopps. The amount of smoke you're producing clearly violates all air pollution laws in the book." She continued. "Now, if you would come with me-"

The bull, along with all the other mammals in the building, burst out laughing. She looked around, confused. What had she said that was so funny?

"Listen, bunny, I don't know what joke you're playing, but I run a perfectly legal establishment." The bull retorted, his amusement fading quickly. He quickly snatched the badge from her paw.

"Hey, give that back!"

"An' what the heck's this?" The bull said as the rabbit ineffectively punched his leg. "Some kinda toy?"

"I worked hard to earn that!" The bull kicked her back. "This is assaulting an officer!" The bull quickly tossed the badge back to her.

"Go talk to a real officer about that." He swiftly kicked her out of the building.

Her face slid across the gravel. "What was wrong with that guy!?" She said, getting up. She turned to the fox, who was idly standing by the exit. "Thanks for helping me out in there."

"You are welcome."

She groaned. "It was like they've never seen an officer before!"

There was a gust of wind, several scraps of paper flying by them. A newspaper flew directly into Nick's snout, which he peeled off quickly. He examined it, and his eyes grew wide. "Uh, Carrots? We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" She asked, grapping the newspaper from him. Then she saw it, the date.

1836.

* * *

"IT'S A PARTY!" Yabaiba yelled. "C'mon everyone, let's DANCE!"

A group of Orgettes appeared in the corner of the cavernous room, dressed as a mariachi band, each playing a different instrument. Sombreros suddenly appeared on the other five villain's heads.

"I can't believe this." Sambash mumbled, throwing the hat off his head.

"Out of all of us," Yogostein lamented. "He was the one who defeated them."

"This is like a cruel joke!" Sambash yelled, getting up from his seat. "I'm outta here!"

"Every party needs a pooper, that's why we invited you!" Yabaiba sang.

"Shove it up your ass!"

"I'll admit," Long said from his corner, he quickly tapped the hat, causing it to burst into flame. "I'm impressed you managed to do it."

"I'm not as dumb as I look, see?" Yabaiba said cheerfully.

"No, you're still about as dumb as you look." Kyuemon interjected. "You just happened to get lucky."

"Kyuemon is right." Enter started, in his human form. "I expect this plan to go horribly wrong at some point very soon."

"Man, you guys are such killjoys!" Yabaiba groaned. "Alright, I get it, you don't like fiestas, how about ondo? Hit it, Clock Org!"

The clock monster saluted, and waved its arms around. In a flash, the band had been replaced by a large tower, with an Orgette pounding a drum at the top. The sombreros had been replaced by various different colors of kimonos.

"Eh? This more your style?" Yabaiba asked.

"You're an idiot."

Before Yabaiba could respond, a burst of energy pulsed from the cylinder on the other side of the room. The objects summoned by Clock Org were instantly vaporized.

"Uh oh."

" **YABAIBA** " The Omnipotence thundered.

"Y-yessir?" He meekly asked.

" **ENOUGH OF THIS FOOLISHNESS** " It sounded, the force of its voice nearly knocking the Org off his feet. " **IF YOU TRULY WANT TO PROVE YOURSELF USEFUL, DESTROY THE CITY** "

Yabaiba gave a quick, nervous bow, and backed away, letting out a series of terrified, nonsensical mumbles. He glanced towards the clock monster. "C'mon, let's go!" He whispered. The monster nodded, and the two quickly dashed out of the base.

The room fell silent as they left. After a few moments, Yogostein broke the silence. "Did he actually say how he got rid of the Zoorangers?" He asked.

"I don't believe he did." Long answered. "I'm willing to bet it was something stupid, however."

* * *

The two had headed into town shortly after they had found out where… when, they were. It was hard to call this place Zootopia, though it obviously was. The central tower was currently in the process of being built, that was the only land mark that seemed to exist in the rather small city.

"Alright, so we're in the industrial revolution, over a hundred years from our normal time." Judy explained, trying not to panic. "And we have no way to get back. This is fine."

"No, it very much isn't fine." Nick retorted.

She let out a squeak. "I'm trying not to panic right now, Nick, and that's not helping."

"Oh, sorry."

The two continued walking down the rather dusty street. Judy looked around, they were getting odd stares from basically every mammal that was there. "I think we're being judged." She whispered to the fox.

"Wonder why that is." He flatly replied.

"Maybe it's because we're a prey and pred walking together?" She suggested. "This time period had a lot of specism in it."

"It's because of our clothes, Carrots." She looked at her pink flannel shirt and jeans, and Nick's green shirt, tie, and grey pants. Then she compared it to the clothes everyone else was wearing. Very old fashioned clothes, lots of dresses, caps, and dried up colors.

They probably looked really weird.

Zootopia had been founded by predators, and people back then had moved here because of the lack of specism, so of course it was their clothes.

"Wanna go buy some new clothes so we fit in while we're here?" Nick suggested. "Maybe go on some wacky, time travel antics?"

"I would rather die than wear a dress in public."

"Fair enough."

The bunny's stomach growled rather loudly. "Can we get something to eat, though?" She asked, clutching her stomach.

"You missed breakfast, huh?"

"How was I supposed to have breakfast five minutes before rollcall?"

"Maybe you shouldn't have stayed at the station all night!" He retorted. He looked through the crowd of mammals, attempting to find some kind of restaurant. "Do they even have restaurants in the eighteen hundreds?" He asked.

"I think that was an upper class thing." Judy said. "And we are definitely not in the upper class section of the city right now."

"So, our only choice right now is to find a marketplace?" He said, rather disappointed. "It feels like I'm homeless all over again."

"We technically are as long as we stay here." She explained. "Our homes don't exist yet."

The fox sighed. "Alright, let's go find a food stand to steal from." The rabbit gave him a dumbfounded look. "I mean, buy from."

He tapped on the leg of a bypassing yak. "Excuse me, sir, could you, perchance, tell us where the nearest food market is?" He asked, putting on a slightly posh voice.

The yak stared at him, dumbfounded. "Uh, there's one a few blocks down." He replied. "On Pack Street."

"Thank you!"

The two quickly rushed off towards Pack Street, leaving behind a very confused yak.

The two reached Pack Street, and were both quickly impressed, and disappointed.

The market was larger than one would expect, stretching down the rather bare road. However, the food on sale seemed to be rather… underwhelming. It was mostly breads, vegetables, and raw insects.

"Not really anything interesting here, huh?" Nick lamented as they strolled down the road, still getting stares.

"We're incredibly lucky." Judy stated. "People here basically only had this kind of food to live off of." She looked around, and spotted a stand selling a collection of veggies and fruit. She skipped over to it.

The mammal running the stand was a rabbit. "Hello there, ma'am!" He greeted. "What would you like to buy?"

She perused the stand's contents, carrots, blueberries, basically everything they needed. "Um, five carrots, and a pawful of blueberries, please."

"Comin' up!" He wrapped the carrots in a newspaper, and placed them in a basket. "Now, in technical terms, a 'pawful' means about fifteen blueberries."

She chuckled at the joke, and looked at one of the carrots. "Y'know, if you maybe tilled the soil a bit more, these carrots would be perfect!"

The rabbit looked up at her. "Huh, really?"

She nodded. "And with a bit more fertilizer, the blueberries would be even juicier." She suggested. "I grew up on a farm."

The rabbit pushed his cap up. "I'll have to take your advice!" He said cheerfully. "Do you have a stand anywhere over here?"

"Oh no, I'm from, uh…" She thought for a second. "Out of town! I'm from Bunny Burrow." She prayed that Bunny Burrow was an actual place at this point in time.

"Hey, I am too!" The rabbit said. "Haven't seen you there, though."

"Oh, uh, I travel." She excused. "A lot."

"Maybe I'll see around sometime." He finished placing the blueberries in the basket. "Here you go, that'll be five dollars."

"Wow, really?" She reached for her wallet, and looked through it. "All I have is a twenty." She pulled out the bill.

"A twenty!?" He grabbed the bill. "Wow, I've never been payed this much before. Looks kinda funny, though."

"It's foreign." She excused.

"If you want, you can take some more." He suggested. "I'd hate for your money to go to waste."

"No, it's fine!" She said. "You can keep it." She grabbed the basket, and headed off.

"What a nice rabbit."

Meanwhile, at the other side of the street, Nick had been looking at possible vendors. All of the insects on sale were raw, they'd have to heat them up on their own. That was a problem.

The bread looked fine, but how would he know if his money actually worked here? It was a conundrum. He sighed as he passed by a dingy alleyway.

"Hey, you!" Someone whispered to him. He turned to look, spotting a rather shaggy looking fox in dirty looking clothes. The fox looked to be just under half his age, about 18. "Hey, you want some food?" His voice sounded a bit wheezy.

"Uh, sure?" Nick said, pulling out his wallet. "How much do you want for it?"

"Nothing, it's free!" He pulled out a basket full of fruit, insects, bread, and veggies. "Take it!" He practically shoved it into the fox's paws. The fox quickly looked around, and dashed off.

"Uh, thanks?"

The fox turned back to the crowd, carrying the heavy basket. He saw Judy running up to him, also carrying a basket. "Hey Nick, I got some-" She stopped, spotting the basket full of food, and eyed him. "Did you steal all that?"

"This?" He said, looking at the basket. "No, someone gave it to me. For free."

"So, you stole them."

He groaned. "No, someone gave me this basket full of food for free." He reiterated. "No stealing involved."

She gave a skeptical nod. "Alrighty. Let's go find someplace to-"

"THERE HE IS!"

The two froze, and looked down the road, the crowd parting. Two wolves, dressed in long coats and police caps, each carrying a billy club, walked towards them. "Hand over the food, Wilde." One of them growled.

"I didn't steal this food!" He retorted. "Someone gave it to me!" He dropped the basket to the ground, and stepped back. "You can take it back, alright? You must have me confused for some other fox."

"Some other fox named Wilde?" Judy questioned. Nick took a deep gulp. He hadn't thought about that.

The fox gained an uneasy grin. "Alright, officers, if you excuse us, we'll be RUNNING AWAY NOW!" He quickly grabbed the rabbit by the paw, and they dashed down the road.

"Nick, this is stupid!" She yelled, keeping up with the fox as they ran. "Now all the officers in the city are gonna be looking for us, for no reason!"

"I know, but maybe I can lead them to the real thief!" He suggested. "He went this way!" The rabbit sighed, and continued running.

"How did they know your name?" She asked. "You aren't born for another hundred some years!"

"I think I know the reason, and I really don't want it to be correct!"

* * *

Back in the present day, Yabaiba was looking out over the city, Clock Org by his side. "Alright, clocky, you ready to tear this city a new time warp?"

"I don't understand what that means."

"That's a yes, then!" He shouted. "Let's go!" He leaped off the building, with the clock monster following shortly after, very confused.

They crashed into the pavement, causing nearby mammals to scatter and fall down in fear. "That's right, you dumb animals!" The duke org yelled. "Your heroes can't save you now, Yabaiba's here!"

"Not so fast." A deep voice sounded.

Yabaiba looked down the street, spotting a cloaked figure. "Oh, you must be the silver guy that's been messing with our plans." Yabaiba correctly assumed. "I doubt you can handle both of us by yourself, though!"

ZooSilver chuckled. "You two are both pathetic, I can tell you that." They pulled out the blade, and started moving towards the two monsters. "It's time to-" The cloaked ranger stumbled a bit, dropping the blade to the ground.

"Feeling a bit weak in the knees?" Yabaiba taunted. "Guess we're too scary for Mr. big bad Silver!"

"What's… happening…" ZooSilver stumbled forwards more, falling to his knees. His body had turned completely see-through, and it was spreading throughout the rest of it. Silver let out a scream of pain, before completely fading, the scream dissipating in the air soon after.

The two monster stared in awe at what had just happened. The duke Org quickly turned to his minion. "Did you do that?" He asked.

"I didn't!" The clock monster stated. "He just vanished on his own!"

"Well that's-" Yabaiba turned back, and let out a yell. The entire street had suddenly changed while he wasn't looking.

Instead of the bright, colorful place it had once been, most of the buildings had been ruined, run down. Trash cans with burning fires lit in them were scattered around the streets, as far more homeless-looking mammals, mostly predators, wandered around.

"Alright, you had to have done that, right!?" Yabaiba asked his monster again. "Please tell me you did that."

The monster shook its body… head. "I haven't done anything the last five minutes!" It pointed towards its clock face. "Something's doing this, and…" The monster quickly let out a yell of fear.

"What, is it the Zoorangers!?" Yabaiba asked. "What did you see!?"

"Boss!" It said, pointing downwards. "Your! Your feet!"

He looked down at his feet. They were completely see-through, much like what had happened to ZooSilver. It was spreading up his leg, and if it continued, he would disappear as well.

He let out a scream. "THIS IS BAD!"

* * *

The two had managed to find the real thief after a while. They peered into the alleyway, where the fox was talking to two rather large rams. "Now, I know I said I'd get some food, but there was a bit of a miscalculation…"

"Shut it, fox." One of the rams shouted, pushing the fox to the ground. "I knew we couldn't trust you."

"How's it feel having doomed everyone?" The other ram said. The fox's ears lowered. "Yeah, that's how it feels."

"What are they talking about?" Judy asked.

"I'm not sure, but we should probably stop it." Nick replied. The two stepped from the corner and walked down the alley.

"Oh, those your friends, Wilde?" One of the rams said, pushing the fox out of the way. They both cracked their knuckles, and their necks. "So, you want a fight, huh?"

"This is assault!" Judy declared. "We could have you locked up for this."

The fox sighed. "That's not going to work here, Carrots." She slapped her forehead. "We're going to have to go a bit old fashioned for this."

Judy quickly pulled her Taser out, and fired it at one of the rams. The fire hit, and the ram began to twitch and spasm, before falling to the ground. The other ram looked at his partner, and ran off screaming.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE YOUR TASER!?" Nick yelled.

"I had it at the museum in case it was an actual thief!" She explained. "I just didn't have a chance to use it."

"Well…" He replied, rubbing his temples. "Not the worst rash decision you could've made."

"Alright, thief!" Judy yelled at the shaggy looking fox. "You've caused us some trouble, so you're coming with us to the, uh…"

"To prison." Nick finished. "You're going to prison."

"No!" The fox yelled. "You can't do that, I have a job to do! I can't let them down…"

"Let who down?" Judy asked.

"Why should I tell you two weirdos?" He said, getting up and brushing off the dirt from his already dusty clothes. "Even if you just saved my life, I've learned not to trust your types."

"I feel you can trust us, Wilde." Nick said, giving a quick wink to his now confused partner.

"How do you know my name?"

"Trust me, I know."

"Well I don't!" Judy yelled. "Who are you?"

"Oliver," He started. "Oliver Wilde."

"God, I wish I wasn't right." Nick whispered to himself.

Judy looked back and forth at the two. She then noticed just how similar the two looked. They had the same fur pattern, general stance, it was uncanny, like looking at her partner but younger. And a lot more dirty.

"Wait, so you're Nick's-" Her partner quickly pulled her back, covering her mouth. "What was that for!?" She whisper yelled, pulling the paw back.

"Have you seriously never seen a time travel movie, Fluff!?" He whisper yelled back. "Anything you do can change the timeline in horrible, disastrous ways!"

She covered her mouth in shock. "Oh my gosh." She exclaimed. "You mean we could never be born?"

He nodded. "So don't you dare tell my great, great, great grandfather who I am, or else we'll both be dead!"

She nodded. "Alright, you do the talking from now on." She said. "I am awful at lying."

"Trust me, I know." He said, straitening his tie and stepping forward. "I am… Nick… Savage." He introduced. "We're not actually officers, don't worry."

"Who's your lady friend then?" Oliver asked.

"Uh, Judy Savage." He stated.

She frowned at that name. "So you two are…?" The younger fox started, a grin creeping across his face.

She groaned. "Yes, we're…. married." She harshly said. This was giving her awful flashbacks to last week. Both foxes laughed, Nick giving a slight chuckle to her reaction, and Oliver bursting out laughing.

"Oh man!" Oliver finished. "A fox and a rabbit, together, amazing." He sighed, and then turned to them, looking slightly more serious. "You guys are weirdos alright, but you seem friendly enough." He stated, and then motioned for them to follow. "C'mon, I'll show you around a bit, since you're obviously new."

He leaned down and grabbed on to a nearby manhole cover, and pulled it up, letting out a loud grunt. He slid it across the ground, and dropped it. He then jumped down into the sewer.

"Oh great, another sewer." Judy said, peering down into the dark, smelly tunnels. She turned to her partner, and gave a smirk. "Try not to have another panic attack, 'dear'."

"Don't worry, I won't."

The two climbed down the sewer ladder, and followed Oliver down the path. "See, this guy knows the sewers like the back of his paw." Nick pointed out. "I probably inherited that." Judy rolled her eyes.

"Good job that did last time." She said, jabbing him in the side.

They continued walking down the path, mostly in silence. After a few minutes, Oliver finally spoke up. "So, I had a perfectly good reason to steal the food, y'know."

"He finally admitted it." Judy whispered. "Can we book him now?" Nick tugged on her ear in response.

"So, here's the reason!"

They rounded a corner, which opened up into a relatively massive, rectangular area of the sewer. Lining the walkways were rusted, makeshift shacks, made of scrap metal. A number of mammals were walking around, all of different ages and species.

"Welcome to the underground." Oliver said as they walked in.

"Is this…?" Judy started.

"It's a slum." Nick said, his tone dropping.

"We prefer 'sanctuary'." Oliver responded. "I makes it sound nicer."

"So, you were stealing the food to feed people?" Judy guessed, sounding genuinely surprised.

He nodded. "I managed to get the food, but the police managed to catch me." He explained. "That's why I gave it to you, since you looked exactly like me for some reason."

"Just a coincidence, I assure you." Nick said.

"I'm sure it is!" He said. "I have bigger things to worry about now, though." He sighed, and backed up slightly. "I was supposed to get the food, and I failed, so, I probably shouldn't…"

All three perked up as a small voice sounded. "Oliver!" Yelled a young giraffe, dressed in rather ill fitting, dirty clothes. He was surrounded by a few other children, each of a different species, and also wearing dirty clothes. "Did you get the food yet?" The giraffe asked.

"Uh…" He stumbled for a second, and kneeled down, and rubbed the giraffe's head. "Yeah, I got it. It's hidden, I'll be back with it in a bit."

"Wow, you hid it?" The giraffe said, with awe. "Maybe we can help find it!"

"No, no!" The fox said, standing up. "I don't want you guys leaving, you might get hurt."

"Oh." The giraffe said, disappointed. "Well, can you find it soon? We're getting hungry."

"Yeah, I'll…" he tried to hold back his tears "I'll be back with it soon." He quickly ran off, before the tears could become obvious.

The giraffe looked at the other fox and his rabbit partner. "Are you guys new?" He asked.

"We're just guests." Nick said. "And we have to go… help Oliver." Judy nodded rapidly, and the two also rushed off.

The rounded the corner and down the path for a bit. Eventually, they found Oliver, sitting next to a wall, and crying. "God, I'm such a failure…" he sobbed. "The only things I can do are lie and cheat, why should I be trusted with anything!?"

"Think you can maybe work your rabbit heartwarming powers now, Carrots?" Nick whispered to Judy.

"I don't know him well enough." She replied back. "I can't give a pep talk for something like this. He's your ancestor, maybe you can get him to cheer up."

The fox took a deep breath. "Alright, but if I get erased from time because of this, I'm blaming you." He walked up, and sat next to his weeping counterpart. "So, Oliver, I know things look… tough, right now, but the only person who can make it better is you."

The younger fox looked up at him, dumbfounded. "I'll probably just make it worse." He mumbled, looking back to the ground.

"Not with that attitude you won't!" Nick yelled, getting up. "I was like you once, living on the street, lying to survive, but you know what? I made it better by trying. Giving up is the easy way out, but if you just try, try to help your friends, then you can make everything better. SO GET UP THERE AND GO STEAL ALL THE FOOD YOU POSSIBLY CAN!"

The younger fox looked up at Nick, who was out of breath from yelling. "You're right." He said, getting up. "I'll get these guys all the food they can! No, I'll get them food, and… and clothes! I'll get them everything they need!"

"That's the spirit!" Nick said, punching the young fox in the shoulder. "Go do what you need to do!" The other fox nodded, and ran off. Nick sighed in relief. "That went better than I thought it would!"

"That was actually very impressive." Judy admitted. There was a bit of silence for a moment. "So uh… what do we do now?" She asked. The fox shrugged

"How about you come with us?"

"What?"

In a second, the two felt hard objects hit their heads. They blacked out instantly.

* * *

"When I said something would backfire," Long started, looking at his now see-through hand. "I meant to you, specifically, not all of us."

"Well sorry, how did I know that sending them back in time would cause this!?" Yabaiba said, crosing his now translucent arms. He felt a swift knock on his head from Yogostein's spear.

"Did you not learn villain plan 101!?" Yogostein yelled, stamping one of his see-through feet. "Never mess with time travel unless you have everything planned out! OR ELSE THIS HAPPENS!"

"Why are we even disappearing, anyway?" Sambash asked, pouring himself another glass of gin. "Bossman over there isn't."

The Omnipotence remained quiet, but nothing appeared to be disappearing from his tube-like form. A sudden pulse shook the room. " **IT APPEARS THAT WITHOUT THOSE TWO IN THE TIME STREAM, I DIDN'T REQUIRE YOU TO BE HERE** " It explained. " **THE CITY SEEMS TO BE WRACKING UP ENOUGH CHAOS ENERGY ON ITS OWN** "

Enter looked over to an empty cage in the corner. "It appears our little lamb seems to be a better source of chaos than us." He sighed.

"I can fix this!" Yabaiba announced, he walked over to the Clock Org, and shook him. "FIX THIS! GET THEM BACK!"

"I can't time travel myself!" He stated, pushing the Duke Org back. "I don't have the energy to use it again!"

Yabaiba grabbed his chin, the gears in his head turning. Another idea hit him. "I got it!" He pulled out a Chaos Badge. "I just gotta give you an upgrade!" He quickly tossed the badge into the monster's clock face.

The monster writhed around in pain as it hit. The chaos symbol appeared on the clock face, directly in the center. Its eye dilated, and then shifted towards the middle. The clock face popped open, revealing a massive eye behind it. One of its horns grew slightly larger, both gaining an arrow shaped point. It also grew a bit bulkier, and more hunched over.

"Looks like my time has come!" It yelled.

"Great, yeah, time puns." Yabaiba said quickly. "NOW GET THE ZOORANGERS BACK HERE BEFORE YOU VANISH TOO!"

"Got it, sir!" The monster said. It pulled both of its horns, causing the clock face to slam back down on the eye. The clock hands whizzed and whirled, before shooting out a blue portal. "I'll be back in a 'second'!"

"JUST GO!" Yabaiba yelled, pushing the monster into the portal.

* * *

"So, this is the thief that's been going around causing trouble?"

Nick opened his eyes, everything was fuzzy, but he could hear people talking.

"Yes, sir. The rabbit appears to be his accomplice."

One of the voices sounded like the one of the officers from earlier, but the other sounded a bit gruffer, more posh.

"Alright. Let me talk to them."

He looked around the room. It was some kind of office. A rather small one at that, with sickly green wallpaper and an ugly brown carpet. The door to his side creaked open, a large lion stepping through. He was dressed in a suit with yellow trimmings. "Alright, Wilde, and friend, let's discuss some things." He said as he walked towards his seat.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure you have the wrong fox." He said. He turned to Judy, who was also sitting in a chair, completely passed out. He reached over, and snapped his digits a few times, causing her to jolt awak.

"What, huh, where?" She let out. She then spotted the lion sitting at the desk. "Oh my gosh, are you Terrance Manning?"

"Uh, yes, I am." The lion replied. "Founder of Zootopia, yes, I know the drill."

"It's an honor to meet you sir, you've done so much for-"

"Carrots," Nick whispered. "He thinks we're criminals. This is coming off like you sweet talking him."

She gritted her teeth. The lion looked back and forth at them. "Alright, you two are the thieves who have been stealing food for the last couple months, correct?"

"Actually," Nick started. "We are not. You are looking for Oliver Wilde, me and my… wife, here, are Nick and Judy Savage." Judy nodded rapidly, staying silent.

The lion facepawed. "Ugh, those idiots. You know, I really need to get a better law enforcement." He muttered. "Or at least train these guys to learn the differences between foxes."

"I can't blame them." Nick chuckled. "We do look alike, both very handsome."

"I am very sorry for the inconvienence." Manning apologized. "That kind of behavior is something I hate seeing."

"It's fine!" Judy assured, rubbing her head, which still hurt.

"Follow me, I'll show you the way out."

Manning got up, and opened the door for them. The three walked out into a parlor, with only two other mammals in it. In the corner was an aged antelope, looking at a few cages, each with a different, bright, exotic bird in it. He let out a whistle, to which one of the birds responded.

The other was a wolf, sitting at a table on a green sofa, clutching a bottle of brandy. He nervously poured himself a shot glass, and took a swig. "Nick," Judy whispered. "These are the founders!"

"I know." He said. It was bizarre to see them, alive, moving around, just being normal mammals. Literal living legends.

"Herman, how many times have I told you," He swiped the bottle from the wolf. "No drinking on my mother's antique table."

"Ey, I was jus' waitin' fer ya!" He yelled, jumping up from the seat to try and grab the bottle. "I have news I need to tell ya."

"News?" Manning said, inquisitive. "What kind of news?"

"He claims he saw the ghost." The antelope, Elliot Stamper, said. The two out of place mammals interest was suddenly piqued.

"Oh, that nonsense again?" Manning dismissed, walking over to a small bar on the side of the room, and placing the brandy on the counter. "You've been having too much of this stuff, Herm, you really need to lay off."

"I was completely sober!" The wolf yelled. "And I saws it, I did! The ghost of Animalia!"

Now, the two were intent on hearing where this was going.

"It crackled like lightnin'!" He yelled. "Like a tempest brewing on solid ground, red as the devil itself!" He walked up and grabbed the bottle from the counter. "Scared me half t'death!"

"Did you ever hear about a ghost on Animalia?" Judy asked Nick.

He shrugged. "Nope, must've been an old thing. But it's certainly interesting me now." He cleared his throat, and walked up to the two. "Excuse us, Mr. Trufield, could you tell us more about this ghost?"

"Y'wanna hear a good story, huh?" The wolf said, a grin creeping onto his face. "Well, it started a few hours ago, when-"

"Don't go into a story, Herman." Elliot said, walking up to them. "His stories can go on for hours, you probably have better things to do." He told the fox.

"Well, Judy started, sliding up next to her partner. "Could you maybe, perchance, tell us what it is?"

"It's just a rumor floating around the city." Manning said. "Some kind of ghost or monster living up on Mt. Animalia, I assure you, it's just rumors."

"It's real, I tells ya!" Herman yelled. "I saws it, with me own eyes!"

"Keep telling yourself that, Herm."

"It's mostly been described like Herman's overdramatic story." Elliot interjected. "Some kind of lightning spirit, usually red."

"Nick, do you think…?"

He nodded. "It might be." He replied. "Thank you for telling us this, we have some very important work to do, so good bye!"

The two quickly ran out the front door, leaving the three founders a bit confused.

"See? They believes in it!"

* * *

The two rushed out the door of the building. "Alright, so you're thinking what I'm thinking, right?" Nick asked.

"You mean that the ghost might be that thing that attacked us on Mt. Animalia?" She responded, the fox nodding in response.

"Maybe we can stop it before anything happens in the future!" Nick suggested. "We can stop this all before it even happens!"

She nodded back, enthusiastically. "Maybe beating it will send us back, too!"

The two quickly dashed off, but after a few minutes, were stopped in their track by someone. "Oh, hey, Mr. and Mrs. Savage!"

They turned behind them, it was Oliver, carrying a large basket of food. "Thanks for distracting the police for me." He genuinely thanked. "Not sure if you meant to do that intentionally, but… Well, anyway, I have something I want to tell you both!"

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"Well, I was thinking about what you said earlier, and what I said earlier, and I think…" He looked them directly in the eye, absolutely confident. "I'm going to become a tailor!"

"What spurred this on?" Judy asked, intrigued.

"Well, I thought, maybe I could get a job to help the homeless." He explained. "I could make clothes for them, and make clothes to sell off for food."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Nick said, his face starting to beam. "You're sounding a lot like…" He stopped himself. "You're sounding a lot like someone important to me."

"Who?" Oliver asked.

"Not really important right now." Nick dismissed. "Hey, we're heading to Mt. Animalia, you want to maybe, come along?"

"Not with the ghost up there." He stated. "I'd like to live to see my dreams come true."

"Eh, fair enough." Nick said, shrugging. "Well, I guess we'll see you-"

There was a loud crash, the sound of thunder hitting the ground. The three watched as a tear in the sky appeared, quickly ripping open into a massive, swirling vortex. Out of it dropped a single figure onto the dusty road. As it got up, they realized it was the clock monster who had sent them there, but it had gotten upgraded.

"Ah, there you two are!" It yelled. "I've been looking around the entire time stream for you."

"What the hell is that thing?" Oliver yelled, backing away.

"Oliver, you need to get out of here." Judy warned. "Right now." He nodded, and ran off, basket in paws.

"Alright, history boy, what do you want from us now?" Nick asked. "We have important business to attend to, and we don't want you getting in the way."

"Yeah, it's not like you can beat us either." Judy interjected.

"Beat you?" The monster said, surprised. "That would be the worst mistake in my career, I'm actually here to take you back!"

Nick scoffed. "You really expect us to buy that?"

"Yeah, trusting monsters doesn't usually go well." Judy stated.

"Well, you need to trust me, or else your city's doomed!" He said. "Without you guys there, everything's gone to complete chaos, and even worse, my master's vanishing from history!"

"Wait, your master is disappearing from history?" Nick grew a sly grin. "So, if we stay here, all you guys will just… poof, vanish?"

"Yeah, basically."

The two looked at each other. Judy grew a grin. "Guess we're staying here then."

"But!" The monster let out. "Your city is falling apart!"

"How do we know that's not a bluff?" Nick asked. "Do you have any evidence?"

The monster grunted, twitching around, trying to find something to retort with. It couldn't come up with anything. "Alright then!" It said, rubbing its metallic hands together. "Guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

Its clock face closed, and it pushed one of the hands on it backwards. There was a brief flash, and suddenly Oliver was standing next to them. "What the?" He said. "How did I get here?"

"Time reversal!" The monster yelled. "And now it's time for…" It placed its thumbs on the small hand. There was another flash, and suddenly Oliver was trapped in the monster's clutches. "Time stop!"

"Ack, let go of me!" Oliver screamed, flailing in the monster's hand.

"Alright, I'll let this fox you guys seem to care about go, but only if you come back with me." He quickly tightened his grip around the fox's neck. "And if you don't, I'll clean his clock!"

"Let go of him." Nick growled, intensely.

"Only if you come with me!" The monster said. "Didn't I make that clear?"

"I said." Nick reiterated, his eyes dilating. "Let. Him. Go."

"Nick, are you okay?" Judy asked. She tried to approach him, but he smacked her back. "Oh no…"

"H-hey, I thought you guys were partners!" The monster said, backing off as the fox approached. "Aren't you acting a bit intense?"

He raised his arm, shining his Zoolizer. Silently, he pressed the button. A new voice emanated from the device, deep, gravelly, unholy sounding.

"SAVAGE ON"

"Oh, that's new." Judy muttered.

A flash of red light, and Nick was taken over by the monster known simply as Savage. The beast was hunched over, laughing.

"Ahhh, the fox." He cooed. "So overemotional, so easy to take over."

"Nick!?" Oliver yelled from the monster's now trembling hand. "What's happening!?"

"Shut it kid, or I'll kill you after I'm done scrapping this piece of trash." Savage snapped. "Maybe I'll do that anyway." He drew his claws out.

"I'm not gonna let you!" Judy yelled, transforming and flipping over Savage, landing between the two monsters. She ran over to the Clock Org. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'll need your help."

"Wait, seriously?" The monster said, utterly shocked.

Blue nodded. "If we let Savage run around here, nothing will exist in the future."

"She's not wrong!" Savage chuckled.

"First, let Oliver go." The monster complied, and the fox quickly scampered off. "Alright, next, you need to let me do this!" She slammed the monster's clock face shut, and grabbed the small hand with her paws.

As she did, everything gained a lavender tint. "Time freeze." She said, whipping out her blades. She quickly rushed towards the now frozen Savage, and sliced at him a handful of times. She stepped back, and pulled out the Rabblasters, firing them a bunch. The shots remained frozen in the air as she finished.

"Alright, that should be enough." She said, hoping back over to the monster, and pushing the small hand forward.

Time unfroze, the lasers blasts rained into Savage, a shower of explosions and sparks covering him. They quickly cleared, and the monster stepped forward, seemingly unharmed. "Do you really think that would be enough to take me down?" He snidely asked.

"No, but it left you distracted enough to do this."

Without Savage realizing, Clock Org had begun to open a time portal. His clock hands whizzed and whirled, causing a blue hole to open beneath the monstrous fox. He fell through, screaming. "Alright, rabbit, you're coming too!" The monster said, pushing her forwards.

She gave the monster a quick glance, and then leaped into the hole. The monster quickly followed, performing a cannonball, and the hole closed up behind him. Oliver peeked around the corner, and rubbed his eyes.

"Well, that was odd." He said, scratching his head. "I should probably just forget about that."

* * *

In a few seconds, the three fell out of a portal in the middle of a park. Savage landed, and flipped off, while blue stumbled a bit as she landed. Clock Org simply faceplanted. The portal closed, and a massive ripple burst from it.

"What was that!?" Blue yelled, pulling her ears down.

"It was time fixing itself!" The monster said. "Everything's gone back to normal!" It paused for a second. "Which also means…"

Blue watched as a figure began to materialize in front of her. It was a familiar, cloaked figure. "Silver?" She said, approaching the figure as they fully manifested. "Where did you come from?" She asked.

"Um…" Silver looked around, and rubbed their head. "I'm not entirely sure myself."

"Oh look, glitter boy's back." Savage mocked. "Looks like I get three victims to play with after all!"

"I'll take care of Savage." Silver said. "I'm the only one who can take him. You deal with the clock… thing."

She nodded, and rushed off to fight the clock monster. Silver turned to the monstrous fox, who was looking at the ranger intently. "Just give him back, Savage, you've already lost to me more times than you've won. Which would be zero, if I recall."

"Please, astroboy," He laughed. "I'm only getting started!" Silver drew the Eclipse Thruster, while Savage extended his claws, and the two rushed at each other. Silver attempted to strike the fox, who caught it in one paw. Savage then struck at the silver ranger's stomach with his free claws, knocking him backwards.

"Y'see, Silver…" Savage started, leaping up and smacking Silver in the head, knocking the ranger to the ground. Silver lifted himself up, only to see Savage staring back down at him, massive grin on his face. "I don't know if you've realized this, but I'm getting stronger with each passing moment." He grabbed the ranger's hood, and slammed their snout into the ground. "Meanwhile, you're as weak as usual." He mocked.

Silver groaned, and slammed a fist into the ground. "I'm… WE'RE stronger than you, Savage." He muttered. "Wilde can overcome you, I know it!"

Savage laughed, pressing the ranger's head even harder into the ground. "Looks like someone's been watching too many cartoons! You really don't understand, I AM Wilde, and I AM Hopps, and I AM everything!" His tone suddenly turned dead serious. "And eventually, I will be the only thing."

Silver gripped their paws to the ground, and slowly lifted themselves up, even under Savage's intense strength. "I won't…" The monstrous fox glared at him with his red eyes, only amused at this resistance. "I won't let you do that!" He rose upwards, knocking the monster backwards, and then drew the Eclipse Thruster again. Silver unleashed a flurry of powerful strikes to the fox, an explosion of sparks launching with each hit. With one final strike, the fox was launched backwards.

Savage rose, and let out a powerful growl, which quickly turned into a laugh. "Y'know, it's a shame your boss kicked me out before I could have any fun with you." He laughed, stumbling forward. "I think you might be even more emotionally unbalanced than these two!"

"He did that to protect me." Silver growled. "To prevent me from becoming like he was."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out!" The monster yelled. "Now you got me running around!" He let out a final laugh, before transforming back into Nick, who fell to his knees.

Silver rushed up to the fox, who shook his head, trying to get his bearings. "Are you alright, Wilde?" He asked, helping the fox up.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." He mumbled, stumbling forward a bit as he got to his feet. He looked around. "Guess I'm back in the present."

"What?"

Blue quickly rushed up to the two. "Oh great, you're back!" She chirped, out of breath. "We kind of have a massive, giant, awful problem."

Before either of the two could say anything, a massive roar shook the ground. All three looked up to see a large, feathered, tyrannosaurus rex, staring directly at them.

"Gotta admit, this might be the third worst thing I've ever woken up to." Nick nonchalantly said.

"What was the first?" Blue asked.

"Well, you ever see Finnick when he's drunk?"

"Now's not the time for reminiscing!" Silver yelled, as the dinosaur raised a large foot above them. "RUN!"

The three quickly darted off as the T-Rex smashed its foot into the ground, and started chasing after them. Nick quickly transformed into ZooRed.

"How the hell did this happen!?" Red yelled.

"The clock guy summoned it!" Blue explained. The three quickly leaped behind a large rock pointing out of the park ground.

"If we don't move, it won't be able to see us." Silver explained.

"Thanks, Goldblum." Red joked. "Haven't heard that one a million times."

"No, seriously, you guys missed a really cool fight!" Blue exclaimed. "There were ninjas, gladiators, tanks, it was awesome!"

"Sorry for being in the middle of a dramatic fight!" Silver whisper yelled. "Now be quiet!"

They heard the stomps of the Rex, and remained absolutely quiet and still, all bunched up against the rock. "Okay, I have an idea." Red quietly interjected. "I'll handle the T-Rex, you guys just… stay here for a minute."

"That doesn't seem very fair." Blue said.

Red rolled his eyes from behind the mask, and stepped out from the rock, pulling out a golden ZooTag. "Let's get this show started." He whispered, sliding it into the Zoolizer. The Zoolizer began producing noise, catching the feathered beast's attention.

"Maybe I should have thought this through more." Red said to himself as the Solar Flare Saber appeared in his paws. The T-Rex roared at him as he quickly spun the blade around, shooting a slash directly at the dinosaur.

The slash cut directly through the beast's neck, causing it to vanish instantly. "Monster, extinct." Red muttered, pumping his fist.

Blue hopped out from behind the rock. "Good job, Red!" She cheered.

"That was absolutely terrifying." He admitted. There was a pause as he looked around, a bit confused. "Where'd Silver go?" He asked.

The rabbit tried to answer, but came up with nothing. "I'm not sure, actually." She shrugged. "Must've run off."

"Hey!" A rather grumpy sounding voice yelled. "Time for you guys to stop ignoring me!" They turned towards the Clock Org, its large eye staring at them. "I've barely gotten any screen time! I'll make you watch the clock!"

He pulled out a large shell. "Use in times of emergency!" He noted, before thrusting it forward, the gooey contents of the shell flying out like a bucket with water. The goo sloshed against the ground, forming a pink puddle, which quickly reformed into multiple Orgettes.

The club wielding monsters patted their horned heads, and mumbled some nonsense. "Alright Orgettes!" The clock monster yelled. "It's show time!"

"Ugh, what a time for Silver to abandon us." Red sighed. "Wanna take care of these idiots quickly?" He asked his partner, thrusting the massive blade over his shoulder.

"Serve them up a combo?" She replied, pulling out a ZooTag. "Alright, sounds good."

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

She punched the two gloves together, and the two dashed towards the army of monsters. Red leaped into the air, spinning the sword around, before slamming it into the ground, causing a number of the Orgettes to burst into slime. "Ugh, gross." He groaned, wiping some slime from his suit.

Blue, meanwhile, was rapidly firing blasts from her gloves, taking care of the Orgettes one by one, rather quickly. As she did, she counted up each one she knocked out. "Forty… fifty…" She threw a final punch, letting out a massive blast, which knocked away many of the slimy ogres. "Seventy! I think that's the most I've ever beaten in under a minute."

Red swung the massive blade, taking care of the last of the monsters. "You really are good at boxing, huh?" He nudged her. "A real boxing bunny!"

The monster groaned. "Ugh, are you usually so quick at defeating these guys?" He angrily questioned. "Why'd I even bring them in!?"

"I dunno, maybe it's contractual." Red shrugged.

The monster growled, and pulled out a clock hand shaped sword. "Well, let's see how you handle this!" His clock face closed, and he pushed the large hand on it backwards. In a flash, all the Orgettes reappeared, Clock Org stepping through the crowd.

"Come on, seriously?" Blue groaned. "My arms are already getting tired." She said, stretching one of her arms. She started to step forward, only to be pushed back by the fox.

"Hold on a second." He said. "Even if we beat the monsters again, he'll just be able to revive them."

"So, we need to destroy the clock." She suggested. "That's where his time powers come from."

The fox nodded. "I'll deal with the small fries, you go take Big Ben." He said.

"What?" She said, surprised. "Why me?"

"You'll see." He said, pushing her forward. "Now go get 'em!"

She rolled her eyes, and rushed towards the monster, leaping into the air and striking the monster directly in the eye. The monster flew backwards, well behind the army of ogres. "Alright, time piece," She started, hopping from foot to foot. "Time to punch your clock!"

She heard Red cheering as she finished saying the line. She quickly turned back, just in time to hold back the monster's blade with her gloves. She pushed it back, and delivered a punch to the monster's gut area, knocking it back.

The monster ran up, and tried to strike the rabbit with his sword, only for her to duck and weave out of the way with each swing. "You're a fast little bunny, huh?" It said. "Let's see how fast you are when you can't move!" The clock face closed. "Not very much, is the answer!"

Before the monster could activate its time powers, Blue quickly rushed up, and delivered a straight punch to the center of the wooden clock face, causing it to shatter in a burst of sparks. The monster yelled in pain as it flew backwards, landing directly on its eye.

"AUGH!" It cried. "I HAVE SPLINTERS IN MY EYE!"

"Great job, Blue!" Red complimented, running up next to the rabbit.

"Thanks." She said, out of breath. "Why did you want me to do it again?" She asked. "You probably could've done it, too."

"I just wanted to hear you make a clock punch joke." He admitted. She let out a loud sigh.

"Just for that, I get to finish this guy off myself." She said.

"No fur off my back."

She gave a smirk from behind the helmet, before back flipping a ways behind the fox. Meanwhile, unaware to both of them, the monster was slowly rising up. She then ran at the fox.

"Wait, what-"

She leaped up, and used the fox's head as a footstool, launching herself even higher into the air, directly towards the now standing monster. "PUNCH DELETE!" She yelled, punching directly through the monster. She passed right through it, sliding across the ground as the monster sparked and stumbled, before exploding.

"Kaboom." She said, pumping her gloved fist.

"Did you really have to do that?" Red asked, rubbing his head.

"I needed some extra height, alright?" She said. "It's not my fault you're so short."

"Hey, I'm taller than you!" He yelled back, poking her in the nose. There was a loud crashed, and they turned around, seeing the clock monster standing on the horizon.

"AND NOW I'M TALLER THAN BOTH OF YOU!" It roared.

The two pulled out their mecha ZooTags, and in a few seconds, ZooRobo was formed, standing in front of the revived monster. "Alright, it's time to clean your clock!" Red said, causing ZooRobo to point its sword toward the monster.

"I already made that joke!" The monster yelled, pulling out its own sword.

"Who cares!?" Blue said, jolting the controls forward. The two locked blades, sparks showering with every clash of the blades.

After a few more swings, the monster managed to push the blade out of the way, and knock ZooRobo backwards. The robot responded by quickly recovering, and returning a slash to the monsters hand, causing it to drop the blade.

"Augh, my sword… clock hand… whatever!" It yelled. "Luckily, I have some more tricks up my sleeve!" it said, rubbing its hands together. The clock face closed, and it pushed the minute hand forward. "There's one thing you can never outrun!" It started as it pushed the hand forward.

In a flash, the monster reappeared behind them, and landed what felt like multiple punches in under a second. In then reappeared to their side, and let out a few lightning fast quicks.

It then reappeared in front of them. "And that's time itself!" It finally finished. "Behold my fast forward technique!"

Suddenly, the monster had its sword, and was rapidly running around the robot, slicing through it a surprising amount of times in under a minute. The two pilots were tossed and turned in their seats as they continued to be hit.

"What do we-" Red tried to say, as he felt himself hit the side of the cockpit. "What do we do!?"

"We just need to land one hit!" Blue said. "Directly-" Her head slammed into the controls. "Ugh, directly into its face!" She pulled out a blue ZooTag. "And I think I have just the thing!" She quickly plugged it into the slot.

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

In a flash of blue light, ZooSaru appeared. The ape robot deftly delivered a swift smack to the monster, causing it to fall backwards. "Augh!" It cried as it fell. "How'd he do that!?"

The three robots quickly combined. "ZOOROBO, SARU MODE!" The announcer in the mech cried.

"Seriously, where is that coming from?" Red asked, Blue replying with a shrug.

"So what, now you're kind of bigger!" The monster said. "And you've got like, twice as much blue on you, is that it!?"

The robot pounded its chest with one of its massive fists. "Just try us, stopwatch!" Blue dared.

The monster dashed forward, and began rapidly slicing through the robot with its sword, sparks flying. It looked up from its barrage, only to see it hadn't caused any damage. "Wh-what!?" The monster let out, stepping back.

"Guess this guy has pretty good armor, too!" Red said. "Now it's time to end this!" The robot quickly punched the clock monster in the face, causing the face of the clock to shatter again.

"MUSCLE BUSTER BLAST!"

The robot punched once, launching a blast of energy at the monster, and then blasted another from its other hand. It then punched with both hands, causing them to fly off and rocket directly through the monster.

It stumbled and sparked as the fists flew back onto the robot's hands. "What sound does a clock make when it hits twelve?" It asked. The small hatch above its head opened up, shooting out a small, clockwork bird with a horn. The bird let out a "Coo coo!" noise as the monster fell over and exploded.

The robot pounded its chest, and raised its fist to the sky. "Alright!" Blue cheered. "Nature, defended!"

"I'm pretty sure you mean 'Zootastic'." Red said back. The rabbit rolled her eyes.

* * *

The two had done their usual thing, reporting that the activity was a monster, and that the Zoo Rangers came along and helped them solve the case. Judy was starting to get worried that Bogo might have a chance of figuring them out. Nick assured her he wouldn't, since nobody else had.

However, Nick was worried about something else that night. Something a bit more personal, something that had been crawling through his mind. He stared at his phone, a digit hovering over one of the caller IDs.

His mother's.

He needed to ask, it was going to bother him for the rest of his life if he didn't. He took a deep breath, and pressed the screen. It rang, and someone picked up.

"Hello?" An older sounding female voice said. It was his mother's voice. Just the sound of it calmed him down. It had been so long since he'd talked to her.

"Hey, mom, it's me." He said.

"Nick?" She replied, surprised. "Why are you calling at 11 PM?"

"I, uh, needed to ask you something." He said, tossing over in his bed. "Do you know anything about my great, great, great grandfather?"

"That's something your father would know more about, god rest his soul." She said, he could tell she was making the sign of the cross on her chest as she finished. "But, he did tell me a bit about him."

"Oliver Wilde, right?" He asked.

"Yes. He's the reason your father wanted to start up his tailor business." She explained. "Apparently he was a really good tailor, helped with the homeless way back then." There was a silent pause. "Why did you want to know?"

"Just…" He stumbled a bit. "Something came up, and I was interested." He excused. "Sorry for waking you up."

"No, it's fine!" She stated, chuckling a bit. "It's always nice to hear from my boy every now and then. I heard you became an officer, right?"

"Yep, officer of the law."

"I'm so proud of you." She let out. "I just wanted you to know that."

There was a bit of silence again. "I love you, mom." He said. "I'll talk to you later." He hung up, and flung his arm to his nightstand, placing his phone down.

He laid there for a few minutes, in complete silence. He finally let out a sigh, and said something.

"That felt good."

* * *

"Augh, this is bad." Yabaiba lamented, as he scrubbed at the floor with a mop. The ogre was now wearing a headcloth, his horn poking through it, and an apron. "Why do I have to do this?"

" **CONSIDER IT PUNISHMENT** " The Omnipotence sounded. " **THE ONLY REASON YOU AREN'T A PILE OF DUST RIGHT NOW IS BECAUSE YOUR INCREDIBLE MISTAKE AMUSED ME** "

The Org let out a grunt, and kept scrubbing. He heard a smash against the ground, and turned around to see Sambash, a pile of glass at his feet.

"I just cleaned that!" He yelled at the biker.

Sambash chuckled, and popped the cap off of another bottle, and started pouring its contents on the ground, slowly walking backwards. The Org was shaking mad when the liquid finished spilling. "Whoops, sorry." Sambash laughed.

"Alright, you stop right there-" Suddenly, there was another explosion, and half of the Org was covered in a crude, black substance. The biker monster started laughing uncontrollably as the Org slowly turned to see around half the room splattered in oil.

Yogostein was standing between where the two parts of the room were covered in oil, foot pressed down on a now crushed oil drum. "Oops." He chuckled. "Guess I oiled your fun!"

"You guys are assholes, you know that?" Yabaiba said.

"This is what you get for nearly killing us all, shithead." Samabash said, exiting the main hall.

"And don't forget," Yogostein started. "You aren't doing anything until the base is spotless!" He left, laughing uproariously.

The Org muttered to himself, and began angrily scrubbing at the floor. "I'll show those guys." He said. "I'll show them I can be a real threat!"

* * *

Silver looked up into the clouded moon, from high atop a skyscraper. "So, you wanted to talk?" The ranger said, turning to face the large, white and black figure.

"Yes." He said. "I wanted to talk about our little… game."

"You mean the one I've been performing flawlessly?" Silver said. "Yeah, I think I've won."

"I wouldn't call it… flawless." The figure said, looking directly at the ranger with a red glare. "But, you have performed better than I expected you to."

"So, I won?"

The figure nodded. "You managed to pull this off up until now, which is when I was going to let you reveal your identity to them anyway." He stated.

"Thank god." Silver said, stretching. "The overdramatics were killing me."

"There is something… special, that I'd like to give you." The figure walked towards silver, and knelt down, opening his palm to reveal a rounded, silver disc.

Silver lifted it from his hand. "No way, are you kidding me?" The ranger looked at it in awe. "This is amazing!"

"Indeed." The figure said, rising. "Make sure to use it well." He turned. "I'm not needed anymore. I suppose we may never meet again."

"Wait, what?" Silver looked up, and the figure was gone. "Doctor?" Silver jolted around, looking for the figure. "Doctor!?"

"Dr. Mikoto!?"


	16. Alpha

"Why are we doing this?" Nick asked, sat on a stool.

Judy had wheeled in a large whiteboard earlier in the day, the sitting room was completely rearranged to fit the board, which didn't almost didn't fit the room. Judy herself was standing on a taller stool, so she could actually reach it.

"Well, you see," She started, slapping a large pointer in her other paw. "I felt it was finally time we discussed who ZooSilver actually is. We've gathered enough evidence, I feel, to deduce who it is!"

She grabbed the bottom of the whiteboard, and pushed it, causing it to spin around rapidly. She then stuck her foot out, stopping it, and revealing three pictures.

"You just really wanted to do that, didn't you?" Nick asked. The rabbit enthusiastically nodded.

"Alright, so, we have three major suspects! First up," She pointed the pointer to a picture of a rather confused looking Lupina. "Victoria Lupina. She was at the sight of Silver's first appearance, and is one of the first people we encountered when we became Zoorangers." She stated, bringing the pointer down. "If I were to guess, she might've somehow become one at some point shortly afterwards."

The fox was too busy staring at the pictures to listen to what Judy was saying. "Where did you get these pictures?" He asked.

"I took them."

His head tilted in confusion.

"Second suspect," Judy continued, pointing her pointer at a picture of a more perturbed looking Wolford. "Maxwell Wolford, fellow police officer. He was also there when Silver showed up to help us defeat that pig monster. He also kind of seems like the kind of guy who would help us."

"You mean a goody two shoes?" Nick joked, the rabbit giving him a glance.

"And finally, suspect number three," She pointed towards a picture of a rather excited looking Kyle. "Kyle Izanami, fanboy of ours, potential stalker, but overall nice guy. He was also in the area when Silver showed up to help fend off that gun guy." She turned to look at the board herself. "Now, all of them have the same amount of potential, and considering Silver seems to disappear and appear at will…"

She continued talking to herself, as the fox got up. "Uh, Carrots?" He said, trying to get her attention, unsuccessfully. "Fluff?" Still no response, she was still thinking to herself. The fox sighed, and walked up to the stool she was standing on. He grabbed two fo the legs, and slightly shook it.

"Whoa!" She yelled, trying not to fall over. "What was that for?"

"I think I know who it is." He stated. "Well, I know who it isn't."

"Alright, Sherlock," She started, hopping down from the stool. "Lay it on me."

"Well, it's not Lupina." He said. "When Silver saved me that one time, he brought me to his basement. And where does Lupina live?"

"An apartment." Judy answered. "How do you know it wasn't the apartment's basement?"

"Too small, and I don't think an apart basement would have a TV set up down there." He said. "So it's not Lupina."

The rabbit's ears drooped. "Aw, that kinda sucks." She lamented. "I kind of wanted another girl on the team."

"Yeah, that does suck." Nick admitted. "Seems kind of sexist. Anyway, on something that doesn't suck, Wolford isn't Silver, either!" He said, rather cheerfully.

"I thought you two were friends?" Judy questioned.

"More like an acquaintance I try not to insult in public." He replied. "I still really don't like him."

"You can't just say he's not Silver because you don't like him."

"No, I have actual reasons!" He assured. "For one, the guy doesn't seem like the guy who can keep a secret himself. He might be able to keep other people's secrets, but definitely not his own."

Judy gave him a skeptical look.

"Also, there was the bit where he leaped off into the city, and then Wolford ran out of the restaurant shortly after." He continued. "That is a physical impossibility."

"I guess you have a point." She admitted. "So that leaves…"

"It leaves the guy who's been following us around, our biggest fan." He said, a serious look growing on his face as he turned to look at her. "Kyle."

Judy let out a small snicker. "I'm sorry, you can't say Kyle dramatically."

"It did sound pretty weird, huh?" He chuckled. "Anyway, now all we need to do is wait for a monster attack to happen, and we'll be able to figure it out."

As if on que, their Zoolizers began ringing, causing the two mammals to clutch their ears.

"Augh, still too loud!" Judy cried.

The devices stopped buzzing. "I'll never, ever get used to that." Nick admitted.

Judy rapidly nodded, he head still ringing. "Alright, let's go find this monster!"

* * *

The two pulled their bikes in front of an old factory. Rusted, abandoned, and generally menacing looking from the outside. The kind of place children would be forbidden from going to. They hopped off the bikes, and walked towards it.

"I thought these monsters were trying to cause trouble in public places?" Red asked as they stopped outside the gate. "What kind of mass panic can it cause in a factory?"

"I dunno, something feels off." Blue admitted. "But it's supposed to be in there, so…"

The two took deep breathes, and stepped into the rusted factory. The inside was oddly clean, a large section of the ground cleared out. Surrounding the clean area was a large pile of scrap metal, a path leading directly to it. The rangers walked into the center of the cleaned, circular area. Then, they heard a sound, a slam, and turned to see the doors had closed.

"I knew something was wrong!" Blue yelled, rushing towards the exit. Just as she was about to exit the area, the scrap metal started to move on its own, forming a wall, and pushing the rabbit to the ground.

"Oh, that's not good!" Red yelled, rushing to the rabbit and helping her up. A laugh sounded through the factory.

The rangers looked up. Kyuemon was standing on one of the walkways above them. "Welcome, Zoorangers!" He greeted. "Looks like you've fallen for my trap. You may have been able to defeat Wolfman, but I've made a significantly… stronger, opponent for you today." He snapped his fingers.

The two turned to look as the scrap metal on the other side of the arena rose up, revealing a monster. It had the face of what they assumed was a primate, a mane of hair surrounding it, and a wrench stuck in its mouth. Its lower body appeared, however, to be that of a tiger. The monster also had a large toolbox coming out of one of its shoulders, and various tools protruding from its back. Its right hand was also a large, but still thin, spiral drill, which had a snake spiraling around it.

"Introducing, Advanced Yokai, Nue!" Kyuemon announced. The monster stepped forward, the scrap metal falling back into place as it entered the arena. "He is one of the most powerful Yokai in history, and he is the one that will finally dispose of you."

Kyuemon then vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving behind a Jukkarage. The stone creature carried a small, brass bell, and an even smaller wooden mallet. The monster hit the bell with the mallet, causing it to ring.

Nearly instantaneously, the monster waved its normal hand, causing the bell to fly out of the Jukkarage's hand, and fly directly towards the two rangers. The leaped out of the way as it crashed into the ground.

"Holy smokes!" Blue yelled as the dust cleared. "I guess it can control metal!"

"Let's see how well it can control metal when I'm done scrapping it!" red yelled, pulling out the Foxfire Blade. He then dashed towards the monster, who waved his hand again. Before Red could even get halfway to the Yokai, a large steel beam flew directly into his side, knocking him out and crushing him beneath the pile of scraps.

"Oh god."

Silently, the monster approached the rabbit, its drill hand beginning to spin and make an infernal noise. The rabbit pulled out her blades, and rushed to the monster attempting to strike it. As she leaped up, the beast quickly knocked the blades out of her hands with its drill, and smacked her backwards with its normal hand.

She slid across the ground, and tried to get up as the monster approached. She fell to the ground as the monster raised its drill, prepped to strike. She quickly rolled out of the way as the monster thrust the drill forward, cleaving a large chunk out of the ground.

The rabbit got up, and started to run, the Nue chasing after her, drill still cleaving through the ground. It waved its hand, causing a pipe to stick out of the side of the arena, tripping the rabbit. The monster approached the grounded rabbit, drill still spinning. She glanced over to Red, his lifeless body crushed underneath several pieces of metal. She looked back up at the monster, hovering over her, eyes glaring.

"You have failed." It said.

Her heart raced as she closed her eyes, preparing for the final blow. However, the drill stopped, and she heard a different noise. The sound of someone cutting through metal.

She opened her eyes, the monster had turned to face the entrance. Blue looked at the door, which almost instantly exploded open. In stepped Silver, cloak still shrouding their figure. "Another animal wants to die, I see." The monster said.

Silver leaped over the scrap pile, and entered the arena. "I won't let you." Silver said, pointing the Eclipse Blade at the ape. "These two's story has just begun, I will not let you end it early."

The Yokai raised its drill, which started to spin. They charged at each other, locking drill and blade. Blue quickly got up, and rushed over to her crushed partner. She managed to lift the beam up slightly and off of the fox. "Nick, speak to me!" She yelled, shaking the unconscious fox. "Please, wake up."

The fox let out a groan. "I'm fine, the scrap metal cushioned my fall." He muttered. Blue nearly felt like crying, she had nearly lost him. Red tried to move, but let out a grunt of pain. "Oh hey, I can't move my leg!." He said, strained, but still trying to stay calm.

Silver thrust the blade into the monster, knocking it back. "You two just stay there, I'll beat this guy!" The silver ranger yelled to them.

"But-"

"Nick, you can't do anything right now!" Blue told him. "You're wounded!"

He grunted. "Can I at least get off this scrap pile?" He asked. The rabbit helped him down into the arena, and they slowly moved towards the exit.

"Alright, lunchbox, let's finish this." Silver said. "COSMIC ECLIPSE SLASH!"

Silver quickly spun the sword around in a circle, forming the vague image of a moon in the center of the circle. The silver ranger then swung the blade down, causing the moon to fire towards the monster, launching it backwards into the scrap pile. There was an explosion, sending scrap flying.

"Wow." Both of the Zoorangers let out, untransforming.

"Guess we got this done with early, huh?" Nick chuckled, still in pain.

Silver turned to them, head still obscured by the cloak. "After you're done recuperating, I need you to meet me at the station, tonight." Silver stated.

"Okay," Judy started. "Why?"

"It is time."

With that, Silver leaped over them, and cut the pile of scrap out of the way, creating a path. The mystery ranger then ran out the door, and leaped off.

"Well, that wasn't ominous." Nick grunted as Judy helped him out of the building.

"Do you think that means what I think it means?" She asked.

"I'm mostly focusing on how much my leg hurts."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I think he's going to reveal his identity to us tonight!" She said excitedly, letting go of the fox.

He nearly collapsed. "Why'd you do that?" He asked.

"Well, we need to get home." She said, transforming. "Do you think you can drive the bike?"

* * *

"How's your leg feeling?" She asked as they waited in the back lot of the police station.

The fox shook his foot a bit. "Still hurts, but I'll manage." He looked around at the area. Nick looked around the darkened area, dumpster and all. He let out a sigh. "Wow, this is pretty nostalgic, huh?"

The rabbit looked at him.

"This is where it all started, remember?" He said. "This is where we met Kruger, and got the Zoolizers!"

She looked around. "Huh, that's weird." She said. "It feels like it's been a lot longer than it actually has."

The fox nodded. "So, Silver's showing up soon, right?" He asked, putting his paws in pocket. The rabbit nodded. "Hope it's soon."

"So, I was thinking about something." Judy started. "What if Silver isn't any of the suspects?"

"You mean an unknown third party? Or, fourth party?" He questioned.

She nodded. "What if it's just someone we don't know who's been helping us, and everything else has been a coincidence?"

"After about a month and a half of build-up, I doubt it would just be someone we don't know." Nick laughed.

"It was just a thought." She muttered. "So, you're sure it's Kyle?"

One hundred percent, utterly, positively certain." He replied confidently. "If it isn't," He pulled up his loose tie. "I'll eat my tie."

Judy chuckled, and then looked up. A full moon. "Huh, didn't realize it was a full moon tonight."

The fox looked up as the clouds cleared, revealing it in its shining glory. "Neat, full moons are always nice to look at."

"I know, right?" A deep voice said from behind them. They quickly turned, managing to spot a black figure run out of sight.

"What was that?" Judy asked.

"Over here."

They turned, seeing a cloaked figure. It was definitely Silver.

"It is time," The figure began. "To reveal myself!"

"Oh, yes, please!" Judy said, excited. The fox let out a small chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." He dismissed. "Anyway, we already know who you are." Nick said, stepping forward with a slight limp.

"W-what!?" Silver said in surprise. "How did you figure it out!?"

"We're police officers, that's kind of our job." Judy explained.

"So just show yourself, KYLE!" Nick yelled, pointing towards the figure, dramatically.

Silver let out a sigh. "Oh thank god you guys guessed wrong."

Judy gave the fox a stern look, as the fox awkwardly gritted his teeth and lowered his paw. The two looked on as they heard a small clink hit the ground. In a moment, Silver flung off the cloak, revealing himself.

It was Wolford.

"Surprise!"

The rabbit tried not to laugh, as the fox gave the wolf a glare. "Alright, slick, how do you like your tie?" She asked, still laughing. "Medium, or rare?"

"Wow, you guys really know how to ruin a dramatic moment." Wolford said, a bit disappointed.

"Sorry, it's just not every day you get to see Nick be completely wrong about something!" She was still laughing, and the fox was still glaring.

"I've never been more disappointed at a twist in my life." Nick muttered.

"Hey, I thought we were friends." Wolford said, a bit dejected.

"Ha ha, yeah, no." The fox said, beginning to sound actually angry. "You're the guy who said to open up, and here you are, having kept this a secret from us. Hypocrite."

"Listen, I…" He stumbled with his words a bit, and slapped his forehead. "I have reasons, alright?" He sighed, and walked up to the two. "Listen, how about we go to my place for a bit, get some coffee, and I can explain everything."

"That sounds wonderful." Judy said. "We would both love to get to know you a bit better."

"I'll go." Nick said. "Just for the coffee, though."

She punched the fox in the side. "Nick, seriously!?" She yelled. "Quit being rude for no reason!"

"Hey, we're all on the same team here, right?" Wolford said. "This isn't how teams act, so maybe, we can get to be friends, maybe?"

There was a bit of silence. "Ugh, fine." Nick groaned. "We'll go to his house to 'hang out'."

"Great!" Wolford said, excitedly. "C'mon, we'll take my car!"

* * *

The three were sat in Wolford's rather modest living room. It wasn't much, a standard couch, a smaller chair, coffee table, and TV stand. It was very, very average looking, Wolford walked over, carrying two cups of coffee. The wolf was dressed in casual clothes, jeans, and a grey shirt.

He handed the cups to the guests. "Thank you." Judy said, taking a bit of a sip of the coffee.

The fox remained a bit silent, and took a sip. It was really good coffee, but he wasn't going to admit it. He was going to be as rude as possible.

Or at least, he was trying. Judy kept nudging him every time he did something rude. "Uh, thanks." He let out to appease the rabbit.

"So… can we call you Max?" She asked.

The wolf nodded. "We're going to be a team from now on," He started. "So first name basis is important."

The fox scoffed a bit.

"Alright… Max," Judy said, a bit awkwardly. It was weird having to call a colleague she barely knew by his first name. "How, exactly, did you become a Zooranger?" She asked.

"Well, it all started a few months ago, the night of those weird assaults." He started. "You know, the ones that ended up being that fox guy." He snapped his fingers. "Uh, Cootymon or something."

"It's Kyuemon." Nick corrected.

"Yeah, him. So, it went like this…"

* * *

_I was walking home from the store, in the dead of night. Silent, dark. That's when it happened. I felt something jab into my back, a real deep cut._

_Still have the scar, actually, but that's not important right now._

_So, I dropped what I bought to the ground, and turned around, managing to catch a glimpse of the Kyuemon guy. Gotta say, glowing yellow eyes, yellow tiger pelt, and purple really stand out at night. He held a blood covered ninja star in one of his paws, and looked frustrated._

"Another failure…" _He said, sounded very disappointed._

 _I asked him what the hell he was doing, and what the hell he was, and he replied with something cryptic, like_ "None of your business." _Some generic villain speech._

_So, I punched him in the gut._

_He seemed surprised that I had managed to do that, and pulled out a sword. I managed to get out of the way before it could slice me to ribbons, and dashed into an alleyway. Kyuemon followed me, but I managed to grab onto a trash can lid, and block some of his sword swings. It was a trash can lid against a sword, so it didn't last very long._

_I managed to get away again, going deeper into the alley, and managed to fling a trash can at him before he could attack me. The guy cut the trash can in half, and got covered in garbage. He yelled something about how he_ "Didn't have time for this" _and, poof, disappeared in a burst of smoke._

_After that, I ran home before anything else could happen, still in pain from being stabbed. I basically jumped into bed when I got home, but later that night, I got woken up by something. There was a bright flash and a loud crash in the backyard. I rushed out to see what it was._

_It was a gigantic egg._

_Not a real egg, but some kind of metallic egg, embedded in the ground. I walked up, feeling compelled to touch it. When I did, it opened up, the top half splitting into three panels, like a beetle's pincers. Inside was my Zoolizer. As I lifted it up, I heard a voice._

"Wear it."

_Usually I'm not one to trust voices in my head, but something seemed… trustworthy about this, so I complied. When I put it on, I blacked out, and woke up… somewhere, I'm still not sure._

_It was pure white, some kind of purgatory, maybe even Heaven itself. The only objects were a series of haphazard arches. And standing in front of me, was something I'd never seen before in my life._

_It was tall, standing up completely straight. It was wearing some kind of suit, with a gold trimmed shield on its chest. Going up the sides of its body was black, claw like marks. It had a piercing, red visor on its helmeted head, and a large crest. I was absolutely terrified as it walked towards me._

"Maxwell Wolford," _It started, its voice calm, but intense._ "I have been looking for someone like you for a while." _He kneeled down, and explained to me who he was, and what he was doing there._

_He was Doctor Mikoto, AbareKiller, a member of Abaranger, part of something called a Super Sentai. He explained to me he was from another world, but had managed to travel through the afterlife to reach our world. He was also dead, having died after a battle. He asked me to become his protégé, take up his powers and fix his mistakes._

_I accepted, I mean, who wouldn't want to be a super hero? For the next while, he taught me how to use the powers, acting as a spirit guide only I could see. There were a few mistakes throughout the training, but it took a short time, surprisingly, only about a week._

* * *

"And that's how I became ZooSilver." He finished. "Unfortunately, Mikoto said I had to keep my identity a secret for a bit longer, or I'd lose them, so that's why I had to help you guys without giving my identity away. It was pretty hard during the disappearing food case."

"Wow." Both of them said, Nick coming off a bit sarcastic, while Judy sounded genuinely amazed.

"I have a few questions." Nick started. "First, how much of this are you making up?"

"I may have embellished the fight a bit." He admitted.

"Second, this… Killer guy, was he the guy you were talking to when you rescued me that one time?" He asked.

Max nodded. "Yeah, that was him. Guy followed me around for months, it kind of got annoying. Guy was a real buzzkill." He let out a sigh. "He disappeared about a week ago, I don't know what happened to him. Kind of miss him."

"Do you have your Zoolizer on you?" Judy asked, getting up from the couch. "I'd love to see it."

"Oh, yeah, sure." He said, pulling it out from his pocket, and tossing it to her.

She caught it, and examined its design. It was completely different from their flat-face styled Zoolizers, instead resembling a side shot of a wolf's head. She fiddled with it a bit, realizing that the mouth could open and close. There was a much wider slot in the mouth, larger than a ZooTag's size.

"So, why does it look different from ours?" She asked.

She held up her wrist, and the wolf leaned in to get a better look. "Huh, I'm not sure, honestly." He admitted. "But I can probably guess."

The two looked at him, inquisitively.

"Well, it's for the toyline." He said, causing them to tilt their heads in confusion. "See, this Super Sentai stuff is really similar to Zoo Rangers, you know them?"

"We watched a few episodes months ago." Judy said. "But I don't get what you mean."

"Well, it's all toyline based." He tried to explain. "See, I grew up collecting the Zoo Rangers toys, and watching the show, it's actually what inspired me to be a police officer." He admitted with a chuckle. "But what I mean is, all the stuff you guys have been getting is based around trying to sell toys, even if those toys don't actually exist."

He held up his Zoolizer. "So, there's probably a reason mine looks different, but the main reason is because I'm the sixth Ranger of the season, and have to make my toys more appealing."

The two stared at him, absolutely dumbfounded.

"Listen, I know it doesn't make any sense, but I've been watching this stuff for years."

"Oh, so you're a nerd." Nick said, deadpan.

"Yes." Max replied, not catching onto the sarcasm. "I've watched Zoo Rangers since it started airing, it's really important to me."

"So, I guess this entire thing is like a dream to you, huh?" Judy suggested. "Must be pretty lucky."

Max nodded. "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a hero like the Zoo Rangers," He started up, sifting in his seat a bit. "But obviously it was impossible for me to become a real super hero, so I became an Officer. Second best thing, right?"

"In a way, I suppose." Judy said.

"So, wait," Nick started. "You still watch Zoo Rangers? I thought it got cancelled decades ago."

"That's just what everyone thinks," Max started. "It's a kid's show, no one in the media actually cares about it."

"Huh." The two let out.

"Yeah, it's in its twenty something season?" The wolf continued. "Dinosaur based. Pretty alright, better than the last two seasons at least." He muttered. "Oh but, I actually know a few of the monsters you guys have run into!"

"Wait, seriously?" Judy said, surprised. "How do you know about them?"

"I don't know how, but some of them were in Zoo Rangers!" Max stated. "Like, Jindrax and Scorch!"

"Who were those again?" Nick asked.

"Clown guy, dragon guy…" Max explained. "…Why, do you not know who they are?"

"We actually know them by very different names." Judy said. "Yabaiba and Long."

"Huh." The wolf let out, a bit confused. "I guess they're not the same guys. Well, they did look different…"

"Alrighty then," Nick started, getting up from the couch. "This has been a wonderful look into your psyche, but we have work tomorrow, so we should probably be going."

"But-"

"See?" He interrupted before the rabbit could continue. "Judy wants to head home too."

The wolf gave him a bit of a disappointed glare, then sighed. "Well, if you want to go, I can always drive you-"

"We can walk."

The fox quickly grabbed the rabbit by the arm, and stormed out the front door, leaving the wolf behind.

"Well, I'll see them tomorrow anyway!" He said to himself, trying to stay positive.

* * *

The fox monster chuckled to himself as he walked into the factory. The scrap was still piled up all around the place. "I suppose they thought they could just beat Nue like that." He said, walking up to one of the piles.

With a sweep of his hand, the scrap flew off, smashing into the wall. Removing the scrap had revealed Nue's body, lying on a few other pieces of scrap. Its eyes were dead, and the entire monster had gone limp. "Well, his body survived, at least." Kyuemon muttered.

He pulled out a Chaos badge, and jabbed it into the corpse's chest. It suddenly pulsed with life, twitching and sparking with red electricity. The Yokai backed away, watching as the pieces of scrap seemed to melt onto its body.

"That's new."

The creature rose as the metal twisted across its flesh, smoothing out parts of its body into a patchwork of machinery and monkey. Its normal arm became completely engulfed in the metal, turning into a near replica of its other arm, only silver, and with a large claw at the end. Half of the monster's face became robotic, while both of its dead eyes burst to life, now red in color.

It let out a roar as it finished transforming, now resembling a cyborg more than a Yokai. It then kneeled down in front of the fox Yokai. "What are your orders, Master Kyuemon?" It asked in a robotic tone.

Kyuemon stared at the monster for a second. "Obedient, no quirks…" He muttered to himself. "Maybe you'll be the one to finally destroy the Zoorangers." He suggested. "And that was an order."

"I will…" The monster rose up, red eyes becoming more visible, shining in the darkness of the moonlit factory. "Destroy the Zoorangers. I will get my revenge." The monster rose its drill hand to its chest, which began spinning.

"If you want that," Kyuemon said. "Then you'll need to make yourself noticeable. I'm sure you can wreck a city, correct?"

"Secondary objective confirmed." It said, eyes shining. "Destroy city." It let out another roar, as its claw hand quickly morphed into a secondary drill. The two drills spun, and it dug into the ground, vanishing.

"Interesting." Kyuemon said to himself. "A cybernetic Yokai. This could prove entertaining, at the very least."

With that, the fox monster vanished in a burst of purple smoke.

* * *

"Seriously Nick, what's your deal?" Judy asked as they entered the apartment. "You're being horrible to Max."

"I dunno, I just really, really hate the guy." He said, walking to the couch. "He's obnoxious, not funny, and way too cheery."

"You're upset because he's like you, but with a social life, right?"

The fox tried to come up with a rebuttal, but came up empty. "Yes, basically." The rabbit gave him a look. "And also because I'm jealous of his relatively normal life, and I think he's a bit of a spotlight stealer." He regrettably admitted.

"'Spotlight stealer'?" She said, confused. "I didn't realize you had such a fragile ego, Wilde." She joked.

"Well, I do." He admitted. "I have many very fragile emotions, and you reprimanding me isn't helping any of them."

"I think you're also upset because you were wrong about something for once." She suggested. "Kinda seems like that struck you a bit."

"Maybe it did!" He yelled, he was getting very aggravated. "Maybe I was just getting angry at his stupid mug!"

There was silence for a few minutes, before Judy let out a sigh. "You… You really are just worried about him taking away your spotlight, aren't you?"

The fox gulped. "This was supposed to be you and me, Judy." He said. "We don't need a third member, we can handle this ourselves!"

"Um, excuse me?" She replied. "Did you miss the fight today? We nearly died without Max's help!" She yelled. "And that's not counting the other times he saved our asses! The monsters are getting stronger, Nick, we're going to need help eventually."

"Then why can't big red send us more Sentai guys?" He asked. "They're ones who actually deserve to be fighting! All Wolford did is maybe fight of Kyuemon and be a fan of a stupid kid's TV show!"

"Nick-"

"Did you see how he treated them?!" He asked. "He was treating those guys, who risked their lives for their world, like toys!" He waved his hands in bafflement and frustration. "He doesn't deserve this!"

"Maybe you're the one who doesn't deserve it." She said, heading to her bedroom. "Goodnight, Nick." She said solemnly.

The fox watched as she closed the door slowly.

The fox gripped his paw. "I'll show her who the one that deserves it is…" He muttered, walking to his own bedroom, and slamming the door behind him.

* * *

"Alright, so no weirdness today, alright?" She said as they walked into the station.

"No insulting, jeering, or 'huwting his feewings'." He replied. The rabbit scoffed.

"This is serious Nick, we're going to be working as a team, no matter your weird egotism." Judy continued, stopping the fox in his tracks. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The fox rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Carrots, can't you just let me hate a guy for no reason?" He asked.

"No, not when we're going to be in contact with the guy for a good chunk of however long this will take." She replied. "You weren't like this when he was just a guy in a cloak that saved us."

"Well, it was easier to attach a non-aggravating personality to Wolford when we didn't know who he was."

"Didn't know who what was?"

The two turned to see Wolford. "Oh, hey Max!" Judy greeted, awkwardly. "We were just talking about… nothing whatsoever.

"Uh huh." He replied, skeptically. "Anyway, since we're, y'know, partners, I felt maybe we should hang out some more!" He suggested. "Get to know each other better, what do you think?"

"I'd like to keep this partnership strictly business, thank you." Nick rudely interjected. The rabbit jabbed his side.

"Oh, Nick, you and your jokes." She tried to excuse. "What he means is yes, we would love to get together sometime. What did you have in mind?"

"Uh, I guess we could go to a pub." He suggested, rubbing his head. "I haven't exactly planned it all out, but we can totally go do something tonight."

"Yeah," Judy started, the fox having gone silent, arms crossed. "I mean, it's not like we have a monster to fight."

"Yeah, with how you single handedly destroyed it." Nick sarcastically sneered.

'I know, wasn't it great!?" Max started, not catching onto his sarcasm. His expression lowered as the rabbit gave the fox a quick look. "Oh, sarcasm, I get it."

"It was impressive, Max." She tried to comfort. "Nick's just acting like a jerk."

"Not acting, I am a jerk."

He sighed. "I know you don't like me Nick, but we need to work together, can't we at least try?"

"We did try, remember?" Nick said. "You're the one who said I should be more open, and I'm being very open about how much I don't like you."

The wolf's ears drooped a bit. "Hahahaha, alright, that's enough of that." Judy sternly said, grabbing the fox and walking off towards the bull pen. "See you later, Wolford!"

Before he could say anything, his Zoolizer quickly lit up, and let out a wolf howl. "Oh, not now!" He said, trying to cover it up.

The rabbit turned back to him. "What was that?" She asked, running up to him, fox still in her grasp.

"Oh, nothing, that just means…" He leaned into a whisper. "It means there's a monster!"

"Wait, does yours actually work properly?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"Now's not the time, Nick." Sh esighed. "Bogo's gonna kill us, but we have to."

"I could always stay here while you take care of it." Nick suggested.

"No, this is a team effort." Judy stated. "Let's go."

"Great, the monster's in Tundra Town!" Wolford said. "I'll meet you there." He quickly ran out of the station.

"How do you think he's going to get there?" Nick asked. The rabbit shrugged.

"Doesn't matter, we just have to get there as soon as possible!" She stated, the two quickly heading out of the station as well.

* * *

The two rangers slid into the middle of a snow covered plaza in Tundra Town, and hopped off the bikes. "Alright, so where's Silver?" Red asked. "Probably gonna show us up or something."

"I don't think he has a bike." Blue suggested.

As she finished, they heard a honk, looking over as Wolford's car, which they recognized from their case with him. It slid to a halt, and Wolford quickly got out, looking around. "Alright, where's the monster!?" He asked, walking up to the two.

"Uh, we don't know." Blue admitted. "It should be around here somewhere."

"Why didn't you just jump here?" Red asked. "You did that a lot when you couldn't show yourself."

"I have reasons, alright?" He said. "Don't question my methods."

The fox rolled his eyes, trying to make it noticeable behind the helmet. "Alright, whatever you say, Wolfsbane."

"Don't-"

Before Max could finish, the ground began to shake. In a burst of snow, the monster had appeared, and it looked very, very familiar. It let out a growl, and headed towards them. "Destroy… Zoorangers…" It muttered, its drill arms spinning.

"Wait a second," Blue started. "Didn't you destroy that guy!?"

"Looks like even the mighty ZooSilver wasn't enough to stop him." Red joked.

"Oh man," Max started, clenching his fists in excitement, seeming to ignore what they had just said. "I've been waiting to do this for months!" He quickly held out his left arms, digits hovering over the back of his Zoolizers.

He pressed it in, causing the device to let out a triumphant howl. "ZOO ON!" He yelled, bringing the device up to his face, and pressing the snout of the wolf in. There was a flash of light, and Max had transformed into ZooSilver.

His outfit was very similar to theirs, except entirely silver, obviously. The only thing breaking up the color were his white gloves, which, unlike theirs, had a gold trim. The visor was also slightly different, instead of being jagged, it was more of a V-shape.

"WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE!" He yelled, spinning around, and hitting his claws against the snow covered ground. "ZOOSILVER!"

Silver turned back to the other two. "Pretty impressive, huh?" He postured.

"It certainly is flashy." Red said sarcastically.

"We don't have time for fashion talk!" Blue yelled, rushing past Silver. "We kind of have a monster to deal with!"

"Oh, right!" Silver let out, quickly following her, Red trailing behind. The three lined up, weapons drawn. Blue twirled her daggers, Red swung his sword, and Silver pointed his blade towards the creature.

The robotic Nue let out a growl, its original drill arm beginning to spin around. Its other drill hand quickly morphed into a large chainsaw blade, which began letting out a roaring grind.

"Alright, Red, what do we do?" Silver asked.

"What?" Red said, confused. "Why are you asking me!?"

"Well, red is usually the leader." He explained. "So obviously, you should be leader too!"

"Leader, huh…"

'I don't think-" Blue said, a bit concerned, before Red hushed her.

"Sorry, Blue, your leader is thinking up a plan." He didn't have much time, as the monster had begun to advance towards them. "Uh, just attack him!" He yelled out, rushing towards the monster.

"Alright, boss!" Silver said, rushing forward as well.

"Oh, Nick…" Blue sighed, before rushing forward herself.

The monster watched, as amused as an emotionless monster-robot could be, as the three haphazardly rushed towards him. Red, having run in first, was also the first to attack, locking blades with the monster's chainsaw, and in a few seconds being thrown back.

Blue was slightly faster, and managed to pull out her blasters, firing at the beast. It managed to effortlessly block the blasts with his drill, redirecting them to the rabbit and knocking her back. Silver was the last, and managed to do slightly better, keeping the monster's weapons at bay for a few seconds. Unfortunately, the Nue quickly figured out his attack pattern, and performed a double weapon strike to him, launching the wolf backwards.

Throughout all of this, Nue hadn't moved from where he was standing.

"Ugh, great plan there, leader." Silver groaned sarcastically as he sat up from the snow.

"Hey!" Red yelled back, rolling from the snow. "I didn't exactly have much time to think!"

"WATCH OUT!" Blue yelled to Red.

He quickly glanced up, watching as a massive hammer headed towards him. He leaped out of the way as it crashed into the ground, snow flying everywhere. After the miss, the hammer retracted back to Nue, reforming itself into a claw.

The monster then pointed the claw at Silver, who also dodged out of the way as it suddenly shot off from the ape monster's arm. It crashed into the snow, before retracting back to the Nue. "Alright, buster!" Red yelled, pulling out the Vickscannon. "Let's see how you like a bit of heat!"

He fired the cannon at the monster, whose arm quickly shifted into what appeared to be a large welder's mask. The mask blocked the blast of fire, causing it to disperse immediately.

Silver rushed up again, spinning the guard on the Eclipse Thruster. "HOT HOT SUN" It sounded. Silver slashed the blade, once to the left, another to the right, each swipe shooting off a wave of fire. The monster blocked both of the waves with the mask-shield.

He grunted, and then spun the guard again. "SHINE SHINE MOON" It sounded again. He leaped back, and then whipped the sword towards it, shooting off a laser. The Nue raised its drill arm, the laser whip wrapping around it. The drill then began to spin, causing Silver to be dragged through the air to the monster, who punched him away with the shield-mask.

The wolf tumbled through the snow. "SILVER!" Blue yelled, rushing up to him. "Are you okay?"

He quickly got up, and turned to the fox, who was just standing there, watching. "Are you gonna help or not!?" He yelled.

"I'm trying!" He yelled. "I just need to come up with something…"

"You're obviously not good at that!" Silver yelled, stomping up to him. "I can't believe you got picked as leader, you're a rude, egotistical, idiot!"

"And you're a spotlight stealing, overly cheerful dunce!" Red retorted.

"Guys!" Blue yelled, running over to them. "We don't have time for arguing!" She looked back, as the monster approached them. The two continued flinging insults at each other. "Oh, I can't believe I'm going to have to do this…" She sighed, pulling out a ZooTag.

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

In a flash, ZooSaru appeared in front of them. The Nue stumbled back as the gorilla-bot stared down at him. With a flick of the mech's hand, Nue was sent flying, crashing into a nearby building.

"Error… Major damages taken…" It groaned mechanically. "Must… retreat…"

She pulled the ZooTag out, causing the robot to disappear, and turned back to the two, who hadn't seemed to notice. "Alright, hey, the monster's weakened!" She said, motioning towards the monster as it stumbled up. "We can probably beat him now!"

"Personally, I don't think you even deserve your powers!" Silver yelled, pushing the fox back.

"And I don't think you deserve to be treated so special!" Red responded.

Blue jumped up and down, trying to get their attention. They were so wrapped up in their argument that neither had noticed anything within the last five minutes. She turned back to the monster, but it had vanished. "NO!" She cried, untransforming and falling to her knees.

She clenched her paws, and sat up. "YOU GUYS ARE IDIOTS!" She scolded, punching Red, and kicking Silver.

"What did we do!?" Red asked, obliviously.

"YOU LET THE MONSTER GET AWAY!" She yelled. "Why couldn't you just have your fight when we weren't trying to save the city!?"

"That's a great idea!" Silver said, sounding a bit angry. "Red, I challenge you to a duel!"

"WHAT!?" Blue yelled in disbelief.

"We'll decide who the leader is by whoever wins!" He continued.

"Alright, I accept your challenge!" Red said. "Central Park, sundown, tonight!"

"You're on!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Blue shrieked

* * *

"This is THE single dumbest thing you've ever done." Judy stated, as she watched the fox do push-ups on the apartment floor.

"Probably," He stated, in a huff. "But I'm far too prideful to let something like this go."

"What do you even have to be prideful about?" She asked, as the fox switched to doing sit-ups. "Your 'cunning', or whatever?"

"This is about me being a leader." He said. "I can't just let that slip! I need to show the newcomer who the real boss is!"

"You didn't even know you were leader until two hours ago." She told him, dumbfounded.

"Well, then I guess I have that to blame on him as well!"

She slapped her face with both of her paws. "You don't…" She tried to figure out the words. "You don't need to do this."

"Uh, yeah, I do." The fox said, standing up, starting to run in place. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going for a jog." He quickly dashed out of the apartment, leaving the rabbit alone.

"Oh, Nick…" She sighed. "I thought you were better than this now."

She let out another heavy sigh, and walked over to the kitchen table, the Sentai Encyclopedia sitting on it. She flipped the book open, and began to read through it again. She hadn't looked through the book in a long while, but she was looking for some information.

She had remembered something while reading, a very specific Ranger that seemed very relevant at this point. The rabbit flipped to the page on Gaoranger, the guys who had fought Yabaiba and the Orgs. Their sixth ranger brought her some curiosity. GaoSilver, a wolf. Very similar to Max. Not in just theming and coloring, but the weapon was also similar.

"'GaoSilver was cursed into the form of a monster, but sealed away for thousands of years.'" She read. "'After being freed, he attacked the Gaorangers, but eventually regained his memories and joined them.' That doesn't really sound like Max, so I guess it's just a weird coincidence.

She flipped to another sixth ranger that she had been reminded of. Gekiranger's GekiViolet, who also had a wolf theme, but was mostly purple. "'GekiViolet attempted to seal away an evil force, but was transformed into a werewolf.' Sounds familiar, but definitely not related to Silver."

Then, she remembered the Ranger Wlford had mentioned. AbareKiller, part of Abaranger, who she had mostly skimmed over. She flipped back to it, and read. She mostly wondered why one of these completely unrelated teams had gotten involved. None of their villains were here, and they were far away from the apparent animal theme the rest of the teams, minus Ninninger, had.

She read more about it, and finally reached AbareKiller's description. What she read shocked her. "Oh god, does Max know?" She asked herself. The description didn't paint the killer in a good light, despite him being part of a hero team. The rabbit got up, and started pacing. What if this was some sort of trick, what if this AbareKiller had some kind of ulterior motive to making Wolford ZooSilver. She felt that something was wrong.'

And in her gut, she knew that it was only going to get worse. There was no way this duel was ever going to go well. But Nick was a stubborn fox, though she had never entirely known how prideful he had been until today.

She heard the door slam open. "Whew, good workout!" Nick said, running in. "I think I'm all ready for the duel!"

"Nick," She started. "Please, don't do this. We have so much more to worry about beside your petty reivalry. I just read about AbareKiller, and-"

"You mean Wolfsbane's delusional friend?" Nick interrupted. "Yeah, I'd rather not hear anything about him."

"Nick, please, just listen to me for one-"

He glanced over to the clock on the wall. "Oh hey, almost time to get going, see you later, Carrots!" He rushed back out the door again.

"Nick…" She let out a grunt, and clenched her paws. "Stupid, stupid, STUPID FOX!" She quickly followed after him.

* * *

She drove her cycle up to the park, the sun beginning to lower on the city. She ran onto the grass, and spotted the two, staring at each other, standing next to the lake.

"You ready to go, Wilde?" Silver started, pointing his blade at the fox.

"Yeah, just give me a second." He said, pulling out a gold ZooTag, which he plugged into the Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared above him, and fell into the fox's hand. He thrust it over his shoulder. "Alright, now I'm ready." He said. "Ready to kick your ass!"

"Great, I'm already too late." Judy bemoaned, watching the two rush up to each other and clash powerful blades. The force of the clash knocked them backwards, but they continued to rush and clash at each other.

Sparks flew as they swiped and slashed at the other, both seemingly evenly matched. Blue continued to watch, huddled over a hill. The two seemed to be too wrapped up in what their fight to actually notice her.

After more clashing, Silver finally managed to land a blow to Red's gut, knocking the fox backwards. "Hah, is that really the best you've got?" He taunted.

"Far from it, Wolfsbane." He grunted, getting up. The fox quickly spun the massive blade around, causing it to glow. He stopped and performed a single slash towards the wolf, and then a second, and then a third. Each slash released an energy wave, with the second and third being slashed at diagonal angles, causing the waves to tear through the ground.

Silver braced himself, gripping his blade by the end, prepping it for a block. As the massive energy slash hit the blade, he could feel the power behind it, struggling to keep it away. Then the other two slashes hit, and the wolf felt himself being pushed backwards. The slashes then began spinning around, and combined into a single wave. The wave quickly went through the sword, causing a massive explosion around the wolf, and causing him to fly off.

Red looked on, stunned at what had just happened. "Wow, didn't know it could do that." He said to himself.

The wolf got up, struggling a bit, and let out a massive howl, clearing away the smoke and fire around him instantly. "Alright, Wilde, so that's how you want to do things?" He growled. "Well, let's see how you handle this!" He pointed his blade towards the fox, and spun the guard.

"HOT HOT SUN"

His blade glowed with heat, and he then slashed it forward a few times, sending out his own waves of flame towards the fox. Red leaped out of the way, rushing in a curved direction as the wolf continued to slash at him. The flame blasts hit the ground behind him, barely missing Red as he continued to run.

As he ran, he pulled out the Vickscannon, and prepped it to fire. He leaped forward again, this time on his side. As he landed, he pointed the cannon towards the wolf, and fired continuously. The wolf saw this, and quickly spun the blade once more.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

The blade glowed with blue energy, and slashed forward, unleashing a blue whip that lashed the fireballs out of the air. The fireballs burst into clouds of smoke, nearly blinding the wolf. Suddenly, he heard another noise.

"ROAR OF THE WILD!  
ROAR OF THE ENGINE!  
CAN YOU HEAR IT?  
KITSUNIDER!"

The fox cleared the smoke as his bike quickly revealed itself, driving circles around the wolf, cannon still in paw. He fired it rapidly as he circled, lighting the wolf up in a burst of flame. He stopped, and gasped in exhaustion. "Guess you never really stood a chance, huh?" He joked between pants.

Before he could say anything else, a blue laser shot out of the cloud of flame, clearing it and revealing Silver, only slightly singed. The laser, connected to the blade, jabbed through the bike. Red looked down at the bike, and let out a small yipe, before it exploded, launching him off.

The fox rolled hard on the ground, the cannon landing next to him. He quickly snatched it up, and started firing at the approaching wolf. Each blast was effortlessly slashed out of the air by Silver, redirecting each blast.

One crashed into the nearby lake, causing the water to explode upward, drenching the two. Another flew up the hill, Blue leaping out of the way to avoid being burnt to a crisp. "Great, if they keep going they're going to destroy the park!" She yelled, looking at the burning grass. She looked back down, to see Silver hovering directly above Red.

Red still had the cannon pointed at him, while the wolf had his blade held, paw to the guard. The fox held a red ZooTag into the slot at the cannon's back. Silver quickly spun the guard.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

While red quickly plugged in the ZooTag.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

Silver quickly jabbed his blade downwards repeatedly, while Red fired the blast directly into the wolf's chest. There was a massive explosion, reducing several square feet of grass to dirt. As the explosion cleared, Red rose, his suit damaged around the edges. Patches of bloodied fur poked out from the scratches caused by the blade.

Silver stood there, his suit burned. The two glared at each other, in a stand still. Quickly, red pulled out his Foxfire Blade, and rushed at the wolf, letting out a scream. Silver responded in turn, and the two began wildly clashing their blades. There was no strategy to the clash, it was simply them and their blades striking each other.

With each clash, the two took more and more damage, becoming more beaten and bloodied. Blue couldn't watch anymore, it was too much to see her partner doing something like that. She turned, and spotted something even more terrifying.

The monster, watching them fight. Its head slowly turned towards her. "Oh god." She let out, turning back to the fight. It was going to attack them. "I won't let you hurt them!" She yelled, pulling out her daggers and rushing at the monster.

The monster's red eyes glowed, and its silver arm shifted into a massive blade. It blocked both of her daggers with both arms as she attempted to strike the monkey robot. It flicked its arms upward, pushing her backwards.

"Prepare to be terminated." It robotically sounded, stepping towards her.

She plugged a blue ZooTag into her Zoolizer, summoning the Buster Boxers onto her paws. She rushed at the monster.

Back at the duel, the two were beginning to get tired. Very, very tired. After one more clunky strike, their blades dropped to the ground. The two panted, unaware of the other fight going on above them. Red gripped his paw into a fist, and struck the wolf in the gut, who returned with a punch to the side of the fox's muzzle.

The two continued biting, thrashing, clawing, and punching each other. It was turning from a duel to a straight up mauling. The two eventually locked their paws together, pushing each other back and forward.

Finally, the two heard a cry of pain, and looked up to see Blue, rolling down the hill. Above her was the Nue, whose red eye quickly pierced into them both. "JUDY!" Red yelled, quickly running up to the severely injured rabbit at the bottom of the hill.

He shook her, trying to get her to say something. "Please, don't die!" He urged.

She sputtered. "You guys are idiots…" She whispered. The fox helped her up, only to hear a loud crash behind him. They turned around to spot the monster, glaring at them.

"Hey, can't you see we're in the middle of something!?" the fox yelled at the cybernetic creature.

It nodded, stiffly. "Optimal chance to destroy you all." Its arm shifted from a blade into the shape of a gun blaster, which it pointed towards the fox and rabbit.

"Oh pumpernickel."

The fox leaped out of the way, Blue still wrapped on his shoulders, as the monster fired at them. They rolled on the ground, right up next to Silver. "So, uh," Red started, the two rangers getting up. "Got any plans, Silver, old pal?"

"Uh, not really." He nervously said, backing away as the monster approached. "I'm too terrified to think of anything."

"I know what to do." Blue said. "Think of what we did horribly wrong last time." The fox was ready to open his mouth. "The answer isn't bringing Silver along." She snapped at him before he could say exactly that.

"Well, what is it?" He asked.

"We didn't work together." She said. "You two were busy having a petty fight, we had no synergy!" She turned to the monster. "It can take us on one-on-one, but what about one-on-three?"

"We're pretty beaten up already, Blue." Silver said, rubbing his arm.

She turned to them, and gave an intense glare. "And whose fault is that?" The two looked down awkwardly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. So, are you gonna follow my plan, or are you gonna die?"

"Well, I'm personally not in the mood for dying today, so…" Red whipped his blade out. "I'm down for it."

Silver drew his blade as well. "I'm fine with it too."

She nodded. "Alright, we'll surround him, you two take the sides, and I'll go in from behind." She explained. "Then, we all attack at the same time. Got it?"

They nodded. Blue twirled her weapons. "Alright."

"Let's do this."

The three quickly rushed forwards, Silver taking the right of the monster, Red taking the right. Blue quickly slid under the monster's legs, flipping up to a stand. They had the Nue surrounded. "What?" It let out, shifting its look from one ranger to another.

"Got you surrounded, monkeybone!" Red said, prepping his sword. The three struck at the same time, causing the confused monster to spark in pain.

"And now we got you on the ropes!" Silver let out. He jabbed the monster, causing it to bounce backwards, straight into Red's sword. The monster felt itself get impaled, and the fox leap up, and kick it back. The Nue stumbled forward, and felt two objects poke into its abdomen. It looked down, seeing the small rabbit, guns pointed to him.

"Hasta la vista, baby."

She fired, the blasts going straight through the robot monster's body. The other two rangers stepped back as the Nue stumbled backwards. "No, this is impossible!" It yelled, some emotion coming into its voice.

"You better believe it is!" She said. "Let's light him up!"

Red stepped next to her, and they through their weapons into the air, forming the Zookaizer. "Oh, hold on!" Silver interjected. "Let me try something!"

The two other rangers were a bit confused, but the wolf ran up, blade drawn. He examined the bazooka. "Ah, there we go!" He said, placing the hilt of the blade on the top of the cannon. With a rather loud click, it fit on. Silver hopped behind the cannon, and helped lift it up a bit, having to bend down.

"Alright, now we're ready!" He yelled. "FIRE!"

"SOLAR NATURE BLAST!"

There was a burst of energy from the cannon, which quickly formed into a large orb. The orb launched at the monster, and split into two smaller orbs, one red, and one blue. The orbs crashed through the monster, and then circled above him, recombining into a single large, silver orb. The silver orb crashed down on the monster, and unleashed a massive explosion.

"DOES NOT… COMPUTE!" The monster cried as it sparked and stumbled. It fell over, causing another explosion. Out of the explosion flew a small, green tool box, which hit the ground, spilling its contents onto the grass.

"We did it." Silver said, quietly. He clenched his fist, and behind his mask, a large grin grew. "WE DID IT!" He kneeled down and shook Red. "WE BEAT A MONSTER TOGETHER!" He yelled. "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"It's not over yet, pup." Red said, pushing the wolf away from him. "We still got the-"

"The giant form?" He finished. "Maaan, I've been waiting for this moment for my entire life!"

"What?"

Soon, the red object left behind began to glow, and flew off, reforming the monster in the outskirts of the city. "Probability of city destruction: One hundred percent!" It roared.

The two rangers pulled out their ZooTags, but were interrupted. "Why don't you guys sit this one out for a bit?" Silver said, pulling out a small, rounded, disc like object. "I've got this."

He opened the wolf's head on his Zoolizer, and plugged the disc into the slot. He then closed it shut, causing the device to emit a loud noise.

"HOWL HOWL ZOOOKAMI"

In a flash of white light, a massive mechanical wolf had appeared in front of them. It resembled their own mechs, but much, much larger. "There it is." Silver said, sounding a bit choked up. "My own mech." He leaped inside, and the thing's eyes lit up, causing it to howl.

"What." The two left behind rangers let out.

The wolf mech leaped off towards the horizon. It reached the outskirts, and let out a howl towards the mechanical monkey. "I do not recognize this machine." It said, stepping back. "Error, error!"

Inside the mech, Silver sat at his cockpit, which resembled the other two's, but silver, and the control panel, of course, resembling a wolf's head. "Alright, apeface, time to show you what ZooOkami can do!"

The wolf robot leaped at the Nue, scratching at it with its large, metallic claws. The monster stumbled back as the robot landed. The wolf mecha turned around, and delivered a donkey kick, knocking the beast to the ground.

"Parameters read." The monster groaned. "Formulating strategy." It quickly got up, its arm reforming into a large bear trap. It thrust its arm forward, firing the trap at the wolf machine. It clamped around one of its legs, and let out a mechanical grunt.

"That's pretty bad." Silver said, rather nonchalantly. "Too bad I have another surprise up my sleeve!" He pulled out the silver disc again, and plugged it into a slot on the control panel.

Much to the monster's surprise, the wolf began to shift. It leaped into the air, breaking from the bear trap. It flipped up, head folding down into the chest, revealing a small, more stylized, wolf's head underneath it. Its front legs straightened out, and revealed two large hands. Its back legs followed suit, the feet flipping around and folding out to form more workable feet. It tail detached from its rear, and into one of the hands, becoming a rather pointed sword.

"ZOOKAMI MODE"

The monster stepped back in surprise. "Error… Must work out new strategy…"

"Not gonna happen!" Silver yelled, jolting the controls forward. The robot stomped forward, and swung its blade into the monster's chest, causing it to shower sparks. He then thrust the blade forward, driving it into the monster's chest.

The mech then slapped the Nue back with one of its hands, and quickly sliced its drill hand off. "ZooKami's blade is make of stuff stronger than your average workshop tools!" Silver said. "Prepare to be scrapped!"

The Nue looked at its smoking arm, and then quickly shifted its silver arm into a sword. "Strategies will not help, must go all out!"

It swung its blade into ZooKami's blade, the two swords clashing in an explosion of sparks. After a few more strikes, the Nue managed to knock Zookami backwards. Its hand then reformed into a gun, which it fired at the robot. ZooKami managed to block most of the shots with its blade, but a few managed to land.

"This might not be as easy as I thought." Silver said to himself. "But I have to make a good impression, so…" He jolted the controls forward, and slashed directly through the gun arm, causing the barrel to fall to the ground with a thud.

"No!" The monster cried, staring at its now useless hands.

"That should do it." Silver said. "Time for your dawn to end!"

ZooKami raised its blade above its head, where it began glowing with silver energy. "ECLIPSE CUTTER!" He yelled as the robot brought down the sword. It fired a burst of silver energy, which formed into a circular blade of energy. It crashed into the Nue's body, grinding through it, and eventually cutting the beast in half.

"The improbability of this," The monster said, trying to hold itself together. "Is impossibly lar… lar… lar…" It stuttered as its body started to fall apart. "NUELAAAAAAAAAAR!" It cried, before exploding.

In a flash, Silver reappeared in front of the two stunned mammals, who had untransformed. "Wow that was…" Judy tried to say, as Max untransformed as well.

"Cool? Awesome? Amazing?" He suggested.

"Obnoxious is more like it." Nick said, causing Max's ears to droop. "You stole the spotlight yet again, Wolfsbane."

"Oh come on, seriously!?" Judy yelled. "Are you seriously starting this up again!?"

"Teamwork only goes as far as superhero-ing." Nick stated. "I refuse to be actual friends with this guy."

"Nick, seriously-"

"Well if you just want to be work partners," Max started, a bit forlornly. "I suppose that's fine. I can't really change how you feel if you hate me that much."

"Good, I'm glad you understand." Judy glared at him, but she could tell the fox had no remorse for his insulting.

The wolf's ears dropped down even more. "I guess I'll see you guys next week, huh?" He said with a sad chuckle. "See ya." He started walking off.

Nick started to walk off in the opposite direction, and the rabbit quickly ran up and blocked him. "Oh no you don't Slick!" She yelled, poking him in the chest.

"What?"

"I thought you learned a lesson from that fight!" She said. "I dunno, something about teamwork, working together always leading to victory, something like that!"

"I did." He insisted. "I learned that we'll need to use Wolfsbane to actually win." He explained, the rabbit's ears drooping down in anger. "Don't want to know the guy, don't like him from what I do know, simple as that." The fox walked off again.

She thrashed about, completely infuriated by how the fox was acting. She could only spit out grunts. The rabbit calmed down for a second, and stomped forward. "Alright, nick," She started, heading up to the fox. "Whatever you say."

"I'm glad you understand, Carrots." He replied.

In the rabbit's mind, she was formulating something. Despite what the fox thought, this was going to lead to problems. She needed to make them at least tolerate each other.

She had the perfect idea.

"I'm still leader, by the way." Nick said as they continued walking. Judy rolled her eyes.

* * *

"So, that was a real botch, huh?" Sambash mocked, pulling his bike up to the fox Yokai standing on the side of the mountain.

Kyuemon didn't respond, staring off into the distance.

"Well, I guess you don't care." The biker said. "Now if you excuse me, I have work to do." He revved the engine up.

"What?" Kyuemon finally let out, turning to Sambash. "Where are you going?"

"Gonna go destroy the city, what else?" He said, his tone making it sound like it was obvious, which it kind of was.

"It hasn't even been a week yet, and the Omnipotence let you go?" Kyuemon questioned.

"You think I give a shit about the boss' rules?" He laughed. "I'm my own boss, I do what I want, when I want, and I'm tired of waiting around!"

"He's going to be infuriated." The fox Yokai sighed.

"Not when I destroy the Zoorangers AND the city in one fell swoop!" Sambash revved the bike up again. "Ciao!" With that, the biker flew up into the sky on his bike, and dashed towards the city.

"Idiot."


	17. Eclipse of the Hearts

"Please, let me go!" The mole pleaded as the monster lifted him up.

"Fat chance." Sambash responded. "I need someone like you." In his other hand, he held up a small token, resembling a beetle. He jabbed the object into the mole's chest, and dropped him to the ground.

The mole began to writhe and struggle on the ground, as green slime seemed to appear from its skin. The slime eventually completely covered the mole completely, and soon hardened and expanded into a hideously large egg.

"That's nasty." Sambash said as the egg began to crack open. With a sickening squelch, the egg burst open, showering the nearby area in green goo, and revealing a new monster.

It groaned as it stretched out. It resembled an insect, specifically a bee, with an armored torso, and two stinger-like pieces of armor hanging from its arms, each armed with a stinger. Around its waist hung a skirt of leather, like the end of a jacket, with one piece in the back resembling an abdomen, and another, though smaller, piece in the front. Its legs were full on clad in leather, complete with leather boots. Its face had a permanent toothy scowl, and two antenna protruded out of its cheeks. Around its neck were two bulbous, black pieces, which were connected to two sharp bits facing forward. The overall look of the creature's head and neck armor made it look like a wasp's head. Both a pair of legs, and a pair of rather small wings protruded from its back as well.

It looked at Sambash. "Yo, boss, how's it going?" He greeted.

"We don't have time for chitchat, Neikaa." Sambash replied, sounding a bit frustrated. "You have a mission to do."

"A mission?" Neikaa said, intrigued. "From the captain?"

"No, from me!" Sambash yelled. "I need you to create a massive earthquake, turn this city into a pile of rubble!"

"Ooh, I like that plan!" The bee monster said, rubbing his hands together. "But if we're going to be making a powerful earthquake, we need to find good weak spots!"

"And whose job is that!?" Sambash yelled.

"Well, mine, I guess?"

"Correct, buzzhead." He responded.

"You're a lot angrier than usual." Neikaa pointed out. "And that's saying something."

"Listen, if we botch this, I'm probably going to be killed again." Sambash explained. "I'm feeling very stressed."

"Then I promise I won't fail, boss!" Neikaa assured, saluting. "I'll head for the first weak spot right now!" With that, the bee pulled out a rapier, which let off a slight glow. His tiny wings began flapping rapidly, lifting the bee monster into the air. It quickly zoomed off, in between the buildings surrounding them.

"I hope you don't muck this up again, Neikaa." Sambash said to himself. He thought for a second. "Maybe I should help him if the Zoorangers show up, that'll be fun at least."

He started to laugh, and hopped on his motorcycle, flying off into the air.

Neikaa zoomed through the city, looking for the perfect spot to plant an earthquake needle. He landed in a park, and looked around, his head twitching. This would be a perfect spot. The only problem is that there were animals here, staring at him in fear. He needed to get rid of them.

He flew up into the air again, and zoomed down into the face of a nearby elephant. "Boo!" He shouted. The elephant screeched, and ran off. This caused a chain reaction, causing everyone else to clear out of the park.

"Yeah, ya better run!" Neikaa shouted. "Not that you have anywhere to run too!" He flew high into the air, and rubbed the rapier, causing it glow, and extend to ridiculous proportions. The bee quickly twisted it around, and jabbed it into the middle of the park, the blade cutting right through the ground.

He flew back to admire his work. It had been awhile, maybe he should test if this still worked. He flew back a bit, and aimed one of his stingers at the blade. He fired a blast from it, causing the needle to begin shaking. He flew down to get a better look at the ground.

Surrounding the blade were now small, jagged cuts in the ground, a small tremor. The needle was working perfectly.

* * *

"You really need to apologize." Judy said as they walked into the station. "I don't think you understand how much that hurt him."

"Oh, I know." Nick said. "I just really do not care."

"Well, I hate to inform you, but we're going to be working with him for quite a while!" She said, sounding a bit cheerful, but also highly sarcastic and frustrated. "So if you don't apologize to him, then you'll be threatening the city." Her tone suddenly turned dark.

"Yeah, no." Nick said, nonchalantly. "At least, not until he can prove he's responsible enough for this job."

"I don't think you're responsible enough for this job…" Judy muttered to herself.

She looked over, spotting Wolford approaching them. She gritted her teeth, this was not going to be good. He cleared his throat, catching their attention.

"So, hey," He started, looking at Judy. "I was wondering if, maybe, you still wanted to go to the pub for that team building exercise." He asked.

The fox laughed. "No way, Wolfsbane, I got better things to do."

"I wasn't asking you, Wilde." He said flatly. "Obviously you have better stuff to do, you are leader, which means you'll actually have to think for once in your life. Takes a lot of effort." The fox glared at him as he gained a smug grin. "Since me and Judy are just extra members, we could obviously go for the team building exercise without you."

"I'm sorry, Max, but that's something we should all do." Judy stated. "It wouldn't be a team building exercise without the whole team, y'know?"

"Alright, I guess we just won't do it." Max said. "Oh well."

Judy's ears drooped as the wolf continued towards the bull pen. "C'mon, Carrots, we should probably go before we get yelled at by Bogo. Again." Nick suggested.

The fox headed off as well. The rabbit standing there for a second, thumping her foot rapidly. She stopped, and smirked. She had a really brilliant plan to get the two to maybe tolerate each other. She just had to hope Bogo would comply.

She rushed into the bull pen after the fox, the two climbing up onto their seat. Bogo stormed in. "Alright, first things first," He sounded. "Monster reports, Officers Hopps and Wilde."

Judy sighed in relief. Not at the monster attack, which was a bit odd, but at them being giving duties first.

"Last night, and a bit earlier, we got reports of a monster harassing mammals in Savannah Square, and later on, in Tundra Town." He explained. "It left behind something interesting, maybe you two could figure it out."

"Sir!" Judy sounded. "I'd like to make a request!"

Bogo's eyebrow raised.

"Specifically, I'd like to request we get some extra help." She said, trying not to sound horribly anxious. "I want Officer Wolford to accompany us." The fox glared at her, and the wolf tilted his head in confusion.

"Well…" Bogo started, thinking. "Last time you teamed up to deal with an odd case it went well, and I only had him on traffic duty…" He snorted. There was silence.

"Sir," Sounded Delgato, Wolford's partner. "I can handle traffic duty myself." He stated. Wolford looked at him surprised.

"Very well." Bogo said. "Officers Hopps, Wilde, AND Wolford, you will be going to Tundra Town to investigate."

"I object!" Nick wanted to say, but he knew that once Bogo had made his mind, it was made for good. All he could do was go along with it, and it sucked.

After all the other assignments were handed out, the three headed out. "That was really cool, Judy." Max said.

"No problem!" She replied. "The team being all together will make fighting the monster a whole lot easier."

"Yeah. Easier." Nick scoffed.

They got into the car, and drove off towards Tundra Town.

* * *

"That's the second largest needle I've ever seen." Nick said, looking up at the massive needle, stuck into the snow in the middle of a Tundra Town park.

"What was the first?" Judy asked, genuinely curious.

"The needle they used when I got my shots." He finished with a grin. She sighed, of course it was a joke.

"What do you think it's here for?" Wolford asked, walking up to it.

"Maybe it's the monster's calling card?" Judy suggested.

"So, what do you think we're dealing with this time?" Nick asked. "Mad doctor that's actually a walking syringe?"

"That sounds amazing." Wolford said, not catching the sarcasm.

"I feel like a doctor monster would go around injecting MAMMALS, not the earth." Judy said. "And besides, the needle isn't really a syringe."

"You're right." Nick said, looking up. "Probably an acupuncture monster."

"Well," Wolford sounded. "There's only one way to find out!"

"What?"

Wolford then delivered a swift kick to the needle, causing it to wobble around, emitting a horrible, high pitched noise.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Nick yelled, pulling his ears down. Judy was in even more pain than him, due to her far more sensitive ears.

"I THOUGHT SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN IF I HIT IT!" Max yelled back. "SO I KICKED IT AND SOMETHING HAPPENED!"

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" A fourth voice yelled from above. They looked up, seeing the monster, resembling a bee, zigzag through the air towards the needle. He grabbed it with one of his hands, causing the needle, and the noise, to stop. "Do you know how dumb that was, vertebrae!?"

"Um, very dumb?" Max guessed as the monster landed.

"Yes, it was very dumb!" The monster reiterated. "If that had kept going, you couldn't destroyed the whole planet!"

"How?" He asked.

"The needle would've caused a massive vibration that would result in the earth falling to bits!" The bee explained. "I just want to destroy the city, not the planet!"

"How are you gonna do that, buzzboy?" Nick asked, stepping forward.

The monster scoffed. "Why should I tell you?"

Max quickly ran over to the other two, them getting into a line. "Because we're the Zoorangers!" They pressed the buttons on their Zoolizers, and transformed.

"Ah, polistes." The bee monster said. "Probably should've guessed that."

The three pulled out their weapons, while Neikaa pulled out his rapier, and they rushed at each other. Red rushed up first, clashing blades with the bee, before Silver leaped in and delivered a blow to the monster's side, knocking him away. Blue finished by blasting Neikaa back with a few shots from her Rabblasters.

The monster stumbled back, before stick its arms out and firing a flurry of blasts from its stingers at the three. The ground lit up, snow blasting upwards and sparks flying. The three rangers stumbled forward a bit, in pain.

"I thought," Red started, groaning a bit in pain. "Bees died after they stung someone!"

"I'm a wasp, idiot!"

He drew his rapier again, and rushed at them, striking and knocking back the rangers with three quick strikes. Blue tumbled back through the snow, but got to her feet,, and quickly dashed at the monster with her daggers. The two clashed, the rabbit managing to block every strike the monster attempted, before leaping up and jabbing him in the gut.

"Ow, that stung!" He let out.

"This is gonna sting even more!" Red yelled, pulling out the Vickscannon. He fired, the monster being launched back as the fireball hit him and exploded.

The wasp got up, only to see Silver heading for him. "Let's see how you deal with a fellow swords master!" He shouted, swinging his blade at the monster, who continued to block each swipe.

Red kept the cannon pointed at the monster. "Pup, get out of the way!" He shouted to Silver.

"No, I've almost got him!" Silver shouted back.

"Alright then." The fox whispered, readying the cannon. He fired. Neikaa noticed immediately, and wrapped the wolf into a grip, using him as shield to block the blast. In an explosion, the monster stepped back, letting Silver fall to his knees.

Red grimaced a bit. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blue shouted.

"He was in the way!" Red excused, trying not to sound as guilty as he felt.

Silver got up, and pushed the fox backwards. "You did that on purpose!" He accused.

"So what if I did!?"

"I don't have time for this." Neikaa said to himself, pulling out a handful of golden coins. "I have a job to do!"

He threw the coins into the air, and as they came down they transformed into a large group of Yartots. "Distract them!" The bee yelled, motioning towards the three arguing rangers. The pirates grunted in confirmation, Neikaa quickly taking to the skies, and flying off.

Blue spotted the pirate monsters approaching them, and tugged at Red's sleeve. "Uh, guys?" She said.

"Well, that teaches you to be reckless!" Red yelled.

"Me, reckless!?" Silver yelled back. "You're the one who shot me without thinking!"

"Guys!"

"WHAT!?" They yelled, turning to her.

"WATCH OUT!"

She pushed them out of the way as one of the Yartots swung its sword, barely missing them. Blue pulled out her blasters, and quickly shot the monster down, reducing it to orange dust. "Seriously, this is what happens when you fight!" She said. "We start getting our rear's kicked!"

"He's the one who started it." Red said, sounding a bit like a petulant child.

"Real mature, leader." Silver snarked. The fox gave him a glare.

Blue was shaking angry at this point. They were in the middle of a fight, and they were still doing this! It was aggravating her. "Alright, you two want to argue?" She started. "Go argue! I don't need two bickering babies to deal with these guys!"

She ran up to the group of pirates, and leaped into the air, summoning the Buster Boxers. She came down to the ground with a powerful punch, launching the Yartots and the snow they were standing on away.

She turned to a group of the dazed pirates, and punched her gloves together. She ran up, and delivered a powerful punch to one of their heads, instantly vaporizing it. "DUMB FOX!" She yelled, before turning to another one, who dropped its sword in fear. She let loose another punch, causing an energy blast to fly into the pirate, making it explode. "STUPID WOLF!" She continued.

This continued, the rabbit yelling obscenities as she slaughtered the Yartots effortlessly. "Is she usually this… scary?" Silver asked, the two watching on in fear as she continued to insult them.

"Not usually." Red answered.

Soon, the monsters were all wiped out, and the gloves disappeared from her paws. "I did this so we could try to work together as a team!" She yelled, stomping up to them. "AND YOU'RE STILL ARGUING!"

"Carrots-" Red tried to say, before being shushed by the rabbit.

"But-" Silver tried to let out.

"DON'T TALK!" She yelled. "I need to think."

There were a few minutes of silence, the two remaining silent as the rabbit paced back and forth through the snow.

"Alright, so," Blue eventually said, stopping. "This needle is obviously some sort of… vibration… thing, and there was another planted in Savanna Square, so that means he's planting them all around the city for some purpose." She put her paw to her chin, in thought. "So, if I were to guess, he'd be going to… Sahara Square next!" She deduced, "C'mon, let's go!"

Blue pulled out a blue ZooTag, and slipped it into her Zoolizer. The Usagider appeared in front of her, and she hopped on. She glanced at the two other rangers. "Are you coming?" She asked.

"I kind of don't have any way to get there." Silver told her.

"That's alright!" She said. "You can ride shotgun."

"Oh, thanks-" He started, stepping towards the bike, only to be interrupted.

"You can ride shotgun with Nick." His ears drooped down.

"Blue, seriously?" Red started. "Even I know that's a bad idea."

From behind her mask her eyes seemed to glow a terrifying red as she glared at him. He felt his heart jump.

"And by bad idea I mean great idea c'mon let's go!"

* * *

They skidded their bikes into the middle of a Sahara Square plaza, face to face with another massive needle. It seems it had just been planted, as Neikaa was still standing around, admiring it.

As they skidded to a halt, sand spat onto the bee, alerting him to their arrival. He turned around to see them getting off the bikes, Silver sat on the back of the red bike. "I'd make a joke about you being a bad driver, but you really aren't." Silver admitted as he got off.

"Oh, uh, thanks." Red said.

"Oh great," The bee bemoaned. "I thought you guys were idiots, how'd you figure this out?"

"They might be idiots," Blue started. "But I'm not! And it was pretty easy to figure out."

"Whatever." Neikaa said. "Even if you manage to follow me around the whole city, you still won't be able to stop me from creating an earthquake massive enough to destroy the whole city!"

"Wait, that's your plan?" Red said, a bit confused. "What does a bee have to do with earthquakes?" He asked.

"How should I know!?" He yelled. "I'm just a bee themed space alien!" He put up his arms, preparing his stingers. "Time for round two!"

He rushed at them, swinging his stinger arms around. The three leaped out of the way, as the monster hit the bikes, getting the stingers stuck into them. All three rangers prepared their long ranged weapons, Silver spinning the guard to Sun Mode.

They fired at the same time, hitting the monster in the back, a shower of explosions and sparks emitting from it. The bee let out a groan of pain, before spinning around, bikes still stuck to the stingers. It lifted them up into the air, causing the rangers to step back in surprise. He quickly swung both of his arms, tossing the bikes towards them. The rangers leaped out of the way again as the bikes hit the ground, exploding.

"Great, that bike's been destroyed two days in a row." Red lamented.

"I really enjoy not having to take them in for repairs." Blue said, getting up and drawing her daggers. The monster puleld out its rapier, and the two dashed at each other, blades clashing. Blue managed to block off a number of hits, and jab the monster in the legs a few times.

"Ow, that stings!" It yelled, stepping back. "But you know what'll really sting?" He asked. Quickly knocking the daggers out of her paws. "My secret technique!"

He quickly slashed downwards, and then up diagonally right, then diagonally left, diagonally right again, and then diagonally left for the final strike. Each strike left a glowing line, making the outline of a large, angular B.

The floating letter exploded, and knocked Blue backwards. "Just call me 'Bee Zorro!'" Neikaa said triumphantly, before pausing for a second. "Bee… Bee Zorro… Beezorro… whatever!"

"Judy!" Red yelled, running up to his dirt covered partner. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just…" She said weakly. "I just need a rest. Nick, Max, please finish him."

He stood up, and pulled out his blade. "Alright, buzzer, let's finish this."

Silver stepped up next to him, placing a paw on his shoulder to stop him from rushing forward. "Hold it there, leader," He said. "We need a plan in order to do this!"

"You want a plan?" Red said. "Here's a plan, GET HIM!" He broke from the wolf's paw, and rushed at the monster.

"THAT'S NOT A PLAN!"

"I'LL COME UP WITH SOMETHING EVENTUALLY!" Red yelled back, continuing to rush towards the monster.

Neikaa scoffed. They quickly locked blades, seemingly at even skills. Silver quickly rushed up to his side, and attempted to strike. However, the bee pulled out another rapier, and began effortlessly blocking both the ranger's strikes.

"Here's a tip!" He said, jabbing the rapiers into their chests, launching them backwards. "And now here's some advice, never announce your reckless plans before attacking!" Yellow energy glowed through the rapiers, and he slashed them forward, releasing energy slashes towards them. They hit, creating massive explosions of sand around them.

They cleared their eyes as the sand fell back to the ground, and the monster had simply vanished. "Damn it!" Red yelled, throwing his sword to the ground. "You let him get away!"

"Me!?" Silver said, surprised and insulted. "You're the one who announced your non-plan!" He yelled back. "I still have no idea why you're the leader, you're a complete dunce!"

"I'd like to see you come up with something better!"

"You wanna see me?" Silver said. "Alright, how bout we finish that duel from yesterday?"

"You're on!" Red stepped forward, and picked up his blade. "No interruptions, just you and me! Whoever wins is the leader!"

Silver let out a growl, and the two quickly locked blades, striking at each other. After a few clashes, Silver managed to hit Red in the gut with a sneaky kick, knocking him back. "Oh, that's how you want to do it, huh?" Red quickly swung his sword, causing the blade to fly off of its hilt, attached to a cord. The blade flew towards Silver, who blocked it.

Red pulled the hilt upwards, causing the blade to fly back up into the air. He quickly slashed it wildly, causing the blade to follow suit. Silver could only block the slashes for so long, before the slashes penetrated his defense, causing him to shower with sparks.

"Hah, guess you can't handle the Foxfire Blade's secret ability!" He joked. "Master swordsman by tail."

Silently, Silver spun the guard of his sword.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

His sword glowed with blue energy, as he quickly struck forward with it, the energy lashing out and jabbing into the ground in front of Red. The fox gulped, and quickly leaped off, as the wolf continued to jab forward with the laser sword.

The blade cleaved holes into the ground as the fox ran away. "Hey, are you trying to get me killed!?" Red yelled, leaping out of the way of another strike. "Because that's not what a duel is!"

"Well, if you're dead, you be causing any more problems will you!?" Silver yelled, quickly going form the jabs to a a whipping motion, knocking red in the face a few times.

"You do realize that's worse, right!?"

"I don't really care!" Silver yelled back. "I've done nothing but try to be nice to you, and you've responded with nothing but arrogance and insults, you aren't a good leader so why should we even keep you around!?"

The fox couldn't really come up with an answer. For one, he was using basically everything he had to dodge each strike Silver was making, and for two, he was kind of right. The fox was far too prideful to announce his mistakes, which had become a bit of a problem his entire life.

"Well, this all started because you showed up!" Red finally answered, rushing forward, and knocking Silver back with a sword slice. "If you hadn't shown up, we'd have beaten this monster by now!"

"Yeah right!" Silver retorted, spinning his guard to Sun Mode. He flung a fireball forward from the sword. "If I wasn't here, that monkey thing would've killed you both!"

Red blocked the fireball with his sword, and the two rushed forward, clashing once again. They continued struggling, completely even in their strength.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!?"

They turned to see Blue, who had woken up. "Seriously!?" She said. "ANOTHER duel!? What are you, children!?"

"Well, he started it." Silver said,, as they lowered their blades.

"You are." She said, baffled. "You're actual children."

The fox tried to say something, but was interrupted. "No talking." The rabbit snapped. "I have the perfect idea to get you two from fighting." She said.

"From now on, I'M the leader!"

"What!?" The other two let out.

"I don't want to sound rude," Silver started, a bit nervous. "But I don't think you can be leader…"

"Why?" She snapped again. "Because I'm a girl?"

"No, because…" He tried to find the right words, this was horrifically awkward. "It's because you're… not… red?"

"Seriously, is leader a coloring thing?" She said, baffled. "Who cares? I'm the only one of us three that has any sense of responsibility."

The two rubbed the back of their heads. It wasn't really that hard to admit. Red thought about how they basically only survived the Night Howler case was because of her. "I think…" Red started. "I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Thank you." She said to the fox. "What do you think, Max?"

"It's… alright, sure." He said. "People complain about red always being the leader anyway."

"Then it's settled!" She said cheerfully. "I'm the leader, you follow what I say, and right now, we have to head to the Rainforest District."

"That's where the bee's headed next?" Red assumed.

"Probably. If he plants those vibration needles in the four main sections, it'll probably destroy the city." She explained. "We need to stop him before that can happen."

They nodded, and prepared their bikes. Or at least, tried to.

Blue jiggled the ZooTag around in her Zoolizer. "Why isn't it working?"

"Probably because they got blown up." Silver suggested, motioning towards the still burning wreckage of the bikes. "Must have a recharge time when something like this happens."

"So, uh," Red started, rubbing his head. "Anyone got train tickets?"

* * *

They say on the train, awkwardly. They were still in their suits, and every single mammal on the bus was staring at them.

"That was a joke, Blue." Red whispered to her.

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" She asked, the fox falling silent.

Red felt himself getting poked. He turned to his side, and spotted a very young beaver. "Are you guys the real Zoo Rangers?" He asked, wide-eyed.

"Uh, yes." Red answered, putting on a slightly deeper tone. "Yes we are."

"Why are you on a train?" He continued to question. "Don't you ride on bikes?"

"They kind of, uh, blew up." The fox answered.

"Who's that guy?" The beaver asked, pointing to Silver.

The other two turned to look at him, and Silver turned to look at the beaver. "I'm new."

"Cool."

As soon as the train stopped, the three dashed off, stepping into the muddy roads of the Rainforest District. "Well, that was probably the worst idea I've ever come up with." Red admitted, the other two rangers nodding in agreement.

"So, where should we look first?" Silver asked the rabbit.

"Well, we should split up, and then communicate with each other when we find it." She started. "If we don't find it, we'll rendezvous back here and-"

"Or we could just follow him." Red chimed in, looking up into the sky.

The other two looked up as well, seeing the bee monster flying through the air, having a bit or trouble due to the climate of the area.

Blue's ears drooped a bit. "Of course."

So, they followed, eventually coming to an outcropping in the muddy ground, surrounded by tall trees. They hid behind a nearby bush, watching as the bee flew down from the sky. It pulled out a rapier, which glowed with energy. It suddenly grew to a massive size, and the bee jabbed it into the ground.

"That's a lot less gross than I was expecting." Red whispered.

The bee flew to the ground, and admired his work. They leaped out from behind the bush. "Stop it right there, wasp boy!" Blue shouted, blasters drawn.

It turned around and sighed at them. "Great, you losers again." He bemoaned. "Why don't you just start fighting again so I can move on with my life?"

"That's not going to happen this time!" Blue said, triumphantly, before she tilted her head a bit. "It isn't, right you two?" She asked the other two, who nodded rapidly.

"Well, we got a bit of a surprise for you guys this time." The bee said, ominously. He pulled out two handfuls of golden coins, and threw them up into the air. Mid-air, they transformed into a large group of Yartots.

Red laughed. "More pirates?" He said, amused. "Yeah, it's not like we fought these guys a few hours ago!"

"These… these aren't the surprise." He said, rather matter-of-factly. "I can see how you would think that, by how I worded my statement, but they aren't."

There were the sound of gunshots, and then sudden explosions around them, knocking them to the ground. The rangers quickly swung around to see Sambash, twirling his smoking pistol. "Yo." He greeted.

"Sambash!" Blue yelled.

"Villamax!?" Silver yelled at the same time.

Basically everyone turned to look at him. "What?" He said. "He's from… Zoo Rangers. Lost Galaxy."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sambash said, completely confused.

The three got up. "Alright." Silver started. "I'll take… whoever that is." He pointed towards Sambash. "You guys take care of the Swabbies."

"That's not their name either, but whatever." Blue shrugged, before her and Red rushed into the group of pirates.

"Alright, Villa… Sam… whatever." Silver said, walking towards the biker, sword drawn. "Just you and me, one on one!"

"What?"

"You know," He started, his sword dropping. "A sword fight." Sambash glared at him, in both anger and confusion. "You do have a sword, don't you?"

Sambash responded by firing his gun into the wolf's chest, knocking him back. "Guess that's a 'no'." Silver said as he recovered from the shot.

"I don't know who you think I am," Sambash started. "But I'll tell you who I actually am." He fired another shot at the wolf. "Gun Boss, Sambash, one of the bosses in Space Pirate Barban. Swords are for wimps." He fired another host of shots into the wolf's chest, knocking him to the ground.

"Guys!" Silver yelled to the other rangers. "I have made a terrible mistake!"

"Tell me about it!" Red laughed as he slashed at another Yartot. "You just chose to fight one of the big villains by yourself!"

"God damn it." Silver said, pounding his fist into the mud. He quickly hopped up, and backed off from the slowly approaching biker.

He turned to the crowd of pirate monsters, and leaped into it, starting to take care of them himself. "That's not gonna help, wolf boy." Sambash said to himself, firing his gun into the crowd. Somehow all of his shots managed to hit the Zoorangers, not even scraping the Yartots.

"You could've kept him distracted!" Red yelled at Silver, as he blocked a series of sword slashes from the Yartots, which nearly managed to hit as he flinched from the wound.

"I'd rather not die!" Silver shouted back, dealing with a very similar situation to the fox.

"Sometimes you need to sacrifice yourself for the team!" Red continued yelling, slashing through Yartots as he approached the wolf. "Maybe you should've taken a few extra shots!"

"Are you asking me to be killed!?" Silevr said, also approaching the fox through the crowd of pirates. "How insensitive are you!?"

"Oh no." Blue said, leaping to the top of a Yartot's head. "I thought this would work!" She quickly leaped from pirate to pirate, until she reached the two, who had started arguing again. "Guys!" She yelled. "Please, we're in the middle of a fight!"

"YARTOTS!" Neikaa yelled. "Clear out!" He waved his hands, and the pirates parted from the three bickering rangers. "Ready, boss?" he asked the biker on the other side of them.

"Always was."

Neikaa thrust his arms forward, firing his stingers at them, while Sambash rapidly fired his pistol at the Rangers. There was a massive burst of mud, sparks, and a large explosion. As it cleared, the three collapsed to the ground.

Sambash strolled up to them. "Never thought your demise would come about because of yourselves, huh?" He said, pointing his gun to the rabbit's head. "I find it pretty fitting, actually."

Before he could fire, there was a sudden blur around them. A white blur that whipped and whirled, knocking the two monsters backwards, and clearing out a good chunk of the Yartots.

"What!?" Smasbash yelled, looking around. "Who's there!?"

A figure emerged from the brush surrounding them, shadowed by the trees.

"I fear no crime, I fear no punishment…" The figure started. "I live a dangerous life, once I see a chance, I won't hesitate. I will strike in a flash."

The figure stepped out from the shadows revealing himself. A blood red visor, a white suit with gold and black trimming, and a large crest on his helmet.

"I am AbareKiller."

"Master?" Silver said, looking up from the ground. The other two watched in awe.

"I don't care who you are!" Sambash yelled, pointing his gun at the approaching AbareKiller. "I'm gonna put you down like the rest of the animals!" He fired his gun rapidly at the ranger. Killer pulled out a small dagger, and effortlessly sliced the blasts out of the air.

Sambash stepped back, shocked. "Yartots!" He yelled, waving his hand. "Get him!"

AbareKiller gave a chuckle as the pirates rushed towards him. "Game…"

He clutched his fist.

"Start."

Suddenly, almost nonsensically, music began to stream through the air. A loud, heavy rock song that sounded incredibly ominous. Red looked around, a bit confused. "Where's the music coming from?" He asked.

"Music playing means something awesome is about to happen." Silver answered, watching on in awe.

AbareKiller strolled into the approaching crowd of Yartots, each swinging their weapons and mumbling loudly. With a single sweep of his dagger, a huge swath of the pirates had been disintegrated, reduced to nothing but a large pile of orange dust. He glanced at one of the now terrified Yartots, and quickly jabbed his sword through it, causing it to disintegrate.

He began cutting through the pirates, both gracefully and brutally, the song continuing to play. With a final slice, he spun around, surrounded by a pile of orange dust. He continued to step through it, approaching Sambash.

"Neikaa!" He yelled, motioning to the bee. "Take care of him!"

"Got it, boss!" Neikaa said, pulling out a rapier. He rushed at the white ranger, their blades clashing. AbareKiller seemed to hold him back effortlessly as the bee used all of its strength to try and push him back. With a flick of his wrist, AbareKiller cut right through the rapier, causing the upper half of it to fall to the ground.

Neikaa backed off, terrified. "W-what are you!?"

"The most powerful being in Hell."

AbareKiller slashed twice, in an X-shaped pattern. There was a massive explosion, and Neikaa was launched backwards, landing in the mud next to Sambash. "I don't think he's being hyperbolic…" Neikaa said weakly.

"We just need to plant one more needle." Sambash said. "We won't let you stop us!" He yelled to AbareKiller, who had stopped in his tracks.

"Go ahead." The white ranger said. "I won't stop you. That isn't my job."

"Wait, really?" Sambash said, shocked. "Let's get out of here then!" He snapped his fingers, and his flying bike came down from the sky. He hoisted Neikaa's heavily damaged body over his shoulder, and hopped onto the bike, which flew off. The music stopped.

AbareKiller sighed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted."

Silver crawled up from the mud. "Master Mikoto!" He said. "Where… where have you been?"

"Hell."

"Oh."

Blue and red also got up. "So, that's the guy you were talking to?" Red asked, Silver responding with an affirmative nod.

Blue gritted her teeth, something not noticeable behind her helmet. "Everyone, back away slowly." She whispered.

"What?" Silver said, confused. "But, he's my friend."

"What did AbareKiller actually you about himself?" She asked.

"Uh, he told me that he was a doctor turned vigilante, basically." Silver answered.

"He lied." Blue said, sounding a bit intense. "Killer by name, killer by nature. He was a supervillain who killed and tortured for fun!"

"What!?" Silver said, stepping back. "Why didn't you tell me that!?"

"Because it's something I try to forget every day." AbareKiller replied, sullenly. "My horrible actions resulted in ruining the lives of innocent people, the death of a loved one, and eventually my own."

"The book didn't mention that…" Judy said to herself, feeling a bit rude.

"You didn't lie about sacrificing yourself to save people, right?" Silver asked, trying to sound hopeful.

He nodded, and the wolf sighed in relief. "It seemed bad luck and death followed me everywhere I went." Mikoto continued to explain. "I suppose that's what happens when you're an other dimensional god."

"What?" All three of them sounded.

"That's a story for another time."

"So," Red started up, stepping forward. "If you're dead, how are you here?"

"Probably a ghost." Silver said. "I just assumed he was just haunting me."

"Technically," Killer started. "I am both alive and dead. An old friend you two should be acquainted with let me slip through the cracks for a short while."

"AkaRed?" Blue said to herself. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to deal with you three."

The three stepped back, and drew their weapons.

"Not like that." He corrected. "I'm here to deal with a problem you seem to be having, at the request of AkaRed."

"Who's AkaRed?" Silver asked.

"What kind of problem would that be?" Red asked, indignantly. "That we're alive?"

"Please answer my question."

"Later, Max." Blue told him.

"The problem is your lack of teamwork." Killer explained. "I am here as a warning of what's to come if you continue. I didn't work with my team, which ultimately ended with them barely defending the world. Due to our lack of teamwork, we could have prevented far more destruction than ended up happening." He fell silent for a moment. "This is your warning. If you continue this behavior, it will result in far more than your own deaths."

Blue took a deep breath, and gripped her paws tightly. "That's… what…" She turned to the other two and stomped her feet "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU TWO FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS!" She burst out, frightening them.

"But we hate each other!" Red told her, and by extension, AbareKiller. "Our personalities are completely incompatible." Silver nodded in response, agreeing with the fox.

AbareKiller crossed his arms in thought. "Have you tried actually getting to know each other?" He finally suggested. "I hated the leader of the Abarangers, but I feel we could've been… friends."

"That's a great idea!" Blue said, cheerfully, before her ears drooped. "But, we still have the monster to deal with. We can't just take a break."

"I'll give you some extra time." Killer said, before he slashed his blade forward. Silver was the only one of them who had to duck, as the resulting energy wave flew over his head and crashed into the needle behind them. It sparked with energy for a second, and then exploded. "There, that should give you time to at least become acquainted with each other."

Blue nodded, and the other two rangers stood about awkwardly. "Thank you, AbareKiller. I'm glad I was wrong about you."

He nodded at her. "Now, my time here is almost over." He said. "I wish you all well. Save your world." With that, AbareKiller burst into particles of light, which quickly disappeared.

"Alright!" Judy yelled, untransforming. "Who's ready for a house party?"

"What?"

* * *

"Do you have your keys on you, Max?" Judy asked as they stepped up to the door of his house.

"Uh, yeah." He answered. "Why?"

"Because I need them."

"I can let myself in, you know."

She nodded, gave a smile, and held out her paw. The wolf rolled his eyes, and dropped the keys into it. "Thanks." She said.

She hopped up, and unlocked the door, swinging it open for the fox and the wolf. "I know what you're planning, Carrots, and it's not gonna work." Nick said as he stepped into the house.

"Why not?"

"Because you can't lock someone inside a house."

"Who says I'm going to lock you in the house?" She retorted, feigning offense. She then quickly swung the door in the fox's face. There was the sound of a lock clicking as he stared at the door, nonplussed.

He sighed, and unlocked the door. He tried to open it, but it only slightly budged. "What the…?" He said, tugging at it. It wasn't locked, he could see the door moving, but it wasn't opening fully.

Then, he felt a buzz from his phone. He pulled it out, he had gotten a message from Judy. He opened it, and grimaced at the picture attached to the message.

It was a selfie of Judy, performing the peace sign. Next to her was the railing of the house's steps, a black cord wrapped around it. The other end of the cord was tightly wrapped around the doorknob. That explained it.

"u 2 ply nice!" The message read.

He groaned, and stuck his phone back in his pocket, turning to the wolf. "Looks like we're stuck in here."

"She does know this is a voluntary thing, right?" Max asked. "Like, she didn't have to lock us in." The fox performed a large shrug.

"I guess she just doesn't want us doing anything crazy." He assumed.

"That means 'you doing anything crazy', right?" The fox nodded, reluctantly. "So, what do you enjoy doing, anyway?"

"What?"

"Y'know, hobbies." Max said. "You have to do something besides be a police officer, right?"

Nick rubbed his head. He didn't actually know what he enjoyed doing on his time off. "Well, I mostly just watch TV." He said. "Judy's the one who actually gets me to go out and do things."

Max looked at him oddly. "You rely on her a lot, huh?" The fox nodded. "Wanna just… talk about things?" He suggested. "You know, calmly?"

"I already talk my therapist's ears off every week." Nick said.

"Well, if we want to be friends, or whatever, then we should get to know each other more." He motioned to the living room. "C'mon."

The fox followed, and they seated themselves on different seats, Nick on the couch, Max in a chair. Nick began to tell his life story, going over his missing father, his turn to crime, and his eventual redemption thanks to Judy. Max also gave a bit of his story, which he admitted was definitely not as interesting, mostly a normal story about his inspirations to become an officer.

"I've told you before, but what inspired me to be a cop was stuff like Zoo Rangers, Super Mammal, The Bat, stuff like that."

"You're a comic book fan?" Nick said, jolting up from his seat. "My dad had a huge collection of vintage comics, I read them all the time as a kid!" He let out a sigh in remembrance. "There was the one where The Bat and Robin had to fight a rainbow monster, it was ridiculous!"

"Your dad collected Silver Age comics?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's awesome. "I'm actually a bit of a collector myself. Wanna see them?"

"Would I ever!"

They got up, and Wolford brought him to a small room off the side of the living room. In it were three massive bookshelves, full of different comic books. "Holy smokes, I wasn't expecting you to have this much."

"Collecting is a very serious business, Nick." Max said. "Eventually, I'll be able to sell these all for a fortune. Not that I ever would."

Nick combed through them. There were hundreds of different books, his dad's collection only fit into three shoeboxes, so this was mindboggling. "How do you pay for all this?"

"Perks of living alone." He said. "It's worth it though, there's some wonderful stories in there. Ever read Doom Patrol? Great series."

"So, you don't live with anyone else?" Nick asked. "But this house was made for more than two people, isn't that a waste of space?"

"Nope!" Max said. "It just means I have more space to store stuff."

"Must be real conversation starters, huh?"

"Uh, yeah." He cleared his throat. "For all those… guests I have."

"Do you really not have people over all the time?" Nick asked, confused. "You're like, the nicest guy on the force, how do you not have a bunch of friends?"

"Social anxiety."

"Oh." Nick said, rubbing the back of his head. "It… must get lonely, huh?"

"It really does." Max sighed.

"I know how that feels." The fox said to himself, quiet enough for the wolf to not hear him. "What about Delgato?" He asked. "You two are partners, you seem like good friends."

"He has his own life, you know." Max said. "We're more work buddies anyway."

There was a bit of silence for a moment. "So, uh, you have more stuff here?" Nick asked. "Wanna show me?"

"Sure!"

They went upstairs, and entered what probably should have been a bedroom. Instead, it was lined with shelves and shelves of toys. "Wow, this is like, what ten thousand dollars' worth of toys?" Nick asked as he entered the room. He was somewhat stunned by the amount of stuff in this single room.

"Oh, probably more than that." Max said, not exactly sounding proud. "I've been collecting stuff like this since I was a kid." He walked over and pulled an old looking toy from the shelf. It was colored red, blue, and yellow, and had a stylized lion head on its chest.

"That's the original Megazord from Zoo Rangers, isn't it?" Nick asked. The wolf nodded.

"It's the one I had as a kid, it's important to me." He said. "When you don't have much in your life, you need to fill it with something, and I fill my empty spaces with stuff I collect."

"That's an admirable way of looking at it." Nick said, looking around the room. "I didn't really have anything to fill my empty spaces with until recently."

"You mean Judy?" He asked, turning to the fox. Nick nodded. "She really is that important to you, huh?"

There was some more silence, as Nick fiddled with one of the toys. It was a robot made up of cars, each with a very obvious, anime-esque face on it. "So, is there anything else you want to show me?"

"Uh, I guess." Wolford said, a bit awkwardly. "It's in the basement. Which you've, um, already seen."

As long as it wasn't a creepy dungeon basement, which Nick knew it wasn't he would be fine going down into it. He followed the wolf to the basement, and it was still basically the same as it had been when Max had, um, kidnapped him a while ago.

"Sorry about that, by the way." Max apologized.

"It's fine, I would've died if you hadn't."

He looked around, it was mostly the same, a rather uncomfy couch sitting in the middle of the room. However, he noticed something else. The object that had been covered by a large tarp was no longer covered, revealing an old TV set. Next to it was…

"Oh my god." The fox let out, walking over to the TV.

"What's wrong?" Max asked.

He fiddled with a grey box sitting on the ground, two large, purple buttons on top of it. "Is this a Super Nintendo?" The fox asked.

"Uh, yeah." The wolf said, a bit confused. "Why do you ask?"

"I always wanted one of these when I was a kid." Nick explained. "Never had enough cash, and when I did have enough, I didn't have a house."

"Seriously? That's awful." He paused for a second. "Y'know, I'd let you play it, but we're kind of running on a time limit right now."

Nick looked at him, a bit confused, before it came back to him. Monster, trying to save the city, all that stuff.

"But, if you still want to after we save everyone, we could come back here and play it for a bit." He continued. "No fur off my back."

"That's be great!" He said cheerfully. "But we still need to do something while we wait for Judy to unlock the door. Who knows how long-" There was a sudden vibration from his phone. He pulled it out, it was another text from Judy.

"B back in 30 min 2 let u out, gting supplies"

"'Supplies'?" He asked himself. "What kind of supplies do you need for a monster attack?"

"Was that Judy?" Max asked.

The fox nodded. "She'll be back in a half hour, so we have some time to kill."

* * *

"I thought bees were supposed to be more durable than that." Sambash scolded, watching as Neikka finally woke up. He had brought the damaged and unconscious bee monster back to the mountaintop after their run in with whatever that white guy was supposed to be.

"Hey!" The bee monster yelled, getting up. "That guy hit like an earthquake. Ironically enough."

"I don't care!" Sambash snapped back. "You're too weak, obviously, we'll need to give you an upgrade."

"What?"

Sambash pulled out a red, spiky object, and quickly tossed it at the monster. It raised its arms to block the object, but it impaled into one of the stingers on its arms. It let out a cry of pain as it began to twitch with red energy.

Neikaa's shoulder began to puff up, turning orange, and suddenly becoming covered in holes. This seemed to spread down his arm a bit, but the stinger above his hand also began to change, merging around the forearm until it was nothing but a stinger. The symbol of the Chaos Badge was emblazed on the stinger as well.

His rather tiny wings grew to a much larger size, and a second pair, about the size his other pair was before, sprouted out below them. All the yellow on his body gradually shifted to more of an orange, while his leather hangings sprouted out into full coattails.

"BUZZZ-IT!" The monster cried as his transformation finished. "Yikes, what was that!?"

"Like I said, an upgrade." Sambash stated. "Now, go plant the last needle, so we can destroy this city once and for all!"

Neikaa gave a salute, and flew off into the air, dashing off at devastatingly fast speeds, zigzagging through the air.

Sambash watched. "How the hell do bees fly like that?" he questioned.

* * *

Judy stepped back onto the steps, carrying a small plastic bag. It had the supplies they needed to take down the monster, and save the city. She really hoped that her idea of getting them to socialize would at least make them not hate each other.

She set the bag to the ground, and leaped up to the cord connecting the door and the railing. In a swift motion, she unhooked it, causing it to limp down. She then leaped up a second time, unlocking the door She kicked the door open. "Alright, I'm back!" She yelled.

As she walked into the living room, she dropped the bag and let out a massive gasp at the indescribable sight.

Nick and Max, talking, not arguing. They were laughing, chatting about interests, it was terrifying.

"Oh, hey, Judy!" Nick said, rather cheerfully. "This stupid idea of yours actually worked pretty well."

"Stupid idea?" She said, confused. "I had you guys trapped in here, it was like Saw!"

"We could've just left through the back door, you know." Max said. The rabbit gritted her teeth again.

"So, you guys seem like you were in the middle of a… a…" She tried to spit out the unbelievable phrase. "Friendly conversation?"

"That's what I mean by 'your stupid idea worked pretty well'." The fox reiterated. "Turns out me and Max have a lot in common, we just show it in different ways."

"Similar interests too." Max continued. "Kinda weird, actually."

"Well, I'm glad this at least all worked out!" She said. "Now, I need to explain my plan for how to deal with the monster."

She placed the bag to the floor, and pulled out a few different cans of bug spray. She handed one to each of them, and held the last one herself.

"Seriously?" Nick said in disbelief. "You went to buy bug spray?"

"I don't mean to sound rude," Max started, looking at the can. "But, like, really?"

"Trust me, this'll work!" She tried to assure them. "We just have to surround him, and then spray him at the same time, it should be enough to distract him so we can finish him off!"

The two looked at her. "You know this stuff was made to kill tiny insects, right?" Nick asked. "And that monster is about one thousand times the size of a tiny insect?"

"Like I said, this will work!" She reiterated. "We just need to work together, alright? And besides, I'm the leader, what I say goes."

"I mean, it's better than anything we could have come up with." Max shrugged.

"Attacking him is a start, at least." Nick said. "I don't think now's the time to really be coming up with weird plans, we're kind of on a time limit."

"Actually, thanks to AbareKiller, we aren't!" She exclaimed. "He destroyed one of the needles, we don't need to rush anymore!"

"Until he realizes something is wrong." Max chimed in. The rabbit shrugged in response.

"It still gives us more time."

"Alright, so what exactly is your plan?" Nick asked, crossing his arms. "Beyond just spraying him with bug spray, I mean."

"Well, first, we spray him, and then we do some… team attacks?" She said, a bit unsure. "I really just want to make this teamwork thing work."

The fox rolled his eyes. "Alright, you're the leader, you do the planning."

Suddenly, there was a horribly loud beeping. Both of them looked at Maxwell.

He looked at his wrist. "Looks like it's go time."

* * *

The monster crashed into the ground, directly outside of the central tower. "Perfect spot!" he yelled, ignoring the screams of fear around him. He pointed his stinger arm towards the glass door, and fired, shattering it. He then strolled in, and looked around at the terrified animals walking around. "Alright, boys!" He said, tapping his shoulder.

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise, a massive swarm of bees flying out of the holes on it. The swarm flew around the room, flooding the room, scaring off the mammals.

"Much better!" Neikaa cried. He stretched his arm a bit. "Alright, time to destroy this city for good!" He flew up into the air, and raised his arm upwards. It began glowing, as the stinger began to grow to ridiculous proportions. He aimed it towards the ground, and fired, the massive stinger forming into a needle.

He landed to the ground, and let out a laugh. He pointed the stinger at the needle, and fired. As soon as it hit, the needle began to vibrate, and let out an ear rending noise. The building itself began to shake, objects beginning to shift around, paint beginning to chip, chairs falling over.

"Wait, what!?" It yelled out, rushing over and stopping the needle. "That was supposed to destroy the city instantly, what's happening!?"

"Your plan's just been foiled, Honey sucker!"

He turned, and saw the three Zoorangers, walking into the building. "Honey sucker, really?" Red said. "Could've done something a bit cleverer."

"Oh, if it isn't the Lagomorph and Canidae Arguing Circus!" The monster irritatingly cooed. "Here to bungle everything up again!?"

"Eh, that was slightly better." Red said, glancing towards his somewhat confused partners. "Coulda put in some Lupis, since we have a wolf here."

"I don't care!" It snapped back. "What did you do to my needle!?"

"We didn't do anything." Judy started. "You might know who did do something, though!"

"What, who?" The bee asked, confused. "You don't mean that white guy, do you!?"

She nodded. "He destroyed the needle in the Rainforest District, your entire plan has gone kaput!"

"Not until I get back there and set it back up!" He yelled back.

"You're gonna have to get through us first!" She yelled, the three posing and pulling out their weapons. "Let's do it, guys!"

She twirled her weapons around, and stomped on the ground, pointing her daggers at the monster. "DEFENDER OF THE MOON, ZOOBLUE!"

Red slashed his sword against the ground, sparks shooting off. He spun the sword, and placed it on his shoulder. He swiped his thumb against his snout. "CHAMPION OF THE SUN, ZOORED!"

Silver took a deep breath, and raised his arms to the air. He then quickly whipped out his blade, and spun around. "WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE, ZOOSILVER!"

The three rushed at the monster. "Alright, boys, I need you again!" He tapped his shoulder again, causing a swarm of bees to shoot out. The three skid to a halt, and quickly turned as the swarm flew at them.

"I HATE BEES!" Red yelled, as the three split up, the swarm splitting as well to follow them. He quickly spun around, pulling out the Vickscannon, and firing a shot at the insects, which seemed to have no effect. Blue's nose twitched a bit.

"Do we already have to use the bug spray?" Silver yelled to Blue.

"PROBABLY A GOOD IDEA!" She yelled, pulling the bug spray out and spraying the swarm. The bees dropped to the ground, and seemed to evaporate into an orange mist, which swirled back into Neikaa's shoulder holes.

"Oh, wow." The monster sarcastically started. "Bug spray, where did you get that wonderful idea."

Her ears drooped a bit. "Save the bug spray, guys!" She yelled to them, rushing towards the monster, daggers ready. She leaped into the air, the bee's stinger quickly extending. As she flew down and swung at the beast, it blocked her, and flung her back.

She skidded to the ground, and Neikaa quickly motioned with one of his hands. The two bee swarms chasing the other two rangers quickly reformed into a single large swarm. It pointed towards her.

"Aw pumpernickel."

She tossed her can of bug spray towards Red, where it rolled to his feet. The bees quickly formed a swirling orb made of bees around her. "GUYS!" She yelled from inside the horrible buzzing sphere prison. "YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF HIM, QUICK!" She quickly dodged as bees began to fly at her from inside the prison.

"Hope you're not allergic, rabbit!" The monster yelled, before turning to the other two, who had regrouped. "Now to deal with you two bickering losers."

Red picked up the can. "Alright, let's try this plan out." He said, having horrible doubts about it.

"You don't think this is a bad idea?" Silver asked.

"Oh, I totally do."

Silver pulled out his can, and the fox pulled out his other can of spray. They rushed at the monster, Silver leaping over him, turning to face the monster's backside. "What are you two idiots doing?" The monster nonchalantly questioned.

"Just bugging you!" Red said, as the two sprayed the bee in the face and back. It kind of looked around, confused, as the two started to back away.

"…Seriously?". Neikaa quickly spun around, stinger outstretched, knocking them both down.

"BLUE!" Red yelled, getting up. "YOUR PLAN'S A BUST!"

"I HAVE A BETTER IDEA!" She yelled back, letting out a pained whimper as she got stung by one of the bees. "FIRE!"

"Fire?" Silver questioned, helping Red up.

"The bug spray!" Red said, pulling the cans out. "Bug spray is flammable!"

"If we use our fire attacks, we could destroy it for good!" Silver chimed in. "But we'll have to do this together if we want to finish him off right now."

Red nodded, and turned to the bee prison. "You're a miracle worker, Carrots!"

She let out a horrible, pained yell.

"We should probably hurry on this." Silver said.

"Alright," Red started, holding out the bug spray cans. "This will take a bit of dexterity. You up for it?"

Silver spun the guard on his sword, switching it to Sun Mode. "I am now."

"What the hell are you two up to?" The bee questioned. "I'm excited to see how you butcher another chance to beat me!"

Red then chucked one of the cans at the monster, it hitting him in the face. Silver turned to look at the fox, who now had the Vickscannon in his paw. "What?" He said. "I need an extra paw."

The two pulled back their arms, and chucked the cans at the same time. They both attacked, Red firing a shot from the cannon, and Silver slashing his sword, sending off a blast of fire. The shots hit the cans, which burst into a surprisingly massive explosion, charring the ground with flames and destroying any wooden object in the room.

"Wow." Red said, shocked. "I didn't know they were that flammable."

"It might just be our attacks."

The fire cleared, and the monster was still standing, albeit on fire. It let out a scream of pain. "BEES! HELP!"

The swarm of bees flew away from the rabbit, and began swarming around the monster. The flew back into the monster's shoulder, having cleared the fire. "Ah, much better."

"You just made a big mistake, waspy!" Blue yelled, running up to her partners. "Now you have to deal with all three of us!"

"Uh oh."

"TIME FOR THE ZOOKAIZER!" She yelled, pumping her fist with an enthusiastic leap. She recoiled in pain a bit as she landed. "Oh, yeah, bee stings still hurt."

The three flung their weapons into the air, where they combined into the massive gun, aimed directly at the monster.

"SOLAR NATURE BLAST!"

The cannon fired a large orb, which split into smaller red and blue orbs. The orbs flew through the monster, and flew up above it, combining back into a large silver orb, and slamming down onto the beast, causing it to explode. A small mole flew out of the explosion, landing unconscious on the ground.

The three sighed in relief, watching as the massive needle dissipated. "Thank goodness that's over." Blue said, wiping her brow. "The stress was killing me."

"So, why didn't you just do the bug spray plus fire plan in the first place?" Red asked.

"I wasn't really thinking about that when I came up with the plan." The fox rolled his eyes at the rabbit's statement.

Suddenly, there was a ding, and the elevator on the other side of the room opened up.

"WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS GOING ON DOWN HERE!?" Mayor Lionheart yelled, storming out of the elevator. "Shaking, burning smells, I'm pretty sure I just heard an EXPLOSION!"

He looked around the room, spotting the unconscious mole on the ground, a floating, red object,a nd, of course, the Zoorangers, who stared at him awkwardly.

"Sir, we can explain-" Blue started, only to get interrupted by the lion.

"Oh, another monster attack deal, huh." He said, suddenly sounding calmer. "Thanks for dealing with that Zoo Rangers." He noticed Silver, and walked up to him. "Didn't realize you got a third member, that's perfect for publicity!"

"Publicity?"

"I mean helping out defeat all these evil monsters." He quickly corrected, none of them looking amused. "I actually wanted to talk to you all about something, the secret identity thing is great, but how about we set up a, say, meeting, where you give the whole city your real identities?"

"That sounds awful." Red said frankly. "And if you excuse us, we have a giant monster to deal with."

"What giant monster?"

His eyes widened as the red object barely grazed his mane. It flew out the window, and there was a sudden tremor, followed by echoing laughter.

"That giant monster."

The four of them rushed out, and looked up at the giant monster hovering on the outskirts of the city. "Well, you better go destroy it!" Lionheart yelled. "Can't have the city being destroyed!"

"We're getting to that, don't rush!" Silver said. "This is a delicate process!"

"So, since we just learned the values of teamwork or whatever, how about we, I dunno, defeat this guy as a team?" Red suggested.

The other two nodded, and readied their mechs. Silver popped in the disc, while the other two popped in their ZooTags.

All three mechs appeared, and they leaped in, the robots leaping up into the air and forming into their robot forms.

They crashed in front of the monster, earth shooting out from their feet. "This is great!" Silver exclaimed, cheerfully. "All three of us, in giant robots, at the same time!"

Back on the ground, Lionheart looked on. He pulled out a cellphone, and quickly dialed something up. "Hey, do you have the plans ready?" He asked. "Because we might need to make some more models."

"How is that fair!?" The monster yelled. "Two against one isn't even at all!"

"It wasn't even on the ground either!" Blue yelled, jolting the controls forward, causing the robot to swing its sword into the monster.

The monster stumbled back, and all four looked up as they heard a laugh. In the air, there was a burst of purple smoke, a shadow of Kyuemon appearing in the air. "He's right, you know." The illusion sounded. "How about we tip the scales a bit?"

The shadow pulled out what looked like a small hammer, with a star attached to the front of it. He spun the star, and swung it forward, causing purple smoke to shoot out from it. The smoke swirled, and quickly formed into two giant monsters, which looked like they were made out of bones of various creatures, some unrecognizable.

"Behold the Gashadokuro." The shadow sounded. "They should be able to take care of you." With another laugh, the shadow disappeared.

"Thank you, Kyuemon!" Neikaa said, waving his normal hand at where the shadow was. He then turned to two mechs, and pointed at them with his stinger. "GET THEM!"

The giant skeletons let out horrifying roars, and stomped forward, drawing out swords also made out of bones. They swung the swords, the mechs quickly drawing their swords as well to block them.

ZooRobo struggled as the bone beast pushed down on the sword. "Great, guess they also learned about teamwork!" Red joked, trying to lighten the situation.

ZooKami also struggled a bit. Neikaa quickly stepped up to him, and jabbed the wolf mech in the side with his stinger. The robot stumbled, letting the skeleton's blade cut through him.

ZooRobo quickly turned to its partner, but the distraction let the other skeleton cut right through it. "Great, we're gonna die to a bunch of skeletons!" Red paused for a second. "Actually, never mind that's a great way to die."

"Not the time, Red!"

"I think we need to do something drastic." Silver started. "I think we need to unlock our final, true combination!"

"We have a final, true combination?" Blue questioned.

"All the good mechs have a big combination!" Silver continued. He pulled out the silver disc. "Let's try this." He slipped it into the slot in the control panel's dashboard. A button off to the side began to glow. "Guys, but your things into the thing, then hit the thing!"

"What?" Red said.

"I think he means put the ZooTags into the slots and hit the buttons." Blue translated. "Just guessing though."

They both followed, slipping the ZooTags into the slots, and hitting the buttons next to them that began glowing. Both mechs leaped into the air, ZooRobo uncombining. ZooSagi unfolded, a pair of fists revealing themselves from the soles of the robot's feet. It split in two, turning into a pair of arms.

ZooKami's body shifted, forming into a torso. ZooKitsune Shifted around more, the fox's head forming into a chest piece, while the legs and back of the mech formed into an ornate cape with spiked shoulders. All three combined, and the two weapons flew into its hands. It crashed into the ground, between all three monsters.

Lionheart looked on, amazed, before speaking into the phone. "Yeah, definitely going to need a new model."

In the cockpit, the seats shifted around, Silver's cockpit quickly rising up.

"ZOOROBO OH KAMI MODE!"

"See, told you!" Silver said, pounding at the controls. "THIS IS AWESOME!"

"So, what, we just gave them even more of an advantage!" Red said, a bit panicked. "Three against one isn't good odds!"

"I think ZooRobo might be even more powerful now!" Blue stated. "We can totally take these guys out!" Silver nodded, while Red rolled his eyes. "Let's do this!"

The three jolted their controls, causing ZooRobo Oh Kami to quickly spin around, and sliced at one of the Gashadokuros. The blades unleashed a red and blue burst of energy, flying directly into the monster, making it burst into a pile of bones.

"Holy smokes." Red said, surprised. "That's stupidly powerful."

The mech spun around again, unleashing more swipes at the remaining bone monster. The energy bursts hit it as well, also destroying it.

"Stay back!" Neikaa cried, stepping back as it fired at the robot. Its stinger shots were quickly deflected by the mech's swords.

"Let's finish this." Silver said, pumping his fist.

"SOLAR ECLIPSE DESTROYER!"

The mech moved the swords in half-circles, and quickly slashed them down. Each movement made a white line behind them, which quickly fired off as they slashed down. The slashes quickly fired into the monster, stunning it. The mech then performed two horizontal slashes, those slashes also launching off. As they hit the monster, it began to spin around, turning red hot, and then exploding.

The explosion cleared, and the monster stumbled forward. "Wanna hear a bee joke?" It said, dazed. "How do bees even fly? They're wings are too small to get their fat bodies off the ground! What's the deal!?" He quickly tilted over and exploded.

"That was Zootastic!" Red cried.

"Is that seriously your end battle catchphrase?" Silver asked. "I know we're friends, but it really is awful."

"C'mon, seriously!?"

* * *

"So, I said to the beaver, damn that's a nice dam!" Nick joked. "And that's how I tricked a beaver out of a year's supply of wood."

Max laughed a bit. "Did you seriously do that?" He asked. "That's completely ridiculous."

"Ha ha, yes," Judy started. She nervously looked towards the bullpen. "It's great hearing your life stories, Nick, but we kind of have…"

"Did I ever tell you about the time I managed to swindle a giraffe out of his mother's handmade turtle neck sweater?" Nick asked Wolford, ignoring the rabbit.

"You haven't told me anything about a lot of your life, actually."

"Well, do you want to hear it?" He asked.

"How about I tell you about the time me and Delgato managed to stop a criminal arsonist?" Max started. "That was an exciting one."

"Guys?" Judy said, trying to get their attention. They continued to chat, ignoring the rabbit. She sighed.

"What have I done?"

* * *

" **IDIOT** "

There was a zap of red lightning, which flew directly into Sambash's body. The volts coursed through him as he stumbled forward.

" **FOOL** "

Another bolt, and Sambash fell to his knees.

" **HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY MY DIRECT ORDERS** "

A third strike, and Sambash collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain.

There was a horrible roar from the Omnipotence, shocking the other villains in the room. " **DUE TO SAMBASH'S FOOLISHNESS, WE NOW REQUIRE AN EXTRA RECHARGE OF ENERGY BEFORE THE NEXT ATTACK** "

"How long is an extra recharge?" Yabaiba asked. "Ten minutes, an hour…?"

" **APPROXIMATELY ONE MONTH FROM NOW** "

There was a collective groan from the group. "Thanks a lot, Sambash." Long yelled at the unconscious heap on the floor.

" **WHEN I FINISH RECHARGING, I EXPECT YOU ALL TO HAVE COME UP WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE PLANS YOU COULD HAVE** " The Omnipotence stated. " **WE WILL DEFEAT THE ZOORANGERS, AND WE WILL DESTROY THE CITY** "

There was a sudden, horrible crackling noise.

" **AND IF YOU DO NOT, I WILL REDUCE YOU TO SCRAPS ON THE FLOOR** "

"Don't worry, monsieur Omnipotence." Enter started. "We will have them out of the way as soon as possible."

He gave a sly smirk.


	18. Big Things in Small Packages

"Alright kids, time for a math test!" The armadillo teacher said in a sing song voice.

There was a collective groan from the class of young mammals in front of her.

The teacher handed out the test papers, which contained very difficult things like multiplication and even beginner's division. This, of course, bored some of the students. A tiger near the front of the class began to doodle on his paper after just a few minutes.

"Timothy!" The teacher snapped. "No doodling until after you've finished!"

The tiger cub grunted, and reached into his desk for an eraser. He started erasing the doodle, but suddenly felt someone grip tightly onto his arm. In a split second, he was lifted into the air.

"I'll be taking that."

It was a cheetah in a tan longcoat and a pair of goggles, who quickly plucked the eraser from the tiger cub's hand, and threw him backwards.

"Who are you!?" The teacher said, getting up. "How did you get in here!?"

The cheetah glanced at the armadillo, and then back at the eraser, which he gripped tightly in his paw. "Buglers," He started, snapping his fingers. Suddenly, a series of purple, robotic monster began to burst out from under the desks, sending most of the children flying. He motioned around the room. "Dispose of them."

The buglers pulled out their large claw weapons. The armadillo, at the sight of this, immediately popped into her shell. The robots herded the children and teacher into the corner of the room, and prepared to execute them.

"STOP IT RIGHT THERE!"

The cheetah let out a groan, and turned to the entrance of the classroom as the three Zoorangers ran in.

"ZOORANGERS!" The children, and teacher, cheered, annoying the cheetah further.

"I know it's been a month," Red started with a bit of a chuckle. "But attacking a school is really the best you could think of?"

"Au contraire, mon amies!" He said slyly, holding up the eraser in one paw, and a card in the other. "I'm here to seal your final defeat."

He quickly jabbed the card into the eraser, and tossed it up into the air as it began to glow. The three stepped back, waiting for the monster to form.

The eraser quickly plummeted to the ground with a thud.

"Merde." Enter said, looking down at the eraser. "I don't even have a Megazord to make up for it this time." He rubbed his temples as everyone stared in silence. The faux-cheetah then turned to the Buglers. "Just distract them while I go work something else out." He said, sounding frustrated. Enter snapped his fingers, and vanished in a burst of red data particles.

Everyone in the room, including the Buglers, looked around, confused. "That was supposed to do something, right?" Silver asked, rubbing his neck.

"I'd… assume so." Blue said, also confused.

"So, are you going to save us or what?" Asked the curled-up teacher.

"Oh, yeah!" Blue let out. "Sorry about that."

She examined the setting. Six Buglers, surrounding a class of animals in the corner. "Alright, here's the plan," She started. "Red, take the left three, Silver, take the right three."

"Alright, sure." Red shrugged. She was leader, what she said goes. The wolf also nodded. The two quickly leaped into action, each pulling out their blades.

Red quickly twisted the blade around, and smacked the three Buglers aside. Silver quickly followed. This paved a way for Blue, as she ran towards the group of children. "Alright, it's safe to leave!" She said as she began escorting the group out of the corner. The kids quickly ran out of the classroom.

"Alright, everyone's safe!" She said, rubbing her paws together.

"Excuse me?"

Blue turned to face the armadillo, still rolled up. "Oh, sorry ma'am!" She apologized, quickly rushing behind her and kicking her towards the door. As she hit the wall next to the exit, she unrolled, and quickly crawled out of the room.

"Alright, NOW everyone's safe!" She said. She quickly whipped out her blasters, and fired on the Buglers, wiping them out in only a few seconds.

"Hilariously weak, as always." Red joked. "You'd think he'd get them upgraded at some point."

"Yeah, maybe go from an alpha to a beta." Silver followed up. Both of them looked at him, confused. "That's a computer joke."

"Ooooooh."

The class entered. "That was amazing!" One of the kids said.

"You saved our lives!" The teacher said, before she looked around the class. In the fight, most of the desks had been turned over, and the tests had been completely destroyed. She let out a sigh, and picked up a few scraps. "There goes the test." She muttered. Suddenly an idea hit her. "Okay class, instead of doing that math test, why don't we have the Zoo Rangers here give us a… a presentation?"

The three instantly jolted up, as the kids began to cheer.

The armadillo walked over to them. "Sorry if this is a bit sudden, but I need something to fill out the period, and a lot of the kids here really love you, so…"

"We'd love to!" Blue blurted out, much to the shock of Red and Silver.

"Actually, we'd like to discuss it a bit in private first." Red hastily interjected. "C'mon, Blue."

The three walked into the hall as the class began to set up the desks. "Alright, Carrots, what are you doing?" Red asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You're the one who's always worried about our secret identities getting out." He said. "And now you want to give a talk to a bunch of children?"

"Red, they're kids, it's not everyday they get to see real super heroes!" She argued.

He sighed. "So, who's doing this presentation anyway?" The fox asked. "Because I'm not."

"I have bad social anxiety, so I'm out." Silver said. "You should do it, Blue!"

"But, I don't have anything prepared." She said, a bit nervous.

"Well, you're the one who wanted to do this," Red interjected. "And you're our leader, so…"

"Alright, I will." The three stepped back into the class, which was still a bit messy, but the kids each had their own desks at least.

The teacher was sat at her own desk. "So, are you ready?" She asked.

The rabbit was about to say yes, but was interrupted by the fox. "Indeed, we are, and we couldn't think of anyone better to do it than our own leader." He slapped the rabbit on the back.

One of the kids, a young female leopard, raised her paw. Blue cleared her throat. "Um, yes, you have a question?"

"Are you really the Zoo Ranger's leader?" She asked.

"Uh, yes, I am!" Blue said proudly, but still a bit nervous. "Officially elected leader of the Zoo Rangers."

The leopard reached over to a female sheep next to her, and they high-fived.

A tiger cub raised his paw shortly after. Blue pointed towards him.

"I want to be a Zoo Ranger when I grow up, how did you guys get to become them?"

They three quickly looked at each other. "Kid's throwing out the hard questions already," Red jokingly whispered. "He'd make an excellent journalist."

"Well, um…" Blue started, a bit awkwardly. "We were specially picked to be the Zoo Rangers, because of our specialties." She explained. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. "So, if you really want to be a Zoo Ranger when you grow up, then you need to work towards that goal!"

She was starting to sound a bit more confident. "You need to try and be the best mammal you can possibly be, you need to help others, you need to not judge. You might not always start off at your dream, but by working there. We didn't start out as Zoo Rangers, but its because of who we were that let us protect others. Not just our friends, our loved ones, but everyone."

There was a slight pause, everyone was looking at her, at how intense she had started to become.

"So, if you want to be a hero, not a super hero, but a real hero, you need to try. Stand up for those you love, protect those that are weak, but most importantly, be kind." Another pause. "I hope that answered your question, maybe?"

There was clapping. Had the incredibly impromptu, unprepared speech really been that good? "That was really good, Blue!" Silver complimented. Apparently, it had been.

Unbeknownst to the Zoorangers, hiding under the desks was a very tiny monster. It was shaped exactly like an eraser, but with small arms poking out of its sides, and large, for its size, feet poking out from the bottom. Most of its body was covered in an eraser sleeve, which was red with a white stripe through the middle. On one side, it had the words "DATA ERASER" written on it. In the top middle of the center stripe was a silver, heart shaped logo, with a red dot in the middle. It looked up at them with four red eyes, two shaped like blocks, and two slanted and surrounded by a circle.

"My master may have abandoned me… again, but this time I will not fail!" It squeaked. The blue one was still talking, looking directly towards where he was. He just needed a good opportunity to hitch a ride, and go to their secret base! "I'll have their data erased in no time, and Master Enter will love me for sure!" He laughed.

He quickly got bored as the talking continued for almost an hour. He wished he could erase their mouths. He wasn't even sure what they were talking about.

"Even we're not entirely sure how it works," Blue started, holding up a ZooTag. "But somehow, these ZooTags, as we call them, can summon equipment for us to fight monsters with! Like so!"

She quickly plugged in the ZooTag, summoning the Buster Boxers onto her paws, but not after it ended its quick bit of noise making.

"Are they always that loud?" The teacher asked, uncovering her ears.

"Unfortunately, yes." Red said.

"Mine aren't." Silver interjected.

A bit later, and the monster was starting to lose patience. "C'mon, just leave already!" it said. There was suddenly the sound of a bell ringing.

"Oh, that's all the time we have for today!" The teacher said, a collective groan going throughout the class. She turned to the Zoorangers and quickly shook each of their paws. "Thank you all so much for the speech, and for saving us!"

"It's absolutely no problem!" Blue said as the armadillo shook her paw. "It is kind of our job."

"We should probably be heading out now too." Red said. "We do have our own things to do." The other two nodded, and all three said their goodbyes.

"Alright, it's go time!" The eraser monster said, watching as the three started to exit. Using as much leg strength as it could muster, the robot quickly followed them out, barely seconds before the door slammed shut. He looked back at the door, and wiped his brow. "That was close."

He turned back to the Zoorangers, who were still walking off. "Oh, hey wait up!" He quickly hustled after them.

The three reached outside, and ran to a windowless side of the building, untransforming. "You know, that felt pretty good." Nick said. "Getting some actual recognition does an ego good."

"You didn't have to come up with a speech on the spot." Judy said. "That was horribly stressful."

"Oh, come on, the speech was great!"

The eraser monster quickly stumbled onto the grass. "Alright, time for my master plan to start!" He said to himself. He quickly ran at them, and leaped into the air, latching onto the back of Judy's police uniform.

"Ack!" She let out, not knowing the eraser monster had hit her. "Stupid mosquitos."

"Guess we should head back to the station now, huh?" Nick said, stretching out.

"Sorry, I'm supposed to be on patrol with Delgato." Max said. "I'll be seeing you later."

They watched as he walked off. "So, you gonna drive?" Nick asked.

"I have never, ever seen you drive before." She said. "So, what do you think the answer is?"

"Yes?"

She groaned.

* * *

The ride back was dreadful.

Not for the two officers, but for the eraser monster. For twenty minutes, his body was being pressed into a seat cushion. Thankfully, he didn't need to breath, but if he had, he would be dead. The music that was playing didn't help. Not a single good song had been played.

"Uggghh, why do we have to listen to your playlist?" Nick groaned.

"Well, maybe if you drove, you'd get to play your music." Judy explained.

"I have a perfectly good reason for not driving." He retorted.

"What is it?"

"Uh, I'll tell you later."

She rolled her eyes. In "Nick", that translated to "I don't actually have an excuse".

"So, did you think it was weird how Enter just kinda failed at making a monster?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

She decided to roll with it. "Yeah, it was odd." She said. "Maybe there's just a very slim failure chance?"

'Fools!' the monster thought to itself, face still pressed into the seat cushion. 'Your doom is coming, and you don't even realize it!'

The car stopped, and the two hopped out of the cruiser. The eraser could finally feel its face again! As they walked into the station, it quickly leaped down from the ground, and let out a small chuckle.

"They're secret base must be around her." It whispered, looking around. "Once I find it, I can delete all their important files, meaning they won't be able to do… heroic… things anymore!" It let out another small laugh. "Master Enter is going to be so proud of me!"

"Alright, hurry up, Bogo's gonna be upset if we don't get to work." Nick said. "Traffic duty won't handle itself." He paused for a second. "Why are we even at the station?"

"I, uh, forgot my notepad." Judy said, meekly. "We kinda had to rush out to fight the monsters, I didn't have time to grab it."

"You and your notepad, yeesh." He sighed. "Well, hurry up and get it, or else Bogo's going to be steaming mad."

She nodded, terrified of the prospect of an even angrier Bogo. She quickly rushed to grab her notepad, and then back to the main lobby, where the fox was playing with his phone. "Alright, time to roll!" She said, sticking the notepad into her pocket.

"You're still faster than I think you are." Nick said, putting his phone into his pocket.

The two started walking towards the exit, but Judy quickly paused as she stepped on something. Something that seemed to be making a very high pitched noise.

Oh god, had she just stepped on a mouse?

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" She cried, lifting her foot up.

"What, what's going on?" Nick said, turning to her.

"I think I just stepped on…" She leaned down. She could still hear the high-pitched scream, but all she could see was a small eraser on the ground.

An eraser with arms. And legs.

"Nick, I think we just found the monster." She said, looking up to him.

The fox leaned down, looking at the eraser, confused. "So, he made an inch-tall monster?" He said, the monster's screaming not seeming to hit his ears. "That was supposed to be our doom?"

The eraser quickly got up, and stared at the fox. "I am your doom!" It yelled.

"Yeah." The fox said, doubtful. He quickly poked the eraser, causing it to tip over. "And how were you expecting to do that?"

The eraser sprung up again. "I was going to find your secret base, and delete all of your data, so you wouldn't be able to do anything!" It explained, before letting out a laugh.

The two mammals looked at each other, unimpressed. "You do know we don't have a secret base, right?" Judy asked.

"W-what!?"

"We also don't have any data or anything you could've deleted." Nick continued for her. "Your plan was a failure as soon as it started."

The monster fell over onto its back. "Ugh. I'm such a failure." It moaned. "Enter doesn't even know I exist, just end me now."

"Uh, alright." Nick shrugged, raising his foot up, primed to squash the eraser.

"NICK!" Judy yelled. "Don't do that!"

"What?" The fox said, lowering his foot. "It's asking for the sweet release of death, so…"

"He hasn't done anything!" She said. "Remember my speech? You need to protect those weaker than you if you want to be a hero." She looked down at the eraser, who was still laying prone on the ground. "And he's definitely weaker than us. I don't even think he's able to hurt others."

The fox rolled his eyes. "So, what do you want to do, oh righteous one?"

"We'll, um…" She thought for a second. "We'll take him to the apartment. And then we'll work something out."

She stepped over, and picked the monster off the ground. "What are you doing?" The monster asked as she gently placed it into her palm.

"We're taking you home." She said softly.

The fox shook his head as the rabbit exited the station. "This is a horrible, horrible idea."

* * *

She placed the eraser robot down onto the table. "Welcome to our apartment!" She cheerfully said. "And no, there is no secret base here, either."

"This is basically our less than secret base." Nick chimed in from across the room.

"Um, thank you for bringing me here." The monster said, a bit awkwardly. "I've never had anyone treat me this nice before."

"I mean, you work with a guy like Enter…" Judy trailed off a bit. "Anyway, we need to figure out more about you. So, let's start with your name!"

"My name is Eraserroid." He said.

"Alright, off to a good start." She said. "Next, what are your evil monster powers?"

"I can erase data."

There was some silence.

"Aaaand…?"

"That's it."

The rabbit leaned back in her chair, a bit surprised. "Usually monsters have one or two different things they can do." She said.

"I guess I am a failure…" The monster said, falling on his back again. It let out a surprisingly loud sigh. "I just want to be useful, but I always get ignored and I always mess up."

Judy thought for a second. "Maybe… maybe you weren't meant to be a villain."

"What?" Both the monster and the fox yelled, confused.

"I have the perfect idea!" She said, ears perking up. "We'll get you a job! You can become a… a productive member of society!"

"You cannot be serious, Carrots." Nick sounded, baffled.

"I am one hundred percent, completely serious!" She said, standing up and stomping her foot against the chair. "I am going to find Era here a job!"

"Who's 'Era'?" He asked.

"It's um, what I'm going to call him now." She explained. "Eraserroid is kind of a mouthful, not very good for conversations."

"Era…" The eraser said to itself. "I like it."

"Alright, Era, let's go find you a job!" She yelled, pumping her fist. Era joined in as well.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but you do know we have jobs ourselves, right?" Nick said. "We're supposed to be on traffic duty right now."

"Wrong," Judy started, hopping down from the chair and over to the fox. "YOU have traffic duty now!" She quickly poked him in the chest.

"You can't be serious." The fox said in utter disbelief. "If you want to find him a job, then you need a way to get around, and we only have one car."

"We can take the bus!"

The two locked eyes. Judy stared at the fox with a smug look, while he glared at her from over the couch cushions.

"Fine." He let out. "You win, I'll go do traffic duty… by myself."

"Great!" She said, ears raising. The rabbit rushed to the table, and picked up the eraser. "Alright, let's do this!" She pumped her fist, and the eraser followed suit.

She skipped towards the door of the apartment. "BUT!" Nick sounded from the couch. Her ears drooped, and she turned to him. "If something goes horribly wrong," He continued. "You can't blame me. This is all on you."

She gave him a glare, and the fox gave her a sly wave. She opened the door, and quickly slammed it behind her.

The fox laughed, and looked down at his phone, feeling proud of his trickery. His eyes widened and his grin turned to a slight frown. He smacked his phone against his muzzle.

"Well, guess I have to learn how to drive now." He sighed.

* * *

"Alright, Ms. Hopps, why did you come to see me?" Asked the rather large horse sitting in front of her.

"Well, Principal Neywey, I have a friend that's looking for employment, and I wanted to set up a bit of an impromptu job interview." She explained.

"Alright." The horse said, a bit skeptical. "What position are they looking for? A teaching position?"

"Um, no."

"A secondary position?"

"Nope."

He tapped a pen against the desk. "…A janitor?"

She shook her head. "This is a bit of an odd request, but, um…" She placed her paw out, revealing Era.

"Hello!" He greeted, waving a mechanical arm around.

The horse looked down at the robot, and then back at the rabbit. "You do know that there's a smaller scale school in Rodentia, don't you?"

"Oh, of course I do!" She said. "But Era here wants to be a professional eraser assistant."

"What."

"He wants to be payed to be used as an eraser!" She explained. "You know, if a kid doesn't have one, they can just get him to come and erase something!"

"Uh, yeah!" Era chimed in, sounding a bit unsure.

The horse snorted. "Ms. Hopps, I appreciate your creativity, but there are many things wrong with your idea." He started. "For one, it's far more practical to just bring an eraser to a class room. Your idea requires the children to wait even longer. Second, that basically amounts to slave labor."

Her ears lowered for a second, before they perked back up. "Watch, he's really good at it!" She said, pulling her carrot pen and her notepad out. She quickly scribbled on it. "He's even better than a normal eraser!"

"Whoa!" Era let out as he was suddenly lifted into the air by Judy. He felt himself being tipped upside down, and slammed back into the ground. She dragged him across the paper, causing the robot to let out a horrific high pitched scream of pain.

She awkwardly looked up at the horse as the dragging and screaming continued. She glanced down at the page. He wasn't actually erasing anything. She gave a sheepish grin.

In what felt like seconds, they were back on the bus.

"Probably should have told you I'm not actually an eraser." Era said from atop the rabbit's head.

"No, it's my fault." She responded. "I shouldn't have assumed. Also, sorry for that whole… eraser thing."

"It's cool, I know you were just trying to help."

"So!" She quickly clasped her paws together. "I have a few other places lined up. The next one should actually use your talents, and not one I just made up!"

"I get to actually erase data?" he asked. The rabbit nodded, causing Era to fall off of her head. She quickly caught him in her paws.

"Sorry, I'm not used to having really small things on my head." She apologized.

"It's alright!" Era said. "So, where are we going next?"

"To a friend's place." She explained. "I told him I was coming to visit, said he had some computer issues."

"Oh, I see!" The eraser started. "You want me to help him out with it?" Judy nodded in response.

"'Scuse me?"

She looked up, seeing a giraffe looking down on her. "Are you talking to an eraser?" He asked.

"Who are you calling 'an eraser'?" Era said, insulted. "I am a highly advanced mechanical creature called a Metalroid, and I-"

Judy quickly slammed her paws together, quieting the eraser. "Yes, a very overzealous eraser."

After a bit, the two walked into a rather rundown looking apartment building. "Who would ever want to live here?" Era asked as Judy walked down the dingy hall, him in her paw.

"Well, the wi-fi's good." Judy said. "And it has a certain… charm."

He looked up at the rabbit. "You lived here, didn't you?"

She reluctantly nodded. "I was new to the city, and it was cheap…" Her ears perked up as she walked past what used to be her apartment door. "But I made some good friends!"

"Are we meeting one of them here?" Era asked. She nodded, and stepped up to a rather tall door.

"I still talk with them sometimes," She continued. "It's always nice to stay in touch with friends, right?"

"I wouldn't know because I've never had a friend before you!"

"Oh."

She closed her paw around the eraser, and knocked on the door. After a second, it opened, revealing an antelope.

"Hey Pronk!" She greeted, giving a slight wave.

"Judy, long time no see!" He greeted in return. "Why'd you want to come over?"

"Well, I need some help with a bit of a problem," She started, paw still clenched. "And you need help with a problem, and the problems relate, so…"

"Wait, you're here to help with Bucky's computer?" He asked. She slowly nodded. "I didn't realize you were computer savvy." He said, inviting the rabbit in.

The apartment was much bigger than hers was, though not as big as her current apartment. It mostly needed to house the two much taller mammals, and as such, most of the furniture was much bigger than her. It was still very similar to her old one, very ragged and worn down, but the two seemed to keep decent care of it.

"Well, I'm not actually that computer savvy." She admitted, walking towards the desktop computer. The chair alone stood twice her height. Actually, looking at it, the seat seemed to stand around the height of the humans she had encountered. She turned back to the antelope. "But, I do have a friend that is!" She finished.

"Really? When're they gonna get here?" He asked.

"He's right here!" She held out her paw, revealing Era, who began dancing around.

Pronk craned his neck down to look at the dancing robot. "So, this guy knows how to fix Bucky's computer?"

"Depends on the problem, actually!" Era started. "I can erase data, so if you need me to get rid of something, I'm your bot!"

"Even a virus?"

The eraser nodded.

"Great!"

"Where is Bucky, anyway?" Judy asked.

"He's been on a trip for the last week." Pronk explained.

"So, when did it get infected?"

"About two days ago."

The rabbit and the eraser looked at the antelope, confused. "Listen," He started. "I may have done something stupid on his computer."

"And you want the virus gone before he gets back, right?" Era asked. "That I can do!"

He leaped out of the rabbit's hand, and landed on the hardwood floor. He then performed a series of surprisingly large jumps, before reaching the computer's tower. With a final jump, he lodged his lower body into the USB port, struggling a bit to push himself in fully.

"I'll have this finished in a second!" He assured, giving a small, barely visible thumbs-up.

"I really gotta thank you for this, Judy." Pronk said, looking down at the rabbit. "Bucky has a ton of work on there, he'd kill me if he found out."

"Hey, don't thank me!" She said, placing a paw to her chest. She motioned towards Era. "Thank Era, he's great at this stuff." She swallowed for a second, and started to whisper to Pronk. "Do… do you think people would pay for this?"

"Cop business not working out?"

"No, no, no!" She said, waving her hands. She looked over at Era. "Well, it's more… I want Era to be a part of Zootopia, but he needs a job for that." Judy explained. "I just want him to find somewhere he's happy."

"I'm sure this could work out." Pronk assured. "There's lots of mammals out there who aren't good with electronics. Might do better in Rodentia, better scale."

"Thanks, I-"

"Um," Sounded Era from the computer tower. "We might have a, uh, small, tiny, itsy-bitsy… massive problem."

Judy gritted her teeth. "What happened?" She said with a cringe.

"I think I just deleted everything off the computer."

Both mammal's eyes widened.

"I got rid of the virus, though!"

Judy quickly ran over to the table, and yanked the robot out. "What happened!?" She yelled at him.

"I'm… I'm not used to this really basic tech!" He said, a bit embarrassed. "I mostly deal with high-tech supercomputers!" He tapped his metallic fingers together. "I can't help what I was designed to do…"

Her ears fell, and she let out a loud sigh. "I'm really sorry about this, Pronk." She apologized.

The antelope also let out a sigh. "It's fine, I know you were just trying to help." He said. "Bucky's very careful about this stuff though, he probably has a back-up or something."

"Let's hope."

The three said their goodbyes, and the rabbit stepped out of the apartment, eraser robot in paw. "I'm sorry for ruining that." Era apologized as they headed down the hall.

"it's fine!" She assured, though she was a bit unsure herself. "Those two care about each other a lot, I'm sure it'll all be fine."

Her ears suddenly popped up. "Besides, we have a full day ahead of us, and a bunch of jobs for you to try!"

They quickly dashed out of the hall.

* * *

Max yawned as he sat in the cruiser. Delgato had headed into a Clawbucks to get something for their short break, and Max had decided to stay in the car. Must've been a long line-up, probably would've been quicker to head through the drive through.

He leaned back in his seat, and then jolted up as his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and looked at the called ID.

"Why is Nick calling me?" He asked himself. He shrugged, and answered, putting the phone to speaker mode. "Nick, why are you calling me?"

"Hello to you too, Wolfsbane." The fox responded over the phone. "Listen, I need some help."

"Couldn't you just get your actual partner to help?" Max asked.

"Ha ha, no." He said awkwardly. "This is a problem Judy absolutely cannot know about."

"But it's fine to tell me, of course."

"I'm having some… car… issues." Nick explained.

"I'm not a mechanic, Nick."

"It's not actually car problems, Max." He said, growing frustrated. "I'm supposed to be doing traffic duty, but I'm kind of… lost."

"I thought you knew the city like the back of your paw?" Max questioned.

"I do, I just…" He sighed. "I can't really figure out how traffic works."

"…And you're an officer how?"

"I passed the driver's test, alright?" He said, Max could tell he sounded a bit insulted. "It's just… actually doing it with all these other cars around… It's like my brain just shuts off."

"Alright," Max started. Let's take this from the top. Where are you?"

"Meadowlands."

"And where are you supposed to be patrolling?"

"Savannah Square."

Max flung his paw into his face. "Don't you live in Savannah Square?"

"Yes." Nick said. "Told you I need help."

"You somehow got from Savannah Square to the other side of the city without even knowing how?" The wolf was completely baffled by this. "Don't you drive on a bike perfectly fine?"

"Well, I don't need to follow traffic laws when I'm superhero… ing." The fox excused. "Besides, it's a push button system, I just have to steer!"

"So, how exactly do you want me to help you?" Max asked, a bit confused. "Because I'm in the middle of Savannah Square, and unlike you I don't have physics defying car driving powers."

There was a pause, the fox seemingly contemplating the question. "Alright, I need you to tell Bogo that I got injured and am currently out of commission for the day. Think you can do that, pal?" He asked.

The wolf sighed. "Alright, but you owe me something later, alright?" He demanded. "Like, maybe a ride, or…" he paused for a second to think. Probably didn't want a ride, come to think of it.

"Ooor…?" Nick trailed.

"Alright, if I do this for you, you have to let me use one of your weapons in the next fight." He said.

"Deal." Nick sounded almost instantly. "Thank you for doing this. Hope I can get home soon, I mean, I have to eventually, right?"

"The laws of probability say that yes, you should be able to drive home eventually." Max said, sarcastically. He quickly spotted the tiger coming out of the coffee store. "Okay, Delgato's coming back, I need to go, see you."

"See you, Wolfsbane." He quickly hung up as the tiger entered the car.

"Bad line in there?" Wolford asked, a bit smugly.

"God, you wouldn't even believe." The tiger growled. "I swear, there were three different old ladies who kept changing their orders."

"We could've just taken the drive through."

"Yeah." Delgato agreed. "Going into those places is restricted to bathroom breaks now."

"Sounds fine to me." Wolford chimed. He paused for a second. "Do you know if there's a way to get from here to the Meadowlands?"

"Yeah," Delgato said, taking a sip from his coffee. "By train."

"What about by car?"

"That's literally impossible."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

* * *

Judy tapped her pen against the notepad. Her and Era were seated outside a small café, Era specifically seated at a smaller table on top of hers. She stared at the notepad, a list written on it. It was a list of possible jobs she had written out for the eraser. "Alright, let's start from the top." She said, picking the notepad up, and looking at the eraser. "Professional eraser assistant?"

"Can't actually erase words." Era said as she marked it off the notepad.

"Door to door computer repairman?"

"Too small, not used to most computers."

"Cashier?"

"Managed to delete everything off the register."

"Professional computer cleaner?"

"Still can't work with most computers!"

"Construction worker?"

"I have no idea why you thought I'd be good at that."

"I've run out of ideas, Era." She sighed. "I just can't find anywhere you'd fit, I'm sorry."

"No, it's entirely my fault." Era said. "I mean, I am supposed to be an evil monster who causes trouble. Maybe that's all I'm good at…"

"I know you can be more than that, Era." She assured. "We just need to keep trying."

"Excuse me?" The two looked up from their slump to see an otter, carrying a tray. "Your order's ready."

"Oh, thank you." Judy said as the otter placed a small sandwich onto the table. He then placed a glass onto the table, and poured an orange liquid into it. He then pulled a much smaller glass from his shirt pocket, and placed it on Era's smaller table, pouring the liquid very carefully into it.

"One smoked carrot sandwich and carrot juice, for you." He said, before walking away.

She took a drink from the juice. The day had been a relative disaster, aside from saving a school, of course. But everything else had been taxing, none of her job ideas had worked out for the poor monster. It actually seemed to be affecting her more than Era.

She watched as the eraser seemed to just fiddle with his glass. "Aren't you going to drink any?" She asked.

"I don't have a mouth."

"Then why did you order it?"

"It felt rude not to."

She sighed. He was an odd one, she could really tell that he was kind. He wanted to help, even if just to be recognized, but it was still genuine. How Enter of all villains had made a monster like this was beyond her.

What if not all the monster they fought were truly evil, just misdirected? She thought this to herself as she ate the sandwich. It was definitely a possibility, but the words of the mantis monster still rung in her ears.

"I keep doing it, rabbit… BECAUSE ITS FUN!"

This couldn't be the case for all of them, right? Era himself was a major contradiction to that notion, but deep down, she felt a guilt. What if they could've redeemed other monsters, but never gave them a chance? It was a haunting thought for her.

Her train of thought was suddenly broken by a very enthusiastic yell.

"HEY, JUDY!"

Her ears perked up, and she swivelled in her seat. There was Kyle, running towards her. He quickly stopped next to their table. "Oh, hey Kyle." She said, half-heartedly.

"What're you up to today?" He asked. "Is this a stakeout? Am I interrupting something?"

"No, you're not interrupting anything." She replied. "Just… taking a break from a busy day!"

The fox looked over at the small table, spotting the eraser. "Hey, uh, isn't that one of those monsters that's been attacking?" He asked, pointing towards Era.

"Former monster!" Era said, getting up and turning to the fox. "Name's Eraserroid, but my friends call me Era!"

"Why are you hanging out with a monster?" Kyle asked, a bit rudely.

"He's not a monster!" She yelled. "He's a member of our community now! I'm trying to find him a job."

"A job?" The fox seemed a bit dumbfounded. "Well, what can he do?"

"I can erase data from electronics." Era explained. "Hasn't really come in handy at all."

"We've tried everything I can think of." Judy bemoaned. "We just can't find anything that works."

Kyle looked at the monster. "Have you tried anything in Rodentia?" He asked.

"Um, not really."

"Well, he fits that size." Kyle said, placing his paw on top of the eraser's head. "You might be thinking too big, Judy." He quickly placed his paw to his chin, and scratched it. "Maybe he'd be a good data manager?"

"A what?" The rabbit asked.

"Someone who manages computer data." He explained. "It's a pretty useful job at software development centers."

Judy's eyes widened as she slowly got up. Her ears perked up, and a grin creeped onto her face. "That's perfect!" She yelled, grabbing Era. "That's the perfect job for you!"

"R-really?" The eraser said, a bit dizzy.

"Yeah, if we can find something like that in Rodentia," She explained enthusiastically. "You'd be all set! Let's go see if we can find anything!"

The two pumped their fists into the air, and then dashed off, leaving the fox behind. He gave a quick chuckle, before dashing off into a nearby alleyway.

His eyes glowed purple for a moment as he entered. "A monster betrayed us, hmm?" He said to himself. "And I thought that Enter said his monster creation failed…" He rubbed his paws together, and let out a laugh. "Oh, this is going to be interesting…"

The fox quickly vanished into a void of pure darkness.

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Judy?" Era asked as she placed him onto the pavement. "I don't know if I can do this by myself…"

"I would go in with you, but I kind of have a restraining order from the entire place." She explained. "I can't go within five feet of Rodentia."

"What did you do?"

She tilted her head and gritted her teeth. "I'll tell you later." She said. "But you'll be fine. I've called Rodentia's police station, and let them know to not shoot at you!" Her face turned from a smile to a look of worry as she finished. "Can't say what the citizens will think, though. Anyway, do you remember the address?"

"It was a bunch of numbers, that I remember!"

She chuckled, and kneeled down. "Just look for a glass building with a sign that says Minisoft." She patted him on the head with one of her digits. "And when you get in there, just be yourself. They'll love you."

He nodded, and rushed through the small hole in the fence, entering the small city. As he stepped through the gate, it was like everything had changed.

"Wow!" Era yelled, running over to a nearby tree, really a few small branches sticking out of the ground, leaves still normal size. He felt it, and then turned to a bench, a small mouse sitting on it, staring at him. "Is this what it's like to be normal sized?" Era asked himself, sitting on the bench, the mouse awkwardly shifting over.

He turned to the terrified mouse. "Hey, my name's Era!" He raised his metallic hand, which the mouse awkwardly shook. "Do you know the way to Minisoft?"

"Uh, it should be on Colony Street." The mouse squeaked. "Just head down this street, and take a right three blocks down."

"Thank you!" Era said, hopping up from the bench. He started his trot down the road.

Over the course of trying to find the building, Era managed to experience some things he never got to experience before, like what size cars are, and sitting at a normal table. It had turned into a bit of a tourism session, but eventually, Era reached the building.

He looked up, seeing the large, boxy building, nearly entirely made out of glass. There was a large sign outside, a block of cheese split into four segments, followed by the word "Minisoft" in rather standard blocky font.

Era braced himself, and headed into the building, walking up to a receptionist. "Excuse me." He said. "I'm here for a job interview."

The mouse receptionist looked up, and jolted back in surprise. "Oh, um, can I have your name?" She asked.

"Era!" He said, cheerfully. "My full name is Eraserroid, if you need that."

"Surprisingly, we actually have you in here." She said, a bit baffled. "Must have gotten a call earlier. I'll tell Mr. Gnaws you'll be right up!"

"Ohhh, thank you thank you thank you!" Era yelled enthusiastically, leaping up and down. He rushed over to a glass elevator.

"He's on floor five!" The receptionist yelled to the eraser as he entered. She pressed a button on the desk. "Mr. Gnaws, you have an odd guest coming to see you."

The elevator stopped, and Era stepped into an office surrounded by glass. At a desk was a rather thin mouse, dressed in a business suit and black rimmed glasses. "Uh, are you Mr. Gnaws?" Era asked, a bit nervous.

"Sure am!" He said cheerfully. "And you must be… Era?"

"Oh, you know my name!" Era said, a bit bashful.

"We got a request for you from a Ms. Hopps, and we are an equal opportunity business to all creatures under a foot tall, so…" He trailed off, and placed his paws to the desk. "Tell us about yourself."

"Well, I was created to be an evil robot that causes trouble, but I never really wanted to do that." Era started, only sort of lying. "I am dedicated, though! Just because I quit one job doesn't mean I'm not! I just wasn't cut out for it."

Gnaws seemed a bit nervous, and pushed up his glasses. "Well, what are your skills?"

"I have the power to interface with any machine, and erase data from it!" He extrapolated. "I can delete a yottabyte of data in under a second! At least, that's what my design specs say."

"That is incredibly impressive…" He paused for a second. "If you were to get a job as a data manager, what would you expect your pay to be like?"

"Pay?"

"Yes, your pay." Gnaw continued. "The money you earn."

"Oh, I don't need money!" Era said. "I'll do it for free!"

Gnaws' eyes widened.

"You, my friend, have just been hired." He stated. "How does data management sound?"

"Sounds like I was born to do it!"

* * *

Judy quickly kicked in the door to the apartment. "I DID IT!" She yelled as she entered. "I managed to get Era a job, you were wrong, I was right!"

No response.

"Nick?"

She looked around the room. Nick was nowhere to be seen. In fact, it was like nobody had been there all day, everything was exactly the same. "You better not have run into trouble…" She said as she pulled out her phone. She dialed up his number, and he thankfully answered.

As the screen turned on, he seemed to still be in the police cruiser. "Oh, hey Carrots." He said with a sheepish grin. "How'd everything go with the monster?"

"First, he's not a monster, his name is Era." She said, a bit ticked off at the comment. "Second, everything went perfectly, I managed to find him a perfect job."

"Wait, really?" He sounded genuinely surprised. "Your day is already sounding better than mine."

"Speaking of, where the heck are you?" She asked. "We were supposed to be off duty a while ago."

"Uh, I think I'm somewhere in…" He quickly glanced out the window. "I think I'm on Outback Island."

She glared at him. "How did you get there?"

"Uh, don't know, actually. I don't remember taking a boat…" He paused for a second. "Oh yeah, I told Bogo I wasn't available for duty for the rest of the day, so I don't have to deal with that."

She groaned. "Just get back here as soon as you can, I don't want to have and come pick you up."

"Gotcha." He said, before there was a bit of a pause. "I don't really mean to sound rude, but… I'm not sure I still trust Era."

"Nick, he's changed." She assured. "He's one of the nicest creatures I know."

"I just think that there might be something going on, alright?" He said. "Its one of Enter's monsters, and you know how that guy is."

He had a bit of a point, considering that most of Enter's attempts to defeat them had come from manipulation. But she had a feeling that this time, it was genuine. She just knew it.

"Now, I need to get out of here." Nick said. "Maybe I'll work whatever magic I have and somehow get the car into the apartment, who knows. See ya!"

He hung up.

She stuck the phone back into her jeans pocket, and sat on the couch. "Well," She said to herself. "I managed to do something good today! No, something GREAT!"

She laid on the couch, and started to think. What if she could do this for every monster they encounter? Zootopia was based around the intermingling of so many different creatures, why couldn't a handful of these monsters find a place to be peaceful?

If everything worked out, then maybe she could try it next time.

With the comforting thoughts ringing through her head, and an incredibly busy day behind her, she passed out on the couch.

After a bit, however, she was woken up by the door slamming open. She gazed up from the couch to see Nick walk in, still in his uniform. "Nick?" She said. "What…what time is it?"

"Its one." He said, sounding absolutely exhausted. He blinked his eyes, and yawned. "I think I'm just gonna…" He promptly fell to the ground, sound asleep.

She sighed, and got off of the bed. She helped the unconscious fox onto the couch, and got him a blanket from his room. "I guess I figured out why you don't drive." She chuckled quietly to herself. "Good night, you dumb fox."

* * *

"What an awful day." Enter said to himself as he walked around the outside of the mountain. "Absolutely nothing to show from it, other than a humiliating defeat."

It was twice he had tried to create the Eraserroid, and twice it had failed. He didn't know what had gone wrong, it worked every other time without flaw. The Eraserroid was supposed to be one of the most powerful Metalroid, perhaps that was it?

"Why couldn't I get that card to work?" He said to himself.

"You did, Enter."

He turned to face Kyuemon, who stepped forward. "Your monster was created." He stated.

"How come I haven't heard anything from it until now?" He asked.

"Because it appears to have had a malfunction." Kyuemon continued. "Your Eraserroid has gone rogue, and is attempting to become… normal."

Enter stared at him. "What does that mean?"

"The rabbit managed to get him a job." Kyuemon explained. "He's trying to integrate into that wretched city."

Enter burst into laughter. "That's completely ridiculous." He stated, a grin on his face. He then turned to face the city. "But, it gives me an excellent idea."

"Let me guess, something to do with Savage?" Kyuemon presumed.

"Bing bong!" Enter sounded. "If Savage is only summoned due to emotional turmoil, then I imagine the rabbit will be quite upset when her friend… betrays her."

"A rather devilish scheme." Kyuemon said, his tone not changing. "Exactly what I would expect from you."

"Je vous remercie!" He thanked. "And yes, I know that wasn't entirely a compliment."

There was a pause between the two.

"I know you're up to something."

Enter turned to the fox. "Oh, really?" He mocked. "How do you suppose that?"

"From one devious traitor to another, I can tell." Kyuemon waved his arm, and vanished in a burst of black smoke.

"Well, that just makes the game more interesting, doesn't it?"

* * *

"So, you hear about the new guy, Frank?" One mouse said as the entered the cubicle area. "Hear he's a bit odd."

"I've probably seen weirder, Joey." The other said. He immediately regretted his words as they spotted a large, blocky thing laying on the ground.

It awkwardly got up, and looked at the two. "Oh, hey!" He waved at them. "I'm Era, I'm the new guy! Nice to meet you!"

"Were you just… sleeping on the ground?" One of the mice asked.

"Where else would I?" Era said, like it was a no brainer. "Except I don't sleep, I just thought it'd be fun." The two mice awkwardly nodded, and backed away.

"Wait 'til Dean hears about this…" The eraser heard as they walked away.

Era turned to his cubicle, which had a very fancy looking computer prepared for him. "Time to get, uh, data… managing!" he said, sitting down at the chair. "Now, how exactly do I work this…" he placed a metallic hand onto the mouse-sized mouse, and began to move it around, moving the screen mouse. "Alright, that's one thing figured out."

A message popped up from the corner of the screen, a small letter. He clicked on it, receiving an email.

"We need you to delete this old version of our software, think you can handle it?" It read. Inside was an attachment, a rather massive file.

"No problem!" He said, before feeling his hand around the edge of the computer. He found the USB port, and jabbed one of his fingers into it. "I am interfaced!"

In a second, the file had been deleted. "Easy-peasy!" He said, wiping his hands together. "Guess I've gotten used to these less advanced computers…"

Suddenly, another message popped up. This one was a bit different, as it had a symbol on the letter. A grey, heart shaped symbol…

Oh no.

He contemplated for a second. Should he answer it? No, he shouldn't! But… but something was calling him too it. He wasn't sure if it was curiosity, or something wired into him. He clicked it open.

"Bonjour!"

The message opened, revealing Enter, in the form of a cheetah, staring right back at him. "How's it going, Eraserroid."

"E-Enter!" He shrieked, knocking him and his chair to the ground. "What are you doing here!?"

"I'm here to offer you a job."

"No thanks, I already have a job!" He said, getting up. "I'm not going back, I've made up my mind."

"Come now, Eraserroid-"

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" Era yelled. "My name is ERA! You AREN'T MY MASTER!"

Enter sighed. "I suppose you don't want to become one of the most famous beings ever…"

Eraserroid turned back to the screen. "What?"

"My job offer was going to have you become one of the most well known, powerful villains in the universe." Enter explained. "But, if you just want to sit around at a desk job all day…"

"Wait!" The eraser said. "Let me… think it over." He began to do that, two voices arguing in his head.

'What would Judy think?'

'He created you, so you should go with him!'

'She'll be so disappointed in you.'

'But you'll be powerful! Everyone will know who you are! You'll be a star among monsters, this is what you really wanted! Judy will be proud of you!'

He looked at the computer screen.

"What do you want me to do… Master?"

Enter chuckled. "Simple. Start by wrecking this place." He stated. "Wreck this tiny city. Then meet me outside." The screen flicked off.

He sighed, and grabbed at the computer, pulling it from the cord, and smashing it against the ground. He looked around, and headed over to the next cubicle. He plugged himself onto it, and soon enough, all the computers had been rendered completely useless.

"This… does feel good…" Eraserroid said solemnly to himself. "But… NO! No more self-doubting, Enter recognized you!" He quickly lifted up a chair, and threw it through a window.

"What in the world's going on in here!?" Shouted Gnaws as he entered the room. "What are you doing, Era!?"

"It's…" He paused for a moment. "It's ERASERROID!" He yelled. "I'm a monster, meant to destroy, and I'll… I'll destroy EVERYTHING!" He growled, and suddenly fired a laser from one of his eyes, causing the entire cubicle section to explode. The force of the sudden explosion in such a small area launched him out of the building, where he landed on the pavement, next to a broken chair.

"I… I can do that?" He said to himself as he got up, feeling his face. He tried to do it again, firing another laser into a nearby building. "Wow!"

He continued firing into buildings, laughing. After a few minutes, he looked around at the destruction he had caused. He had just done it almost instinctively, and he felt absolutely awful. "No!' He yelled at himself. "Don't think, just do! That's what Enter would want, right?"

But, what would Judy want?

"Forget her!" He yelled at himself as he broke into a run. "She'll understand, she's going to be proud of me!" He knew that wasn't true, but it was too late to go back.

If he could cry, he would be sobbing uncontrollably.

"You, freeze!"

He turned around to see a group of mice, dressed as police officers. "Stay back!" Eraserroid yelled at them. "If you come closer, I'll hurt you!"

The policemice stepped forward, and the monster fired a laser, launching them and their tiny vehicles backwards.

"I'm…!" He paused, and then turned around, and headed for the exit. After a few minutes of running, and a few stumbles to the ground, he exited.

He wasn't sure why he was running, maybe it was from fear of retribution, or maybe he was just running from himself. Maybe he was just running. Either way, his run was stopped as he ran into someone's foot.

"There you are."

He looked up to see Enter looking down at him. The eraser tried to back away, but the cheetah pinned him down by his feet.

"My, I didn't realize you had such capabilities." He said, nonchalantly. "Let's see if we can make them a bit more… potent."

He quickly pulled out a sharp, glowing red object, and tossed it directly into Eraserroid's chest. It seemed to absorb itself into his small body. He writhed as the cheetah raised his foot off.

With a scrunching noise, his arms and legs retracted into his body, and he raised into the air. He expanded outwards, becoming a roughly human sized eraser, slightly shorter than the cheetah. Then, the eraser began to shift around like a machine, revealing an inner body.

It was lithe, slick, its body trailing with red and grey patterns. The blockiest parts of it were several left overs form the eraser form, which had formed into armor around the chest, feet, and shoulders. In the middle of the chest, which resembled his chest in his previous form, now bore a chaos insignia rather than the grey heart.

His left arm had been replaced by a large, eraser-like weapon, while his other arm seemed to have grown two extra fingers, making a full five fingered hand, though they were still tube-like. Its head resembled how it looked before, but now much thicker, and with a metallic jaw.

"What…?" He said as he looked at himself. "What happened to me!?"

"I've made you stronger." Enter explained. "You are now Chaos Eraserroid!"

"I… I feel so powerful…" He said to himself.

"Now, for phase two of your job…" He turned and looked around. "They should be arriving any second."

"Wait, do you mean…?"

There was the roaring of motorcycle engines, and the two watched as the Zoorangers rode in on their bikes, ZooSilver riding on the back of Red's bike. They parked the bike, and headed towards Enter, who was standing directly in front of the monster.

"Alright Enter, what is it this time?" Red started, swinging his blade up on his shoulder. "Gonna take cheese from a baby mouse?"

"Oh, like I'd be so petty, Zoorangers." He started. "I just wanted to reintroduce you to my latest monster."

"'Reintroduce'?" Silver said, confused.

"Wait," Blue said, stepping forward. Her heart started racing. "You can't…"

"I believe you might know him as…" he snapped his claws, feigning thinking. "Oh, Era, was it?"

"NO!" Blue yelled, drawing her weapons. "Era is my friend, he wouldn't…"

"Introducing!" Enter interrupted, stepping out of the way to reveal the newly upgraded monster. "Chaos Eraserroid."

Eraserroid stepped forward, fully revealing himself to the three.

"This is impossible!" Blue yelled. "That isn't Era! Era isn't a monster!"

The eraser robot felt his mechanical heart sink. He had made a horrible mistake, he knew it, but it had gone too far.

"This was all a trick, Rangers." Enter started. "Eraserroid managed to gain your trust, and let him gain a vantage point where he could cause chaos. Isn't that right, Era?"

"Yes." He said, reluctantly. "It was a trick. I deceived you."

Blue fell to her knees, and clutched her head. She started to scream.

"Well, this isn't good." Red said, looking over to Silver.

"Show them how powerful you are now, Eraserroid!" Enter commanded. "Kill her!"

After a brief pause, he stepped up to the rabbit, and raised his eraser arm, which began to glow. He didn't want to do this, but did he have a choice? He shut his eyes, and slammed his fist down.

It was blocked.

He opened them, revealing that both Red and Silver had blocked the punch with their blades. The rabbit herself was still kneeling, but had gone silent.

They quickly pushed the fist back, and swung both of their blades into the monster's chest, launching him back.

"How dare you!?" Red growled at the monster. "How could you just betray her like that!?" SHE TRUSTED YOU!"

The eraser robot silently rose, and threw a punch forward, launching a blast at them and knocking them back. Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired at him, but he punched out each blast with the eraser fist, each fireball seeming to simply vanish.

"This is a bit of a problem, ain't it?" Red said, turning to the wolf.

"Let me see if I can do anything." Silver suggested, drawing his blade and rushing at the monster. The monster waved its arm, and suddenly, it was right in front of him.

"What the…?"

The wolf then received multiple swift punches to his gut, and was flung back with an uppercut, landing right next to the fox. "What just happened?" He asked.

"What just happened is that we're in big trouble." Red said. He dashed over to the rabbit, who was still kneeling, and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Judy, we could really use your help right now!" He yelled at her.

She remained silent.

"Judy?"

There was a sudden noise from her Zoolizer.

A sudden, awful, horrible noise.

"SAVAGE ON"

There was a burst of energy, launching the fox directly into the eraser monster, knocking them both to the ground. Enter remained standing, looking on as the monster known as Savage let out a horrible roar.

"Finally!" He yelled, utterly joyous at seeing the monster. "I suppose, you're Savage?" He asked, knowing the answer.

The monster looked at him, and gave a laugh. "What's it matter to you, spots?" It cackled.

"My name is Enter." He said, kneeling down to face the rabbit. "I have a feeling you and I will be far more acquainted in the future…"

"Oh, you have a great level of malice and hatred coming off you." Savage cooed. "I like you."

"I had a feeling you would." He rose. "Well, I'd love and see you all get ripped to shreds by Savage, or deleted by my Metalroid, but I have plans to get to."

"Oh, think you can tell me what to do, huh!?" Savage growled.

"Oh, like you weren't going to do that anyway." Enter snapped his claws, and began to disappear into a burst of red data. He gave a slight wave. "Ciao!"

"Guy has a point!" Savage laughed. "So, who wants to be slaughtered first!?" Claws burst from its paws, and brandished towards the fox and robot.

"What… what happened to her!?" The eraser robot yelled, pushing the fox off of him.

"Oh, you know, you just caused her to go completely berserk!" Red yelled at him.

"I… I did that…?"

He quickly stood, and headed towards Savage, arm prepared to strike. "Why do I always get stuck fighting robots?" Savage asked, sounding a bit frustrated. "None of you have the right amount of blood and guts in you to feel satisfying!"

The eraser robot rushed forward, and attempted to strike at Savage with his eraser fist, only for the rabbit to block it with a single paw. Savage threw it out of the way, and leaped up, delivering a series of scratches directly to the monster's chest, knocking him back.

Savage leaped through the air, and delivered a swift kick to the robot's face, knocking him back to the ground as he tried to get up. Eraserroid struggled as the crazed rabbit continued to claw into his face and just, but managed to land a lucky hit with his eraser fist, knocking the rabbit off.

The Metalroid got up and stared at the crazed rabbit. He then turned away, and waved his eraser hand, suddenly vanishing from sight.

"Aw, that wasn't fun at all!" Savage bemoaned, before turning to the two Zoorangers, who had managed to regroup. "Maybe you two will be better…"

Silver pointed his sword towards the rabbit. "Alright, Red, we just need to survive until Savage's power runs out." He explained to the fox.

"What?" Rd said. "How do you know that?"

"Really not important right now!" He yelled. "I'll distract him, you find a way to stop him. As in, literally stop moving."

With that, Silver rushed towards Savage, swinging his sword at the monster, they began to clash as Red looked around for something. He spotted the bikes, still parked.

Well, it was better than nothing!

He dashed to the Kitsunider, and hopped on, revving it up. He drove it straight towards the two fighting mammals. Silver spotted it quickly, and leaped out of the way as it drove directly into Savage. The rabbit stuck out its paws, and braced itself for the impact.

Suddenly, Red was sent flying, and crashed to the ground.

He looked over to see the rabbit, now underneath the bike, wheels still spinning. The rabbit had managed to stop the wheel, but the force had thrust the body of the bike on top of it.

"AUGH!" Savage cried out, flailing its small limbs. "Stupid rabbit body!"

Red sighed in relief as Silver ran over to help him up. "Now, what, do we just wait for her to go back to normal?"

"Well, if he keeps up like that, yeah." Silver answered.

The two were startled as Savage let out a startlingly animalistic roar, unlike anything they had heard before. It gripped the claws into the ground, as it suddenly began to glow with a black energy. With another roar, Savage jolted up violently, tossing the bike into the air.

The two watched as the bike flew through the air, and crashed into the ground, exploding.

"Oh, come on, seriously?"

Savage let out another roar, its jaw distending to let its full terror out. The noise, comparable to a rusted knife scraping against the sound of around twenty different animal cries, trailed into the distance, the Zoorangers having to cover their ears as its frequency was ear-splitting.

Savage turned its glassy stare directly to the fox, before letting out a laugh. "I'm coming for you, fox!" He yelled. "Soon enough, you will be MINE!"

There was another burst of black energy, nearly knocking the two down. They looked on as Judy untransformed, and passed out, falling to the ground.

"JUDY!"

Nick untransformed, and rushed up to the unconscious rabbit. She seemed mostly fine, fortunately. "We're taking her back home." He said as Max rushed over. He gave a nod, and lifted the rabbit up onto his shoulder.

The two hopped onto the Usagider, and drove off.

* * *

"How long has she been like this?" Max asked from over the phone.

Nick looked over at the rabbit. She was sitting on the couch, completely silent, completely motionless. "A few hours." He replied. "I don't know what to do, Max, she's completely out of it."

"Just… just let her be for a bit, alright?" He said. "She probably feels awful about all of this."

"Oh, you don't think I know that already!?" He yelled at the wolf.

"I didn't mean-"

"We've been partners for years." He started, his tone calming. "I should have done something to help her, but instead I was driving around the city like a lunatic."

"You still just need to let her rest her mind for a bit." Max continued. "If she isn't feeling up to it by the time it shows up again, we'll just have to do it ourselves."

"I don't think we can do it by ourselves, Max." Nick stated. "She is still the leader; her plans still work better than anything we try to do."

"Point." He sighed. "But its still best to let her mind clear before-"

There was a loud ringing from the phone. The rabbit's ears twitched.

"Please tell me that was someone calling you on your other phone."

"Nope, that was my Zoolizer." He sighed. "Looks like he's in the middle of a park in Savannah Square… Plains Park, apparently."

Nick groaned. "Alright, meet me here soon, and we'll-"

"ZOO ON!"

The fox's eyes widened as he looked over to the couch, watching as the rabbit, who had suddenly transformed, leaped out of the open window.

"Scratch that, meet me over here ASAP!"

"What happened?"

"Apparently, Judy's feeling fine enough to think she can go fight a monster on her own." He guessed.

"Let me guess, she probably took the bike." Wolford said. The fox cringed.

"Probably."

"So, how are we supposed to get over to the park in any decent time?" The wolf asked. "Your bike needs to repair itself, and the park is a while away…"

The fox paused for a second. "Hey, remember that favor I owe you?"

"What?"

"Wanna go for a ride?"

"No, I really don't."

"Well, we don't have a choice."

Max groaned. "Alright, but you're not using my car, got it?"

* * *

"What are you doing, Era?" The monster said to itself as it walked around the open field. "You just ruined everything you had going for you."

The only other being that had ever considered him a friend now almost definitely hated him, or had turned into some horrible monster. Either way, his chances of apologizing to her, and even getting anything back on track, had been crushed by his horrid mechanical hands.

But even still, he still had a horrible feeling. They would be coming for him, they would want to destroy him. To kill him.

Should he let it happen? Did he really matter in this world after what he had done? But… he didn't want to die. He wanted to live, but as he was now, there was nothing to truly live for.

He let out a yell. "Can someone help me already!?"

"I'll help."

He turned around to see ZooBlue, heading towards him. "I'll help end your traitorous existence!"

He quickly backed away. "J-Judy!?"

"Only my friends call me that." She said, stone cold. "And you aren't my friend."

"I…" He paused. "Alright, let's just finish this so you can get on with your life."

He quickly rushed at her as she pulled out a ZooTag, and plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The gloves appeared on her paws, and she rushed at the monster. Their fists clashed, causing a massive ripple of energy to fly through the park, causing benches to fly through the air and the grass to flatten.

They both stumbled back from the sheer force of the punch. Blue shook her paw as smoked steamed from her boxing glove. She looked over at the robot, his fist was smoking as well.

She quickly thrust her other paw forward rapidly, launching a series of energy blasts towards him. The robot quickly caught on, and began to shoot his own energy blasts in return. The blasts rapidly clashed and exploded.

The monster waved its hand, and suddenly it was right in front of Blue's twitching nose. With a punch, it knocked her up into the air, and then launched a punch right into her body, the size of the eraser fist making it take up nearly the entirety of her.

She flew backwards, and crashed into the ground, her gloves disappearing. The robot approached her, silently, as she drew the Rabblasters, firing them into his chest and sending him stumbling backwards.

She then drew her daggers, and rushed at the monster, leaping into the air to slash some more at its chest. It smacked her away with his eraser hand, and then fired a blast at her, causing her to fly back again.

He waved his arm again, and reappeared in front of her, quickly bringing the eraser down onto her, leaving a marking in the ground around her injured body.

She quickly thrust herself up, launching her legs into the monster's stomach area, knocking it back again. This time, she had no weapons, launching herself up to deliver a strong punch directly to the robot's face. The punch, even without the Buster Boxers, was surprisingly strong, like she had pushed all of her anger directly into a single punch.

The monster stumbled back, and fell to the ground.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!" She yelled at him. "I THOUGHT I COULD HELP YOU BE MORE THAN THIS!"

The robot struggled to get up.

"I JUST WANTED TO HELP YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!"

He silently rose, and quickly turned, rapidly throwing punches, and in turn energy blasts, in the rabbit's direction. It was sudden, and she barely had any time to dodge, so she fell to the ground. She looked up as the monster approached, raising its arm as it glowed. It prepared to strike her, and she braced herself.

Killed by someone she thought was a friend, after making a rash, impulsive decision. Seemed like a fitting series of ironic events to her.

Then, there was a honk. A really loud honk.

The two turned to the other side of the barren field, and watched as a police cruiser came speeding in. It drove straight into the monster, launching it off, before skidding to a halt. Nick leaped out of the driver's seat.

"Made it just in time!" He yelled. He turned back to the wolf in the car, who was clutching the seat, terrified.

"That was the worst experience I've had in my life." He wheezed.

"Nick, Max?" Blue said, standing up. "Took you guys long enough to get here!"

The passenger seat door opened, and Max fell to the ground, clawing his way up the side of the car in order to stand.

"What happened to you?" She asked the obviously shaken wolf.

"I drove him here." Nick said, a bit too nonchalantly.

"I wouldn't call that driving."

"Hey, I didn't break any traffic laws, so it's all fine."

"You probably broke at least three different types of laws." Max chided.

"I don't want to know." Blue said to herself. She stepped up to the two. "So, are you here to help me beat this guy?"

The two nodded, Nick assuredly, while Max nodded a bit oddly, still shaken up from the ride.

The three rushed to the front of the car, watching as the monster rose from its landing a few meters away. It turned to them, and watched as the other two transformed.

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON!" Blue twirled her daggers, and pointed them towards the monster. "ZOOBLUE!"

"CHAMPION OF THE SUN!" Red slashed his sword around, and spun around. "ZOORED!"

"WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE!" Silver thrust his blade forward a few times, before sheathing it. "ZOOSILVER!"

"ZYUMAN SENTAI! ZOORANGER!"

"Uh oh." The monster said to itself, placing its robotic hand to its mouth.

The three rushed forward. Red leaped into the air, and delivered a punch to the monster's face, before Silver ran up from the side and slashed at the eraserbot. It stumbled backwards, leading to Blue jumping up and jabbing it in the chest with her blades.

The robot stumbled back, but quickly got back into the fight, knocking the three away with a single swipe of its eraser arm. The three fell backwards, before Red and Blue drew their blasters and fired, blasting the monster back.

It quickly waved its eraser arm, and appeared in front of them, striking the rabbit with its normal arm. The robot soon found two swords jabbed into its side.

"SUN MODE"

Silver quickly whipped the sword forward, launching the monster backwards again. Red pulled out a red ZooTag, and plugged it into the Vickscannon.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

A massive fireball fired at the monster, which struck it right in the chest, launching it back. The robot crawled back up, obviously dazed by the hit.

"Alright, Carrots, ready to finish this guy off?" Red asked, turning to the rabbit as she stepped up to them.

"Oh, you bet I am." She drew her blasters, and marched forward.

"Wait what are you doing."

The two watched as the rabbit continued. She pulled the blasters up, and fired at the weakened monster rapidly, the strikes causing it to fall to the ground. She paused, and put a ZooTag into the slot on her gun, before plugging the other gun on.

She pulled the trigger.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

Energy gathered between the guns, and she blasted a blade of energy towards the robot. It sliced directly through his chest, cleaving a large hole right through it. She put the blasters away, and pulled out her daggers.

"Full Moon Slice."

She quickly began spinning around, turning into a whirling, thrashing tornado of blades. In a swift motion, she dashed forward, cutting through the robot, somehow phasing right through it. She stopped spinning, and went on one knee as the robot sparked.

"Wait, I-!" Before it could finish, the monster exploded, leaving behind a small card, and eraser, and a Chaos Badge.

The rabbit rose, and let out a sorrowful sigh.

"You know, when I said 'finish this guy off', I mean as a team." Red sounded, feeling a bit insulted by his exclusion.

"Don't mess in personal affairs, Red." Silver said.

"Sorry, I guess I got a bit… carried away." She apologized. "But, yeah, that kind of became pretty personal…"

The three suddenly turned to watch as the Chaos Badge flew off into the distance, forming the monster on the horizon.

"What!?" It cried out. "No, I don't want this!" He let out a cry of agony and clutched his head. "I just want to be dead! LET ME REST!"

"What!?" Blue cried out, shocked at what the monster had yelled. "What does he mean!?"

"I don't know, but if he wants to be scrapped, we should help him out." Red said, as they pulled out their ZooTags, Silver pulling out his ZooDisc

In a few moments, ZooRobo and ZooKami had appeared in front of the robot. "Please!" It cried out, reaching towards them. "Just… finish me! I don't deserve this!"

"What does that mean!?" Blue yelled, thrusting the controls forward. ZooRobo stepped forward, and slashed the monster with its sword, knocking him to the ground.

"I've ruined everything!" He cried. "I've ruined the only friendship I've had, I've ruined my chance at anything that could make me worthwhile!"

The mech stepped back in shock.

"No…" Blue whispered to herself. "Era, are you…?"

"I'm sorry, Judy." He said, standing up. "I'm sorry for betraying you. I was afraid of what Enter would do to me if I didn't play along, and now… I guess I am just a big failure."

The rabbit could feel tears.

"As your friend," He started, placing his mechanical hand to his chest. "Destroy me! Hit me with your strongest attack, I'm no good for anything anymore!"

The two mechs looked towards each other, and then back to the monster.

"Please. Trust me."

Blue took a deep breath, and held back the tears. "Silver, we're going to combine."

"Blue, we don't have to-"

"Just do it!" She yelled, interrupting the wolf.

He sighed, and placed the disc into the slot. Soon, ZooRobo Oh Kami had been formed.

"SOLAR ECLIPSE DESTROYER!"

The mech slowly raised its swords above its head, and then slashed them both down, launching two energy slashes towards the robot, which it fully embraced. The mech then slashed horizontally, launching two more slashes at the eraser robot. The four slashes clashed into the monster's body, clearly causing extreme pain. The lines turned read hot, and then exploded.

The explosion cleared, and the robot stepped forward. He began to spark with energy. "Thank you, Judy." He said. "Thank you for showing me what I should've been." He gave a thumbs-up towards her. "See you in the next life."

She returned the thumbs up, tears streaming from behind her mask. The robot fell over, and then exploded.

Like that, Era was no more.

The mechs vanished, and the three were suddenly back in the field.

Blue placed her paws to her mask, and fell to her knees, starting to let it all out. A friend, even if she had only known him for a day, had been killed by her hands. Some hero she was.

"You've been pretty quiet, Red." Silver said quietly to the fox.

"You're the one who said to not get involved with this stuff."

"At this point, you need to do something to help her."

The fox thought to himself. He hated seeing Judy like this, and she was probably going to be like this for a while. It was mourning, after all. Something he'd never really been good at dealing with.

He'd have to come up with something, it would only be right of him.

His ears perked up. He had come up with something.

The fox rushed over to where the monster had been destroyed the first time. He looked around. "There you are." He said to himself, picking up the eraser. He gripped it in his paw.

"What did you find?" Silver asked, startling the fox.

"Nothing!" He lied. "Just… nothing! At all!" He wanted it to be a surprise, couldn't risk telling Max.

"Alright then…" He looked over to the mourning rabbit. "You should probably get her home."

"Yeah, good idea." He laughed for a second. "She might not even notice my driving."

He promptly received a swift smack to the back of the head from the wolf.

"Not funny."

* * *

Judy hadn't gone in to work the next day. Probably would have been to tough on her after what had happened. She had calmed down, but was still incredibly distraught. She had spent the entire day wrapped in a blanket on the couch.

She had occasional bits of crying when she thought over everything that had happened. In no time, or at least, what felt like no time, Nick had come home.

"Hey." He said quietly as he entered the room. Judy looked up from the floor and at him. "How you feeling?"

"Better, I guess." She said solemnly as the fox sat down next to her. "I just feel so guilty about everything. I wanted to follow the example I set for those kids, but… I feel like I failed. I stood up for the weak, I tried to help, but it just ended the same way as it always does." She looked the fox in the eyes. "Do you think this is a cycle? Can we just never escape from killing now?"

"I… I don't know, Judy." He replied. "All I know, is that you are a hero." She stared at him. "You did do everything you said in your speech, you're the kindest mammal I've ever known. Even if you don't think it, you are a role model." He sighed. "You just… had to do what had to be done. I'm sorry, I'm really bad at this." He apologized.

She gave him a smile. "It was fine."

He smiled back, and reached for something in his uniform pocket. "So, I don't know if this will help, but I worked on a little something for you while I was at the station."

He held out his paw, revealing an eraser. It had four little red dot eyes drawn onto it, and four paperclips jabbed into its sides and bottom. It looked like Era. "It was made from his eraser. I thought it might make a good… memento."

She gently grabbed it from his paw. "It's wonderful, Nick." She said.

The rabbit quickly wrapped her arms around the fox, surprising him. After a split second of consideration, he returned the hug. "Thank you." She whispered to him.

"You're welcome."


	19. From Rabbits to Foxes

July 8th, 2019

"Alright, make sure NOT to hit yourself this time." The golden robot said, stepping up to his creation.

The creation itself had a relatively barrel shaped body, with a cylindrical head. On both sides of the head there was a curving antenna, each ending in a large ball. In the middle of the cylinder head was a scowling monster face with jagged teeth. On its silver body was a crank, which seemed to flick back and forth as it moved.

Its limbs were mostly red, the legs having black wires that hung off. Both arms had gun-metal grey tubes ending at the wrists, while only its left arm ended in a large metal claw, which spun around before it gave a salute to Yogostein.

"Yes, sir!" It said. "Last time was a disaster!"

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," The commanding robot thrust his arm towards the sky. "Let Operation: Shocker begin!"

The robot grabbed onto its crank with its normal hand, and began spinning it around. Electricity began building up between its antennae, which then fired upwards into the sky. The electricity quickly scattered across the air, forming into a number of bright yellow currents that danced, before they start to crash down like lightning.

As the lightning struck down, it hit numbers of buildings, as well as the ground. Lights went out, glass shattered, and large chunks of the ground had been destroyed. The two laughed as they watched the chaos around them.

"Perfect, I'm already doing better than Enter did!" Yogostein gloated. "Now we just have to hope those rangers don't show up."

"Keep hoping."

The two robots turned around to face the three Zoorangers, already transformed. The fox rubbed his head. "Do you guys really have to do this so early in the morning?" He groaned. "We have other things to do, you know."

"Why would I care!?" Yogostein yelled. "I'm supposed to be destroying this city, including you!"

"Alright, let's just get this over with." Blue sighed as she stepped forward, daggers drawn.

Yogostein quickly pulled out a handful of nuts and bolts, and tossed them into the air. As they fell back down to the ground, they quickly reformed into a small army of Ugutz. The robots beeped and clanked as the started their approach.

The bronzed robot turned to his cohort. "You distract them while I set up the amplifier." He whispered. "Make sure they don't find out!"

"Got it!" The monster stepped to the crowd of Ugutz, and pushed some out of the way. It pointed its claw towards the three rangers. "Prepare to struck down by GENERATOR BANKI, fools!"

He began rapidly turning the crank on his chest. "Attack them while I'm doing this!" He yelled, pointing the claw forward again.

The Ugutz responded, and hobbled towards the three rangers, who drew their weapons.

"Are we seriously fighting a paw-crank generator?" Red asked.

"Guess this is what happens when these guys run out of ideas." Silver responded.

"Alright, here's the plan." Blue started. "Gather the Ugutz into a group, but keep ourselves in the middle!"

"So, the plan is getting swarmed?" Red said, confused. He shrugged. Her plans usually worked out, no matter how weird and bad they sounded, so he decided to play along.

The three moved into the swarm of robots. Red pulled out his blade, and leaped into the air, slashing a handful of the robots backwards, before pulling out the cannon and blasting them backwards. Silver quickly blocked a few attacks from some nearby Ugutz, knocking them back before striking them back into the crowd.

Blue followed suit, firing her twin blasters towards the monsters, knocking them back one at a time. She then rushed in with her daggers, leaping on to the tops of the robot's heads. She made her way to the center of the group, hopping from head to head. She looked over to the monster, who seemed to be building up an extra amount of electricity in its head.

Perfect.

"SILVER!" She yelled to the wolf, twirling one of her digits in the air. "Use your whip thing!"

The wolf caught the sign, and pushed a few Ugutz back into the group. He gave her a thumbs-up. "Got it!"

He spun the guard on his sword, and it let out its standard cry of "MOON MODE". He quickly lashed it forward, summoning a whip which wrapped around the entire army of Ugutz, binding them in a large circle.

The rabbit quickly jabbed one of her daggers into the head of an Ugutz, disabling it. She motioned towards Red. "Oh, it looks like my dagger got stuck!" She yelled, sounding, and acting, very over-dramatic.

There was a pause as the fox looked at her, confused. She nudged her head towards the monster. Now he got it.

He quickly leaped onto the top of the group of Ugutz, and headed over to the rabbit. The tow stood on top of the struggling Ugutz' heads, and waited.

"Uh, what are you two doing?" Silver asked as he tugged at the sword, keeping the crowd together. Blue gave a quiet shushing motion towards him.

The monster finally finished cranking, electricity beaming from its antennae. "What are those idiots doing?" It said, looking at the two mammals just standing there. "They're easy targets, they don't even realize what I'm doing!"

Blue rolled her eyes.

The lighting flew up from the monster's antennae, and hovered directly over the two. "And just in case you think of escaping…" The monster waved its hand, causing the thunder to split up into multiple different bolts hovering above them.

The two looked at each other.

"HERE IT COMES!"

The two quickly leaped out of the way, as the lightning crashed down. The electricity was drawn directly to the dagger in the middle, giving them some extra time to escape.

The two landed to the ground, and looked back as the Ugutz began to spasm with electricity. They all exploded simultaneously, the dagger flying out of the blast. Blue quickly leaped up to catch it, and landed as the smoke began to clear.

"W-what!?" The monster cried as it saw what had happened. "You tricked me!"

"You might be electrical," Red started. "But you certainly aren't very bright."

The monster stomped one of its feet in frustration. "You'll regret this soon!" It shouted, pointing its claw towards them. "Soon, Operation: Shocker will be one hundred percent ready, and you will all be reduced to dust!"

It quickly began turning the crank, and fired the electricity into the ground, causing an explosion. As the smoke cleared, it was obvious the monster had vanished.

Nick let out a yawn, stretching as he and the other untransformed. "Guy certainly is overdramatic, huh?"

"We need to keep an eye out." Judy said to them. "There's obviously going to be something dangerous happening soon."

"But while we wait," Nick interrupted. "We still have about three hours of sleep left to get."

"So, see you guys at work." Max said, before walking off.

"See ya, Wolfsbane." Nick joked, before rubbing his eyes. "God, I'm exhausted."

"I am too, don't worry."

* * *

"Man, what a great rest!" Nick shouted as he exited his room. "Who's ready for a great day?"

"I am!" Judy said, as she performed some stretches. "I just know it's gonna be great!"

"What's got you so sure about that?" The fox asked, sitting down on the couch.

"You know."

"No, I don't."

She smacked herself. "I must've dreamt about telling you. I'm going home for a bit to have a baby shower!"

The fox laughed. "Seriously? How many siblings do you have by now?"

Just above three hundred, last time I counted."

The fox blinked, a bit stupefied. He shook it off quickly. "I actually have something to do tonight too!" He declared.

"What is it? You going drinking with Finnick?"

"Ha ha, no." He said. "I, as a matter of fact, have some very important, super personal business to attend to tonight."

"'Business'?" She gave the fox a smirk. "What kind of business?"

"The 'None of your' kind."

"So, you're just going to be goofing off, aren't you?" She presumed.

The fox looked offended. She couldn't tell if it was genuine or feigned, Nick always had a good poker face. "No, this is actual important business." He stated. "So, while you're having a party with your family, I have grown-up work to do."

"HAH!" She poked the fox on the nose. "You wouldn't last a minute on the Hopps Family Farm."

"You… are probably right." He admitted. "But you wouldn't last half as long where I'm going."

The two glared at each other for a good few moments, as if testing who had the stronger will. It continued for a few moments, before the two were shocked out of it by Nick's cell phone ringing.

He quickly fumbled for it, bouncing it in his paws. He tilted forward off the side of the couch as he tried to grab it, and suddenly found himself toppling on top of the rabbit. She quickly ducked as the fox fell, and found herself pinned underneath him.

"Real slick, Nick."

Hey, he managed to catch the phone!

He answered it, and Wolford showed up on the screen. He looked at them oddly. "Am I interrupting something?"

The two mammals glanced at each other, and then quickly stood up, wiping themselves off. "No," Nick started. "You are not interrupting anything."

"Good, because my Zoolizer went off a few minutes ago." He explained.

"Seriously!?" The fox said in disbelief. "We just fought him like, three hours ago!"

"Guess Yogostein's taking this Shocker thing pretty seriously." Judy said. "Where'd he show up?"

"Downtown, Central Park." Max said. "I'll meet you there." He hung up.

"We need to head out before anything major happens." Judy said, pounding one of her paws into her palm. "Ready to go, partner?"

"Always am."

* * *

"Alright, Generator Banki, this is just a test run!" Yogostein announced as they walked to the middle of the park, various animals running away as they did.

"Got it!"

Yogostein pulled out a large device, resembling a thin Christmas light bulb, and with a large grey handle. "This is the Amplifier!" He announced, waving it in front of the awed monster. "It isn't complete yet, but after this test I should be able to work out any bugs. Then we can finally destroy this city once and for all!"

He tossed the Amplifier to the generator monster, who caught it in his normal hand. The device had two holes in its sides, perfect for his claw hand to plug into. He slipped it on, and the device emitted a red glow.

"We don't need any Chaos Badges to destroy this place!" Yogostein announced. "Just good old Gaiark ingenuity!" He waved his arm, and slammed his spear into the ground. "Alright, let's light this place up!"

The Banki Beast gave a salute, and started cranking. Electricity began to connect between his antennae, which he then stuck the Amplifier in between. The electricity collected into the device, and it began glowing even redder than before.

The monster raised the device into the air, firing off a massive bolt of red electricity. Yogostein laughed as he watched a massive storm cloud build over the park. "Everything's working perfectly so far!" he yelled joyously. "Maybe we'll have to upgrade this from test run to the first run!"

"Or maybe we'll have to reduce it to vaporware!"

The golden robot turned to face the three Zoorangers as they ran into the park. "Oh, this routine again, huh?" He sighed, a bit frustrated. He looked over to his minion, still firing lightning up into the air. He chuckled. "Well, I suppose I need a bit of a workout…"

The three stepped backwards, drawing their weapons as Yogostein walked towards them. "Think we can take him?" Red asked.

Yogostein quickly spun his spear around, energy gathering through it. He then thrust it forward, launching a blast at the rangers, and knocking them down with an explosion.

Blue let out a cough as she struggled to get up. "I'd call that a definitive 'no'."

Silver quickly got up, and rushed at the robot, thrusting his blade forward, only for it to be blocked by Yogostein's spear. "Hah, this the best you've got, boy!?" He laughed, effortlessly knocking the wolf away.

"Actually, it isn't!" He quickly spun the hilt of the blade around.

"ECLIPSE MODE"

The wolf dashed forward again, and began to rapidly jab his blade into the robot's body. After a few seconds of this, he pulled the sword back, expecting Yogostein to explode.

Instead, he laughed.

"What was that?" He said. He quickly kicked the wolf with one of his big, metallic feet, knocking him to the ground. "Did you expect something like that to work on me? I'm not your run of the mill monster, kid!" He quickly twisted his spear around, and jabbed it into the ground beside the wolf's head, missing by only an inch.

"I'm a general, which means I'm the strongest there is!" He exclaimed. "Your petty super attacks do nothing to me!"

The two other rangers quickly rushed up to him with their weapons, each one taking a different side. Red swerved to the robot's right, leaping into the air to prepare a sword strike. Yogostein ripped his spear from the ground, and effortlessly knocked the fox away with a single swipe.

Blue stopped in her tracks as the robot swung its blade around. She hopped away as it barely missed her and instead scraped through the ground a few inches in front of her. She pulled out her blasters, and rapidly fired at the general, who spun his spear around, knocking away the shots.

He jabbed the spear forward, the impact of the spear hitting the ground knocking her away. The robot then felt something scrape across his side, turning to see the wolf, having gotten up and attempted to hit him.

He thrust the bottom of the spear upwards, striking the wolf in the face. "You just can't get it through your tiny, organic brains, can't you?" He mocked. "I'm stronger than all three of you combined! You have to at least wait to be halfway done with the series before you can kill me!"

"Uh, sir?"

"Not now!" He dismissed. "I'm not done ruining these fools."

Red and Blue ran over to Silver, and helped him up. "You alright?" Blue asked.

"I'm fine." He said, sounding very much not fine. "I just need to sit this out for a minute."

Blue nodded. "We don't want anyone dying, let alone you." She said. He nodded, and dazedly walked away from the fight.

"Alright, how about we pull out all the stops?" Red suggested. Blue nodded, and they plugged in a gold and blue ZooTag, respectively.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The large sword appeared in the fox's paws, while the pair of gloves appeared on the rabbit's. The two rushed towards the general again, who prepared his spear. The massive blade clanked against the robot's three-pronged weapon, and Yogostein began to seemingly visibly struggle to block it.

"Maybe you are a bit stronger than I thought." Yogostein let out with a grunt. He quickly thrust the spear forward, knocking the fox back, before kicking him to the ground. "But definitely not strong enough!"

He spun around, and quickly whacked a few energy blasts fired by the rabbit's fists out of the air. She stepped back in shock. He thrust the spear forward, and fired an energy blast at her. She struggled as it gripped around her, like binding ropes. The general robot then quickly swung the trident over his head, the rabbit flying directly on top of her fox partner.

"NO!" Silver cried out, rushing over to them.

"Time to finally end this!" Yogostein yelled, as he pointed the spear towards the three. He began to approach them, energy building up for one, last blast.

"SIR!"

He quickly sighed in frustration and slammed the blunt end of the spear into the ground. "Can't you see I'm about to do something!?" He yelled. "What could possibly be so important that-"

He quickly turned around, and realized the exact problem. The Banki was being hung in the air by the device attached to his arm, which now glowed with heat instead of just with light.

"BY BATCHEED'S BRONZED BOLTS!"

He quickly rushed over, and grabbed onto the monster's leg, pulling him back to the ground. "I think the Amplifier has a few bugs!" The generator robot stated.

"It's amplifying TOO much!" Yogostein said, one hand placed onto the monster's head. "I must've forgotten to put a limiter!"

"What's going to happen!?" The banki asked.

"Well, it'll-"

Before he could finish, the device fired off another bolt of red electricity, completing the storm cloud hovering above them. "Do that! Then it'll-"

The cloud began to rumble, interrupting the robot again. The cloud began rapidly firing erratic blasts of lightning all around the park, explosions wracking the place. "It will begin firing without any control!" Yogostein explained.

Silver heard a large crackle above him, and looked up. A red lightning bolt, heading straight down from the sky. He looked down at the two unconscious mammals. There wasn't enough time for them all to get out of the way.

He leaped as the lightning struck the two. Despite being unconscious, the two let out horrific screams of pain. Silver's heart dropped, alongside his body, to the ground.

"Hah, looks like something good managed to come of this!" Yogostein said, staring at the charred bodies of the Zoorangers. "Unfortunately, there's still one thing left to happen."

"What's that?"

"Well-"

There was a sudden, massive explosion around them. The two were flung high into the air, their screams fading as they flew into the distance.

Silver crawled over to the other two passed out rangers, and moved their bodies off of each other. He felt Blue's pulse. She still had one, thank goodness. Red still had one too. Their suits must have protected them from most of the strike!

He sighed in relief, and let out a small laugh. "Don't worry, I'll get you two out of here."

He lifted the two onto his shoulders, and started running.

* * *

Judy opened her eyes, and looked around. Last thing she remembered was being in the park, her and Nick getting beaten by Yogostein. Now she was in a house, a very familiar house. Max's house.

"Oh thank God, you're alive."

She turned to face Max, who was sitting on a nearby chair. "What happened?" She asked. Something sounded… wrong about her voice. She cleared her throat.

"Well, first you got your asses kicked by Yogostein," He started to explain. "Then, the amplifier thing went out of control, and you two got hit by a lightning strike. Luckily, Yogostein and his minion got blasted off, and you guys were protected by your suits!"

She sighed in relief, and then looked around. She couldn't see Nick anywhere. "Where's Nick?" Voice was still sounding weird, too… deep.

He stared at her for a moment, with a squinting, confused glare. "Are you feeling alright?" He asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Well, my voice is a bit weird, but…"

"It sounds fine to me." He said, looking her in the eye. "You sure you're fine, Nick?"

"What?" How had Max gotten her and Nick confused? "Are you joking right now?" She asked. "How could you possibly mix up a fox and a…" She held up one of her paws. It was black, with claws tipped at each end. Her heart began to race as she opened and closed it, before looking at her other paw. Same deal.

She hopped out of the couch, and gripped onto her new muzzle. She twisted around to see a fluffy red and black tail, as well as her feet, which were far smaller than what she was used to.

She looked at Max, who she now stood at waist height with, compared to usually only going up to his hips. He shot her a confused look.

She screamed.

"What the hell's going on with you, Nick!?" Max yelled.

"I'M NOT NICK!" Judy in the fox's body yelled. "I'M JUDY!"

"You sure as hell look like Nick!"

"Well I'm not!"

"Wait, I know how this works." Max said. "If you're Judy in Nick's body, then that means…" His eyes widened, and quickly ran off, heading up the stairs.

"It means what!?" She yelled. She tried to run after him, but quickly tripped over her feet. She eventually made it upstairs. She walked into an open room, a bedroom, and saw herself laying on the bed.

"Oh no." She sighed. "Don't tell me…"

"Looks like you two have been victims of a standard practise body swap." Max said, almost too nonchalantly.

"I thought stuff like this only happened in cartoons!"

"Well, we have been dealing with very odd things." Max continued. "It's only natural for something bizarre to happen sooner or later."

"But did it have to be this bizarre!?" She questioned. "Couldn't we have just time travelled for the third time!?"

He looked at her. "When did you time travel the first time?"

"That's not important!" She snapped. She looked over at her body, laying there. Grey fur, black tipped ears, a pink nose. God, she really was cute. She shuddered just thinking the word. The rabbit in a fox's body turned to Max. "So, do we wake her… him… Do we wake Nick up now, or…?"

He sighed. "Might as well get his freak out over with." The wolf quickly pushed the rabbit laying on the bed, who groaned in response, and turned over. "Well, at least he's alive."

Max pushed the rabbit again, and it swatted at his paw. "Ehhh, let me sleep for five more minutes…" The rabbit moaned.

"Definitely Nick." Judy said. She placed a paw to her chin in thought. "Let's see, when he wanted to wake me up, he would…" A grin creeped across her fox face, it looking especially smug and sneaky. It's what fox faces were good at.

She took a deep breath, and yelled.

"WAKE UP!"

The rabbit jumped out of bed, and then slammed back into it, face first. "Couldn't you just let me sleep for a bit long-" He paused for a second, and jolted up, clutching at his throat. "What's wrong with my voice!?"

He turned to see, well, himself, give a playful wave. His rabbit eyes widened, and he let out a shrill scream.

"What the hell's going on!?" He yelled, getting off the bed. Nick tripped over his new rabbit feet as soon as he hit the ground, landing directly on his face.

Judy snorted. "Very slick, Nick." He hated hearing those words come out of his mouth.

"The best thing I can think of," Max started, helping the new rabbit up. "Is that super charged lightning that hit you must have scrambled your brains around somehow."

"Very scientific there, Wolfenstein." Nick tried to mock. Instead it came out far more sincere sounding. "Man, your voice really isn't good at sarcasm."

"But yours is." She stuck her tongue out at the rabbit.

"No fighting!" Max quickly smacked the fox in her snout. "I need to figure out how to fix this mess."

"Wait, shouldn't we be going to work?" Judy asked.

"it's like, two PM." He stated. "You guys were conked out for a good while."

"Wait, two PM!?" Judy yelled. "Oh god, I… I have to go!" She started towards the door, put was pulled back by the tail by Max.

"Yeah, you're not going anywhere like that." He said.

"But I have to!" She said, pulling the tail back from the wolf. "It's important!"

"Whatever it is, it's not important right now." Max stated. "We need to sort everything out."

"Yeah, sorry, I have somewhere important to go tonight too." Nick said, with an uneasy grin.

Max smacked his face. "Alright, whatever." He sighed. "But I'm not going to help you out with any of this, this is all on you."

The two mixed up mammals looked at each other.

Soon enough, they were shoved out the door by the wolf. "Get going already, I need to work on stuff." Before they could turn around to say anything, he slammed the door.

There was a moment of silence between the two as they looked at each other. "God, do I really look that smug all the time?" Nick asked.

"Yes, you really do." Judy responded.

* * *

"So, how are we supposed to do this?" Nick asked as they entered the apartment. "I can't exactly show up to my meeting like this, can I?"

"Well, I can't go home looking like this either!" Judy said. She watched as the rabbit walked to the couch. He was slouching a bit, shuffling his feet as well. It was very frustrating to her. "Can you stop that!?"

"What?" He asked, turning to her.

"The walking!" She said. "Can you not do that in my body!?"

"I'm a fox, Carrots." He started, despite the statement being technically false. "We're designed to slope, it's just natural."

"Well, you're a rabbit now, and that's not how rabbits walk!" She yelled. "I'm going to have horrible back aches when I get back in there!"

"Well, that's not how foxes walk either." He pointed out, hopping up to the couch awkwardly. "MY back is going to kill me if you keep being so straight."

"This body is already killing me." She stated. "How do you put up with this?"

"I guess your mind just isn't used to it yet." He stretched out. "Loving your body though, so limber!"

She let out a growl, which actually seemed to frighten the rabbit for a second. She quickly clasped her paw across her muzzle. "Sorry." She said meekly.

"So, yeah, about these things we have to do." He started, standing up on the couch. "You probably have to go deal with my stuff now."

"Oh, you mean laze out and pretend you did something?" She joked.

"No, you're going to have to go make nice with some loan sharks."

Her eyes widened as she stared at the rabbit. "…What!? Why have you been dealing with LOAN SHARKS!?"

"It started a while ago, I started giving some of my pay to Finnick so he could live in his van." He explained. "Sooo, I needed some extra cash, and I, uh… yeah. I didn't want to tell you."

She felt incredibly angry right now. She couldn't tell if this was somehow the fox now in her, or if she was actually that furious with him. However, she took a deep breath, and thought about it for a moment. Nick was only trying to help a friend, which was surprisingly noble of him.

"Alright, I'll go deal with your loan sharks." She said with a sigh.

"So, while you do that, I get to go party with your family!" He said, a bit smugly. "Seems like a very unfair trade-off, doesn't it?"

She gave the rabbit a smirk. "Oh yes, very unfair."

Nick felt his nose twitch at the statement. It was an odd feeling.

"Anyway!" Judy started. "You need to get packed, which means you'll need clothes, grooming supplies… other things…"

She quickly headed towards her room, Nick following her with his eyes, nose twitching rapidly. "What other things?" He asked as she shut the door. He rushed up to the door. "WHAT OTHER THINGS!?"

The door quickly opened again, and Judy tossed a set of clothes into the rabbit's face. "Get dressed." She said, rather bluntly. He sighed, and headed into his room.

After a bit, Judy burst out of the room, a pink satchel hung over her now less prominent shoulder. She looked over to the rabbit on the couch, who now wore a pink flannel shirt and jeans. The fox snickered. "God, you look cute."

The rabbit sneered at her.

She flung the satchel to the ground. "There, everything packed." She paused for a second. "…Carrots."

"Don't call me that." The rabbit said with a huff.

"Now you know what it's like, huh?"

He scowled at her, before pulling out a small card. "Here's where you have to meet them." He said, handing it to her.

The card had an address written on it.

376, Alpine Street  
Tundra Town  
MEET AT 1:00 AM

She stuffed the card into her pants pocket, and pulled out another slip of paper, which she handed to the rabbit. "And here's your train ticket, you have an hour and a half before it leaves."

Nick gave her a frown. "Remember, you can't let these guys know you aren't me, alright?"

"And you can't let my parents know that you aren't me." She continued for him.

"Good luck with that." They said simultaneously.

The rabbit grabbed the bag, and promptly fell onto his face. "How the hell do you walk with these big things anyway?" He asked, kicking one of his feet towards her.

She shrugged, genuinely not having an answer for something she had been doing all her life. "Maybe you just need to get used to them," She started. "You'll find they come in handy."

He scoffed as he got up. "Its like walking around with permanent clown shoes, how can these be helpful?"

The rabbit was pushed out the door, satchel wrapped around him.

"You know what they say about rabbits with big feet," He started to himself. "They're very sensitive about them."

* * *

The rabbit stood in the middle of a rather empty train car. He had gotten on the train a while ago, and the entire thing was terrifying. Nick had never been this far out of the city before, and it happening like this wasn't exactly how he wanted to do it.

His mind was flooding with thoughts. He had no idea what to expect, was he supposed to know all three hundred of her siblings by heart? He never even had to worry about siblings!

"Ma'am."

How did Judy even act around her parents? How did anyone act around their parents when they were an adult? Again, that was something he didn't entirely know how to deal with.

"Ma'am!"

And they were all rabbits, which meant he'd have to eat nothing but vegetables. He'd probably get a few blueberries out of it, but his palette really did not enjoy the taste of most other greens. Not in his diet.

He felt someone tap his shoulder. He gazed up at a rhino. "Ma'am can you please stop doing that?"

Oh yeah, he wasn't exactly a he right now either. Surprisingly, that wasn't what had been bothering him the most. "What am I doing, exactly?" He asked the rhino.

The rhino pointed down, and his gaze followed. He was rapidly thumping his foot on the train's floor. Nick hadn't even noticed he was doing, it must've been an instinctual rabbit nervous tick. The rabbit quickly placed his other foot over it, stopping the thumping. "So sorry, sir!" He apologized, giving a sheepish grin.

The rhino sat back down, and Nick took a deep breath. What weird creatures rabbits were. How were they even supposed to eat with their massive teeth? And their ears…

The train stopped, and the sliding doors opened. On the other side, he saw an army of rabbits. Waiting for him.

He gulped, and headed out the middle sized door, dragging the satchel alongside him. The crowd of rabbits rushed up to him, mostly the smaller ones, and crowded.

"Judy!"

"Judy how are you?"

"Judy, what's it like in Zootopia?"

It was like he was being swarmed by an army of cottonballs. And they were all very interested in him.

"Alright kids," Judy's father said, stepping up and waving his paws. "Don't wanna swarm her, it's been a while since she's been here."

The kids groaned, and then stepped back from him. The rabbit sighed in relief.

"Oh, kids," Bonnie started. "You know how excited they can be."

"Ha ha, yeah." Nick laughed awkwardly and gave a false smile. He had never been around kids in his life.

Both of Judy's parents looked at him. "You feeling alright, Jude?" Stu asked, looking at her, a bit worried.

He was messing up already.

"Oh, I'm fine!" He said. "I'm just… super excited to get home and rest after a long day of work!" He sounded genuine, so obviously his lying skills were still there.

"Tough day on the force, huh?" Stu started, tipping his cap. Nick nodded rapidly. "Well, you can tell us all about it when we get home." He motioned for her to follow.

Another thought crossed his mind as the mass of rabbits began following him.

How do rabbits transport their families anywhere? Guess he'd find out.

He followed Stu and Bonnie to an open field, which had an incredibly large, glass building standing in the middle of it. As the group approached, the glass slid open, and they walked inside, onto the pink steel floor. Asking what this thing was would probably blow his cover.

Stu walked over to a small control panel, and punched in what seemed to be a code. Shortly after, the capsule-shaped building began to lower into the ground, at a very slow pace. Nick could feel a horrifying sense of dread creep up his spine as it passed through the ground.

Soon enough, the dirt cleared, and revealed an incredibly elaborate set of tunnels. Suddenly, the capsule jerked forward, and began to head into one of the tunnels, lights flashing on as it approached.

Nick's rabbity nose twitched as all of this happened. His body was on high alert, he had no idea what to expect. This had apparently caught Stu's attention.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You're acting like you've never been in a rabbit tunnel before!"

"No!" He yelled. "No, I just… haven't been on one in a long time, it's just… surprising!" He tried to excuse.

"I suppose it's a bit different than taking the train." Stu laughed. "So, you excited to meet everyone?"

"What do you mean by everyone?" He asked. "You mean the new litter?"

"Well, yeah, but I meant everyone else!" Stu continued. "Everyone's coming, like usual. All your aunts and uncles… or at least, most of them."

His eyes widened. He was expecting this to be more of a personal family thing. Was a new batch of babies really something to celebrate? It's not like bunnies didn't make them all the time. Guess it was important to them.

After a few minutes, the capsule stopped, and spun around, opening to a tunnel that headed upwards. Nick quickly followed as the rest of the rabbits headed up the stairs. There was a literal light at the end of the tunnel, coming out from a door at the top.

Nick was the last one to enter, and found himself in a ridiculously sized room. It looked to be a kitchen, and it was swarming with rabbits, most of which weren't even in the capsule before. No, what was there to greet him was merely a sixth of who he was about to meet.

The kitchen was rounded, and seemed to go up for a good few stories. He looked around, and noticed another door, directly across from the one he had exited from. It seemed to lead out of the house, so he supposed that was the "front" door. Here was a table in the middle of the room, a massive, snaking table made to host over three hundred mammals easily.

Bonnie walked over to him as he examined the table. "I know, I don't think it'll be able to seat everyone either." She bemoaned, before heading off. "I know we had those extra parts around here somewhere…"

Nick felt like crying. Foxes were solitary animals, he wasn't at all used to this kind of stress. Social stress.

He felt a paw touch his shoulder, and he turned to face Stu. "If you aren't feeling alright, you can just go to your room and rest." He suggested, rather caringly. "We know that now wasn't exactly a great time to do this, what with everything you and Nick have been up to, but… It's just nice to know that you're alright."

Nick felt his stomach churn. He felt so, so incredibly guilty about this, something he couldn't even have controlled.

He put a paw to his chest, and looked at her father. He quickly wrapped Judy's arms around him, the older rabbit returning it. "Thank you… dad."

His eyes widened, and quickly escaped the grasp. What just come over him? Hugging someone else's parents, especially his girlfriend's, was terrible! He clutched at his stomach, feigning not feeling well. "Ugh, I'm gonna head to my room now." He said.

"Alright, have some rest." Stu said. "You'll need it for tomorrow!"

Hoo boy.

Nick quickly headed up the stairs to the second floor, dragging the satchel behind him. As he came to the second floor, he realized it was lined, wall to wall, with doors. In fact, every story seemed to be lined with the same, similar round doors, each with a different name, or group of names, written on them. There didn't seem to be any organization to them, the first door at the top of the stairs reading "Richard", then followed by "Buster", then "Hazel". It was going to take him a while to find Judy's room.

Twenty minutes later, he found it on the third floor. "Judy", written in cursive on a hanging sigh attached to the door. He swung open the door, and the room was certainly… something.

It was almost bare, aside from a bed and a dresser. Guess the Hopps weren't a "same as you left it" kinda family. The room had pink walls, but the furniture was a mix of pink and blue. He walked up to the bed, and put a paw on it. It was freshly made. Had they took the time out to prepare it for Judy? This just made him feel worse.

Nick threw the satchel to the ground, and flumped onto the bed. He should probably let Judy know he made it there. He pulled out her phone, and opened the messages app. He quickly jotted out a short message.

"At the farm, tell me if everything goes well"

He shut off the phone as it sent, and relaxed on the bed. It was really comfortable. And he was exhausted. Maybe taking a quick nap would make him feel better…

* * *

It was cold. Well, it was Tundra Town, of course it was cold, but for some reason it felt even colder than usual, even if it was one in the morning. Especially unusual, consider it was the middle of summer.

As she walked into the street, dressed in one of Nick's warmer coats, she felt horribly nervous. She took a breath, seeing a cloud form from how cold it was. She fiddled with the tie around her new, much longer neck. "How does he even wear these?" She asked herself. It was incredibly uncomfortable.

So, this was the right street, right? Alpine Street? She pulled out Nick's phone, and looked at the time. 12:55. Judy just had to wait a bit and these loan sharks would show up.

Maybe once she saw them, she'd actually come up with some sort of plan.

She felt at her back pocket. She had grabbed a Taser, just in case something happened. Hopefully, she didn't have to use it.

After a few minutes, she heard a noise in a nearby alley. The sound of something hitting metal. She followed the noise, which lead her to a rather shady back alley. The noise had come from a large polar bear, dressed in a suit, banging against a trash can.

There were two other mammals there, though. There was an arctic wolf, also dressed in a suit, and a mongoose, sitting in between the two. She recognized him.

She had seen him in old records. Gef Irvings, a gangster who disappeared within the last couple years, known for being extra clever and extra violent.

Had Nick known where he was all this time? Did he seriously get a loan from a crime lord? Did he even know what he did!?

"So, Nicky," The mongoose started, stepping up to her. He was rather large, standing slightly taller than Nick… which meant he stood taller than her right now. "You actually decided to show up." He scoffed. "I thought you would just scram like all the other times."

Oh boy, what was she getting herself into?

"So, you here to pay the money or not?" He asked. "Because if you aren't…" The polar punched its fist into its palm, as if to make a point.

"Uh…" She cleared her throat, still wasn't used to her words coming out in Nick's voice. "How much was it, again?"

"A thousand."

Ugh. She kept on a confident smile, trying to emulate how Nick would've handled this. "Yeah, I have the money, right…" She reached for the Taser in her back pocket. "FREEZE!" She whipped the Taser out, and pointed it at them, causing the bear and wolf to step back, but not Gef.

Instead, he looked at her.

"This was a trick!" She yelled, continuing to point the Taser at them. "You're all under arrest! You have the right to remain silent!"

Gef chuckled. "Did you forget our deal, Nicky?" He gave her a sly glare, and then snapped his claws.

Why couldn't Nick have given her more info than he had?

The bear and the wolf stepped forward. They pulled out weapons, the bear a large crowbar, and the wolf a knife.

"I was gonna let you off a bit, but now you're gonna have to pay the full price."

Judy stepped back, and broke into a sprint as the two, much larger, mammals started after her. The bear headed the charge after her, knocking over trash cans and debris as it headed out of the alley.

Judy aimed her Taser at the bear, and fired. The shot hit, but didn't seem to work. The bear pulled out the wires from his suit, revealing he was wearing another layer underneath. He was wearing a rubber insulator.

Great.

She dropped the Taser before the bear could do anything, and broke into another run, this time down the street. She looked back for a second, seeing the wolf run after her, but she quickly tripped and went into a roll.

The fox tried to get her bearings, and suddenly found herself running on all fours. Well, at least it gave her a bit more balance compared to running on two tiny fox feet. It also seemed to be a bit faster too!

She needed to place to hide for a bit. Rounding a corner, she spotted something perfect. A fence, which had a fairly small hole in it. It seemed to lead into a backyard. It was a perfect fit for someone of her size.

She skidded, and then adjusted her direction, heading directly towards the fence. She leaped, and headed directly into the hole. There was a crack, and suddenly she couldn't move, her arms were caught by something.

She looked back. She was stuck halfway in the hole.

Oh yeah, it was perfect for someone her size.

If she was still a rabbit.

Suddenly, there was a sharp tug to her tail. As something she wasn't used to, it hurt like hell. The fox was pulled from the hole, and was dangling in front of the polar bear and wolf. Judy looked over, seeing Gef walk up.

"Man, I thought you were way better than this, Nicky!" He laughed. "Every other time you did this you managed to get away. Becoming a cop must've gotten you off your game." He snapped his claws again, and motioned for something.

In what felt like a second, Judy found herself tied up and blindfolded, tossed into something hard, metal, and dark. Probably the back of a truck. Her mouth was duct taped, so she couldn't yell.

This was going well.

"Alright," Gef started as the polar bear shut the truck's back door. "Let's take him to the hideout, don't want any potential witnesses."

As the truck started, no one had realized there was already a witness. High above them, on a nearby rooftop, stood a tan cheetah, looking down at them with a pair of goggles.

"Looks like the fox has lot a bit of his edge…" He said to himself, pulling the goggles up as the truck drove away. "Seems very out of character for him to make such a stupid mistake… I wonder…"

He snapped his claws, and then vanished in a burst of red data particles.

* * *

Nick laid in bed, half awake. What an odd dream he had last night. Judy and he had gotten their bodies swapped by a monster, it was more of a nightmare than anything. He opened his eyes, and stretched out, ready for a new day. He looked around the room.

This wasn't his room.

"Aw, pumpernickel." He said, still in Judy's voice. His rabbit ears drooped, and he fell back onto the bed. At least he'd be able to take it easy for the rest of the day. He curled back up into the blanket, and started to doze off again.

Then, the door burst open.

"UP AND AT'EM!"

Nick launched out of the bed, startled. He slammed back down on the bed, and saw Judy's father. "Alright Jude, we gotta get everything ready for the dinner tonight, so no time for lazing about!" He continued, clapping his paws loudly.

"What time is it?" Nick asked, sitting up. He looked out the window, the sun wasn't even up yet. Well, at least he knew where Judy's punctuality came from now.

"About five in the morning!" Stu said cheerfully. "Perfect time to start on the farm!"

Oh noooooo

Soon enough, Nick was standing out in a vast, open field, various different gardens peppering it. The Hopps Family Farm, it was definitely large enough to host the entire family.

"I'm still not feeling great." Nick lied, clutching at his stomach. "Can't I just go lay down for a bit?"

"Sorry Jude." Stu started. "We need every paw we can get. Tell ya what, I'll give you something simpler to do." He looked around for a second. "Oh, you can pick strawberries with Pop pop! You two always had fun together when you were little."

Who was "Pop pop"?

Stu directed him over to a patch of strawberry bushes. There were a handful of rabbits picking strawberries, mostly younger ones. But there was one rabbit, brown furred, and very, very old. He gave Nick a glare as he approached the garden.

He must've been her grandfather. Not entirely sure which side.

"Heeey… Pop pop." He greeted, quickly picking up a nearby basket. "How are things, uh, hopping?"

"I should ask you that!" He shouted, pulling up a cane and sticking it right Nick's pink nose. "What in the great warren's name are you doing with your life!?"

"What?"

He stamped the cane into the dirt. "Leaving the burrow, dating a… a FOX!?"

Well, this just turned awkward.

"Do you know how awful foxes are?" He asked him. "I once got swindled by a fox!"

Nick rolled his eyes, and started picking strawberries. The old mammal continued, and the rabbit let him continue, only giving passing acknowledgement. It was something he'd never really experienced, but heard about. He never really got to know his grandparents, either. Well, aside from that one time, but that was because of time travel.

It kept going for a bit, Pop pop not seeming to realize he had stopped listening. He continued to pick the ripe, red berries and plop them down into the basket, until he said something. Something that made his ears and nose twitch.

"How do you even know if this Nick fella even really cares about you!? How do you know he's not just going to abandon you!?"

Normally, Nick had a saying. "Never let them get to you". It was something he'd followed for most of his life. But you know who didn't follow that saying?

Judy.

"I would trust Nick with my life!" He started, trying to get into character. "He's helped me more than anyone here ever has! Just because he's a fox doesn't mean he's untrustworthy, so stop with your backwards thinking, and grow up!"

He let out a deep breath, and then looked around. Pop pop and the young rabbits around him were staring in awe, confusion, and anger.

Upon reflection, it turns out that lashing out may have been the exact opposite of what Judy would have done.

He took a deep breath, and dropped the basket to the ground. "I'm gonna go talk to dad." He said, before rushing off.

After a bit of talking, Nick had managed to negotiate a deal with Stu. He managed to get another, simpler job, over in the blueberry patch. Perfect for him, and his taste buds.

After picking a few, he would sneak one in for a snack. Nobody noticed, but there wasn't really anyone around. The blueberry patch was one of the smaller parts of the farm by the looks of it. Should've been the main part in his opinion.

He popped one into his mouth. Mmm, delicious.

"When did you start liking blueberries?"

His ears perked up, and he swiveled around to see Bonnie, her arms crossed.

"Uhhh… Just now?" he excused.

"You know you're not supposed to eat the produce before we sell it, Judy." She said, sounding a bit disappointed. "And besides, we need those blueberries for the pie tonight!"

Blueberry pie was the one thing better than blueberries themselves, Nick thought. So, he'd better just get to picking them, and not eating them.

"Sorry… mom." The word kind of hurt to say. He quickly started picking the blueberries again, dropping each one into the basket.

It was going to be a long day, he could tell.

* * *

"Hey, wake up."

Judy groggily opened her eyes to the sound of claws snapping. Standing in front of her were the loan sharks, the polar bear, the wolf, and Gef. She glanced around, she was in some kind of warehouse, presumably abandoned.

She also couldn't seem to move her arms and legs.

She was tied to a chair. Great.

"Alright, Nicky," Gef started, stepping up to the fox. "You've tricked me for the last time, time for you to…" He unsheathed his claws. "Vanish, shall we say."

Alright, what would Nick do in a situation like this? The answer was pretty simple.

"So, why exactly do they call you an extra clever mongoose?" She asked. "You've gotten tricked by me before, which means you aren't that clever. Or maybe every other mongoose is just dumb as a brick."

Buy for time.

Gef growled, while his henchmen seemed to laugh. He twisted around and hissed at them, quieting them.

Judy struggled for a bit, trying to loosen then rope. It seemed to be working, but she quickly stopped as Gef turned back.

"They call me extra clever because I'm smarter then everyone else!" He declared. "You've just gotten lucky the last times we've met."

She scoffed. "Please, I'll be out of here in no time." She assured, trying to sound confident, even though she really wasn't. Its what Nick would've done.

"Yeah, sure." Gef returned, rolling his eyes.

Let's see, how could she get out of here? She glanced around. The door was behind the three, so she'd have to either wait, or distract them before escaping. Of course, she'd need to actually get out of the ropes first, so that'd require another distraction. What would Nick do?

Oh yeah, lie.

"You know, I have a police partner." She started.

Gef glared at her. "What?"

"Yeah, she was actually there when you caught me." She continued. "She should be here any second to get me out."

Gef laughed. "I didn't see anyone else there. You're lying."

"She's a rabbit, Gef." She continued. "She's good at hiding."

The mongoose snorted, before turning to the henchmen. "Find her!" He yelled, gesturing to the henchmen. The three quickly rushed out the steel door behind them, leaving the fox alone.

"Extra clever my cottontail." She said. "Well, my fox tail, but whatever."

She began struggling with the ropes, rocking side to side to loosen them. It seemed to stop working after a bit, but they weren't loose enough to escape out of yet. What was she going to do? If only she had a knife, or…

Oh, duh.

She maneuvered her paw around, and extended a single claw. Using it, she began to cut at the rope to her side. In a few minutes, she was free. She stretched out. God, Nick's body was surprisingly out of shape. Or maybe this was just how fox's bodies usually were.

Not really worth wondering right now. They'd realize her lie soon enough, and going through the exit was basically a death sentence. She needed to find an alternate way out.

She looked up. There was some rafting above her, leading to ceiling windows. Not the best way to get out, but it was a way out. Needed something to break it open with…

She looked down at the Zoolizer on her wrist. Should she? She would definitely be able to escape, but then she'd have three criminals knowing that Nick was also a Zooranger. That would either go really well, or really bad.

Probably the later, so she decided to think of something different. So, something heavy that could break glass…

Judy looked around again, trying to find something. In the corner, there was a pile of weapons. Probably where they got the crowbar and knife from. She ran over and sorted through the objects, and pulled out a sledgehammer.

She dragged it across the ground, far too heavy for her fox arms to lift… but it was more than her rabbit body could do, she supposed.

It clanked up the stairs as she went up. Soon, she was net to the window. Time to muster up all the strength Nick had. She lifted the hammer into the air, stumbling backwards and tilting over the railing. With the leverage, she threw it forward. The hammer smashed through the glass, making an absolutely massive sound.

Well, that probably could have gone better.

"What the hell was that!?" Gef yelled from outside.

And now they've found out.

The fox climbed out of the window, carefully avoiding any glass that was there. It was moments like this that made her wish shoes weren't so expensive. It seemed to be mid-day at this point, probably five or so.

She trotted across the roof, before she reached the back. Glancing down, she spotted a dumpster right below. Well, it was the best she had, so she leaped down into the stinking garbage. As she rose, from the pit of filth, she took a deep breath, and climbed out.

"Note to self, tell Nick to have a shower when we get our bodies back." She said, shaking some liquid trash off of her fur. She heard footsteps coming from the alley next to the warehouse, so she broke off into a sprint through the thin snow.

Unfortunately, there wasn't really anywhere to go, as the building seemed to be completely closed in around all sides but the front. She slapped herself in the face. The only way out was through the other alleyway, so she broke for that.

As she ran down the alley, she looked back, seeing that the wolf had caught up and was following her. Looks like Gef and the bear hadn't-

WHAM!

She ran directly into something, and stumbled back.

Oh, it was the polar bear.

Great.

In a second, she was sent flying by a swift punch from the bear, sliding across the ground as she fell unconscious. She was unaware that Nick's phone had slid out as well.

"Fox thought he could trick me again, huh?" Gef said, rounding the polar bear. "Look where it got him this time." He motioned for the bear. "Take him inside, put him somewhere more secure."

The bear nodded, and picked up the fox's body, then rounded the alley, the wolf following behind. Gef turned around, and noticed the phone. He picked it up, and activated it. Apparently, he was too confident to put a password on it.

Gef opened up the messages, and saw a message from the fox's partner. She wasn't even in the city by the sounds of it. He couldn't believe he had nearly gotten tricked again. Well, let's see how clever he'd look after this.

He quickly typed up a message.

"Everything is fine. I'm back home."

Send.

* * *

What a night it had been.

Nick wasn't entirely sure how many bunnies had shown up for the dinner, but it had to at least border on the thousands. It's odd how both incredibly diverse they all were, but at the same time all looked very similar. Must be a rabbit thing.

The dinner went as well as it could have been with so many guests, which means it was only just barely not a disaster. A fun disaster, but whatever. Bonnie had been right about the table not being able to seat everyone though, and by the time he returned from the farming, it had been rearranged into a massive circle all around the main room.

By the time dinner had started, bunnies of all shapes and sizes had been seated. Nick himself sat next to a rather jovial uncle, and one of Judy's many older brothers. They were fun to be around at the very least, but the massive crowd made him anxious throughout it.

The food, however, was stunning. He'd never really had anything like it before… mostly because he'd never really had home-made cooking. They had everything a rabbit could want, about thirty different types of salads, pastries of all fillings, and lots of deserts as well. By the end of the day, he was exhausted and stuffed.

But throughout the day, he had felt he'd forgotten something.

"Judy," Bonnie asked as the crowd started to clear. "Do you mind helping with the dishes?"

Oh poop, he had forgotten about Judy.

"Uh, I have something I need to take care of." He excused, quickly rushing up to Judy's room.

How could he have forgotten that? He had left her alone to criminals, while he was here partying, taking over her life! All the joy he had been feeling was drained and replaced with the usual self-loathing.

He quickly started up the phone, and saw a new text, saying she was alright. He sighed in relief. At least she was okay, nothing had gone wrong.

He sat on the bed, and thought for a second. This entire indulgence had been the most selfish thing he'd ever done, hadn't it? Sure, it wasn't something he could control, but that was just an excuse. He had basically taken over her life for two days, and gotten to live through what should have been a relaxing day for her.

Well, her parents knew that they were the Zoorangers. Maybe they could believe in something like a body switching? It sounded completely ridiculous, but it might be the only way of aiding his guilt.

Of course, with all the rabbits here, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. There might be some sort of massive freak out.

He was also completely exhausted by all the work he had to do. It was terrible, every muscle in his rabbit body was aching, even after the dinner. Now he was exhausted and tired.

So, he curled up into the blanket, and started to drift off to sleep. Surely, they could wait for the morning.

And Judy was fine, so she could probably wait a bit as well.

* * *

Judy opened her eyes, and jolted up. She looked around. She was in some sort of storage room. There were no lights, no windows, just a completely empty room. The fox got up, and headed for the door. She tried to open the door, but it seemed to be blocked from the outside.

She was trapped.

"How does Nick get himself into these situations?" She asked herself, rubbing her head.

She leaned on the door, and fell to the ground. She was absolutely furious right now. Of course Nick would do something like this, it was just like his reckless, stupid self to get caught up in his old life again. Meanwhile, he was probably having a great time at HER parent's, enjoying stuff at the party SHE was supposed to be at!

He probably could've gotten out of this situation easily, though. Judy was smarter than him, but definitely not as clever. That was why they made such great partners.

And now, she probably wasn't going to ever see him again.

She wasn't going to see anyone ever again, actually.

It's not something most experience, but the realization of your own death is something that hits incredibly hard. And in Judy's case, the fact that she wouldn't even be the one dying just made it worse.

Nick would still be trapped in her body. Would anyone believe him if he told them what happened? Or would he just have to keep up appearances? Whatever happened, she knew that not being there would destroy the poor fox.

She curled up into a fetal position. God, this was the worst. She couldn't believe that this was happening. She needed help, she needed…

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of something in the corner of the room. A shadowed figure, standing there.

Wasn't she the only one here?

Judy climbed up, using the door to help balance her shaking legs. She approached the figure. As she did, she couldn't make out any features. She could make out a shape, it was another fox, but there was nothing, it was pure black.

Suddenly, it opened its eyes. They glowed pure yellow.

"Boo."

The fox fell to the ground at the sight of whatever this thing was. It moved towards her, in a disturbingly choppy manner, like it was only half there.

"Hear you need some help." It said, voice like a snake. "Maybe I can be of some service?"

"Who are you!?" She yelled, crawling away from it.

"Come on, rabbit," It started with a laugh. "We had some fun just last week, remember?"

"Wait, no…" It couldn't be. How could she be seeing it right in front of her eyes? "Are you… Savage?"

"Right on the money, carrot muncher!" He laughed, clapping his paws.

She blinked, and suddenly he was gone. Judy glanced around, trying to see where he went, only to feel herself being lifted from the ground, and onto her feet. She spun around, and saw Savage.

"How are you here!?" She yelled. "I thought you were just some evil force!"

"I'm not actually here, cottontail." He said. "I'm in your head. Sort of. And this isn't a stress induced hallucination either." He leaned in closer to her. "So, here's the deal. You don't want to die, I understand that. I can help you."

"I don't want any of your help!" She yelled, trying to push the thing back, only for her paws to go right through it.

"Well, if you don't want my help," He continued, sounding a bit dejected. "Then I guess you'll die, and the entire city will be destroyed!"

She sighed. She did need to get out of here. It wasn't just about her and Nick, it was about everyone in the city. "Alright, what do you want?" She asked. "There's usually a deal in these kind of situations."

"Oh, no deal." He said. "Completely beneficial only to you, I take over for a bit and bust you out of here."

She could smell something fishy with that, but she didn't have much of a choice. "What, exactly, are you planning to do?" She asked, looking him in the glowing eyes.

"You know, just slaughter them."

"No deal then." She wasn't going to have blood on her paws. Or rather, Nick's paws. Claws. Whatever.

Savage grunted. "Fine. I won't kill them."

"Alright, then we have a deal." She said. The two looked at each other for a moment. "…So, do we shake paws now?"

"What do I look like, Dr. Facillier?" He growled. "No, you'll know when the time comes." He started to fade out, like a mirage. "And remember, Hopps, I'm always with you!"

Those last words made her shudder as the creature vanished.

She felt like she had just made an awful, awful mistake.

* * *

Enter stepped into Yogostein's personal quarters. He was one of the few of the group who used their rooms, the only other one being Yabaiba. Most of the others preferred to be actively doing something rather than relaxing.

That's not to say Yogostein didn't do anything. In fact, he had turned his quarters into a workshop. As Enter walked in, he noticed large piles of scrap littering the ground, as well as many tools. The place was a mess.

He looked over, seeing the robot sitting at a desk. The Generator Banki was next to him, watching as he worked on something. Sparks flew and loud noises sounded. Perhaps it was best to wait for him to finish, and then get what he was here for.

Nah.

Enter quickly strolled up, and tapped Yogostein on the shoulder. He let out a yelp, and they watched as one of Yogostein's hands flew through the air, and landed on the ground.

"You idiot!" he yelled, smacking Enter out of the way. He quickly got up and picked the hand up off the ground. "This is going to take days to repair!"

"Sorry, Mon Amie." Enter said, feigning empathy. "I just wanted to ask you something about that…" He looked over at the generator monster. "…Banki, as you call it."

"Generator Banki can generate lightning of up to 100 billion volts!" Yogostein declared.

"100 billion?" Enter said, egging the robot general along. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"Of course not!" He yelled. "But with this Amplifier I've been working on, I will be able to, well, amplify it by a hundred times!"

Enter looked at him for a minute. "Is that it?"

"Yes, that is it." Yogostein reiterated. "Is that not impressive to you?"

"Well, it's just that I saw something a bit odd earlier…" Enter started. "The fox ranger, acting a bit oddly. Like he wasn't himself."

"Oh no." The robot groaned, turning to his minion. "Did you do something stupid again!?"

The generator beast waved his hand. "No, I didn't do anything!"

"So, there was another time something like this happened?" Enter questioned.

"Back when I was fighting Go-Onger, there was a mishap with Generator Banki and our red ranger." He started to explain. "They got hit by one of Generator Banki's lightning blasts, and somehow had their minds swapped."

"Minds swapped…" Enter said to himself. "Why haven't you considered using that ability here?"

"Because it caused nothing but trouble!" Yogostein yelled. "That was the only reason our plan backfired. I never want to go through that again!"

"But what if he wasn't the one being swapped around?" Enter asked. "Think of the wonderful chaos you could make with that!"

"I'm here to do things efficiently, Enter." Yogostein stated. "Not mess around with gimmicks!"

Enter gave a smirked, and then promptly kicked Yogostein across the room. He flew, and crash landed in a pile of scrap. "Generator Banki! Get him!" He yelled as he struggled to get up.

Enter quickly grabbed the Amplifier from the table, and then grabbed the Banki's claw hand as he attempted to strike. He twisted around to the monster's back, putting him in an arm lock. Enter turned to Yogostein, and gave a slight wave with the Amplifier. "Ciao!"

The two then disappeared in a burst of data particles.

"That idiot!" Yogostein yelled, throwing his hand to the ground. "The Amplifier isn't even finished!"

* * *

The two suddenly reappeared on top of a building. It was early morning. Enter quickly released the Banki, and threw him to the ground.

"What are you going to do to me!?" The monster cried, struggling to get up.

Enter pulled out a Chaos badge, holding it up to show the monster. "I'm going to unlock your true potential. He tossed the Amplifier over to the monster, who caught it in its normal hand. "Put that on, it'll make you even stronger."

"Uh, alrighty." The generator beast quickly plugged the Amplifier onto its claw hand, causing it to start glowing. "Now what?"

Without a word, Enter threw the badge directly into the monster's chest. The crank began to spin around rapidly, before popping off. The monster's torso began to rapidly change, becoming more angular and armor like, the chaos emblem being emblazoned on the middle of it. The wires hanging from its back quickly lifted into the air, forming a ribbon. Five rounded discs appeared between two parts of the wires, each with the chaos emblem on them.

The monster's face grew larger fangs, and an angry snarl to it. The antenna began to curve outwards, becoming more horn-like rather than antenna like. The claw hand and the Amplifier seemed to combine together completely, forming into an even larger bulb. The beast stomped on the ground, and let out a roar.

"CHAOS GENERATOR BANKI!" It yelled. "Alright, time to drop some misery on these animals!"

He turned around, facing towards an intersection, animals wandering around. He pounded his chest, causing the ribbon to fall in front of him. "The sound of drums, signalling the arrival of THUNDER!" He quickly began pounding on the discs with the amplifier enhanced hand. With each blow, thunder quickly shot out from between the Banki Beast's antenna, heading straight into the air. Instantly the sky began to darken.

"Was it supposed to rain today?" Asked an antelope to his cheetah friend. He shook his head in response.

"Do rain clouds even happen that quickly?" Asked a panther to her husband as she looked up into the sky.

"I don't think they do." He replied.

"BRING THE THUNDER!" The monster yelled. Suddenly, thunder began dropping from the sky, directly going after any two creatures standing close to each other.

As they struck, the mammals suddenly found themselves all switched around. The antelope was now in the cheetah's body, the panther was in her husband's, and vice versa. And of course, with something like this, comes mass hysteria. They began running around, screaming in terror at the sudden changes.

The Banki let out a laugh. "Wonderful chaos!" It shouted, before turning back to Enter. "Thank you for this new power, Master Enter!"

"Your welcome." Enter replied, sounding a bit insincere. "I'm getting out of here before anything happens to me. Remember, keep that chaos coming." He snapped his fingers, and disappeared in a burst of particles.

"Oh, this was just a taste!" The monster declared, looking over the panicked masses. "Next time, I'll strike somewhere massive! I'll have everyone in the whole city swapped around!" The monster let out another laugh, before pounding the drum again. A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, and he vanished in an explosion.

* * *

"Alright," Gef started, turning to his two henchmen. "Go get the fox. Make sure he's broken, and completely unable to escape this time!"

The two nodded, and then headed down to the basement of the warehouse. The wolf twirled the keys on one of his claws, and unlocked the door. Stepping through, they noticed something a bit odd. There wasn't anybody there.

The headed deeper into the dark storage room, and heard the door slam behind them. They turned around, and spotted the fox, standing in front of the closed door. It was dark, and neither of them could see it entirely.

Suddenly, there was another sound.

"SAVAGE ON"

There was a burst of red light, the force of it knocking to two to the ground. The fox stepped forward, now looking completely different.

"Hey boys." He said, looking over them. "Ready for some fun?"

He unsheathed his claws.

"What's taking those idiots so long?" Gef asked himself, slowly growing frustrated. He had sent them to retrieve Wilde ten minutes ago, and they hadn't come back. They really were idiots.

He headed for the room, and found that the door was open… but it didn't seem to be budging. What the hell? There wasn't anything in the room to begin with, what in the world was blocking the door? He tried to push it open again, and it seemed to budge a bit. He backed up, and charged into the door, fully knocking it open.

He looked at what was blocking the door. It was the polar bear, knocked unconscious… hopefully, but the blood blotting his fur didn't make it better.

He looked over the bear for a moment. Then, he heard a noise, someone walking over to him. "How's it going?" Said a slimy voice.

He spun around to see the fox-like monster standing behind him. It was carrying the wolf by his throat, who hung limply from its grasp. The fox then quickly tossed the wolf's body aside, and approached Gef.

"Who the hell are you!?" Gef yelled, backing away. "Where's Wilde!?"

"Sorry to say, Geffy," The fox started, staring into the mongoose with horrid red eyes. "But Wilde was never here."

"What!? Where is he, then!?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to find out." The monster said, claws unsheathing.

Gef quickly broke for it, heading up the stairs and back to the main part of the warehouse. Savage slowly followed him up, dragging his claws against the wall, producing an ear shattering screech.

He was toying with him.

The mongoose headed to the pile of weapons, and grabbed a rather large machete from it. He watched as the fox entered from the stairwell. "Stay back!" He yelled, brandishing the blade. "Or I'll kill you!"

Savage glanced at the blade, and let out a chuckle. "Oh no, a machete, what ever will I do?" He laughed, acting incredibly overdramatic. His tone suddenly changed to dead serious. "Just try it."

The two looked at each other for a moment.

"Well?" Savage started, raising his arms. "You gonna try it?"

Gef quickly glanced at the blade, and then back to Savage. He let out a cry and rushed at the monster. The mongoose slashed the blade down onto the fox, only for him to catch it in a single paw, the blade not seeming to hurt him.

"See?" He said. "Not gonna work." He gripped his claw around the blade, and it shattered, the fox not seeming to put a large amount of pressure on it.

"What the hell are you!?" Gef yelled as he backed away, falling to the ground.

"Well, let's just say…" Savage paused, unsheathing his claws and approaching the mongoose. "I'm definitely a real Savage."

There was a sudden cry of terror throughout the warehouse, which quickly quieted.

Savage stepped through the front door of the warehouse, and let out a massive sigh of relief, which started turning into a howl. "Man, it feels so good to let that all out!" He yelled, laughing. His joy suddenly turned to grunts of pain, as there was a flash of black energy.

Judy fell to her knees, and looked up to see the shadowed fox standing above her. "You're free to go, cottontail." He said.

"You didn't kill them, did you!?" She yelled, standing up.

"Nope, didn't kill them."

She sighed in relief. "Good. I have to get home!"

She ran off, a bit clumsily due to her still not being used to Nick's feet. Savage watched on as he started to fade. He let out a laugh.

"I didn't kill them, but they're certainly not going to survive…"

He vanished completely.

* * *

Nick paced around Judy's room for a bit. It was early, and he knew that not a lot of the other bunnies were up yet. Thanks to his rabbit ears, and because of how silent everything was, he could hear things going on downstairs. Judy's parents were probably awake, most likely preparing for when everyone else woke up.

"Alright, how should I open?" He asked himself. He was trying to think of how he'd explain this situation to her parents. Should he open with a "Mom, dad", or would that be too awkward when he revealed he wasn't their daughter? But opening with their first names might be even more awkward.

He grunted to himself, and pounded on his head. "Just go down there and tell them!" He told himself. "Just get the awkwardness over with!" He took a deep breath, and exited the room, storming down the stairs.

He peeked into the kitchen from the doorway. The two rabbits were busy in the kitchen, cleaning dishes from last night, as well as preparing for the massive breakfast. He felt kind of bad for them, having to do this every day for most of their lives. No wonder they had so many kids.

The radio was playing as well, just some calming country music.

He ducked behind the doorway, and hit his head again. Just get in there, he told himself. Get this over with, and go home so you can sort everything out!

He quickly stomped into the kitchen. "Oh, hey Judy!" Stu said, washing the dishes. "Whatcha doin' up so early?" He asked. "It's not like you have to go to work today."

"Well, there's…" He stammered for a second. "There's something I need to talk about."

"Oh, is this about your super hero thing?" Bonnie asked, quickly hushing her voice. "Don't worry, we haven't told a soul!"

"No, it's not about that." He paused for a moment. "Well, it is, but… That's not important! I need to tell you that I'm not actually-"

"We interrupt this broadcast to let everyone know of yet another monster attack in Zootopia!" The radio sounded, catching everyone's attention. "This monster, described as being able to control electricity, has been rampaging around the city, with the Zoorangers nowhere in sight. We urge everyone in the city to-"

Stu quickly shut it off, and turned to Nick, who sighed. "…That I'm not actually staying for breakfast!" Nick awkwardly finished. "I gotta go!" he quickly sprinted off.

Stu followed him for a second, shaking off his wet paws. "The passcode to the tunnel is thirty seven eighty four!" He yelled to him.

"Thanks!" He shouted back as he headed to the tunnel.

* * *

"I'M HOME!" Nick yelled as he entered the apartment, only to receive no response. He looked around, and saw Judy laying on the couch, fast asleep. She was snoring, really, really loudly.

He sighed, and walked up to the fox. It was still weird hearing himself, but they had a job to do, no time to contemplate.

Taking a deep breath, Nick prepared to wake her up. "GET UP!" He shouted, letting it out. The fox mumbled for a second, before rolling over. The rabbit sighed. Of course it hadn't worked, she didn't have the ears she used to. How disappointing.

He instead punched her in the back. "Ow!" She yelped, waking up. She rolled over to see herself staring at her. "Oh, hey, you're back!" She let out, sitting up. "Why didn't you tell me that you got a loan from a dangerous criminal!?"

"Yeah, probably should have told you that." He said, sheepishly. "But everything turned out alright!"

She glared at him for a moment.

"It didn't go alright, did it?"

"If you think almost being killed was it going alright, then yes."

He slapped his paws to his face, and groaned. "Oh god, I'm such an idiot." He uncovered his face, and looked at her. "I'm so sorry for making you do that. I should've gone."

"Yeah, you really should've." She replied. "How was the baby shower?"

"Fun but awkward." He answered. "I felt horrible basically the entire time."

"Well, at least you didn't almost get murdered."

"I said I was sorry!"

"There's some things a sorry just doesn't cut, Nick."

Now he felt even worse. But they had something more important to deal with. "Alright, so I heard about the monster on the radio this morning." He started. "Have you heard anything?"

"I was locked up in a warehouse for four hours, and immediately ran home and fell asleep for the last three." She explained, in Nick's deadpan tone. "No, I have not heard anything."

"God, you're even starting to sound like me." He said, a bit weirded out. "We need to get back to normal before anything weird happens."

"You don't know where the monster is, do you?" Judy guessed.

"No idea, but I do know someone who probably does!" He said, pumping his fist.

"Alright, now you're sounding like me." She said, getting up off the couch. Nick clasped his paws over his mouth. "Let's just go see Max."

"So, do I really snore that loudly?" Nick asked as they exited the apartment.

"Yes, you do."

* * *

The two entered the police station, still dressed in civilian attire. They were greeted, as usual, by Clawhauser at the receptionist desk. "Hey, Judy, Nick, glad to see you two!" He greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, Spots." Nick responded.

"Hey Clawhauser!" Judy greeted.

The two quickly covered their mouths. They had made it so far without messing up, and now they had blown it.

"Oh nooo!" the cheetah sighed. "Did the monster get you guys too?"

"What?" The said simultaneously.

"You know, the monster that's been running around!" He continued. "We've been getting calls all day from people who've had their bodies swapped by it!" He explained, Nick and Judy looking at each other. "It's like something out of a cartoon!"

Nick sighed in relief, ears dropping. "Thank god we don't have to hide that anymore."

Judy put her paws up on Clawhauser's counter, only having to stretch a small bit to reach it. "Clawhauser, we need to find Wolford, do you know where he is?"

"I think he's in the witness room." He said. "I could buzz him up, but why do you…?"

"Not important right now, Spots." Nick said. "Just buzz him up here, and don't worry, we'll have everything sorted out shortly."

"Alrighty!"

In a few minutes, Max ran up to them. "Hey, you guys feeling better?" He asked as they began to exit the station.

"Yeah, we're fine." Nick said.

"Mostly." Judy finished.

"Good, because I think I know how to get you two back to normal." Max continued. "Usually, in a situation like this, beating the monster returns everything back to normal, so…"

"Just have to defeat it, right?" Nick finished for him. "Sounds like a plan."

"Your Zoolizer goes off every time a monster attacks, right?" Judy asked, the wolf nodding in response. "Got anything recently?"

"It's been going off constantly for the last few hours."

"So, let's go find him, and give him a real shocker!" Judy said.

"You really need to work on your puns if you want to be more like me." Nick said.

"I wasn't even trying to do a pun there." She said, a bit upset. "Is this kind of stuff just in your blood?"

"It might be."

Max facepawed. "Let's just get going already."

The two nodded, and were quickly off.

* * *

"Time to light it up!" The monster said as it began beating on its drums. Each strike caused a bolt of electricity to fly from its head and into the air, forming a cloud above the city block. "Soon, everyone in this Batcheed forsaken city will be all mixed up, and we'll have won!"

He heard the sound of motorcycles stopping behind him, and turned around to see the three Zoorangers rushing towards him.

"Sorry to rain on your parade," The rabbit said. "But we're going to put an end to your little Operation: Shocker!"

"Operation: Shocker?" The monster laughed to itself. "Sorry, but this is no longer just Operation: Shocker, this is Operation: Great Shocker!" The three mammals looked at him, a bit dumbfounded. "Besides, I doubt you can stop me when you're all mixed up!"

"It doesn't matter which bodies we're in!" The fox yelled. "We'll still be able to beat you!"

Silver stepped forward. "Maybe I should go first, so you two can get used to your bodies a bit more." He suggested, drawing his sword.

"Splitting up is probably a good idea." Judy, as ZooRed, said. "If we stay close together, we could end up getting more mixed up." She twirled a claw in the air. "Circle motion, stay on all sides of him!"

"Looks like red's the leader for once, huh?" Nick, as ZooBlue, said, jokingly. Judy gave him a look.

The three gave each other nods, and started to circle around the monster, weapons drawn. Blue, who was Nick, only held one of the daggers, while Red, who was Judy, gripped at both ends of Nick's sword.

"Alright, so that's how you want to do it?" The generator monster said, watching them as they slowly circled. He flipped up his drums. "By the power of Gaiark…" It raised the amplifier hand to the sky, directly under the cloud. "I HAVE THE POWER!"

The cloud shot a bolt of lightning directly at the monster. It quickly twisted and swirled, forming into a large blade around the amplifier hand. He swung it around a few times, trying to menace the three.

"You think that's impressive?" Blue asked, a bit overconfident. "Well, watch this!"

He rushed at the monster, brandishing the dagger. He attempted to strike the monster, only for its large blade to block the dagger, knocking the rabbit back a bit. It then followed up with a kick, sending Blue flying.

Red then rushed up, leaping into the air to try and hit the generator beast. She didn't go as high as she had expected, and was nearly instantly knocked to the ground by the blade. She quickly raised the Foxfire Blade over her head to block another strike, but the monster knocked it back down, and kicked her over to the rabbit.

Silver let out a sigh. "Told them I should've gone first." He quickly rushed in, and began evenly sparring with the monster.

"What the hell was that!?" Blue yelled to his body. "Why did you leap into the air? That's not how I fight!"

"Well, why were you only using one dagger?" Red returned. "And rushing in, at your size? Bad move!"

"Well, I'm not you, alright?"

If Red had her ears, they would've perked up at that moment.

"Except you are me right now!" She said. "We can't just fight like we usually do, we have to adapt!"

"Wait, you mean," Blue started. "Copy each other?"

"Yeah! You need to do as I would, and vice versa!"

Blue seethed. "I'll see what I can do, Carrots."

Meanwhile, with Silver, the two were still clashing blades. With each strike to his rapier, he felt a small electric shock. Not much, like a small jolt, but it was starting to take its toll.

With one more strike, the Banki had knocked Silver back. "I've defeated you all!" It yelled. "I'm completely invincible, and none of you are able to stop me!"

"We'll see about that!"

The beast turned around, watching as Blue leaped into the air, daggers drawn. He slashed down, cutting through the monster and landing on the ground, before leaping up and over it, twisting around to strike it in the back.

The monster stumbled forward, and saw Red heading towards him as well. Prepared, the Banki swung at her, only for the fox to duck under the blade and slip right past, cleaving into its armor with the blade.

The monster stumbled back. "How are you doing this!?"

"Fox stance."

"Rabbit legs."

The two fistbumped.

"Silver, let's finish this guy off!" Red yelled. Silver got up, and nodded, heading over to them.

They threw the weapons into the air, forming the Zookaiser. They caught it, and aimed it at the monster. "Alright, I've always wanted to do this!" Red shouted as she gripped the handle.

She pulled the trigger, and fired the blast at the monster, causing it to explode. As it did, a large ripple shot out, nearly knocking the three back. As it cleared, they watched as a red badge and a large generator flew out of the explosion as well. The generator crashed into the ground, broken.

"That ripple!" Silver sounded. "That must have been everything fixing itself!" He pulled out a cellphone, and quickly dialed something up. "Clawhauser? Yeah, it's Wolford. How are things going, everything back to normal yet? It is? Alright, bye." He turned back to the two other rangers. "See? I was right."

"Yeah, sorry." Blue started. "But I'm pretty sure we're still in each other's bodies."

"Wait, seriously!?"

"Sorry Max." Red apologized. "Maybe it didn't work because it happened before he was upgraded?"

Silver clutched at his face. "Oooh, I'm so sorry, I messed this all up!"

"We can go over your self-loathing issues later." Blue stated. "We have something else to deal with."

The three watched as the red badge flew off into the horizon, reviving the Banki as a giant. "It's time to give you all a REAL SHOCKER!" It roared.

"We'll deal with this problem later, Max." Red stated, pulling out a ZooTag. "We have a city to protect." The other two nodded, and pulled out their Zootags as well.

In a few moments, ZooRobo, as well as ZooKami, appeared in front of the monster. They stomped forward through the plains, and brandished their weapons at it.

"You know, there's a lot of things electricity can do!" The monster started, almost nonsensically. "It can power refrigerators, it can turn on your lights, and it can strike down trees…" The two mechs looked at each other, confused.

The drums fell to its front again, and it began quickly beating them, forming another large cloud overhead.

"But in this case, it can OVERLOAD YOUR ROBOT!"

The lightning struck down on ZooKami, and it began to shudder and spark, before falling limp.

"Silver, are you alright!?" Blue yelled into the communicator.

He groaned back. "I'm as fine as can be for someone who got shocked with over ten thousand volts."

"Ten thousand volts!?" Blue yelled back. "And you lived?"

"Well, you guys survived worse earlier."

Blue's ears shot up. "Carrots, I think I just got one of your wacky ideas!"

"Oh great, love to hear it." She sarcastically responded.

ZooRobo stepped up to the monster. "Hey!" Blue yelled from inside. "I bet you can't do that to us, I bet you couldn't even power a toaster!"

"Watch your mouth!" The Banki Beast yelled back. "You wanna see a light show!? I'll give you your own personal one!"

He started beating on the drums again, another large cloud forming above them. He continued pounding the drums for much longer than before, until the lightning in the cloud turned red. He swung his hand forward.

"Sure this is a good idea, Nick!?" Red yelled to her partner.

"I'm about fifty percent sure!" He said. "BRACE YOURSELF!"

The red bolt struck them, and ZooRobo began to shudder and spark as well, before powering down.

"Guys?" Silver said into the communicator. "GUYS!? Are you alright!?"

There was silence for a moment.

Then, there was an answer.

"How's it going, Wolfsbane?" Nick said, clearly in his own voice.

"What were you even trying to accomplish there, I mean…" He paused for a second. "Wait, did you two…?"

"You got it!" Red said. "Nick Wilde's back and he's foxier than ever!"

"Judy Hopps, reporting for duty!" Judy announced also in her own voice.

"So what if you got your bodies back!?" The monster roared. "Your robots aren't working, so I can easily defeat you!"

"Wouldn't be so sure of that!" Blue said, waving a blue ZooTag.

"Yeah, we've got some reinforcements." Red followed, holding up a gold ZooTag.

They both plugged them into their Zoolizers.

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

The two mechs appeared in front of them, the bison letting out a loud snort, while the ape pounded its chest. "Alright guys, you know what to do!" Blue yelled, pointing towards the monster.

ZooSaru leaped up, and started pounding on the drums hanging from the monster. "Hey! Get off of there!"

With each pound, lightning shot from the monster's head, forming another cloud. As soon as it was big enough, the ape robot delivered a final pound to the drum, breaking it from the monster's body.

"No, my drums!" It yelled out. The beast attempted to attack the monkey, but was knocked back by a punch.

ZooBison let out another snort, and charged into the beast, knocking it back a bit. "Hey, watch it!" It yelled, keeping an eye on the robotic bison as it headed to the front of ZooKami. It snorted again, and charged forward, this time directly into the monsters legs, flipping it forward, arms flailing.

The thunder cloud crackled, and shot a bolt directly at ZooKami. There was a beep, and suddenly the robot rose again.

"Alright, back online!" Silver said. He looked over to the still non-functional ZooRobo. "You guys need some help?"

"Nope," Blue sounded. "We just need you to finish him off!"

"Got it." ZooKami turned towards the monster, who was now all but powerless.

"Stop right there!" It said, backing away. "Or I'll…" He felt at his chest, searching for the crank. "I'll, uh…"

"Alright, let's just get this done with!" ZooKami raised its blade above its head. "Time for your dawn to end!" The sword began glowing with silver energy. "ECLIPSE CUTTER!" He brought the sword down, the energy collecting and firing as a disc, which sliced directly through the monster.

It let out a cry of pain as it sparked and stumbled. "Guess I'm the one who got shocked!" He yelled, falling over and exploding.

ZooKami quickly spun around, and struck a pose.

* * *

"Well, that certainly was a day, wasn't it?" Nick said as they entered the apartment. He stretched out. "Feels good to be back in my own body. Though, it is a bit sore…"

"That's from when I tried to escape from those loan sharks." Judy stated, hopping over to the couch. "I was almost killed, remember?"

"Well, technically both you and I were almost killed there." Nick corrected, moving over to the couch. He sat down next to her, paws on his lap. "Do you think you can forgive me for that?"

"Of course I can." She said. "You were just trying to help a friend… even if it was through a seedy method."

"Thanks." He sighed. "I have to apologize about being really rude to you this morning."

"I should apologize for that too." The rabbit said. "I just assumed you were just going to do something stupid."

"Hey, I survived more than a minute on your farm." He said, leaning back. "And you didn't die, so I'd say it's a win-win."

She chuckled. "Next time, I won't doubt you when you say something's important. I know for a fact you could have talked your way out of that." She jabbed the fox in the arm with her elbow.

"And I know you could've handled your family better." Nick stated, rubbing his arm. "I feel like I botched the entire thing. Your parents would probably hate me if I had actually been there."

"Well," Judy started, moving up closer to him. "Next week is the Carrot Day Festival, we could go, if you want." She suggested. "It might be a better way to get to know my family."

"You know," He started, looking at her. "That'd be lovely."


	20. Feeding Frenzy

"So, the carrot festival thing is this week, right?" Nick asked as he sat on the couch.

"Yep!" Judy responded from the kitchen. She was waiting for the coffee machine to go off. "It's on Wednesday."

"Great, so we're not going anywhere for a bit." Nick said, somewhat relieved.

"Actually, we're heading out today." She said, rather frankly. The coffee machine dinged, and she started to prepare two cups.

"Wait, why are we doing that?"

"Because we need to help set up our booth." She explained. "I forget, do you like sugar in your coffee or not?"

"Extra sugar."

She poured some sugar into the coffee, and then brought the cups over to the couch. Nick took his cup, and started drinking. "Why did we have to get up so early, anyway?" He asked between sips.

"Because the train leaves in a few hours." She explained, taking a sip from her own, sugar free, coffee. "We need to be completely ready for anything."

"I still don't understand why they have to set everything up two days early."

"Oh, they start setting things up weeks earlier." Judy stated. "Booths don't get set up until two days before. Everything else is set up throughout the last week."

"Everything else, huh?" He said with a bit of a chuckle. "What else do they have besides carrots?"

She looked at him with an unamused glare. "Nick, you were there once."

"Does time travel really count as being there?"

"I'm not a Horologist, so I wouldn't know."

"I don't think a Horologist would know either."

She laughed a bit. "There's rides, attractions, all kinds of stuff. It's really fun."

"I'm sure it is." He said, sounding genuine. "But I really hate getting up this early."

"But we get up this early every day?"

"Still hate it."

He was about to take a sip of his coffee, when there was a sudden, loud beeping noise. The shock of the noise made him through the cup into the air. He fumbled with it, trying to have none of it spill out, and placed it back on the table. "Great." He sighed. "I didn't even get to finish my coffee."

Judy got to her feet, coffee cup still in her paw. "We have more important things to deal with than coffee!" She said, confidently. She took a quick gulp, downing the rest of the coffee. She let out a quick cough. "Bad idea." Her voice was a bit hoarse, but she coughed again, clearing it.

Nick chuckled, getting up. "Ready to go, leader?" He nudged her in the side.

She rolled her eyes, and the two headed out.

* * *

The two Zoorangers looked over a small indent of a roof, into the street of the market. On the ground, they watched as Sambash and a monster talked.

The monster resembled a pill bug, with a hunched over back. The thing most noticeable, even from this distance, was the thing's face, which was horribly uncanny. It had massive purple lips, which curved into a smile. Its tongue seemed to be permanently hanging out, and somehow didn't get in the way of its horse-like teeth. Its face was mostly a fleshy pink, making it stand out from its mostly blue, purple, and black body. It was topped with pure white eyes, and eight leg-like protrusions.

The monster, like most of Sambash's monsters, seemed to be wearing a distressing amount of leather, covering it, specifically a jacket and leg-long boots. The jacket didn't entirely cover it, leaving its underbelly exposed. Its arms were segmented, and very thick, ending in five pudgy digits. Both its arms and legs had eight insect legs hanging off of them as well.

Its back was the most interesting part, as it looked more artificial than even the leather outfit. It was the shiny metallic blue of most of its body, but each segment of it was marked with what looked like bolts. If anything, they could tell it was heavily armored.

"Why are we just watching?" Red whispered.

"Because we need to measure its abilities." Blue stated, tapping her digits on the roof. "We can't just keep running into battles without any info on them, or else we'll keep getting our bodies swapped."

Red shuddered, remembering the events of last week. "Alright, but watching them talk isn't going to do much."

"Wanna bet?" her ears popped up, and she started to listen in on them.

"So, you got the plan?" Sambash said to the monster.

"Got it!" It responded.

"Good, because they should be here soon."

"I think they're waiting for us." She said, ears dropping back down.

"Why would they be waiting for us?"

"Probably some attempt to kill us or something." She guessed. She glanced around for a second. "Speaking of waiting, where's Silver?"

"Did someone say my name?"

They turned around, and saw Silver, walking up to them. "Get down!" Blue whisper yelled. Silver quickly ducked between them, and looked over the rooftop.

"Oh hey, it's that guy." He whispered, looking at the monster.

"You know that thing?" Blue asked, a bit confused.

"Not really, but there was one episode of Zoo Rangers: Lost Galaxy that had something like him in it." Silver explained.

Suddenly, Red had an idea.

"So, you've watched every episode of Zoo Rangers, right?" Silver nodded. "And most of these monsters are similar to what's in that show, right?" Silver nodded again. "So that means you should at least be able to guess their powers!"

"That's a great idea, Red!" Blue sounded. "Silver, what do you know about this guy?"

"Well, the more he eats, the stronger he gets."

"And?"

"Uh, his back is tough?"

"Wow, real heavy hitter here." Red said sarcastically, eyes rolling.

"As long as we keep on him, he should be easy to beat." The wolf explained. "But we should wait for Sambash to clear out first."

Blue nodded. "We can't take care of him on our own, especially not if he has help."

The two waited for a few minutes, as Sambash continued to talk to the monster. He swung his hand once, summoning the flying motorcycle, which flew down from the sky. He hopped on, giving a brief glance around, and motioned back to the monster before rocketing off.

The monster looked around for a moment, and started towards a nearby restaurant. The restaurant they were standing on top of.

"Alright, now!"

The three leaped down from the roof, startling the monster and causing it to fall over on its back. The three watched as it tried to get up, rocking back and forth.

"Wow, this is just… sad." Red sighed, a bit disappointed.

The monster eventually got up. "How embarrassing!" It yelled. "But at least you guys showed up, I thought I was going to have to eat all by my lonesome!"

"We really don't want to eat with someone like you, sorry." Blue said, drawing her daggers.

"Aw, guess I'll just have to make a meal out of you!" IT yelled, patting its stomach. "Nothing is a match for the great Dolmar's stomach!"

Blue shuddered a bit. This was probably the most disgusting monster they've fought so far. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Couldn't agree more, Blue." Red said, pulling out the Vickscannon.

He fired a few shots at the monster, causing it to fall back again. This time, it curled up into a ball, and began rolling forward, attempting to run them over. The rangers leaped out of the way, as it crashed into the wall of the building.

The bug unfurled, and turned back towards them, pulling out a comically oversized knife and fork. "Time to eat you up!"

"NO!" Blue yelled, pulling out her blasters. She aimed them directly at the monster, and started firing rapidly. It was rather shocking, as she relentlessly fired into Dolmar, causing him to drop the weapons.

"Whoa, whoa!" Red yelled, grabbing the rabbit by the shoulders. "Judy, calm down!"

She stopped firing, and the monster fell on its backside. "Sorry, I just really hate this thing!" She said.

"We can talk about that later," Silver said, pulling out his blade. "Let's just focus on efficiently beating this guy, alright?"

The other two nodded, and pulled out their weapons. The rushed at the monster as he got up, and struck him at the same time, directly in the stomach. The force of the blow knocked him directly through the wall, and into the darkened building.

"Ouch, can't you guys at least give me a chance?" The monster whined as they stepped in. "I haven't even gotten to eat anything yet!" It rushed over to a counter, and looked through the glass, a number of pastries showing themselves. Dolmar started to drool a bit, before wiping it off. "Mm, this looks decent!"

"Wait, no!"

He smashed his hand right through the glass, and started picking up the confectionaries, various cupcakes and donuts. The bug's mouth opened wide, and he tossed them directly into it, making a disgusting, sickening, wet smacking sound with each one.

Blue covered her eyes. The sight was really, truly disgusting. The other two rangers watched on, disgusted as well.

"Bleck!" The monster spat out after eating all of the food. "This is just awful! I need GOOD food to get my strength up!"

"Hey, thanks for telling us that!" Red yelled, before he and Silver rushed at Dolmar.

Their weapons hit the monster right in the face, and he flew directly through the wall again, leaving another big hole. "Hopefully this guy has insurance." Red sighed. He turned back to Blue, who was still covering her eyes. "He stopped eating, Carrots!"

She uncovered her face, and looked around. She then spotted the hole, and ran past the two, stepping directly in front of the pill bug monster. She pulled out her blasters, and twirled them around. "Alright, horribly gross, awful monster, it's time for you to go away!"

She tossed one of the guns into the air, and pulled out a ZooTag, plugging it into the gun in her paw. She grabbed the other gun as it fell, and plugged the gun onto the other one.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

Energy built between the two guns, and fired off as a blade of energy, cutting directly through the monster's stomach. Green goo began to spill out, along with the foul stench of rotten food instantly wafting through the air.

Even in her suit, Blue wanted to puke.

"Augh!" The monster yelled, clutching his stomach. "How could you do this to me!?"

Judy untransformed, the smell causing her focus to fade. "Ugh, I need air!" She yelled.

The other two ran out, the smell instantly hitting them as well. Silver started screaming, and fell to the ground, clutching his nose.

"THIS IS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER SMELLED!" He cried, untransforming as well.

Nick also untransformed, and sniffed around. "It's bad, but I've smelt worse."

"SERIOUSLY!?"

The monster let out a loud groan, causing the three to turn to them.

"I don't feel good…" He moaned. Suddenly, be began to pulse and bubble, glowing green. The bubbles and pulsing got faster and faster.

Then, he popped.

Dolmar exploded into a horrible amount of goo, covering a large area. The goo was thick, slimy, and smelled like burning rubber.

Judy would know, she was covered in it.

She let out a whine, and tried to shake it off. "This is the worst!" She yelled, almost in tears.

Shortly after, the goo seemed to dissolve, disappearing into the ground… and into Judy. She felt around herself. The smell had cleared, and the goo had indeed completely vanished. "That was weird." She said, before stepping back to the other two.

"Well, that guy was a wimp." Nick said, putting his paws to his hips. "Didn't even get upgraded, so he can't turn into a giant."

"Well, I'm glad we got it all done with quick." Max said. "Now, I have to go to work."

"We have a train to catch!" Judy announced to him. "We're heading over to my parents!"

Max looked at Nick. "Thought one time would be enough for you."

"I want to make a better first impression."

Max gave a small laugh, before walking off. "Alright, see you guys later!"

"See ya, Max!" Judy waved goodbye, and they started off on their own.

As they walked, the three mammals were unaware of something happening beneath them. There was a slight quake, barely noticeably to all but those who would pay attention. There was growling, and then a faint laugh.

Everything was going according to plan.

* * *

Judy sat on the train, rapidly tapping her foot at thin air. Nick watched as he sat next to her. He could tell something was bothering her. "What's wrong, Carrots, trying to swat a fly?" He jokingly asked.

"No, it's just the…" She hesitated for a moment, and looked around, they were seated in a completely empty train car. "The way the monster died. I had to scrub a lot just to get the feeling of it to go away."

"So that's why you were so long in the shower."

"I'm just worried that I still stink."

"If you still smelled like that, then I wouldn't be sitting here with you, would I?" She laughed at that. "You smell perfectly fine. I'm more worried about how the slime just disappeared."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Judy said. "It's probably like the explosions, they just disappear after a bit. Besides, this is supposed to be a break, we dealt with the monster, so we shouldn't worry about it!"

"You're pretty gung ho today, aren't you?"

"I'm just happy to be visiting home again." She sighed. "I only get to about once or twice a year."

"I haven't seen my mom since…" He paused for a second, in thought. "Since graduation day, I think."

"Maybe we should go visit her some time" She suggested. "Wouldn't it be nice to see her?"

"It would, but…"

The train stopped, and the doors slid open. There was no one else on the train, so they went through the middle sized exit on their own, dragging luggage behind them. On the waiting platform were Judy's parents.

"Mom! Dad!"

She ran up and gave them a big hug, before looking around. "Where is everyone?" She asked.

"Oh, we came by ourselves." Stu said.

"You seemed pretty uncomfortable last week, so we decided you might need some space away from the family for a bit." Bonnie explained.

"Oh. Thanks?"

"Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps." Nick greeted, extending his paw.

Stu gripped it, and firmly shook it. "Nice to see you again, Nick. Been awhile."

Not really, Nick mentally said to himself.

"How's everything been with Judy?" Bonnie asked. "You two haven't been…"

"NO!" They both yelled, embarrassed.

"We're not there yet." Judy said, trying to diffuse the situation. "We won't be there for a while."

"Well, you two just… take your time." Stu said. "Rushing in can be pretty bad, y'know?"

"And you're sure it's still fine for you two to be here? You've handled the…" Bonnie's voice turned to a whisper. "The monsters?"

"Yes, mom, we took care of the monster." Judy said, with a bit of a laugh. "We dealt with it this morning."

Nick placed his paw on Judy's head, much to her annoyance. "And your little hero here managed to beat it all by herself."

She blushed a bit.

"Well, it wasn't really all by myself, but…" She shook her head, and batted Nick's paw away. "That's not the point! The point is, we're here to have some fun at the Carrot Day Festival!"

"She's right, this is like a vacation."

"It's great you two are so enthusiastic about this." Stu said. "Because we're gonna need your help."

"We're officers slash super heroes, it's our job to help." Nick said, proudly.

"Great, then let's go!"

"Isn't the truck a two seater?" Judy asked.

"Who said we took the truck?"

They led the two to the large dome in the middle of the field. The four stepped into it, as Stu punched in a code. "Using the rabbit hole for four mammals seems kind of overkill, doesn't it?" Judy said as she and Nick dropped their luggage to the ground. Her voice echoed through the dome, which was designed to carry several hundred rabbits instead of three, plus a fox.

"It's a busy day, Jude," Stu started, moving away from the console. "The rabbit holes help get us around faster than the truck could in situations like this."

The dome started to move underground, and then slid through a series of tunnels at a rather brisk speed. Bonnie looked at Nick, a definite city fox, and how nonchalant he seemed riding in the thing.

"You're pretty calm for someone taking the rabbit hole for the first time." She said.

"What can I say?" He started, with a chuckle. "I take this kind of stuff pretty well." It's not like he had to ride it two times in the past week or anything.

After a few minutes, the ride stopped, and started to move upwards. It opened towards the middle of a field, but they could see what definitely looked like a festival only a few meters away.

Obvious from this distance was a handful of rides. A large Ferris wheel, with pink and orange carts, and a large, lucky-looking rabbit face in the center of it. There was also a roller coaster, and a drop tower, both carrot themed in appearance.

"So that's what you meant by other stuff." Nick said as they stepped out of the dome.

Judy turned around, her mother was still in the dome. "Mom, aren't you coming with us?"

"Oh, no, we have a lot of stuff to do!" She exclaimed. "You're going to go help your father set up the booth, and I'm going to wake everyone up so they can start farming. Don't worry, I'll handle your luggage!" She quickly punched in a code, and the dome vanished into the ground.

As they walked into the festival grounds itself, they found there were even more attractions. There was an arcade at one end, and a barn, which they used for plays, on the other. There was also a large hay maze centered right in the middle of it.

"A hay maze, really?" Nick said as he stared at the entrance. There was a large entrance sign above it, simply labeled "HAY MAZE!". It was decorated with cartoonish drawings of rabbits and carrots on it.

"The hay maze is a time honored tradition!" Judy said, a bit defensively. "It's really fun, trust me."

He rolled his eyes, and they continued on.

They started down a dirt path, which was almost completely empty, aside from a handful of booths. "So, how do we set up the booth?" Nick asked. "I didn't see you bring it with you."

"Oh, we brought it earlier this morning." Stu said, as they approached an empty lot, the only thing there being a large crate.

"My parents are very enthusiastic about this stuff." Judy said to Nick, who nodded.

Stu kicked the side of the crate, and the front fell over, a pile of wooden boards falling onto the ground. "So, do we need tools?" Nick asked, picking up one of the boards.

"Nope, it's like a puzzle, just have to stick them together and it'll be all set up!"

"Well, that sounds easy."

It wasn't easy.

Imagine building a puzzle. Then imagine it's a 3D puzzle. Then imagine that it's about twice the size of your body. Like a puzzle, there weren't any instructions. There may have been at one point, but Stu insisted they didn't need them, he did it every year and had it memorized.

Either he was lying, or his memory was bad, because it took them many hours of work to get it set up. By the time they finished, the area had crowded up a bit, and the sun was already halfway down.

"Well, that was awful." Nick said, panting.

"It's usually like that." Judy said. She examined the booth, it was white, with several stands set up, presumably to put food there. There was a sign above it reading "Hopps Family Farm Produce". The overall set-up looked familiar to Judy, but she couldn't place where she would have seen it recently.

"Well, it's getting pretty late." Stu said, looking up at the sun. "Dinner should be almost ready, we should head back home."

Thee three headed back to the dome. "Let me try." Nick said, walking up to the keypad. He quickly jotted in the code. "Thirty seven eighty four…"

The dome began to move downwards, and then headed towards the Hopps' burrow.

"How did you know the code?" Stu asked, a bit confused.

"Lucky guess."

After a few minutes, they entered the house. It was flooding with rabbits, hundreds of them, each doing different things. Judy took it all in, it had been a while since she had been there. "Nice to be home again!" She said.

"You were here last week, dear."

"Oh yeah."

Nick wasn't shocked by all the activity, it's what it was like last time, but it still made him uncomfortable.

"So, guessing you two are staying for the night?" Stu presumed.

"I mean, we're here for the festival, so why wouldn't we be staying?" Judy said with a laugh.

"Of course, why else would you pack? Your luggage should be in your room."

"But Judy's room only has one bed." Stu turned to give Nick an inquisitive glance. "I mean, I'm guessing it only has one bed."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Stu said, somehow dismissing the odd comment. "We have an air mattress around here somewhere, we can set it up for you."

"Wait, we have to share the same room?" Judy asked, sounding a bit worried.

"We've run out of space, Jude, unless Nick wants to sleep with the kits."

"I would rather not sleep in a room full of babies, thank you very much."

"But… he snores!"

"I thought you two slept in different rooms?"

"We do!"

"You're just over exaggerating." Nick said, rolling his eyes. "The only reason you can hear it from your room is because you're a rabbit."

"But what about everyone else?" Judy asked.

"Judy you know full and well that the walls are quiet loud noises." Stu said. "How else would we get any sleep around here?"

Her ears drooped down. She was actually really worried about what might happen if they slept in the same room.

"Don't worry, Carrots." Nick said. "I won't touch any of your stuff, I didn't last time, won't this time."

"Oh, good."

"Well, I may have touched some stuff last time." He said, starting to walk off. Judy's ears jolted up. "But I can't now!"

"What 'stuff'!?" She yelled, walking after him.

"Y'know, stuff." He burst out laughing as she chased him upstairs.

"NICK, YOU'RE THE WORST!"

A while later, the two were seated at the table, alongside the rest of the warren. The table was back to being a smaller, but still very large, snaking table around the center of the room. It was busy, though slightly less busy than it was last week.

Judy and Nick, of course, sat next to each other. "God, I'm starving." Nick groaned as they waited for the food to come.

Judy nodded in agreement, they hadn't had anything to eat since the morning, and building the booth was a whole lot of work.

Bonnie, Stu, and a few other rabbits, went around the table, pushing food trolleys. At each stop, they handed out a different platter. It was a lot of work to take care of a family that large.

Eventually, Bonnie came up to the two. "Now, I have something very special for you two…" She started, taking a large platter, and setting it on the table.

"How come Judy gets something special and we don't?" Shouted a much younger rabbit sitting next to them. Next to him was an almost identical rabbit.

"Because you two are here every day, and Judy isn't." Bonnie said sternly. "Nick and her are guests, and we treat our guests well."

The two rabbits leaned back into their seats in a huff.

"Don't mind Terry and Jerry." Bonnie said. "They're just grumpy today."

"They were grumpy even when they were kits." Judy chuckled.

Her mother returned the laugh. "So, last week, we noticed that really enjoyed one part of the meal…"

Nick slapped both of his paws against his face.

As her mother lifted the cover, Judy really hoped it was roasted carrots. Or maybe some stew. Oh, or maybe even a carrot salad, or a carrot pate, or a… Why was she thinking so much about food? Was she really that hungry?

The smell wafted through the air, instantly catching both her and Nick's noses. It was a pastry of some kind. Maybe it was a veggie pie?

As she lifted the cover, it became obvious what it was, and Judy's expression fell from excitement to bemusement.

Blueberry pie.

"We saw how much you liked the blueberry pie last week, so we decided to make you a healthier version!"

"Thaaaanks." She said through her teeth, as Nick let out a small laugh.

"Well, enjoy your meal!" Bonnie said, continuing to push the trolley.

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that." Nick whispered. "It's hard to control myself around them."

"I don't even like blueberries."

"Well, maybe you can start liking them." He suggested. He picked up a knife, and cut two pieces, one for her, and one for him. He placed them both on their plates. "Never a bad time to try new things!"

She sighed. They made it for her, and she was a guest. It would be rude to not eat it.

She picked up a fork, and cut through the pie, biting down on it.

It was good. Really good!

She knew her parents were great cooks, but even when she was little, she had never liked the blueberries. Maybe her taste had developed more from then?

Much to Nick's surprise, she started scarfing it down. By the end of supper, they had to have seconds, and Judy had still out-eaten him.

"I didn't realize you could eat that much." Nick said jokingly as they walked into her room.

"I didn't realize either! I'm amazed my stomach isn't hurting right now."

The room was nearly identical to when Nick was there a week ago. The only difference was a large air mattress laying on the floor next to Judy's bed.

After the busy day, coupled with the food, they were exhausted, and got into the beds rather quickly. The air mattress definitely wasn't as comfortable as the bed, but he didn't exactly have a choice.

"Judy," He started, looking up at her bed. "Why did you act so weird about that monster?"

"It was gross and weird." She said frankly.

"But most of the things we fight are gross and weird." He said. "You reacted when he said he'd eat us."

She fell silent for a moment.

"Is that your phobia?"

"Of course not." She chuckled, nervously. "It's just an instinctual fear all prey have."

Nick let out a laugh. "Obviously you haven't been on the internet enough."

"Have you ever really thought about it, though?" She asked, rolling over to look at him. "It's like… there's no way to save yourself when that happens. You get reduced to nothing. There's no way to stop it, it's like a horrible death sentence."

"Well, I'm fairly certain you wouldn't have fit in that guy's mouth anyway."

"Probably not, but it's still just…" She shuddered, and pulled the covers up.

"Alright, I'll stop talking about it."

"Good night, Nick."

"Good night, Carrots."

In a few minutes, both of them were asleep. There was a loud groaning sound throughout the room, and the unconscious rabbit tossed and turned in her bed. She rolled to her back, as something crawled up her throat, something so quiet and soft than she couldn't feel it.

Six long, thin, insectoid legs pushed through her lips, and pried them open. It crawled out, and began crawling around on her face. It resembled a blue orb, with large purple lips, and bared teeth being the only features on it.

It crawled across the rabbit, and up to a window by her bed. It clung to the window, and started gnawing on it, chewing a hole through it in a few seconds. The thing slipped through the hole, and let out a laugh, crawling into the night.

* * *

Wolford sat in the Bullpen, next to Delgato. He was actually relieved that they had managed to get rid of the monster so early. All these multi-day escapades were starting to tire him out, and it wasn't like he had a job to do or anything.

Bogo entered the room, and started handing off assignments. It seemed to be a slow day, it was mostly patrolling. "You ready for an easy day?" Max asked his partner.

"God, you know it."

Eventually, the two were the only ones left in the room. Bogo gave off a snort. "And finally, Wolford and Delgato." He started.

At that moment, they knew this wasn't going to be an easy day.

"I have an ACTUAL case for you."

The two sat up straight, resisting their urge to groan loudly.

"Last night, there were a series of thefts around Savannah Central." He started. "Specifically at bakeries, convenience stores, and restaurants. Very violent, disgusting thefts."

Wolford walked up, and grabbed the case file from Bogo's hoof. He and Delgato walked out of the Bullpen, Max looking at the case file. There were multiple areas, all throughout the district. It didn't seem like something like the Tabu incident, it was all over the place.

"I suggest we check out one of the smaller places first." Delagto said as they entered the cruiser. "How about one of those convenience stores?"

"There's one nearby." Wolford said, shutting the file. "A Seven-Eleven just a few blocks away."

"Hey, maybe we can pick something up while we're there." Delgato joked as he started the car.

"If they have anything left, sure."

After a few minutes of driving, they pulled up to the Seven-Eleven, the only other car in the lot being the manager's. The manager was who they presumed was also the possum standing outside. They got out of the car, and introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm Officer Wolford, this is Officer Delgato." The tiger gave a quick wave down to the possum. "We hear there was a theft here?"

"Well, theft is one way to describe it." He sighed. He motioned for them to follow him inside. The possum used a smaller door to enter, while the officers used a larger door.

As they stepped through, they realized this definitely wasn't a normal theft.

Not only was the place a complete mess, racks knocked to the ground, various empty bags of chips, drink bottles, and other food containers littering the ground. Most of them seemed to have large bits taken out of them.

Of course, that was small potatoes compared to the massive hole in the middle of the store.

"So, you think some moles did this?" Delgato asked, obviously not seriously.

"Probably not." Wolford responded, not catching the sarcasm. He took a sniff of the air, and started retching.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, the smell's just…" He cleared his throat. Wait, the smell was familiar…

He looked around, and spotted several large patches of green slime scattered around the building, on walls, the floor, even the ceiling.

"Sir, do you know anything about what happened here?" Wolford asked, dead serious.

"Sorry, but the only person here last night was the janitor." The possum said. "Don't know where he went."

"What about the surveillance system?"

"Eaten."

"Huh."

"So, do we collect a sample or something?" Delgato asked, leaning over one of the slime puddles. "Because I don't want to touch this stuff."

"We'll probably have to order a hazmat crew." Wolford said. "Don't go near that stuff." He turned to the possum. "You probably want to get out of here. We might have to quarantine the place." The possum nodded, and rushed off through the door.

"You sound like you know something, Max." Delgato said, standing up.

"Maybe I do."

* * *

"GET UP, IT'S A DISASTER!"

The two burst out of their beds, and turned to see Stu, out of breath and panicked, looking into the room. "What's going on!?" Judy asked, worried.

"The festival! It was attacked!"

"WHAT!?"

They followed Stu to the rabbit hole, and to the festival grounds. Approaching, they realized how serious this attack had been.

Every booth and stand had been attacked, ripped to pieces. While they weren't in the hay maze, it was fairly obvious that large chunks of it had disappeared, judging by a new path that was cleaved through the entrance.

The three main attractions seemed perfectly fine, however, which was somewhat of a relief. They headed towards the large barn, and saw a crowd gathered around. In the center of the crowd was a rather rotund rabbit in a suit.

"Oh gosh, even the mayor's here." Stu said with a sigh as they joined into the crowd.

"We are working as hard as we can to figure out who caused all this mess!" The mayor announced from his podium. "We just… need a way to."

Nick leaned over to Judy. "Do they not have any cops out here?" He whispered.

"There's a sheriff." She replied back.

The sheriff stepped up, a rather bulky looking sheep dressed in a brown uniform. He took the microphone. "We may require volunteers in order to help find this vandal." He stated. "So if anyone here would like to help…"

"We'll help!" Judy shouted, raising her paw. She quickly grabbed Nick's paw with her free one, and raised it to the air.

"Wait, hold on-"

"Looks like we have volunteers!" The sheriff said. He squinted at them. "Hey, aren't you…?"

"Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD!" She announced.

"Officer Nick Wilde, also ZPD." Nick followed up, a bit less enthusiastically.

"Oh, it'll be wonderful having actual cops helping." The sheep sighed to himself. "I'll leave it in your obviously capable paws."

The mayor stepped back to the podium. "With superstar cops helping, we'll find this scoundrel in no time, and give him the punishment he deserves!" He leaned back from the microphone. "And it'll help my approval ratings."

The crowd gave an earnest clap, and then began to separate around the festival grounds.

"Alright, since you wanted to help, what do you suggest doing?"

"We need to get info." She said, slamming her paw into the other. "We should split up and ask around."

The two nodded, and split up. Judy headed towards the barn, while Nick headed towards the booth area.

"Excuse me!" Judy shouted, catching the attention of a number of animals around the barn. "This is police duty, I need to question some of you. If any of you have any info that might help, strange incidents last night, it would help!"

"I might have something, dear."

Judy turned, and saw her father. He looked distraught. "Dad? What happened?"

"I went back to the burrow to check on the crops, and…" He let out a long sigh. "All of it was gone!"

"What!?" She yelled. "Every single crop!?"

He nodded, and shrugged.

"Hey, the same thing happened to me!"

"Me too!

"My crops were gone too!"

She turned around, nearly every farmer in the area had started talking about their crops being gone. She wrote it down on her notepad. "This might be bigger than we thought…"

"What if this is a punishment!?" Yelled a rather hysterical sheep. "What if God unleashed a plague to destroy our crops!?"

There was a collective gasp from a large amount of the crowd. Judy looked at him skeptically.

"WE NEED TO PERFORM A BLOOD SACRIFICE!" Someone yelled.

"There will be no blood sacrifices!" Judy yelled. "We're civilized mammals, we can't just resort to this over this isolated incident!"

The crowd calmed down a bit.

"Was anyone here last night?" She asked, tapping her pen against the paper.

"I was!" Someone yelled. She looked over to see another sheep, this one with black fur, walk up to her. "I'm a night guard." She said.

"Oh, wonderful!" Judy exclaimed. "Did you see anything out of the ordinary?"

She nodded. "I didn't see anything, but I heard something. It sounded like… something big, shuffling about."

"Shuffling isn't exactly that descriptive."

"Well, it sounded like a bug walking around. But it was a really big bug."

Her eyes widened. "A bug?" The sheep nodded.

"There were some footprints, too. They might've been covered in the commotion, but they looked like if someone jabbed a large spike into the ground."

"So, like a bug's legs?"

"Exactly."

She jotted it down on her notepad. "Thank you." She closed the notebook and walked off. This might be bigger than they thought…

Meanwhile, with Nick, he was exploring the other half of the grounds. It was reduced to nothing but dirt and rubble, every booth had been destroyed, including the one they painstakingly prepared the other day.

To be honest, Nick was more upset about that than the festival being attacked.

He knelt down to examine the rubble of the Hopps' booth. It had been reduced to a pile of planks, with markings cleaved through nearly every one, massive chunks missing. It was certainly odd for a vandal to be this ruthless. He looked around at the other stands. They were in similar condition, but seemed to have less pieces destroyed. Odd.

"Nick, s'that you?"

His ears perked up. He recognized that voice, with the slight accent. He stood up, and whipped around.

The voice had come from a hyena, wearing a black and pink t-shirt, and jeans. She was familiar to Nick. "Emily?"

"In the flesh."

She held out a paw, and the two bumped them. "I haven't seen you in years, I thought you were in jail!"

"Henry told me you thought he was in jail, too." She said. "I'm like him, I'm doing community service. I'm helping to set up the fair. Well, I was."

"And Clawbick doesn't know?"

"Clawbick has no idea."

"How did you guys get sent to prison, anyway?" Nick asked. "Clawbick was always really careful about that."

"We conned him." She explained. "Set up an event he couldn't refuse, then called the police. We learned from the best."

"I'm flattered."

She chuckled. "So, you became a cop?"

"Yeah. I'm actually on cop duty right now, thanks to my partner." He started. "We're trying to figure out who attacked last night."

"I don't think it was a 'who', Nick." Emily walked over, and picked up one of the boards. "Look at these markings." She outlined the marking with a claw. It was rounded, slight bumps going around. "These are bite marks."

"Bite marks? What mammal has teeth like that?"

"Horses." Emily said. "But going by the size, this horse would've been slightly smaller than usual, but be mostly mouth."

"So, a weird mutant horse did this?" Nick asked.

"Of course not!" She laughed. "For one, horses don't eat wood."

"Very good point."

"Second…" She stood up, and motioned for the fox to follow her.

They walked down the path, occasionally passing a destroyed booth. They eventually walked up to what looked like a puddle, only it was bright green, and seemed to be moving slightly. It also reeked like nothing he'd ever smelt before.

"What is that?" He asked, clutching his nose.

"I found it while looking around." Emily said. "I don't know what it is, but I know it has something to do with the attack."

Nick leaned down, and looked at the puddle. "Do you think it's acidic?" He asked.

"Hard to tell, but I'm not touching it to find out."

"Hand me that board." He held his paw out, and the hyena handed it to him. He poked the slime with the board, and lifted it up.

In a few seconds, the goo dropped back to the ground, a large chunk of the board now having been burned off.

"Definitely acidic." He said, tossing the board away. "I'm really hoping that what I think did this didn't."

"What do you think caused it?" Emily asked.

"That's private, personal information.

"I don't want to know." She let out a chuckle.

Nick got up. "It was nice seeing you again, Em."

"Yeah, great to see you too." The two shook paws. "I'll probably see you around, I've been doing a lot of work in the city too."

"I have to go meet up with my partner." He said. "Maybe next time we see each other I can introduce you?"

"That would be wonderful."

Nick ran off.

Shortly after, the two officers met up near the entrance. "Alright, so you find anything?" Judy asked.

"Yeah." Nick said. "I found some weird things."

"Me too!"

He gave a bow. "Please, you go first."

"Ooh, such manners." She chuckled sarcastically, before pulling out her notepad. "So, whatever it was that attacked seemed to destroy all the crops nearby before heading here… including mine."

"But, your farm is way too far away from here to be considered close." Nick stated, a bit confused. "If it was trying to attack here, then it would have gone out of its way to attack your crops."

Judy gave a shrug. "I don't know, it's weird." She continued with her discoveries. "Second, it's some kind of bug. There were bug noises, and footprints that looked like a bug's."

"Well, I found some stuff out too." Nick started. "There were bite marks in the boards of the booths, something ate them. And they weren't normal teeth, either."

She gave him a quick gulp.

"AND I found some weird, acidic slime in the middle of the grounds." He continued. "Burned through wood in a second."

"You don't think…?"

"Let's see…" Nick started pacing. "It likes food…" He mimicked someone eating an apple. "It's a bug…" He stuck two digits above his head, and wiggled them. "It has teeth…" He quickly bared his teeth. "And, it leaves slime behind." He feigned puking.

"So, that means…" Nick gave her a nod. "But, we killed him! We saw him explode!"

"Guess he didn't die." Nick shrugged. "What are we supposed to do?"

Judy took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Well, the only thing we can do right now is patrol."

"How do we even know if he'll show up tonight?" Nick asked. "There's plenty of places he could go."

"I don't know!" She yelled at him. "This is the only thing we can do right now, alright!? We have no leads of where it'll go, I doubt it's going to show during broad daylight…"

Nick sighed. "This is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

"Oh, definitely."

* * *

"Can't we just head home, Max?"

"Not until we find whoever's doing this."

The two had been after this thief all day, at this point the sun had gone down. Wolford looked at the case file, all of the original locations, as well as a few new ones added later, had been crossed out.

"Sorry to say, but I think we've run out of leads." Delgato continued, giving the file a quick glance before going back to the road.

Wolford shut the file. "Yeah, I know." He sighed. "But this is important, we need to find it soon!"

"Well, unless we get a call in the next five minutes, we're heading back to the station."

Suddenly, the radio began to beep. Max gave Delgato a smug grin, and pressed the button. "Oh, hey!" Greeted Clawhauser, sounding just as cheerful as ever. "Yeah, we got another report a few minutes ago. Happytown, Joy Road, something about weird sounds in an abandoned restaurant, weird slime patches, you know."

Max pumped his fist, as Delgato shook his head. "We'll be there soon, thanks Ben!" He let go of the button. "Alright, we're right by Happytown, if we can get there soon, we can catch him!"

Delgato sighed.

In a few minutes, they pulled up on Joy Road. Happytown was far from happy, it was basically the slum of the city. Mammals still lived there, but only because it was incredibly cheap, or because it was useful as a base for illegal criminal activity.

Needless to say, it was dangerous for cops to be there, but it would be even more dangerous if they let those things get away.

They stepped into the street, and looked around. Dirty roads, dirty, run down buildings, and an even dirtier, almost completely wrecked restaurant looked down at them.

"'John's Organic Tofu Burgers'?" Delgato read off the faded, vintage sign. "What idiot thought that was a good idea?"

"Probably from out of town."

Max went up to the window, glancing inside. He could see something moving around in there, a brief glinting of steel shining through the darkness. The two pulled out their phones, and stepped inside.

Instantly, they heard insects scuttling, from multiple different areas around the room. They shined the phones around the room, only seeing the ruined tables and counter. They stepped deeper into the darkness. Their hearts began to race.

"I think this might have been a bad idea." Delgato whispered. Wolford gave a nod.

His ears perked up at a sound. It was a small sound, like something sliding across the ground, something sniffing, something suckling. It was coming from above them.

He shined the light up at the ceiling.

It was a rounded… thing, resembling a plated, overly large slug. A large, thick tube, most likely its mouth, was sniffing around at the ceiling, as it slid forward at an incredibly slow speed. Wolford nearly fell back from shock at the sight of the thing.

"What is it?" Delgato whispered. Wolford pointed up, and the tiger shined the light on the thing, causing it to give out a squeak.

"Holy shit." Delgato said, in disbelief at what they had found. "Is this thing our culprit?"

Its tube mouth pointed down towards them, and let out a long, thick strand of slime. It let off the same odor as the slime from the convenience store, and every other location they had been to. The thing began to rock the slime back and forth, flinging it directly into Wolford's face. Just before it hit, he took a deep breath, but the smell was still awful.

The slime quickly whipped back into the thing's mouth, and it let out a hiss. It curled up into a ball, and fell towards the ground, bouncing and unfurling back out as it hit the second time. It hissed again, this time much louder. Noise began to come from the counter.

"I don't think we have A culprit, Rich." Max started, as they shined the light over to the counter.

What looked like a centipede made out of leather, and with a boot for a head, poked over the counter, before rearing up and launching over. It had black, leather boots at both ends, and many, many legs. It somehow hissed without having a mouth.

Two more, mostly identical, creatures crawled up the counter next. They were blue, and segmented. Their stump-like heads seemed to only have large, circular mouths, rimmed with teeth. Their backsides, however, seemed to extend a bit, and ended in pudgy hands. Both of them carried a different, overly large utensil, the left one a fork, and the right one a knife.

"I think we have a swarm of culprits."

"Well," Delgato started, stunned. "This is different."

The rounded bug-thing curled up into a ball, and rolled towards the other three insects, unfurling and turning to face the two officers. It let out another hiss, the other bugs following suit.

"Rich, you need to get out of here." Max said, moving his paw in front of his partner.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want you to be hurt, duh." Well, and because he needed to transform in order to deal with these guys, but he couldn't say that out loud.

"Sorry, Max, but we're a team." Delgato said, moving the arm out of the way. "We do this together."

The tiger whipped out his Taser, and fired it at the large, rounded insect. The wires bounced off its thick hide, and onto the floor.

"Well, I thought that might have gone better."

One of the armed insects, the one with the fork, leaped off the counter, lunging the utensil towards Max. The wolf leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the hit as the fork lodged itself into the ground. Max raised his foot, attempting to squash the stuck bug.

"Watch out!"

Max looked out, and ducked down as the centipede-boot monster flung through the air, barely going over his head. He looked over, watching as Delgato dodged out of the way as the armored bug's roll. The knife wielding insect leaped through the air, attempting to slice at the distracted tiger.

He rushed forward, stepping on the fork wielding one, and used it as leverage to launch himself through the air, knocking Delgato out of the way of the slice. They tumbled to the ground, and quickly got up.

They looked around, seeing they were now surrounded by the four insects. Wolford stepped forward, and punched his paw. "Looks like you guys haven't given me a choice." He said. He flung an arm forward, fist clenched. "Let's do this."

He ran up, and kicked the knife bug in the hand, quickly snatching the knife from it. He waved the knife around, much like how he handled a sword, and quickly knocked the boot insect backwards. He swung the blade towards the fork bug, only for it to get stuck in between the fork's prongs. There was a quick struggle, before he knocked it back as well.

He then swung the knife directly into the armored bug's back. As it struck, there was a loud clanging noise, and the wolf felt his entire body shake. He also swore he heard the bug laughing at him.

It quickly curled up into a ball, and rolled into the wolf, knocking him backwards and making him drop the knife.

Delgato helped him up a bit. "That was impressive." He complimented. "I didn't know you knew how to use a sword."

"I've been training."

They looked as the monster bugs again began to circle in on them, the knife bug picking up its knife.

"Well, looks like this is it." Delgato said as they backed into the wall. "I was really hoping to die in a much better way."

"Rich, before we die," Wolford started. "I just want you to know that I…"

Suddenly, the bugs stopped crawling towards them. They started looking at each other and making odd noises. The armored one curled up into a ball, and rolled right through the glass door. The boot one launched itself through a window, while the twin hand bugs crawled through the hole in the door.

"Alrighty then." Delgato said, both of them confused.

"Alright, Rich," Max started, stepping away from the tiger. "I really, REALLY need you to stay out of this now."

"How do you think you can beat those things on your own?" Delgato asked, skeptically. "We couldn't even fend them off!"

"I can't tell you." With that, Wolford dashed out of the diner, leaving the tiger behind, and confused.

He quickly followed a trail of slime that had been strewn across the road. After a few minutes of following it, he stopped.

"Alright, I'll never make it to wherever they're going before they get away." He said to himself. "Guess its time to do that thing!"

He pinched the back end of his Zoolizer, and transformed into ZooSilver. The silver ranger leaped into the air, landing on top of a building, and then leaped from one to the other, until he followed the trail to its end.

Which, unfortunately, happened to be the main railway station.

The trail continued inside, which happened to be a massive mess. He hadn't made it in time to prevent them from destroying the station, but the trail continued towards a single train, where it slimed up and onto the top.

"Last train to Bunnyburrow." An announcement sounded. "It will be leaving in five minutes."

"Bunnyburrow?" Silver said to himself. His ears perked up. "Oh no."

The train started to move, and the wolf rushed towards it, leaping to the top. He ducked down as the caboose left through the exit. As he got up, he felt the wind blowing into his body. It was probably a bad idea to be riding on top of a train in the middle of night, but he had a job to do.

He saw the insects, not having any trouble sticking to the roof of the train car, only a few cars down. He quickly leaped from car to car, and made it to the four.

"Alright, bugsters, you aren't getting away this time!" He threatened, pointing his blade forward. The insects turned to look at him, and then started skittering off. Silver lowered his blade in disappointment. "Guess they can't understand me."

The only one satnding in front of him was the heavily armored maggot. Silver swung his blade forward. "Time for a second take!" He leaped to the thing's side, and began rapidly slicing it, only for there to be no effect. "Oh come on, seriously!?" He shouted.

There was a hiss, and he ducked as the boot insect flew over him, before attaching to the side of the train. It reared back, and attempted to strike at the wolf rapidly with the foot not on the side of the train. Silver quickly ducked and weaved through each strike, but punched the boot during its final strike, knocking it back.

The wolf glanced over. There was a tunnel coming. He quickly leaped to the ground, hoping that it would knock the insects off.

It went dark for a moment, and then turned to light. The train was travelling through the Rainforest District, where it was currently raining.

He got up, nearly slipping on the now wet metal, and looked around. The insects were gone, maybe they had been knocked off like he hoped.

There was some more scuttling, and suddenly the twins climbed up form the side of the train, each brandishing their utensils.

"Well, thought I might've gotten lucky." Silver groaned as he got up, drawing his blade. The two leaped into the air themselves, and somehow began defying gravity, spinning around much like how normal arms would. Silver quickly blocked each blow for a few hits, before being struck in the stomach by the fork.

Instead of being knocked back, the wolf simply slipped on the water, falling to the ground as the two arms passed over him in another attempted strike. He quickly got up, trying not to slip again, and spun the guard of his blade.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

He whipped the sword forward, causing a beam to unfurl from it and wrap around the two floating arms, who made an angry hissing noise. "Looks like you guys are tied up!" Silver joked. "Uh, wait… looks like you two could use a hand! That's better."

One of the two made a very angry hissing noise.

Silver turned around, another tunnel incoming.

He quickly ducked down until the darkness passed, the two bugs still wrapped up. He looked as light returned, and the two were now missing from the laser whip, which was still dangling in the wind.

"Seriously?" He said, standing up and drawing the whip back. The train was now in tundra Town, where it was, of course, snowing.

The snow made his vision a bit fuzzy, but his other senses were fine. He was a wolf after all, they were designed to survive in this kind of weather. His ears perked as he heard a sound, and quickly spun around to block another kick from the foot bug.

"Oh, so you didn't fall off." He sighed, before knocking the monster back. His ears perked again as he heard something from his side. He stepped out of the way as the knife carrying bug leaped from the side of the train, attempting to impale him.

The armed bug quickly threw its fork into the air, where the centipede boot began to juggle it on its foot. It was flicked into the air, where it spun, and the boot kicked it directly in the handle, sending it flying towards Silver, prongs first.

Silver knocked the fork into the roof of the train with his blade, where it bounced back up. He then struck it again with the blade, causing it to fly into the two bugs, knocking them down.

He could see another tunnel coming up, and he need to get these two out of the way. He looked around at the snow as they recovered. He spun the guard.

"HOT HOT SUN"

He thrust the blade forward, creating a burst of heat which melted the snow into steam instantly. The steam blast was powerful enough to knock the two forward, directly into the wall above the tunnel. Silver quickly ducked down, and waited for it to pass.

He got up again, he had gone from the blistering cold to the unbearable heat of Sahara Square. And standing in front of him now were the armored insect, and the knife wielding one standing on top of it.

"Great."

Suddenly, sand began to blow across the train. An artificial sandstorm, of course. It was blocking his vision even worse than the snow.

"PERFECT!"

The armored bug rolled up into a ball, with the armed bug still riding on top of it. It began to scuttle around, moving the ball around and towards Silver. It swung its knife towards Silver, who blocked it. It soon turned into a sparring match, the bugs rolling and hopping all around silver as he attempted to block every single hit.

Eventually, the bugs managed to land a lucky blow, knocking Silver back. "Ugh, I'm so done with this." He grunted as he recuperated. He spun the guard once more.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time seemed to slow down, and he weaved through the sandstorm, before launching a single strike from his sword into the area between the frozen bugs. Time resumed, and he flicked the blade up, launching the smaller bug, which flew into the car a few ones down.

"I'm not letting you leave this city!" Silver declared, pointing his sword towards the armored bug as it unfurled.

It let out a laugh, and Silver looked up as the train approached another tunnel. He ducked again.

He got up, and saw that he was now leaving the city and heading into the mountains. He let out a long sigh, before turning back to the insect. Now, all four of them were there, growling at him.

"Well, I always wanted to get out of the city for a bit." He said, drawing his sword.

* * *

"So, how long do we need to do this stake out?" Nick asked as he shined his phone around the festival grounds.

"All night, if we have to." Judy returned. "We can't just let a monster run around and destroy things. Besides, we've already had to postpone the festival anyway, so there's no harm in us staying up."

Nick chuckled as they walked along. "Missing the festival wasn't exactly what I was worried about, Carrots."

"Are you worried about the monster?" She asked, the fox nodding. "Seriously? We already beat him once, we can do it again!"

"Yeah, but how did he even come back to life." Nick asked. "He didn't get upgraded or anything." She shrugged in response. "What makes you think he'll even show up here again? He could just move on to another farm."

"I just have a hunch, alright?"

"Well, if we're out here all night and nothing happens, you can't blame me."

"Just keep your eyes open." She said, rolling her eyes. "And ears, and nose."

"I think you're the one who should be keeping their ears open, Fluff." Nick chuckled.

"Good idea." Her ears perked up, and started twisting around. "If a sheep could hear it without seeing it, then a rabbit should have no problem!"

The fox let out a long sigh, making his uncertainty to the situation apparent. Logically, if the monster was attacking, why would it stay in a single place? It just didn't really make any…

"I heard something!"

"Seriously?" Nick said. She turned to him, and gave a quick nod, before shushing him. The rabbit motioned for him to follow.

"It's in there." Judy whispered, pointing towards the entrance to the hay maze.

The fox sighed as they entered. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"We can just transform to fight him, you know." Judy said as they continued deeper into the maze. The hay stacks were taller than both of them combined, and he moon's casting light made them both feel uneasy. While Nick was quick to make this apparent, Judy was not.

"We can take him. We did it before."

"Technically, you did it before."

"That just means he'll be easier to beat if we work together!"

"Huh. Guess you're right." Nick suddenly felt a lot better.

It quickly waned as they approached a large hole in the side of the maze. It looked like the hay had been completely eaten through, by something much larger than them.

"Well, that's not good." Nick said as they walked through the hole.

They spotted more holes, creating a path through the maze, each hole was similar in size, but completely different in shape.

"Looks like he got lost." Nick joked, Judy rolling her eyes in response before following the path.

It took them a few minutes, but as they headed down a straightaway, seeing another hole cleaved through the wall, they finally heard something. Sick, disgusting biting noises. It was right nearby, much to their horror.

"Alright, so we run in, and attack." Judy suggested as they huddled by the edge of the hole.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, leader?" He asked, a bit mockingly. "Because you were the one who told me that staking out the enemy was the best way to defeat them."

"Well, we've already staked out Dolmar." She said. "We know he doesn't do much besides roll around and eat things."

"But-"

"I'm leader, this is final." She said sternly. "Now let's finish this."

Nick rolled his eyes. He definitely didn't feel better now, something seemed off.

They quietly rounded the corner. It was dark, but they could see something moving. It did not look like the monster they had fought before. It seemed to be suspended on six thin legs, which lowered a large bulky head down towards the hay, which it seemed to be snacking on.

They gulped as they continued the approach.

Suddenly, the monster swiveled around, directly into the phone's flash light. It had Dolmar's exact face, only at a much larger scale. It let out a hissing roar, stunning the two in absolute fear. It quickly clawed up the hay, and skittered off across the remaining hay, towards the main grounds.

The two stood there in silence for a moment.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked, not even turning to his partner.

"I'm pretty sure that was Dolmar." She said.

"Should we go try and stop him?"

Judy nodded, and the two transformed, leaping out of the hay maze and into the main grounds. The thing was just standing around, seemingly looking for something. The two drew their weapons, and approached.

"Alright, bug ugly, time for you to go down!" Red yelled up to the monster, who seemed to ignore them.

Blue whipped out her blasters, and fired at the thing's back, causing it to turn around. "There we go."

It let out another hiss, and raised one of its long, spindly legs, before striking it directly in front of the two, leaving a large marking in the ground. The two jumped back in surprise as it struck.

The Dolmar head bug took a deep breath, and then exhaled, firing a wave of purple smoke towards them. The smell of it seemed to pierce through their suits, leaving them coughing on the ground. It hissed again, and then started to creep away.

The smoke cleared away, and the two gave chase to the outskirts of the fairground. They watched it as it seemed to be looking around for something.

Red pulled out the Vickscannon, alongside its ZooTag. "Alright, I want to get this over with before anything happens." He said, plugging it into the gun.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

The cannon fired a massive blast towards the insect, which spun around and caught the blast in its mouth. Red lowered the cannon in surprise, and Blue stared in awe. "That's definitely new."

The bug quickly spat the fireball back out, the two leaping out of the way to dodge it. "Guess he can do a lot more than just eat and roll around, huh?" The fox panted.

The insect thing lowered itself above them, and let out a faint hiss. Suddenly, there was a louder hiss, from farther away. The monster rose, and turned around. The two followed its line of sight, seeing four much smaller things approach. The thing stomped over to them, and they began to converse.

"Uhhhh." Red let out, unsure of what was going on.

"I have just as much an idea of what's going on as you do." Blue responded.

"I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA!"

The two looked up, seeing Silver standing on top of the car of the nearby Ferris wheel. He leaped down, drawing his blade, and jabbed it into the top of the head insect's body. It stumbled in pain for a moment, before Silver jumped off, landing next to the two.

"Silver?" Blue said, the two getting up. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was chasing those bug guys around the city, until they suddenly decided to come here." He explained. "I had a feeling they were after something, and realized you two might need my help."

"Well, you couldn't be more right." Red said, stretching out. "So, what exactly are they after?"

"The head."

"The… head?" Blue questioned, eyeing at the head monster.

"I don't know how, but somehow Dolmar split up into different monsters." He said. "I think they've been trying to regroup."

The three watched as the spider-like head moved to the other four, lowering itself down a bit. The other insects clung to the head, and they began to glow.

"We can't let him reform!" Silver yelled. "We need to hit it with everything we've got!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and plugged the ZooTags into them, aiming towards the monsters. Silver quickly spun the guard on his blade.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

"HOT HOT SUN"

All three of them fired at the same time, directly into the face of the monster. There was a massive explosion, nearly knocking them back, as well as flattening the grass around them. They covered their faces as dirt flew across.

They watched the smoke flicker through the air. "Did we do it?" Blue asked, stepping forward.

"Think again, schmucks!"

The smoke cleared, revealing Dolmar, as he had been before. He let out a hearty laugh, and drew his utensil weapons. "It's time for your last meals!"

He curled up into a ball, and rolled towards the three, knocking the surprised rangers into the air. They scattered through the air, before hitting the ground. Dolmar unrolled, and let out another laugh as he pointed his fork towards the sky. "Looks like someone else wants a bite!"

The three got up, and watched as a flying motorcycle parked onto the ground. "Yo." Sambash said as he hopped off. "Looks like everything worked even better than expected, huh?"

"Sure did, boss!" Dolmar sounded. The three rangers got up. Red looked around confused, before raising his paw.

"Scuse me, can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Well, since the plan's run its course, I guess I can tell you." Sambash started, twirling his gun. "When you 'destroyed' Dolmar the other day, you just caused him to go into hibernation under the ground, and his separate parts pillaged food from the city."

"Can you believe there wasn't a single decent joint there!?" The pill bug yelled in frustration. "I went to every single one!"

"So, that means you didn't get to power up!" Blue announced. "You only power up when you eat good food!"

"That's where you came in rabbit!"

She turned to Sambash, who gave off a laugh. "What does that mean, helmet head?"

"When Dolmar's insides splattered all over you, it meant that he started, well…" He hesitated for a moment, with a brief laugh. "He incubated in you."

All three rangers were disgusted, but their varying levels of disgust were hidden by the masks. Judy, most obviously, was very disgusted. "Okay, now this is the grossest thing ever." Red sounded.

"And your parents' cooking is delicious!" Dolmar said, patting his stomach. "That was the best blueberry pie I've ever had! Strengthened me right up!"

"You used me!?" Blue yelled, stamping her foot. "THAT THING WAS INSIDE ME!?"

"Didn't just use you, baby." Sambash laughed. "We used your boyfriend, we used your parents, we even used the police! And now, Dolmar's at his strongest!" He quickly raised a hand, and showed a glowing, red object. "Now, lets see if we can go beyond that?"

He tossed the badge, where it plunged directly into Dolmar's stomach. He started convulsing, and rolled up into a ball. The ball pulsed, and expanded to massive proportions. It unfurled again, revealing Dolmar's new, massive form. It looked similar to his normal form, except his legs had been replaced with the back of a pill bug, both sides covered in legs, like a centipede. Its now massive, much longer arms, jutted out of the sides, while his face remained exactly the same, except it was larger, and as such more terrifying. On his stomach was the chaos symbol.

He reached behind him, and pulled out a massive fork and knife, which he seemed to use to balance himself. "CHAOS DOLMAR WILL DEVOUR YOU WHOLE!" It roared, shaking the ground.

The three stared up at the massive beast, and then turned back to watch Sambash fly off.

"SEE YOU NEVER, ASSHOLES!"

They looked back at the monster as it hovered over them.

"You know, I hate to be pessimistic, but I think we're gonna die." Red said.

"NOT IF WE RUN!" Blue yelled. "SCATTER!"

The three ran off, leaving the monster confused, thinking which one it should follow. It eyed the rabbit, running off into the field, and started to chase her.

Blue looked back as she heard loud stomps, seeing the thing crawling on its stomach at ridiculous speeds. "Why did it have to go after me first!?" She stuck her paw to the side of her helmet. "Guys, the monster's coming after me, I could use some help!"

"I thought you said 'scatter'," Red started, a bit sarcastically. "Now you want us to group together?"

"I'm about to be EATEN ALIVE, NICK!"

"Point."

"We'll be right there to help, Blue!" Silver said through the communicator. "Just hold on until we make it there."

She had been swerving through the field in a zigzagging pattern, attempting to confuse the monster, but it was still following directly behind her. She really, really did not want to be eaten alive.

The giant insect was gaining on her, she could practically feel its breath on her tail. Its hot, stinky breath. Suddenly, it parted.

Then, a giant fork shot down in front of her.

She fell back in surprise, looking up as the monster hovered over her. "Mmmm, I love rabbit meat." It said, leaning down and licking its lips. Blue looked up in horror as the monster's drool started to drip down around her. She was petrified.

The monster quickly snatched her in its hand, and turned to see the two other rangers racing towards them. "LET GO OF HER!" The fox yelled, enraged. He stoped, and pulled out the Vickscannon, firing it several times at the monster.

Dolmar quickly twisted around, turning its back to the blasts. The fireballs bounced harmlessly of the armored hide. It spun back around, and laughed. "If you want me to let go of her, I know just where to put her!"

"RED!" Blue yelled as the monster lifted her up. "DON'T GIVE MONSTERS PERFECT RETORTS!" She looked down seeing Dolmar open his toothy maw, wide open. "Also, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Dolmar let go, letting her fall into his mouth. He quickly clamped his teeth shut as she passed by them. "Mmm, almost as good as her parent's cooking!" The monster laughed.

"JUDY!"

Red fell to his knees. The words she had said from the other night started ringing through his head. Being eaten is like a death sentence. She was dead.

The giant insect pulled out his knife and fork and started towards the two stunned mammals. "Time for you to join her! Though, I doubt you'll taste as good."

"Red, get up!" Silver said, trying to knock the fox out of his funk. "We can still save her!"

"How?" He said weakly. "If you get eaten, It's…"

"Well, for one, he didn't chew her." He stated. "And digestion can take a while, she might still be fine!"

"Really?" He asked, turning to the wolf. He gave a nod.

"But if we want to save her, we need to get somewhere safe!" He yelled, helping the fox up. The monster was still closing in on them.

Red looked up, seeing the Ferris wheel towering above them. "I think I know where to go."

The two rushed off towards the wheel, and leaped up onto one of the cars. They kept jumping until they reached the car at the very top, looking down as the monster attempted, and failed, to climb up.

"Alright, we should be safe for a little bit." Red said, panting. "We need a plan to get rid of this guy and save Judy."

"Well, we can't just destroy him now," Silver started. "If Judy's still inside him, she'll probably be caught in the explosion."

"So, we need a way to get her out of there…" He placed a paw to his chin in thought. "What would Judy do in this…" His ears perked up, and he hit himself. "Duh, we can still ask her!"

"What? How…" It dawned on the wolf. "The communicators!"

Red nodded, and placed a paw to the side of his helmet. "Blue? Come in! Are you alright?"

"I could be doing better." She replied.

Oh thank god she was still alive.

"We're going to get you out of there." He said, trying to sound calm. "Do you think you could try to cut your way out?"

"Oh, I would if I wasn't clinging for dear life!"

The rabbit sighed, and looked around the cramped, entirely dark area. She could only see anything thanks to her night vision. She was definitely in a stomach, and was clinging to the side of one by a knife, jabbed into it.

Below her was nothing but a pool of thick, green acid. Stomach acid, probably, or at least whatever this thing's equivalent to stomach acid was.

"Guess this isn't how you wanted to spend your vacay, huh?" The fox joked.

"Not the time, Nick."

"So, do you have any ideas?" He asked. "Because we have nothing."

"Try hitting him with the Solar Flare Saber and Eclipse Mode!" She suggested. "You might be able to cut right through his stomach!"

"If we can get to it." Silver said, joining the conversation. "We can't go through his back either, I've tried."

"We'll be getting you out soon, Carrots." Red finished.

"Please please please do it quick."

The two felt a rumble as the car started to move. They looked over the edge, seeing that the massive pill bug was slowly spinning the wheel, trying to get them closer.

"Well, if he wants us to get closer," Red started, pulling out a golden ZooTag. "Then we better get as close as possible!" He plugged it into his Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paws. "You weaken it with the Eclipse Mode, I'll cut it open." Red continued. Silver gave a nod, and the two leaped down to the car nearest the monster.

"So, looks like my next meal has decided to come to me!" The monster chuckled. "You're very eager to join your friend!"

"Eager, definitely." He motioned towards the stomach with his massive blade. "SILVER, NOW!"

Silver spun the guard of his blade as he slid under the monster.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time seemed to slow down for the wolf as he fell, facing the monster's massive, fleshy stomach. The weak spot was the massive emblem on it, so he rapidly struck the spot with his blade.

As time ran out, he hit the ground, and the monster whined in pain, clutching at its belly. "What was that!?" It yelled.

"Serious indigestion!" Red quipped, before smacking the monster's face with the blade. It flung back, arms moving away from the stomach. He ran off the top of the car, and swung the sword directly towards the stomach.

It seemed to retract as the sword swung by.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, before the stomach suddenly distended, and slammed the fox backwards, into the control station of the Ferris wheel.

"RED!" The wolf yelled, turning towards the unconscious fox's location. The insect swung its abdomen directly into the wolf launching him into the wheel as well.

"Idiots, I knew you were going to try that! The monster roared. "Just because I'm big and hungry doesn't mean I don't realize I have a giant glowing weak spot!"

"Guys?" Blue was still hanging by a dagger, and the acid seemed to be getting closer. "Guys, can you hear me!?"

No response.

She sighed. This had been her fault. She had been overconfident and had gone back on her own advice. She was supposed to be the leader, she was supposed to be the one who helped get them out of situations like this, but she hadn't considered anything other than beating it, because it had been SO easy last time!

Now, they were all going to die.

She could feel something rising in her. Something she didn't like the feeling of.

"No, no, no!" She yelled, watching as her Zoolizer started to spark. "I don't need your help! Not again!"

"Face it," Said a voice in her head. "You totally need me."

"NO!"

She felt a sharp bolt of pain through her.

"SAVAGE ON"

There was a rippling energy throughout the monster's stomach, making him feel a bit uneasy. "Ough, maybe that rabbit wasn't good for my stomach…" He moaned.

Red rose, and watched as the monster contorted in pain. A thin line seemed to appear on its stomach, which then pulsed.

"Uh oh." It whimpered, before exploding.

From the explosion flew the Chaos Badge, as well as a pig, who crashed next to the wheel. Silver recovered just in time to hear horrible laughter coming from within the blaze.

"Man, I gave him the worst case of indigestion he's ever had!" Savage laughed, stepping out of the blaze. He quickly flashed his claws towards the two. "Who wants to go next?"

"We don't have time for this, Savage!" Red yelled, walking towards him. "If you don't let her go, we'll be dealing with bigger issues!"

Savage laughed. "Trust me, I'm the biggest issue you'll ever have! But, I get what you mean."

The fox stopped in his tracks, surprised. "You… do?"

"Yeah. If you two get crushed by a giant monster, I won't be able to kill anyone!" He said, a bit indignantly. "So, I'll be going now. But trust me, Wilde, I'll be seeing you very, very soon." He raised a claw, and rocked it back and forth. "And when I'm here, every second counts."

The rangers shuddered.

There was another burst of energy, as Blue returned to normal, dropping to her knees. "Ugh, what happened?" She asked as the two rushed over to her.

"Savage happened." Red explained.

"Yeah, I think he saved your life." Silver followed.

She quickly got up and stamped her foot. "SERIOUSLY!?" She yelled. "I hate that guy!"

"We can worry about that later, we have bigger bugs to squish." Red said. They turned and watched as the badge lifted into the air, and flew off into the distance, forming Chaos Dolmar once again.

"I'm back, and hungrier than ever!"

"Ugh, I hate looking at him." Blue groaned. "Let's do this, and fast."

The two mechs formed, and then combined into ZooRobo Oh Kami, landing in front of the massive insect. It shined both of its blades at the monster, and stomped forwards.

"You can't beat me!" Dolmar roared. "My back armor's too strong!"

"Yeah, we know." Silver said, rolling his eyes.

"But you haven't had to deal with ZooRobo yet!" Blue yelled, jolting the controls forward. The robot raised both of its blades, and the monster spun around, attempting to block them. The swords struck down, cutting directly through the monster's backside, it splitting into chunks and flying off.

It cried in pain, and crawled away. "How did you do that!?" It yelled.

"ZooRobo Oh Kami is stronger than your back armor, burgers for brains." Red said.

Energy started to glow from the monster's mouth, as it shot a burb of energy forward. The mech held up its blades, blocking the energy.

"We know all of your attacks now!" Blue sounded, pumping her fist. "You're completely beaten!"

"No, this isn't possible!"

The robot leaped forward, performing a cross cut, and sliced directly through the now completely weakened monster. It sparked and stumbled backwards. "I didn't even get a last meal!" It yelled before exploding.

The mech performed a pose, and then vanished, leaving the three rangers back on the fair ground.

"Well, that was exhausting." Nick said, untransforming.

"We managed to save the festival though!" Judy let out cheerfully, also untransforming.

"I take it you guys are going to be staying here for a bit longer?" Silver asked.

"Well, we were only going to stay here until Thursday," Judy started. "But the festival's been moved, and we can't be off work for an entire week, so…"

"How about we stay here a bit longer than Thursday?" Nick suggested. "Help clean things up, fix up the festival before next week?"

"That's a great idea!" The rabbit said, ecstatic. "But we'll only stay until Sunday."

The fox nodded, before turning to the wolf ranger. "And Max, when we get back, we have something we want to talk to you about."

"Is it something bad?" He sounded a bit worried. "Did I mess up?"

"No, not at all!" Judy continued. "We just feel its time you know what's going on."

"So, just go home, and don't worry about it." Nick finished. He turned to the unconscious pig laying on the ground. "And can you, uh...?"

Silver sighed. "Alright, I'll take that guy home too." He walked over to the pig, and braced himself, nearly falling over as he hoisted it up. "See you guys next week!" He said through his teeth, before leaping off.

"Do you think he can handle this alternate universe stuff?" Judy asked, a bit concerned.

"I don't think a lot of mammals can." Nick followed. "But I feel like he'll be fine."

* * *

"So, have you found out anything about it yet?"

The goat walked down the hallway, a leopard in a lab coat trailing in front of him. "Y-yes, Mr. Herder."

"CHIEF Herder, to you."

"We have found out something about it… Chief." He said, a bit nervous. They walked into a room, which was surrounded by computers. In the middle of it was a small pedestal, a glass box containing a small silver object, many wires connected to it.

"How did you even find this thing?' The leopard asked, as he started fiddling with the computers.

"None of your business."

"Does the mayor know you have this thing?" He asked again. "He might not want you with something like it."

"It is also none of the mayor's business." The goat snarled. He walked up to the pedestal. "And why would the mayor be bothered with this thing?"

"It's like a miniature nuclear reactor!" The leopard sounded. "The power it holds is through the roof!"

"So, it can be weaponized?" Herder asked, hopeful.

"In theory, yes." The leopard responded. "We could work out some way to harness it, weaponize it. But… why would you want to?"

"Haven't you heard, doctor?" The goat started. "We're under attack, we need everything to help the city."

"But, we already have…"

"What makes you think they can be trusted!?" He yelled at the startled leopard. "I'm your boss, if I wanted I could fire you on the spot! So do what I say."

"Yes, chief."


	21. Insane in the Brane

"Don't they realize that I need time to come up with plans!?"

The golden robot slammed his spear into the roof of the building, frustrated at his current predicament. "It's not like I can just come up with a brilliant scheme in a week, do you know how difficult that is!? I have absolutely no idea what to do!"

He turned to face a single Ugutz, which he had made simply to rant to. "I need to come up with something, or else the boss is gonna have me scrapped!" He paused, and approached the Ugutz, staring it directly in its mechanical face. "You wouldn't happen to have any ideas, would you?"

The robot gave a long, mechanical shrug.

Yogostein huffed, puffing a blast of smoke into the Ugutz' face, causing it to stumble backwards. "Next time," Yogostein started. "I'm going to make something capable of creative thinking before going off on a rant!"

He smacked the Ugutz backward with his spear, and turned back to look onto the streets. "Maybe I could make some kind of car monster?" He said to himself, watching a vehicle pass by. "Nah, not creative enough."

He grumbled to himself for a moment, and then let out a long sigh. "I wish my old teammates were here."

* * *

"So, how was your break?" Wolford asked, sitting on a rather uncomfortably small chair, taken from the kitchen table. Judy and Nick sat on the couch across from him.

"Oh, it was… alright." Nick said, a bit reluctantly.

Judy jabbed him in the side. "Stop trying to act all cool, Nick." She scolded, the fox rubbing his arm. "We had a great time, managed to get a lot of stuff done."

"What kind of stuff?" Wolford asked.

"Helping out around the fairground." Nick answered. "We volunteered to help fix everything while we were there."

"How charitable of you two."

"We were kind of the ones who caused it to get all ruined." Judy admitted, ears lowering a bit. "It was really the only thing we could do. There was some fun rides, though Nick didn't really like the ferris-"

Nick let out a nervous chuckle, interrupting her. "Now's not the time to talk about vacation time, Carrots."

"Well, he asked…" She said, crossing her arms. She then cleared her throat. "Nick's right, we have stuff we want to talk with you about, Max."

The wolf's ears drooped. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked sounding incredibly worried.

"No! No, you haven't done anything wrong." She assured him.

"Aside from all the stuff you did wrong." Nick immediately followed up.

"Shut it." Judy snapped. "We wanted to talk about something that's been bugging us."

"How exactly do you know anything about the monsters we keep fighting?" Nick asked, rather bluntly.

Max shrugged. "I dunno, they just kind of look like ones that were on Zoo Rangers."

"Alright, HOW similar are they." Judy asked, becoming a bit intense. "Like, slight resemblance, or really close?"

"Pretty close honestly." Max answered. "I mean, that Sambash guy looks like he could be Villamax's less lion-like cousin."

The two stared at Max in confusion.

"What, did I say something weird?"

"Max, have you heard of alternate universe theory?" Judy asked.

"I read comic books, of course I have."

"Well, what you said was weird, because…" The rabbit started, only to be interrupted by Nick.

"All of the monsters we've been fighting are from an alternate universe." He said rather bluntly. "So how in the world does this TV show have them in it?"

"Well," Wolford started. "Maybe its-" There was a sudden loud beeping from his Zoolizer. "Oh pumpernickel, looks like we have a monster to deal with."

"It is Monday, isn't it?" Nick said, sitting up and stretching out. "So, where's it at?"

"Central Park."

"Of course."

"Max, you head out first, we'll be there in a few minutes." Judy ordered. "The wolf nodded, and headed out the door.

"Shouldn't we be heading out first?" Nick asked as Judy got up, a ponderous look on her muzzle. "We have bikes, we can get there faster."

"Why didn't our Zoolizers go off?"

"What?"

"They didn't go off." She repeated. "They should have gone off at the same time Max's did."

"These things never have been consistent." Nick said, tapping at the device. "Probably just didn't want to or something."

"I dunno, I have a weird feeling about this." She said, a bit worried.

"There's no need to worry, Fluff." He assured her, heading towards he door. "This will be exactly the same as it always is."

"You mean 'weird and slightly contrived'?"

"I was thinking more 'fun and heroic'."

* * *

The monster stepped through the field, mammals of all kind running away in fear from it. "Bleh, this place is so clean." It sputtered.

The monster had two large chainsaws for hands. Most of its body was covered in saw blades as well, with a singular chainsaw blade dividing its own body in half, heading directly through the monster's grimacing face. It body was made of various metals with shades of greens and browns. Its face resembled that of a rather angry sloth. It marched towards a nearby tree, chainsaws revving up.

"I can't wait to dirty this place up!" It laughed, and prepared to strike the tree down.

"Stop it, monster!"

The monster stopped revving its blades, and turned to where the voice had come from. The three Zoorangers stood there, weapons drawn. "Step away from the tree, or we're gonna have to cut you down!" Red yelled, sword on shoulder.

The monster stared at them for a moment.

"Who the hell are you guys?"

The three nearly fell over in surprise.

"We're the, uh, Zoorangers?" Blue announced, a bit unsure. "Didn't your boss tell you about us?"

"The bosses didn't tell me anything about wannabe heroes." It announced. "I'll have to deal with you the way we've dealt with all your types!"

"What's he talking about?" Silver asked, leaning over to the rabbit. She shrugged in response.

The monster's saws began revving up, and it rushed towards them. The three readied their weapons, and rushed forward as well. The chainsaw robot then stopped in its tracks, and dug its chainsaws into the ground, causing spurts of dirt to fly into the three's eyes.

Red rubbed the dirt out of his eyes, just in time to see the monster swing its blade into his chest.

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt.

"Was that… supposed to hurt?" Red asked, as the other two rangers, and the chainsaw monster stared on, baffled.

The monster tried again, rapidly swinging both his arms into the fox, only for no sounds of pain, or even slight cuts, to appear.

"Why can't I hurt you!?" The monster yelled, frustrated. The monster prepared a final swing, aiming straight for the fox's head.

Red raised his sword to block the chainsaw, and there was the sudden sound of an engine grinding to a halt. The fox looked up, and saw that, defying all accounts of logic, his sword was jamming the chainsaw.

One of the chainsaw's teeth bobbed back and forth, slamming into the Foxfire Blade's side, desperately trying to cut through it. "Yeesh," Red sighed. "I almost feel bad for this guy." He then thrust the blade up, knocking the chainsaw away, and jabbed the Banki Beast in the chest, sending it flying in a shower of sparks.

Blue hopped up to Red as the monster flew into the ground. "You been training?" She asked, impressed by how far the beast had been launched.

"Nope, and I wasn't even giving it my all there." He admitted. The two watched as the monster writhed around on the ground, trying to get up.

"Not doing great!" It yelled as it got up. "What the heck are you!?"

"Seriously, did Yogostein not fill you in?" Blue questioned, a bit confused. "He's usually one of the villains that comes up with decent plots."

"How do you know about Master Yogostein!?" The monster yelled, backing away. "Wait, it can't be! We destroyed all of them! I need to get out of here!"

It began to back away faster, almost turning into a sprint, before Silver, leaped through the air, and jabbed his rapier into the monster, knocking it down. "Yeah, we're not letting you get away." He said, planting a foot on the monster's back.

The monster grunted as the two other Zoorangers ran up to it. "I might not be able to hurt you guys…" It revved its chainsaws again, and dug them into the ground, dirt flying everywhere. Silver became disoriented by the dirt, and slipped off of the monster.

"…But I can still cut things!" The monster finished yelling, running away from the three. It ran over to a park bench, the three rangers clearing their visors just in time.

They watched as the monster cut through the wooden bench, each slice stirring up a massive amount of sawdust, which formed into a cloud.

"I didn't realize benches had that much wood." Red said, looking through the cloud. "I can't see anything, can you guys?"

"Sorry, but I have a good nose, not good eyes." Silver replied back, also blinded by the smoke.

Blue was also blinded, but she could hear the rather clear sound of metal clacking, as well as an engine revving down. "But I have good ears!" She said, pulling out her blasters. She quickly shot towards the sound, clearing the dust.

The blasts struck the monster directly in the back, sending it flying. "Wow, I think this might be the most pathetic monster we've ever fought." Red said, scratching his head.

"Pathetic!?" The monster yelled as it got up. "I'm the strongest Banki Beast! Elite warrior of Gaiark, how dare you make a mockery of me!" The sawblades imbedded on its shoulders suddenly raised up, and flew towards the rangers, hitting the ground in front of them, causing an explosion of dirt.

As the explosion cleared, the monster had vanished.

"Great, now he escapes." Red groaned, frustrated. "Why can't we ever get something easy?"

"Alright," Blue started, tapping her foot. "We're gonna split up, look for this guy."

"Why, it's not like he's that much of a threat." Red said, a bit indignant.

"He might not be a threat to us, Nick, but he's a threat to other people." Blue said, quite sternly. "Not everyone's as strong as us."

Red gave off a long sigh.

"Before we split up, can I ask you guys a dumb question?" Silver started, a bit nervous.

"Sure." Blue said, shrugging.

"Have we fought that guy before?"

The two looked at him.

"I mean, I know we haven't." The wolf continued, trying to find a better way to explain it. "I mean, I feel like I've seen him before."

"You mean like how you've seen the other monsters on TV?" Red asked, sarcastically.

"I'm not really sure." Silver admitted. "Just forget I asked."

"So, how should we split up, leader?" Red said, turning to the rabbit. She seemed to be in thought, rapidly tapping her foot against the ground. "Carrots?"

She quickly snapped out of it. "Oh, uh, just split up and look around Savanah Central." She explained. "He probably couldn't have gotten that far with the damage we caused to him."

The other two rangers nodded, and ran off in separate directions. Blue turned back to her thoughts for a moment.

Something weird was definitely going on.

* * *

"Maybe I could make a monster that spews gas, that would be pretty chaotic." Yogostein said to himself as he rested on top of the same building. "Wait, I already tried that, didn't work out great. Hmm. Maybe I could try to poison their water! But, something like that would require extra planning than I have now." He motioned towards the Ugutz standing next to him. "Write that down though, that's a good idea!"

The Ugutz nodded, and quickly jotted down something on a metallic notepad.

"Bah, I could really just use some help right about now." The robot bemoaned to himself.

"Master Yogostein!"

"What is it?" Yogostein asked, dismissive.

Wait, who said that?

He quickly spun around to face the creature that had called out to him. He had seen it before, long ago, but he couldn't entirely place it. "Master Yogostein, I…" The monster stared him up and down for a moment. "…Did you get a metal shaving?"

The details of the robot looked exactly like that of that failure created by Hiramechimedes, the Chainsaw Banki, aside from an odd-looking face. But how was it here? He hadn't created a monster, so how could there even be a Banki Beast? His mind raced with questions, but he quickly came to a rather simple conclusion.

Don't look a mechanical gift horse in the mouth.

"What is it, soldier?" Yogostein asked, his voice deepening.

"I ran into three inhabitants that were using the power of the Engines!" The chainsaw beast explained, much to Yogostein's shock.

Engines? He thought those were left behind in his original timeline, how had they gotten here? There was something strange going on. "What did they look like?" Yogostein asked. He needed some intel before rushing in.

"Well, there was a red one, a blue one, and a silver one." Chainsaw Banki explained.

Red, blue, silver. It seems only three of them had shown up. The robotic general gripped his free hand in frustration. Now he had to deal with 6 rangers. "Sosuke…" He mumbled to himself. "I'll get my revenge."

"What was that boss?"

"Nothing!" Yogostein yelled, stumbling. "So, want me to go help beat those guys up?"

"I just want to know why you didn't warn me!" The monster yelled, stepping closer to his presumed boss. "I thought we destroyed all the Engines, how are there any Engine users left?"

Yep, definitely something weird going on. Gaiark had never managed to get anywhere close to destroying all the Engines, and what did he mean by 'we'? He was the only member left!

"I have an idea." Yogostein declared. Something had rattled in his brain, something perfect. He pulled out a gear, and tossed it into the chainsaw robot. It began to glow as the gear bored itself into its chest. After a few seconds of writhing, the change had finished.

Only the monster's face had changed, going from an animalistic look to a more humanoid one. "What was that!?" The monster yelled, confused.

"A little gift." Yogostein half explained. "Trust me, it'll be useful. Now we can go beat those guys up before they cause any trouble for us!"

"I'd love to but I already called into base for help." The beast stated. "They should be here to help in a few minutes."

"Wait, who?"

There was a sudden crashing noise, the sky darkening for a split second as it rang through the city. Yogostein turned to where the noise had sounded, directly across from him on the roof. The air seemed to crack open, shifting into a blinding white portal.

Two figures stepped from the portal, the robot unable to make them out clearly. "Peh, so this is the Animal World?" One of them scoffed, with a distinctly male voice.

"The reports are true, disgustingly clean." Said the other one, with a female sounding voice. "Can't wait to filthy it up." To Yogostein's audio receptors, they sounded distressingly familiar.

Wait, it couldn't be, could it?

The light cleared, revealing the two figures. He recognized distinctive features on both. The male one had a large smoke stack protruding from his shoulder, pipes winding around his body, and several cogs covering him, including one sticking out of its head. Its arms and legs were made out of red and white towers, and he walked with a distinctive pipe shaped cane.

For the female one, he recognized her bodysuit, purple in color for most of it, but covered in silver parts. On one arm, she had a coiling tube wrapped around, while on the other she had a large valve. She had a silver skirt that only covered the back, and only her right leg was fully covered. Four large tubes came from her back, ending around a large collar. She wore a silver helmet that had a large valve on top, as well as a steam whistle coming form the side of it.

There was no mistaking it, these two were Kegalesia and Kitaneidas, his old colleagues at Gaiark. Only, they weren't exactly the same. Kitaneidas looked similar, but seemed slightly thinner, and his head had changed from a human-like face to a more mammalian one, specifically the pointed head of a weasel, complete with ears. He still had a large cog embedded in it, separating a white, smiling section of his face, with an orange, scowling side.

Kegalesia, however, was completely different. Instead of a human female, she was now entirely a female mammal, specifically that of a gazelle. Her outfit now conformed to her new body shape.

"Yogostein, I thought you said that you wouldn't need our help?" The one that resembled Kegalesia asked, sounding a bit displeased.

"I knew you couldn't do this by yourself." The Kitaneidas-ish one followed up with a laugh. "You just aren't clever enough to destroy a world on your own!"

"Kitaneidas? Kegalesia?" Yogostein said in disbelief, taking a step back. He was certain they had died. He was sure of it. How had they come back, how had they changed like this?

"What's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost." Kegalesia joked, before turning a bit more serious. "Seriously, stop looking at us like that, its weird."

Yogostein let out a cough, and tried to stand proud. "So, why'd you call us here, Chainsaw Banki?" Kitaneidas asked, turning to the chainsaw monster.

"We have a problem." He stated simply. "We have some inhabitants here that seem to have partnered with Engines!"

"That's ridiculous." Kitaneidas stated. "We destroyed all the Engines when we took over Machine World!"

An idea popped into Yogostein's head. Whatever was happening, he could definitely take advantage of it. The four of them against the Zoorangers would be a cakewalk!

"I believe we can deal with the problem quickly." Yogostein said, sounding confident. "We won't even need a full-scale assault if we handle it ourselves."

"Deal with Engine users ourselves? Hah!" Kegalesia laughed. "Why would we waste our time on such an insignificant threat?"

Yogostein's eyes began to glow a threatening red. He stomped up to the two, overshadowing them, turning serious. "These are the deadliest warriors on the face of this planet, if we're lax for even a moment, our entire organization will be reduced to scrap by them!"

"I can vouch for him." Chainsaw Banki started. "Those three almost scrapped me without any effort!"

"Exactly. We need to deal with this swiftly." Yogostein ordered. "And I know how to finish them off."

"You lead the charge then." Kegalesia started, a bit sarcastically. "You are the one who wanted to deal with this world personally."

"I was? I mean, yeah, I was!"

Kegalesia quickly pulled Kitaneidas in close, and began whispering. "Does he look different to you?" She asked.

"Yeah, his face is all weird." Kitaneidas answered, motioning around his own face. "He seems like the same Yogostein, what do you think happened to him?"

"I don't know, but we should keep an eye on him." Kegalesia suggested. "He seemed pretty serious about the Engine users, though. We'll follow him, and see what happens."

The two nodded to each other, in agreement. "Gaiark Ministers!" Yogostein yelled proudly, catching the other two's attention. He quickly turned to the chainsaw robot. "And Banki Beast." He turned back to the cityscape. "Let us conquer this pitiful city!"

Just like in the old days, he thought to himself.

* * *

"Did you see how I blocked that monster's attack?"

"Yes, I did, I was there."

"Yeah, but did you really see how cool it was?"

"I was five feet away from you, Nick." She let out a sigh. Their Zoolizers had gone off only a few minutes ago, meaning that they could be dealing with two monsters at the same time. This wasn't the time for him to start acting like this.

"I held my sword up, and the chainsaw just-"

"Are you actually even looking for the monster?" She questioned through her communicator, starting to get frustrated.

"I am, Carrots." He said with a disappointed sigh. "I'm on Pack Street, can't find… Hold on a sec."

"What is it, did you find something?"

"Yeah, smoke from what looks like… near Herd Street. Think it means anything?"

"When do you ever see smoke in this city?" She asked.

"Family gatherings."

She tried not to chuckle at his joke. "What I mean is, yeah it's probably the monster. Let Max know, and we'll meet up there."

"See you in a few, Fluff."

She looked around. The rabbit was standing on top of a building on the other side of town. "Guess subtlety will have to wait.' She sighed, before leaping down to the ground, startling a couple nearby civilians.

Without missing a beat, she summoned the Usagider, and hopped on, riding towards her destination.

A bit later, she made it to Herd Street. Herd Street was part of the downtown area of Savannah Central, which means lots of buildings, and more worryingly, lots of mammals for a monster to harm.

She pulled up to the street sign, the fox, still transformed, waiting for her there. His bike was parked next to the sidewalk, and he had his back placed to the pole, looking down at his phone. He looked up from his phone when he heard her stop. "Hey, what took you so long?" He asked, sarcastically.

"I wasn't two blocks away." She scoffed at him as she hopped off the bike. She glanced around, Max wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Where's Silver?"

"Guy went all the way to Tundra Town." Red said, shrugging a bit. "Guy doesn't have a ride, so he had to get back here the old-fashioned way."

Blue groaned, throwing her head back. "Should we just go see what caused the smoke by ourselves?"

"I don't think there's any hurry." Red said. "There hasn't been any commotion in the last bit, so I'm not sure if there's any real danger."

There was a sudden crash, and the two startled rangers turned to face the street. Silver had crashed into the ground, leaving a massive mark in the street. He steadied himself, and ran up to the two. "Sorry I'm late." He apologized. "Got here as fast as I could, any monsters yet?"

Red shook his head. "I bet there will be in a few minutes, though."

The three headed into the business area just outside of the street. The smoke was coming from the middle of a plaza, from some sort of engine looking device. It seemed to be pumping the smoke into the air. The three walked up to it, unsure what to think.

Blue noticed a note attached to the side of the device. She pulled it off, and read the message.

"LOOK UP!", written in what seemed to be… oil?

"What does that mean?" Silver asked, looking at the note.

All three of them looked up, watching as what looked like a laser flew into the plume of smoke, igniting it. The three leaped out of the way before the engine device burst into a massive fireball of an explosion, covering most of the plaza.

The three looked as the fire cleared, the silhouette of Yogostein stepping through it. "Welcome, you meddlesome rangers, to your ultimate doom!" He yelled, slamming his spear into the ground.

The three got up. "Please," Red started with a scoff. "We managed to fend off your monster without any effort, what makes you think he can beat us?"

"What makes you think I'm working alone on this, fox!?" He slammed his spear on the ground, clearing the fire with a massive shockwave. "Let me introduce you to my true partners in crime!"

The three looked up as the remaining smoke whirled into a large cloud, and then crashed into the ground to the left of Yogostein, revealing the form of Kitaneidas. "Air Pollution Minister, Kitaneidas!"

"Pleasure to meet you, organ bags!" Kitaneidas chuckled.

The ground to the right of Yogostein began to crack, before bursting into a fountain of filthy looking water, with the gazelle-like Kegalesia riding on top of it. The water lowered, leading her to the ground. "Water Pollution Minister, Kegalesia!"

"I hope you three are fun to play with." She laughed playfully.

"And finally," Yogostein pointed behind the three rangers, causing them to turn around, bringing the chainsaw robot to their attention. "Chainsaw Banki!"

"Ready to get chopped, Engine users!?" It shouted, revving its saws.

The three were surrounded by the villains. "So, you got a plan, leader?" Red asked the rabbit as the four robots closed in.

"You take the chainsaw guy, Red, we'll take the other two." Blue declared as she pulled out her daggers.

"Alright, leave the small pickings to me." Red said to himself, sounding a bit offended. The fox quickly spun around, pulling out his blade, and rushed at the chainsaw robot.

He swung his blade, the robot's own blade connecting with it. The other two rangers ran towards the two other ministers. As they did, Blue noticed that Yogostein had not moved, and seemed to be watching the two ministers.

Blue had run towards the gazelle, while Silver had gone for the weasel looking robot. Blue stopped in front of the out of place mammal, and looked her up and down. She looked completely organic.

"Why are you fighting with these robots?" She asked. "You're a mammal, right?"

"Please," The gazelle said, dismissively. "This is fake fur and skin. Under it is nothing but a cold machine."

"Well, now I won't have any regrets when I turn you to scrap." The rabbit joked, hopping from foot to foot as she prepared to rush the monster.

She dashed at the robot, daggers prepared to strike. Kegalesia raised a hoof to the valve on her head, and spun it. As the rabbit leaped into the air, prepared to strike, the robot raised her arm that was wrapped in a hose towards her.

A burst of brown liquid spewed from the hose, striking the rabbit in her entire body. Blue was pushed back through the air, and landed on her back. Some of the liquid had gotten into her suit, it smelled horrible and seemed to burn her.

Blue tried to stand up, but her suit sparked with electricity, sending a bolt of pain through her. She fell back to the ground, groaning. "What… is this?" She said weakly.

Kegalesia laughed. "Oh, you know, water fermented with high amounts of chlorine, waste, and lead! Isn't it divine?"

Blue's suit seemed to shut down, her trapped inside of it. She couldn't move.

With Silver, he had gone up to the weasel robot. As he closed in, he paused to look at it. It seemed familiar, but it probably wasn't important. He shook it off, and stepped closer.

"You don't seem particularly… combat ready." Silver said, examining the minister.

"Combat isn't that important when you have a genius mind!" Kitaneidas boasted. "For example, I know just how to beat you!"

"I doubt that." Silver said, drawing his blade. He rushed at the monster, who raised his cane as a weapon. The two clashed, the cane made of surprisingly strong metal.

"Oh, I can assure you that I know to." Kitaneidas continued, his voice calm. He blocked the sword with little effort. "I've studied mammals of all walks of life in case something like this happened."

"So?"

"So, this!"

Kitaneidas knocked the blade away, and stuck his staff directly into the wolf's snout. The cloud design at its tip began to swirl, before blasting out as a massive black cloud. It enshrouded the wolf entirely, the smoke going directly through his helmet. He couldn't breath, and fell to the ground.

The smell of it consumed his nose. It wasn't like anything else he had smelled before, it was like every awful smell combined into one.

Kitaneidas stood over him, pounding the staff into one of his metallic hands. "Canines like yourself have an overly sensitive sense of smell.," He started to explain, regardless of if Silver was listening. "So, that smog is practically deadly to you!" He laughed as the wolf writhed in pain.

Yogostein watched as the two generals dealt with the two rangers. He had decided not to go into battle himself, and simply watch to confirm his suspicions. These were definitely his colleagues. As he saw his enemies fall one by one, another brilliant idea came to his mind.

Did he need the Omnipotence? It had brought him back to life, but Gaiark was a much larger force! With their return, and the ranger's demise, he could easily overthrow them, and conquer the world himself. All that would need to happen is for the last of these three nuisances to fall.

He turned to look over Chainsaw Banki, who had engaged combat with the fox.

Red had locked blades with the chainsaw robot, similar to their previous encounter. While he was managing to block it, he had to put more effort into it. The chainsaw's teeth seemed to grind through the Foxfire Blade as well. It had definitely gotten stronger.

It wasn't strong enough, though.

Red broke through the block, and delivered a thrust right into the monster chest, knocking it back. "Augh, why am I still losing!?" The robot bemoaned. "Master Yogostein gave me an upgrade!"

"An upgrade?" The fox questioned with a confused chuckle. "You don't look any different."

"Why would I have to look different to get an upgrade!?" The monster yelled, chainsaws starting to rev again.

"Because that's how it works with all you weirdos." Red was starting to get confused at this point, but interrogations were for criminals, not the evil monsters.

They rushed at each other, blades scraping and sparks flying as they clashed. The robot delivered a cross chop, which proved too much for his blade to handle. Red was knocked backwards. As he regained his composure, he pulled out the Vickscannon.

He fired a volley of shots at the monster, sending it flying. The monster landed with a crash, and began sparking.

"Well, that was easy." Red sighed.

"WHAT!?"

The fox quickly spun around to face the golden robot, who seemed to literally be fuming. Red looked as the fallen bodies of his comrades. He hadn't noticed them while he was fighting on his own.

He needed to get them out of here before they were killed.

He aimed the cannon towards the one that looked like a gazelle, and fired a blast. While Kegalesia was distracted by the smoke, he quickly ran up and picked up the unconscious rabbit, scooping her underneath one of his arms. He then leaped out of the way of one of Kitaneidas's smog blasts, and picked up Silver, dragging him across the ground.

Using all his strength, Red leaped up into the air, and onto a nearby building, leaving the three villains behind.

"What should we do?" Kegalesia asked as she and Kitaneidas approached Yogostein.

Yogostein clenched his fist, and then released it, letting out a laugh. "They won't be a problem for us." He declared, turning to his partners. "I say we return to base, and prepare a full-scale invasion."

"An invasion?" Kitaneidas asked. "Already?"

"Trust me, we'll need it."

* * *

"You feeling alright, Carrots?"

She rubbed at her chest. A patch of fur had been burned off. Shortly after the fight, Nick had taken her and Max to the hospital immediately after the fight. There were no major injuries to either of them, if anything the ministers' attacks seemed to damage the suits.

Of course, there were still injuries. Judy was burning all over, even after a day of rest. Max had been knocked out for most of the day, and was recovering at home.

Judy was going to do the same. They stepped into the lobby of Flots Flats, their apartment building. It wasn't anything high class, but it was better than her previous one.

The lobby was rugged, worn after years of use. It was run by an older otter, Ms. Flots. She was a reasonable, kind sort.

Though, sometimes she could be a bit too nice.

As they entered, the two saw Ms. Flots, pacing back and forth. She caught notice of them, and pattered over. "There you two are!" She said. "I've been waiting for you all day."

"Is this about the rent?" Nick asked. He really hoped it wasn't about the rent.

"Earlier today, someone came in looking for you both." She explained. "I told her that you were out, so I let her into the apartment."

"You WHAT!?" Judy yelled. "You can't just let a stranger into our apartment!"

"Over my years, I've learned how to tell when someone is trustworthy or not." The otter started. "She gave me an excuse about being a friend of yours from out of town, but I knew she was lying. I could tell she wasn't lying about needing to see you both, so I let her in."

The two partners glanced at each other. Hopefully her intuition was right, and it wasn't a robber. Or worse.

Without a beat, the two dashed off, leaving the otter behind. The clambered up the stairs, and arrived at their apartment door. Judy quickly kicked it open.

Sitting on their couch was a figure, dressed in a yellow suit. It was another Sentai ranger. On her chest was a stylized number three, with a silver V shape leading down to a belt. Her helmet resembled a stylized bear, with two headlights resembling eyes, and a visor where the mouth would be.

She turned to them, all three startled. "Oh, hello!" She said, giving a wave. "Are you Nick and Judy?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah." Judy said, her guard lowering.

"The real question is 'who are you?'" Nick said as he stepped into the room, arms crossed.

"I'm Saki Rouyama! She declared, standing up and hitting her helmet against the ceiling. She let out a squeak of pain as she rubbed her head. "I'm Go-on Yellow,of the Go-Ongers!" She reached for something behind her. "And this is…"

She pulled out device, a very out of date and bulky looking flip phone. She flipped it open, revealing a yellow screen, which began to glow. The screen turned into a hologram, displaying what looked like a mix between a cartoon bear head, and an ATV of some kind.

"BearRV!" the hologram let out, spinning around. "Nice to meet you, vee vee!"

The two stared at the hologram in shock and awe. "What the hell is that thing?" Nick questioned, a bit cautiously.

"ITS SO CUTE!"

Judy quickly ran across the room, and looked the bear-car hologram in its eyes, startling it. "You're the cutest thing I've ever seen." She declared with absolute certainty.

"Uh thank you?" BearRV said, a bit bashfully.

Nick walked up to them, paws in pockets. "No seriously, what are you?" He asked.

"I can explain that later, vee vee." BearRV said, turning to the fox.

Saki placed the phone on the table, and sat back down on the couch, nodding in agreement with the hologram. "We need all three of you to be here before we can explain what's happening."

"I'm pretty sure we know what's happening." Judy said.

"You don't, vee vee."

Nick sighed. "Alright, I'll call up Max."

* * *

What a pleasure it was to be here again. Yogostein breathed in the smog of this world, it had been so long since he had breathed in this kind of pollution.

The base was exactly as it was before he had been destroyed. A brown, dirty factory, pipes extending off into unknown areas. The main room of the HQ featured a large spinning cog, decorated with the Gaiark logo. To the side of it was a door, leading to the upgrade station, and to the right…

He had really missed the bar.

Immediately, Yogostein stomped over to the booth. It had a large machine in it, used to vend out a variety of drinks. He cranked a few knobs, and flipped a few switches. In a few seconds, a yellow liquid poured into a wine glass.

He cranked the machine two more times, making two glasses full of blue and green liquids. He picked up all three, and quickly handed them to his teammates.

They watched as he stepped onto the raised platform in the room, and raised the glass. "A preemptive toast, to our inevitable victory!"

The two ministers looked at each other, and then back to Yogostein. Kegalesia raised her glass alongside Yogostein.

"Seriously?" Kitaneidas said in disbelief.

"I'm not one to refuse a drink." She responded. "Raise your glass already."

Reluctantly, he raised his green liquid into the air. The three quickly gulped them down. Chainsaw Banki looked around, awkwardly. "Why didn't I get a drink?" He asked.

"We would have won if not for you!" Yogostein yelled. "Losers don't get drinks!"

"Also, you don't have any hands." Kitaneidas interjected.

The chainsaw robot slinked down, and walked off.

"So, Yogostein," Kitaneidas continued. "How exactly do you expect us to get this 'inevitable victory'?"

"First, we launch a full-scale invasion!" The robotic general explained. "Chainsaw Banki will lead the Ugutz, while we take on the Rangers. With them destroyed, the Ugutz will be able to dirty up the city without any problem!"

"That's a very… simple plan." Kegalesia said.

"The more complex a plan is, the more likely it is to fail." Yogostein explained. "You easily wiped the floor with them, it won't be an issue!"

"I suppose that works." Kitaneidas said, reluctantly.

"Perfect!" Yogostein let out, stepping down from the platform. "Ready the troops, prepare the Bandoma, we're taking this world by-"

There was a sudden loud slam, followed by thundering foot steps. Someone was entering the base.

"I'm back from the scouting mission!" The being said from down a hallway. It was a familiar voice. It was Yogostein's voice.

He trudged into the main room. This Yogostein was nearly identical, except his head was a large, golden rhinoceros head. It retained the same details as his own.

"I've learned some interesting facts about this world." He started, not noticing the two other ministers looking at him, or his near exact double standing in front of him. "For one, this city is-"

He clanged into the other Yogostein. He finally looked up, and saw his double. "Who are you!?" he yelled, stepping back.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" Said the humanoid Yogostein.

Kegalesia sidled up next to Kitaneidas as the Yogosteins began to circle each other. "What's going on here?" She whispered.

"Don't ask me!" Kitaneidas said.

The two Yogosteins locked gazes, and gripped their spears.

* * *

"So, you can call something else cute, but you don't like being called cute?"

"Yeah."

"How does that make any sense?"

Judy gave off a huff, and got up off the couch. "When's Max going to get here?" She asked, ignoring the fox.

"Seriously, isn't that a bit of a double standard?" Nick continued. He received a swift knock to the top of his head. He looked up to see Saki, who was sitting behind the couch.

"Don't be rude to your girlfriend like that!" She said.

"Sorry, ma'am." Nick said sarcastically, rubbing his forehead. He turned back to Judy, who was standing near the door. "He said he should be here soon."

"Did you tell him anything?" She asked, turning back to him.

"Was I supposed to?"

She slapped both of her paws over her face, just as there was a knock on the door. "Oh, he's here already."

She hopped over to the door, and opened it a crack, peeking through. There was Max, standing at the door. He let out a cough. "What did you want me over for?" He asked.

"Are you ready for something that will change your life?" She asked in a rather dramatic manner.

"Uh, probably?"

"Good."

She opened the door a bit more, letting the wolf in. His eyes widened as he spotted Saki. "Oh my god."

"Listen, before you freak out, we can explain-"

"It's Ranger Operator Yellow!"

Everyone in the room turned to look at Max, confused.

He looked around awkwardly. "From… Zoo Rangers RPM?"

They continued to stare at him.

"Well I mean, it's not exact, but the helmet's…" He quickly shut himself up.

"Uh, hello!" Saki gave a quick wave to the wolf, breaking the silence. "I'm Saki, Go-On Yellow of the Go-Ongers!"

"And I'm BearRV!" Said the holographic bear car. "You must be ZooSilver, right?"

Max let out a yelp at the sight of the bear. "What the hell is that thing!?"

"I have been wondering the same thing for the last half hour." Nick said.

"Time for us to give full explanations!" Saki said, quickly standing up, but making sure not to hit the ceiling. She walked over, and picked up the phone. "BearRV, can you explain what you are, first?"

"Sure can, vee vee!" She answered cheerfully. "I am an Engine, we're the main species of Machine World. Machine World is part of series of worlds called Brane Worlds."

"Its basically a bunch of alternate universes, stacked on each other like a big cake." Saki continued for her partner, letting out a giggle.

"Wait, I thought you were from an alternate timeline?" Nick said, confused. "Now we have alternate dimensions?"

"Well, we are from different timelines." BearRV continued to explain. "This world we're in is on the equivalent layer as the Human World from our timeline, vee vee."

"I guess it would be called Animal World, though." Saki said.

"Me and a few other Engines went to the Human World to prevent the evil organization called Gaiark from destroying it." BearRV continued. "The Go-Ongers are powered by our Engine Souls, which is how I'm projecting to you, vee vee!"

"I only got like, half of that." Nick started. "But can you tell us more about Gaiark?"

Judy nodded. "We fought their ministers yesterday."

"You fought Gaiark!?" BearRV said, eyes widening.

"But we destroyed them years ago!" Saki said in disbelief. "That must be why AkaRed sent us here!"

"Well, if you destroyed all of them in your timeline, what are they doing here?" Judy asked.

"Well, I guess, maybe…" BearRV's eyes widened even more. "Oh no, vee vee."

"What is it, Bear?" Saki asked, sounding a bit worried.

"I think we're in a lot of trouble."

* * *

Yogostein lowered his spear, and started to laugh. His rhino-headed copy slammed the spear into the ground. "What are you laughing at, horrid copy!?"

"I figured it out!" He laughed. "It's so simple!"

"Can you care to enlighten the rest of us!?" Kitaneidas asked, frustrated. "Who are you, and why do you look like Yogostein!?"

"Because, Kitaneidas," The humanoid Yogostein started. "I AM Baron Yogorex de Stein!" He motioned towards the rhino headed Yogostein. "And he is too! We're the same!"

"That doesn't explain anything!" Kegalesia yelled.

"I've spent this entire day trying to figure it out myself!" He laughed. "Why had my dead colleagues risen from the grave, in entirely new forms? Why did they not know they were supposed to be dead!?"

"What are you talking about!?" The rhino headed Yogostein yelled.

"I am the Yogostein from an alternate timeline!" He explained with a laugh. "A timeline where Gaiark was destroyed, and one where pathetic animals don't rule over!"

"An alternate timeline?" Kitaneidas said, confused. "You mean a Brane World?"

"No!" He yelled, startling the air pollution minister. "I come from a completely different timeline, where events changed! If every timeline exists on a different plane, then every timeline must have its own set of Brane Worlds as well!"

"I think I understand." The other Yogostein said. "If alternate timeline theory exists, then its only logical for the Brane Worlds to follow!"

"I knew I'd get it eventually!" Our Yogostein said. The two started to laugh in unison, leaving the other two ministers confused. "I must say, even with a different face, you are just as handsome as me!"

"I agree! If by handsome, you mean ugly!"

The two laughed in unison again, and embraced in a sidehug.

"Did you catch any of that, Kitaneidas?" Kegalesia asked.

"Uh, something about alternate timelines. Basically, they're the same guy." He tried to explain.

"Think we can still trust him?" She asked.

"Well, as long as he's not from a timeline where we're good guys, we should be safe."

Our Yogostein gave off a sigh of relief. "Man, it's a major load to not keep this a secret anymore." He exclaimed. "It's just kind of… nice, being around you guys again." He sighed again. "I haven't seen anyone I can relate to in almost a decade, having you guys here, again, is the greatest thing that could've happened to me."

"That's, uh… sweet?" Kitaneidas said, unsure of how to feel. "But what are we going to do about the invasion?"

"Invasion?" The other Yogostein said. "Why are we invading already, we're only in the scouting stages!"

Our Yogostein stepped forward. "I've been in this city for several months now, I've learned a lot about this dreaded, ecofriendly world." He explained. "And I can tell you that we have dangerous enemies here. An invasion is the only way to deal with them!"

The other Yogostein thought for a moment. "Well, from my intel, I've learned this city is the apex of culture in this world, its practically the capital of the planet."

"So," Our Yogostein interjected, predicting what his double was going to say. "If we destroy the city, we'll let the entire world know that Gaiark means business!"

"Very well, the invasion is on!" The other Yogostein commanded. "Prepare our forces, we leave in half an hour!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"We're going to have to fight an entire flippin' ARMY!?"

"Seems like it, vee vee." BearRV answered, disappointedly.

Judy pulled her ears over her face with a groan, and started to pace around the room. She paced when frustrated and nervous.

"Nick, can you explain something to me?" Max asked, turning to fox sitting next to him on the couch. "Who exactly is that Ranger looking thing?"

"Well, she's a thing called a 'human'." He started to explain. "She's like the monsters, she comes from an alternate timeline, but she's a good guy. They call themselves 'Super Sentai'."

"Huh." He let out, unable to think of a follow up. "This is kind of like… never mind." He shut himself up before he could come off as a bigger nerd.

"It's like what?" Nick questioned. "Something Zoo Rangers?" He let out a laugh.

"Uh, yeah." Nick's expression fell a bit. "Zoo Rangers RPM takes place in an alternate timeline, and there's an episode of the season afterwards where the red Ranger of the team goes into the main timeline to help."

"Weird."

They were interrupted by Judy, who let out another loud groan. "How are we supposed to fight an entire army!?" She asked herself out loud. "There's only four of us!"

"Together, I know we can beat them!" Saki assured, from behind the couch.

"I feel like I could do it myself." Nick stated, leaning back into the couch.

"Nick, what are you talking about?" Judy asked, baffled by the fox's statement.

"Well, I'm the one who saved you both." He said. "And I managed to nearly beat the monster on my own, twice."

"Oh, come on, seriously!?" Max said.

The three started to argue. Saki pulled up the phone, and started talking to BearRV. "They don't really seem like a great team."

"You and the others were always getting into fights too, vee vee." BearRV said with a giggle. "I'm sure everything will be straightened out."

"But Gaiark could attack soon, and if they're like this…"

"Well, then do something about it." BearRV said. "You're great at keeping things positive!"

"You're right!" She turned back to the three, still arguing, mammals, and clapped her hands, getting their attention. "Alright everyone, let me tell you about teamwork."

The three looked at her.

"Teamwork is like a layered cake," She started. "If the layers don't work together right, then the cake's bad! If the members of a team don't work together, then they aren't a team."

"She's right." Max said. "We just need to do this together, and we can beat them, even if there are… millions of troops."

"We don't even know if there is going to be an invasion, vee vee." BearRV said. "That was just me guessing."

"It might be a safe assumption." Judy said. "Now, all we have to do is wait for them to show up."

With that, Max's Zoolizer let out a loud beeping noise, shocking everyone. "These guy's have perfect timing, huh?" Nick joked as he got up off the couch.

* * *

The four arrived in the middle of Savannah Central. The city was already in ruins, a massive army of Ugutz marching through it. At the head of the massive army were the ministers and Chainsaw Banki.

Yogostein spotted the four as they pulled in on their cycles. "Ah, you've finally arrived!" He shouted. "How would you meddlesome rangers like to meet your demise!?"

"Yogostein!" Go-On Yellow yelled back, surprising the minister. "You ready to be scrapped again?"

"A Go-Onger!?" Yogostein stepped back, before regaining his composure. "Doesn't matter! Gaiark will win this time! Alright gang, let's do this, like we rehearsed!"

The rhino headed Yogostein moved forward first. "The dried, cracked ground!" He punched his left fist to the right. He then spun his arms around, leaving them both pointing to the left. "Land Pollution Minister, Yogostein!"

Kitaneidas moved in next. "The blackened skies!" He swung his arms up, pumping his right arm. He quickly jolted his left hand to his shoulder, and then pointed forward. "Air Pollution Minister, Kitaneidas!"

Kegalesia was next. "The fetid and muddied waters!" She jumped into the air, pumping her fist, before moving it forward, hoof outstretched. She then spun her arms around, pulling them both down, and making the peace sign with her left hoof. "Water Pollution Minister, Kegalesia!"

Chainsaw Banki moved in next. "Doing my best!" The robot crossed its blades, before quickly moving into a one-legged stance, the left blade pumped in the air, right leg hoisted in the air. He then quickly leaned down, moving his left blade up into the air, and the right blade downward. "Barbaric Beast, Chainsaw Banki!"

Finally, the human headed Yogostein moved into the line. "The ground soiled by a hateful guy!" He quickly raised his right leg, and left arm, before lowering his leg and raising both of his arms up. He quickly lowered them, crouching over. His right arm was bent in front of him, with his left pointing behind. "Land Pollution Minister, Yogostein! Again!"

The five quickly gave thumbs up, except for Chainsaw Banki, who just pointed his left blade forward. They then spun them around, all saying the same line. "To dirty the planet!" Then, they all pointed forward, before performing spinning kicks in unison, feet scraping across the ground as they finished.

"Barbaric Machine Clan!"

They were all lined up. The rhino Headed Yogostein leaned down, arm in front of him. To his sides were Kitaneidas and Kegalesia, pointing upwards. On the ends were Chainsaw Banki and the other Yogostein, pointing to the side.

"GAIARK!"

There was silence as the four rangers looked at the robots, still in their pose. There was the brief sound of clapping from Silver, who quickly stopped as Red shot him a look.

Go-On Yellow stepped forward. "Hey, you can't just steal my team's rollcall!" She shouted.

"Can and did!" Yogostein yelled back as they exited the pose. "Doesn't matter anyway, you four can't win against our army of ten thousand strong!"

"It's a mathematical impossibility!" The rhino headed Yogostein continued.

"He's kind of right, Blue." Red admitted. "Unless you have a way of getting rid of their army, we're pretty much screwed."

The army marched forward as Blue thought, rapidly tapping her foot. Her ears perked up. "I know exactly what to do."

"Wait, really?" Go-On Yellow said, surprised. "What is it?"

"Saki, Silver, you two distract the ministers for a bit." She explained. "This is a team effort." She glanced at Red.

"What?"

"On it, leader." Silver said, drawing his blade. He glanced at Go-On Yellow, who pulled out what looked like a small car, and attached it to her arm. It didn't matter if she only sort of looked like the yellow Ranger from Zoo Rangers RPM, it was definitely the same.

His heart started to pound. He was fighting alongside a real Ranger. It was a dream come true.

"Are you alright?" Go-On Yellow asked, knocking Silver out of his trance.

"Oh, uh, yeah!" He hastily said. "Let's go start this plan!"

She gave a nod, and pointed the car towards the five robots.

"Bullet Crash!"

The car zoomed off of her arm, and zipped around the five, dealing multiple blows to them.

"HEY!" Kegalesia yelled, stomping one of her feet. "You can't just cheap shot us like that!"

"Can and did!" She taunted. "If you want to say something about it, come after me, old lady!"

"OLD LADY!?" Kegalesia clamped one of her hooves onto Chainsaw Banki's shoulder. "We're going to murder you!"

"Hey, why do I have to do this?" The helpless monster said as the robotic gazelle dragged him away.

"Wait, you can't just leave!" Our Yogostein yelled to them. "You're falling into their trap!" He turned to the other two ministers. "You two don't go anywhere, alright?"

"Got it!" Kitaneidas said. "They obviously want us separated so they can do some-"

Suddenly, a long, silver rope wrapped around the two, and they were flung off. "Oh, come ON!" Yelled Yogostein, the last one standing with the army.

"You think you can take on both of us!?" Kegalesia said, letting go of the Chainsaw Banki, letting him fall to the floor. She glanced at him as he struggled to get up, and pulled him to his feet.

"I've fought you two before!" Go-On Yellow said, readying her car weapon. "But you two have never faced me!" She shot the car off again, causing it to whiz around the two, distracting them.

She then pulled out a red and black device, shaped like a gas pump handle. "Mantan Gun, Gun Mode!" She aimed the gun at the two, and fired rapidly, knocking them both away.

Kegalesia let out a whine as she sat up alongside the chainsaw robot. "GO GET HER!" She yelled, pushing him up.

"Uh, alright!" He responded, chainsaws starting to rev. "Time to cut you down!"

It ran towards the Go-Onger, who quickly transformed the gun into a rod weapon. "Mantan Gun, Rod Form!"

The robot swung its blade at her, which she quickly blocked with the rod. With a bit of effort, she pushed the blade away, and smacked the robot in the face rapidly, causing it to stumble back.

The monster gained its composure, only to look up and watch as Go-On Yellow leaped through the air, delivering a downward strike with the rod. Sparks flew, and the monster was launched back onto the ground.

"You're just PATHETIC, aren't you!?" Kegalesia yelled at the monster.

"Why don't you just fight me yourself?" Yellow asked. "Your back hurting too much, granny?"

Kegalesia let out a cry of anger, and stamped her foot on the ground. "I AM NOT OLD!" She quickly pulled out a weapon, a silver stick with a blade at the end.

She rushed at the Go-Onger, the two locking melee weapons. They clashed several times, Yellow switching what hand held the rod before striking Kegalesia in the chest. She stumbled backwards. Letting out a growl, she lashed the stick-like weapon, which quickly unfurled into a hose-like whip.

She lashed it at the Ranger, who held up the rod. The whip wrapped around the rod, Yellow quickly pulling it back. She aimed her arm, the car weapon attached, at the gazelle. She fired it directly into her stomach, causing her to drop the whip.

"You bratty little…" Kegalesia growled, before firing streams of dirty liquid from the hoses on her back, directly towards Go-On Yellow.

The Ranger cartwheeled out of the way as the water splashed against the ground, landing on one knee, the Mantan Gun back in gun form. She fired at the hoses on the gazelle's back, making them useless.

She got to her feet and spun the gun around. "Ha, still got it!"

"Master Kegalesia!" Chainsaw Banki said, putting his blades under her shoulders and lifting her up. "We need to go back to base, you're heavily damaged! We can't have the invasion with you like this!"

Kegalesia let out a growl. "We'll meet again, and next time you'll pay!" With that, the two melted into a brown liquid, which quickly dissipated.

"Well, that's half them done."

Silver pulled his blade back, pulling the silver whip along with it. "Looks like I got a catch!" He said as the energy whip dissipated, the two ministers falling to the ground.

"You idiot mammal!" Yogostein said as he stood up. "You're going to ruin everything!"

"Yeah, that's kind of what I'm aiming for."

"No need to worry, Yogostein!" Kitaneidas said with a laugh. "I managed to take this twirp out in one attack."

That wasn't going to happen this time, Silver thought to himself.

"Hah, a single attack?" Yogostein laughed, snorting from his nostrils. "My copy was right, they are pathetic."

Kitaneidas stepped forward, thrusting his staff. It fired a cloud of black smog towards Silver. The wolf quickly spun the guard on his blade.

"HOT HOT SUN"

He thrust the blade forward, firing a burst of fire at the smog. It caught on fire, and headed directly towards the minister's staff. The fire raced through it, and reached the tip of the staff. Kitaneidas could only let out a small squeak before a massive explosion launched him off.

The minister crashed into the ground, smoke emanating from his body as he let out a wheeze. The staff clanked next to him, its entire cloud design having been burnt off.

"Wow, great job." Yogostein said, sarcastically. "You may know his tricks, but I doubt you know mine!"

"Actually, I kind of do." Silver said, rubbing his head. "I've fought your double before."

Yogostein stomped his foot on the ground, causing a small tremor. He snorted black smog out of his nose. "I doubt you've seen THIS before!" He scraped a foot across the ground, and charged, his rhino horn aimed directly at the wolf.

"I may not have seen you do that…" Silver said, before leaping into the air. He landed on Yogostein's back, wrapping his paws around his neck. "But I've been trained to!"

"Get your filthy organic hands off me!" The rhino robot shouted as he bucked and brayed, trying to get the wolf off.

Silver quickly pulled out his blade, and jabbed it into Yogostein's back, causing a burst of sparks, and then an explosion. They both flew off, and crashed into the ground.

"How dare you attack my blind spot!" Yogostein yelled as he got up, flipping his cape. He pulled out his spear, and twirled it around before slamming it into the ground. He looked over as Kitaneidas walked over, to his side, letting out a cough.

"If you think a trick like that can stop me," The air pollution minister said with a cough. "Then think again!" He pointed his broken staff forward, attempting to look menacing.

Suddenly, it clicked. Silver's ears bolted up as he looked at the two side to side. Now he knew where he recognized them.

"Hey, you two are…" He paused himself. He was in the middle of a fight, no time to point out nerdy details. "Never mind, let's just finish this." He prepared his blade.

The three rushed at each other. Silver swung his blade into Kitaneidas' broken staff, and quickly dodged out of the way as the two ministers swung their weapons at him. The spear swung directly into Kitaneidas' face, while his staff plunged into Yogostein's chest. The two stumbled back, Silver watching on from a few feet away.

"You guys are really disappointing me right now." He said, shaking his head. "I expected a lot better from main villains."

"Shut your mouth, brat!" Kitaneidas shouted. He than began talking to himself. "I don't get it, he was so easy to take out before, how'd he get so strong?"

"Time to finish this, before you two escape." Silver started, pointing his blade towards them. He began to move it upwards, the sword gathering silver energy as he moved it in a clockwise motion.

"COSMIC ECLIPSE SLASH!"

He brought the sword down, firing the energy towards the two generals. They were hit by it, a massive explosion bursting from where they stood. The explosion cleared, and much to Silver's surprise, the two were still alive.

"We need to retreat!" Yogostein yelled, his body sparking all over. He quickly turned to his doppelganger. "Sorry, me, but the plan's backfired!" He slammed his staff on the ground, causing him and Kitaneidas to become surrounded in a black smoke, which quickly vanished, leaving nothing behind.

"Great, I was hoping this would end sooner." Silver sighed.

The silver and yellow rangers gathered in front of the Yogostein they knew, who stamped his spear in frustration. "Idiots!" he motioned towards the army of robotic soldiers behind him. "I still have an army, how are you supposed to beat me!?"

The two looked at each other. "Well, I'm sure Nick and Judy have a plan." Go-On Yellow said, hopeful.

"Hah, there's no way they can defeat my army before we destroy this place!" Yogostein boasted. "They don't have anything large enough to…" He noticed the two looking up at something, definitely surprised. Yogostein turned his gaze upwards as well. "What are you-"

"Oh, scrap metal!"

Without warning, ZooKitsune and ZooSagi crashed down into the army of Ugutz, creating a massive shockwave that eradicated them all in a split second. "Hey guys!" Blue shouted down from her mech. "Great timing, right?"

The general growled in anger, stomping his massive mechanical foot rapidly. "YOU!" He let out another large growl, before pointing to them. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT! THAT'S CHEATING!"

"How is it 'cheating'?" Red asked from his mech, which looked down towards Yogostein. "They're tools we have to fight against you, so we should use them, right?"

"You're not supposed to use the mechs until the monster turns giant!" The robot shouted. "You can't use it on a bunch of minions!"

"Hey, it's not like you were playing fair either!" Blue shouted, the mech's ears jolting straight up, seeming to mimic the anger in her voice. "You brought in four monsters instead of one!"

The three continued to argue. Silver looked up at Yellow, who gave a quick shrug. Neither was really sure what to say.

"That's IT!" The minister prepared his spear, spinning it around as it gathered energy at its tip. He then swung it towards the two mechs, firing off a massive wave of energy. As the energy hit, the two mechs evaporated, causing the pilots to fall to the ground.

Red got up from the ground, rubbing his head. "How'd he manage to beat the mechs in one blow?" He asked Blue, who gave a confused nod.

"I'll show you organics how strong one of Gaiark's finest truly is!" Yogostein yelled, prepping his spear.

The two got up. "Hate to say it, but you're surrounded!" Blue said, pointing her dagger towards him. Yogostein looked around, there was a different range on four sides of him.

"Doesn't matter." He said. "I can wipe the floor with all of you at once!"

The four rushed at him, weapons prepared. Silver leaped in first, only for Yogostein to somehow deftly block him, and deliver a swift kick, knocking the wolf away. Blue and Red hopped in next, striking the robot with their weapons. Yogostein quickly gripped Red's blade with one hand, while blocking Blue's strike with his spear. He knocked her back, and swung the spear forward, knocking Red away as well.

"How did you manage to beat my counterpart?" he wondered aloud, looking at Silver.

"Well don't look now," Red started, getting up. "But you might still have some trouble."

"What?" he quickly spun around, just in time for a yellow bolt to hit him directly in the face. He stumbled back as the speeding object continued to whip through and around him. "Gah, how could I forget about the Go-Onger!?" He yelled, in pain.

"I didn't forget about!" Go-On Yellow said as she pulled out the Mantan Gun. She blasted at Yogostein a few times, causing him to stumble back. She shot a final blast, directly into Yogosteins face.

He let out a cry of pain as the sound of a car zoomed around him. He rubbed his eyes, and looked around, the rangers were nowhere to be seen. He let out a roar of frustration.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled a massive amount of black smoke from his mouth. "This is alright, I can just head back to the base, and restart the invasion." He said to himself. He slammed his spear on the ground, and vanished as black smoke swirled around him.

* * *

The smoke cleared, and Yogostein, that is, the humanoid one, stepped into the Gaiark HQ. "What the heck was that!?" He yelled at the three ministers, and the Banki Beast.

"We should be asking you that!" Kegalesia yelled back. She was currently getting a shoulder rub from an Ugutz. Her hoses seemed to be bandaged up. "How did those guys get so strong!?"

"Kegalesia is right!" Kitaneidas said. He was dirtying up his staff, which had a new, shiny cloud topper on it. "You saw how easily we beat them the first time, how did we lose so easily this time?"

"I have a better question." The rhino headed Yogostein said, stomping over to his double. He had a cast around his neck. "How did you manage to take them out so easily? And another question, how did you even get here if you're from another timeline?"

Our Yogostein grumbled, and turned away from the three. "I suppose I should tell you." He said. "I was killed in my timeline, but I was brought back to life by a powerful creature called The Omnipotence." He explained, turning back to them. "There's a chance that it made me stronger, somehow. He also gave me the power to create monsters."

"Is that how you changed Chainsaw Banki's face?" The other Yogostein asked.

"Yeah, it changed when I upgraded him with my… powers." He looked around the room. "Where is that sawbrain, anyway? I need him here."

"He's in the upgrade chamber." Kitaneidas said, pointing to the large door, at the side of the room. A green light was emitting from it.

"So, he's getting an upgrade?" Our Yogostein asked. All three nodded. "This is even better than I hoped!" He exclaimed. "When should he be done?"

With that, there was a loud "ding!" noise that came from the door. It swung open, smoke flowing from it. Chainsaw Banki stepped out, looking completely fresh. "Now that was relaxing!" He said, stretching out.

"Hey, Chainsaw Banki!" Our Yogostein yelled.

"What is it, boss?"

"CATCH!"

Yogostein quickly tossed a red object at the monster, which jabbed into its left breast, directly on the Gaiark emblem, and vanished into it. "What the?" The monster shouted, as he began to glow. The three ministers looked on as the creature changed completely.

Its colors changed entirely, going from a dull green and blue to a bright red and black. Its feet shifted, gaining chainsaw blades underneath them. Its build slimmed down a bit, the blades stuck in it still remaining. Its slimmer build allowed a second pair of arms, each ending with chainsaws as well, to burst from its side. Its scowling face turned into more of a wicked grin, and the chainsaw embedded in it grew slightly taller. Finally, the chaos symbol appeared where the object had hit, replacing the Gaiark symbol.

"Chaos Chainsaw Banki!" The monster shouted, spinning in a circle. "Hah hah, wow! I feel fantastic!"

"What in the world!?" The rhino headed Yogostein shouted, absolutely bewildered.

"I can also do that." Our Yogostein said. "He's been upgraded into Chaos Form, now he's stronger than ever!"

"And faster than ever, too!" The monster said, quickly zipping around the room.

Yogostein reached out, and grabbed the monster by its face as it zipped by. "Alright, in a few hours, you and I are going to go invade the city again, got it?"

"Got it, boss!" The monster said, saluting with one of its arms. "I'll do it at mach speed!"

'Oh god, I've created a Sosuke.' Yogostein thought to himself.

"You want to invade again?" Kitaneidas said, baffled. "We got our exhausts kicked, and we don't have any troops!"

"Well that's good, because all you three need to do is prepare the troops." Yogostein commanded. "Because you aren't coming."

"What!?" Kegalesia said, bolting up, the Ugutz behind her being knocked down. "I thought we were supposed to do this invasion thing together!"

Our Yogostein paused for a moment, and turned away.

"I don't want to see you die."

* * *

Nick groaned as he laid on the couch. Not because he was in pain, but because he was frustrated. "That's the second time in a month that we've gotten our asses kicked by that guy." He moaned.

"Guess that's what we get for trying to take on a general." Judy said, perusing through the Sentai Encyclopedia. Saki hovered behind her.

"So, what do we do now?" Max asked. He was seated near the window, looking out of it. "They went back to their base, they're probably going to attack again."

"Yeah, we can't just wait for them to come back." Saki said. "There might be major damage caused next time, and all of you are hurt."

"I might have an idea!"

The four turned to BearRV, who was projecting out of the cellphone placed on the coffee table. "We should take the fight to Gaiark themselves!"

"Wait, you mean…" Saki paused for a second. "Go to Machine World?"

BearRV gave a quick nod.

"Okay, hate to break it to you," Nick started, sitting up. "But how exactly are we supposed to go to an alternate universe?"

"Easy!" BearRV said with a smile. "Each Engine has the ability to travel between Brane Worlds, it'll be no problem!"

Nick glanced at the small holographic bear car. He wondered how that could get all four of them to an alternate universe. It didn't even look like it could move off the table. He wasn't in the mood for arguing now, though.

He shook his head. "Alright, so we have a way there." He said, trying not to sound skeptical. "But how do you expect us to handle going right into enemy territory?"

"Nick's right." Judy said. "You saw the army they had, they probably have thousands of soldiers patrolling the base."

Saki giggled, catching the rabbit's attention. "You're saying that like Gaiark is organized."

"Gaiark isn't the most competent evil organization." BearRV chuckled.

"Yeah, you guys weren't there when we fought them." Max said. "They seemed very… comic relief."

"Great, we've been getting our butts kicked by a joke villain." Nick said, dropping back onto the couch.

"So, what's Machine World like?" Judy asked, swiveling in her chair to face the bear car.

"Oh, it's a lot like this world!" She started. "And like the Human World, actually. Except that it's a planet made almost entirely out of roads."

"So, is everyone there a talking car?" Max asked.

"Yep!" BearRV answered. "And everyone there is very friendly. I'm sure we can get some help from my friends if we go there."

"That's right!" Saki said, realizing something. "With this whole alternate timeline stuff, that means we'll meet the others again!" BearRV gave a very confident nod.

Nick jolted up again. "So, that means it's not just going to be us fighting against the army?" He quickly got up from the couch, and stretched his arms. "Well, when can we get going?"

"Any time!" The bear car said. "Well, we need to find big patch of road first."

"How big?" Judy asked.

"Uh, maybe fifty to seventy meters of flat road?"

* * *

"This is the best I could do on short notice."

"This isn't even in the city, Carrots."

The four looked over the field. They were on the city outskirts, a massive patch of field located on the other side of the Rainforest District. It had been where most of their giant robot fights had taken place, and the marks from them had still been left.

Large patches of ground had been ripped out, a large amount of grass had been scorched from the numerous explosions. The place was beginning to look like a mess.

Saki held up the cellphone, BearRV materializing from it. "Well, it's not exactly flat, but… it'll work!" She turned to Saki. "Alright, get it ready, Saki!"

Saki gave a nod, and flipped the cellphone closed. She pulled out a suitcase, dropping it to the ground. The three mammals looked on as she opened it. "What is that?" Max asked.

"It's how we're gonna get to Machine World." She stated, pulling out an object. It looked like a small, grey toy car.

"How's a toy going to get us to another world?" Nick asked, skeptically.

"Just watch!" She placed the toy on the ground, and pulled out the cellphone. She popped a memory card-like object out of it. She then placed a hand on the toy, and slotted the card into the back of the toy car.

"Engine Soul, set!"

As she slotted it in, the toy gained colors, revealing itself to look a lot like BearRV. It then began to grow, until it was an absolutely massive machine, around ten meters tall.

The three stared up at it, slack jawed.

"Hey there, vee vee!" It said, in BearRV's voice.

"This is BearRV's real body!" Saki explained. "We're gonna ride her into Machine World!"

"Wow." Judy said, not able to come up with anything else.

"You know, I was wondering how she was going to get us there." Nick said. "Now I know."

"I can't believe it." Max started, as shocked as the other two. His ears jolted up, and his tail started to wag. "I can't believe I get to ride in an actual Zord!"

The two watched in confusion as Wolford ran over to the vehicle. "Don't you ride in a mech every time we fight a monster?" Judy asked.

"Yeah, but I don't get to ride in one that I've watched on TV!"

The two looked at each other, and sighed. "Let's just let him have his fun." Judy said, Nick nodding in agreement.

"You guys will probably want to get suited up." Saki said. "You know, car safety."

Judy nodded. "Car safety is very important, that's one of the things we learned in the academy."

The three transformed, and leaped up into BearRV alongside Go-On Yellow. They entered the cockpit. It was small but large enough to fit them all. Roughly square shaped, with two large yellow panels on both sides. The back of the cockpit had what appeared to be some meaningless technological detailing, and a door.

The control panel had nothing but a steering wheel on it. Go-On Yellow sat in a rather comfortable looking chair, and gripped onto it. The cockpit looked out into a red view screen.

"Hey, think I can drive?" Red asked, leaning over a bit.

"Please do not let him drive." Silver said, a bit meekly.

"Everyone buckled up?" Go-On Yellow asked, ignoring the fox.

"Seat belts are the most important part of driving safety." Blue started, sounding a bit stern. "So, if nobody buckles up, we aren't going anywhere."

"There aren't any seatbelts, Carrots. We're standing up."

"Oh."

There was a brief, awkward pause.

"Anyway, we're going!" Yellow said. "Ready, Bear?"

"Always am, vee vee!"

She started up the vehicle, which started to move forward. "So, any of you been through a warp portal before?" Yellow asked.

"We went through one a while ago." Blue said.

"That was an absolute nightmare." Red continued for her.

"Wait, what?" Silver said, confused. "Why didn't you guys tell me you went to a different dimension or whatever?"

"Didn't really seem that important." Red said, shrugging.

"Well, hold on to something either way!" Yellow yelled as the vehicle started to move faster. "Because this is gonna be a bumpy jump!"

The three gripped onto the seat as the car sped up even more. At that point it was getting difficult to remain standing. Then, there was a bright flash of light.

* * *

BearRV flew through the air, and crashed onto the ground, pushing up a massive amount of sand. Yellow let go of the wheel, and let out a sigh of relief. "How's everyone doing back there?" She asked, turning around.

The three mammals were scattered across the cockpit. Silver had his face slammed into the wall, while Red was piled on top of Blue.

"This is why we wear seat belts." Blue groaned, trying to push Red off of her.

The four hopped out of the vehicle, and into the sandy wasteland. There didn't seem to be anything for miles, the only things of note being large mounds of sand, one of which was close to BearRV.

"So, uh, this is Machine World?" Red asked, looking around. "I expected more… anything."

"I think we landed in the wasteland." BearRV said. "This is where Gaiark made their base, so at least we're close."

"Reminds me of…" Silver shook his head. "Never mind."

Blue looked around, and spotted the nearby pile of sand. The wind was blowing some of it away. It seemed enough had blown away to reveal part of what was under it. She trudged through the sand, and approached it, getting a better look. It was black, though stained with brown from the sand. She felt it with her paws. Rubber.

"Uh, guys?" She shouted over the wind. "I think you need to check this out!"

The three rushed over. "Why is there a tire under a sand pile?" Red asked as he examined it.

"I don't think it's just a tire." Blue said, starting to clear away more of it. The other rangers joined in.

What they uncovered was terrifying.

It was a massive grey car, resembling a bird of some kind. It was half buried in the ground. "Oh god." Yellow clasped her hands over her helmet, and started to back away.

"Is this another Engine?" Blue asked. "What… happened to it?"

"It's… dead." BearRV said, stunned.

"Wait," Red started. "If this one was buried under a pile of sand…" He looked around, there were those piles everywhere, stretching out into the horizon. "Then, does that mean that all those other piles are…?"

"How did this happen?" Silver asked. "Did Gaiark do this?"

"We beat Gaiark in Machine World." BearRV said. "This isn't how it's supposed to be."

"Wait." Blue started, going into thought. "In your world, Gaiark showed up around, a decade ago." She started. "But they didn't show up in our world at that time. So, what if, instead of attacking us, they decided to…"

"Destroy Machine World." Yellow finished for her.

"I thought these guys were comic relief or something." Red said. "How did they destroy an entire world?"

"No matter how goofy they seem, Gaiark is a threat." BearRV stated. "Especially now that we know they can do something like this."

Blue took a deep breath. "Alright everyone." She started.

"Let's go save the world."

* * *

The five drove through the desert. The ride was entirely silent for nearly an hour. Surprisingly, they never encountered a single Gaiark soldier throughout the entirety of the drive. Eventually, it came into view.

A massive, black structure. It had many chimneys, pumping noxious black smoke into the air. The thing was lined with massive gears, including one on the front which was emblazoned with some sort of symbol.

The Gaiark headquarters.

"Alright." Blue said, fists clenched. "Are you all ready to do this?"

Everyone nodded, and they hopped out of BearRV. Yellow turned back for a moment.

She placed a gloved hand on her friend's tire. "Don't worry." She said gently. "We'll be fine."

"I hope so, vee vee…"

She rushed to join the other three.

"So, does this place have a front door?" Red asked as they stared up at the large structure. There didn't seem to be an entrance anywhere.

"You know what they say," Silver started, pulling out his blade. "When you can't find a door…"

He spun the guard around quickly, it landing on Eclipse Mode. He quickly stepped up to the wall, and began rapidly jabbing into it. In a second, he lowered his blade. The wall quickly collapsed, opening a perfectly circular hole.

"Make your own."

"Wow, that was awesome!" Yellow said. "Great job, Max!"

"Oh, uh…" He rubbed the back of his head, and cleared his throat. "Thanks!"

Yellow and Blue stepped through the hole, Silver standing there a bit awkwardly. Red walked up and patted him on the shoulder, letting out a laugh. "Looks like someone has a crush."

"What?!" Silver slapped his paw away. "It's not a crush. It's like…" He rubbed his arm. "I just finally got to meet one of my heroes. And she complimented me."

"Still sounds like a crush to me." Red dismissed as he stepped through the hole.

"It's not a crush." Silver continued as he followed him through.

They caught up with the other two. The place was like a maze of pipes, none of which seemed to have a visible purpose, other than to pump gas through them. Awful smells wafted through the air, thankfully reduced by their helmets.

The path in continued to get more and more cramped, pipes seeming to close in on them. The mammals had no problem moving through, but Yellow seemed to be having some issues. "Can't we just blast some of these pipes away?" red asked, watching as Yellow struggled to move ahead.

"We need to be subtle." Blue said from the other side of the human ranger. "If we destroy the pipes, the base will explode, which is the opposite of subtle."

"Well, we can't really move ahead." Silver started. "Sorry, Yellow."

"It's alright, I get what you mean." She said. "I have an idea." She started to back up, Red and Silver following along side her. She moved to a point where the two could squeeze through. "You guys go ahead, I'll meet up with you in a minute."

Blue gave a nod. It was better to have three of them in the fight at first, rather than one of them. She'd catch up anyway. The fox and wolf squeezed through, and moved on through the maze of pipes.

Eventually, they came into a more open area, onto a scaffolding. Judy picked up some voices before hand, so they crept in quietly, making as little noise as they could on the metal walkway. They looked down, they seemed to be directly over the main room of the headquarters. All of the ministers, as well as their Yogostein, were there.

"When will preparations be finished?" Their Yogostein asked.

"Around three hours." The other Yogostein said.

"Oh. Huh."

"You hear that?" Blue asked, quietly.

"We might not have your amazing ears, but we aren't deaf." Red joked.

"They're going to be attacking in three hours, by the looks of it." Silver followed up.

"We can't let them do that." Blue stated. "On the count of three, we'll leap down from here and surprise attack them." The other two nodded. "One, two…"

The three leaped down, crashing down into the room. Blue had her blasters prepped, Red had the cannon aimed, and Silver had his paw on his blade's guard. The robots stumbled back in surprise.

"What are you three doing here!?" Yogostein yelled, stepping forward and brandishing his spear.

"We had a bit of help." Red said.

"The Go-Onger!" He yelled. "Where is she?"

"Not here yet." Silver said, honestly. The other two glanced at him. "What? He asked."

"Hah, perfect!" The robot laughed. "I was hoping to surprise you with this when we invaded, but I guess now will do!" He motioned with his free hand. "CHAOS CHAINSAW BANKI, ATTACK!"

A red blur zoomed into the room, the sound of a chainsaw revving cutting through the air. It zipped around the three, dealing sudden and rapid blows to them. In a few seconds, they were on the ground. The monster stopped in front of them, raising its four arms in triumph.

"I'm gonna cut you all down!" The monster laughed, spinning around.

"Does he seem different to you?" Red asked, as he struggled to get up. He used his sword as leverage. "Because he seems different to me."

"I don't think now is the right time to talk about personality changes, Red." Blue said back, also struggling to stay up. "So, he's got four arms now." She started, examining the monster as it celebrated alongside the ministers. "We have four weapons Everyone, take an arm!"

The three rushed up to the monster, weapons drawn. "Chainsaw Banki, watch out!" Yelled Kitaneidas.

The monster spun back around, and locked blades with all four of them. Its main two arms locked with Blue's daggers, while its lower arms were locked with Red and Silver's blades. In a swift movement, the monster knocked the daggers out of Blue's paws, and knocked her away. He followed by knocking away Silver as well, launching the wolf across the room.

"JUDY! MAX!" Red yelled. He looked up at his sword. It had a dent from the earlier fight. The chainsaw seemed to be pressing down on it, deliberately.

"Ready to see what its like to be humiliated, fox?" The monster sneered, staring directly at him.

The robot pulled back its chainsaw, and began swinging all of them into the sword, one by one. With each blow Red could feel the sword getting weaker. The dent in it turned into a crack, a pressure point.

Then, in a flash, it happened.

The sword cracked in half. The chainsaw whizzed right past his snout, leaving him stunned.

"We did it!" Yogostein cheered, alongside his partners. "We finally beat them!"

Red stood there, completely still, the two halves of the sword still in his gloved paws. He glanced at his partners. They were both unconscious. He quickly ran off, still carrying the pieces of the sword.

Above them, Go-On Yellow finally made it through. "Oh no!" She yelled, watching as Red ran off.

"There you are!" Yogostein yelled. "Come down here and see how long it takes for you to be beaten!"

She spotted Blue and Silver, unconscious. "Thanks, but I'd prefer to kick that Banki's butt!" She leaped down from the scaffolding, and drew the Mantan Gun, switching it to rod mode.

"Alright, let's dance!" The monster said, zooming towards her.

Yellow began zooming around the room as well, the small area becoming filled with tire screeching and metal scraping. The two were red and yellow blurs, clashing into each other. Yellow leaped out of her dash, and smacked the monster across the head, stopping it in its tracks.

She quickly transformed the rod to its gun mode, and began circling the dazed monster, firing rapidly in circles. Dust kicked up, and when it cleared, the Go-Onger and the other rangers were gone.

"Coward!" Yogostein yelled. "Come back here and fight!"

She stopped somewhere in the base, the two mammals on her shoulders. "Nick!" She yelled, trying to get him to answer. "Nick, where are you!?"

"Over here."

She turned to a corner. He was sitting near some pipes, still in suit. His paws were clutched to his head, and the sword pieces were laid out in front of him. He sounded like he was crying.

She placed the unconscious bodies down, and sat down next to him. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"I just…" He hesitated for a moment. "I feel useless. I feel like I messed up this entire thing. I couldn't even save my friends…"

Saki paused for a moment. "Whenever I feel down, there's one thing I always tell myself."

Nick looked up at her.

"Smile, smile."

The fox tilted his head in confusion.

"It's my motto." She explained. "When the world is crashing down on you, think about all the good things you have."

"You mean, like…" He thought for a moment. My home? My job? My…" He looked over to Judy's body. She was still breathing. Max was still breathing too. His mind rested a bit.

"You have people to talk to about these things." She continued. "One thing I've learned is… they are your family."

"My… family?"

Saki nodded. "When you fight alongside someone for long enough, they become your family."

"I've… never had a family." Nick said.

"Well, now you do."

There was silence for a moment.

"Thanks."

"You're welc-"

They were interrupted by a sudden burst of light. The sword pieces had started to glow. "What the…?" Yellow said, looking at the pieces. There was another light, emitting from the car attached to her wrist.

"I think I know where this is going." Red said, picking up the pieces. He quickly got up. "I'm gonna throw these into the air, and you're going to shoot that car into them."

"What?" Yellow said, getting up. "Why?"

"Just go with it, this is how we're gonna beat these guys."

"Uh, alright!"

Red tossed the pieces into the air, and Saki aimed the car towards it. She fired it directly into the glowing pieces. When they collided, a massive burst of light shone through the base. The light was so bright in the cramped area, that Blue and Silver were woken up by it.

"Whoa, what's…" Silver said, a bit groggily, as he covered his eyes.

Blue jolted up. "Red, did you just…?"

"You know I did, Carrots!"

They light flew back to Red, covering his paws. It cleared revealing two large gloves covering them They were mostly yellow, with long silver claws coming from the ends of each finger. On the back of both of them were what looked like two lights, both colored red.

Silver quickly got up, and got a close look at them. "Is that how you guys unlock weapons?" He asked. "That's so cool!"

"I know, right?" Red said. He looked at them. "Think I'm gonna call these guys the Racing Claws!"

"Alright, so here's the plan…" Blue started.

"You already have a plan? You've only been awake for thirty seconds!"

"Listen, we both know how this is going to go." She started. "You and Saki are going to go fight the monster with the new weapon, defeat it, and then it will turn giant. Me and Silver are gonna go prepare for the giant fight."

"Oh, I guess that's reasonable." Red said, rubbing his arm. He scraped it a bit with one of the claws. "Ow, these things are really sharp!"

"Just go back there and defeat the monster before we have another army to deal with." Blue said, as she and Silver started to walk off.

Silver quickly turned back, walking backwards. "Tell me the attack name when you get back!"

"I will, Max!" He said back. He turned back to Saki. "Alright, let's go." She nodded, and the two headed off.

After a bit of walking, the two entered the main room. The five villains seemed to just be sitting around with drinks. "What the hell?" Kegalesia said, noticing the two first. "Looks like we have company!"

"I thought we scared you off!" The human headed Yogostein yelled.

"Not yet, you rusty pile of scrap!" Red shouted back, shining his new claws.

"CHAINSAW BANKI! ATTACK!"

The chainsaw robot fumbled around from its laying spot, and rolled right off the raised platform. It quickly got up, and flashed its four blades.

"Alright, Saki." Red started. "I'll let you know when you come in."

The two approached each other, and began circling. Red began by quickly lashing out, at least as best he could with how heavy the gloves were. The Banki Beast managed to block each hit. "Is that the best you got?" The robot jeered. "You're not fast enough!"

Red growled, until he heard a small dinging noise. The lights on the gloves had changed from red to yellow. A grin crept across his face. "Oh yeah?" He said. "How about this!?"

Red lashed out again, this time much faster. He lifted himself up into the air with the speed. While Chainsaw Banki managed to block a number of the attacks, most of them went past him before he could block. With a final strike, the monster went flying into the wall.

"Get up, you idiot!" Yogostein yelled. "You're supposed to beat them!"

The monster got up, and let out a roar. Red looked at the gloves. The light was green. The robot dashed forwards, at full speed.

"Gonna have to be faster than that."

Red turned into a second, much more lightly colored, blur. He dashed through the monster, halting it completely. He dashed through the stunned monster rapidly, before stopping in front of it. Using all the momentum gained, he thrust his claws forward, launching the monster into the other villains. They crashed together, forming into a pile.

"Get off of us!" Yelled one of the Yogosteins

"Alright, Yellow!" He called back. "Let's finish this for good!"

She nodded, and started to dash around the fox, becoming a yellow circle. He took a deep breath, and launched forward. The fox began bouncing rapidly through the circle, before using his momentum to bounce off of Yellow one last time, launching into the air. He splayed the glow out, them gliting in the darkness of the base.

"FINISH LINE CUTTER, GO-ON EDITION!" They both yelled.

The claws lit up, glowing yellow. He slashed them forward, shooting off several busrts of energy at the pile of robots.

The resulting explosion blew the front of the base open.

"Holy… expletive!" Blue yelled as the explosion finished. It created a path directly to the main hall from the base's front. "How did you do that!?"

The two let out coughs as the smoke cleared. "Must've hit a gas line or something." Red said, clearing the air with one of the claws. They started to claw, and flew off his paws, combining into a yellow ZooTag, which dropped into his paw.

"Alright everyone." Blue said, pulling out a ZooTag. "Get ready."

Suddenly, a red object flew from inside of the ruined base, and into the desert. The four-armed robot appeared in front of them, giant. "INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION!" It yelled, lowering down to menace them.

"Didn't expect him to be this close." Silver said, all four of them shocked.

They each plugged in the ZooTags, and ZooCoin, into their Zoolizers, summoning the mechs. All three of them attacked the monster, ZooSagi delivering a powerful kick, ZooKitsune slashing through with its tail, and ZooOkami delivering a few slashes with its claws.

They each hopped into the mechs, and transformed them into their humanoid robot modes. Go-On Yellow looked up at them as they approached the monster. "Wow, those are so cool!" She said, clasping her hands.

She heard shuffling from the ruins. "Damn Zoorangers!" She turned to see Yogostein, stepping out of the ruins. He motioned his hand towards the robot. "BANDOMA! ATTACK!"

From the ruins of the base flew a large number of vehicles, looking moth-like in design. "Bandoma!?" Yellow cried out.

The two mechs stepped towards the monster. "Alright, let's do this quick." Red started, the mech drawing its sword.

"I know, let's combine!" Silver suggested. "That'll definitely be-"

"Maybe you should keep a close eye on your rears!" The monster interrupted. The mechs turned around, only to be blasted by fire from the fighter ships.

"Hey, this isn't fair!" Blue yelled as the mechs stumbled backwards.

"All's fair in love and war!" The monster yelled slicing through both the mech's backs.

"I'll cover the fighters." Silver said, transforming ZooKami back into ZooOkami. "You guys deal with the monster!"

"Got it!" They both shouted.

ZooOkami pounced up, slashing at a few of the Bandoma, knocking them to the ground. "Come get me!" Silver yelled, the mech running off into the desert. The fighters turned their attention to the wolf, and quickly followed.

"OH GREAT!" Both the monster and Yogostein yelled.

ZooRobo turned back to the monster, and prepped its blade. It swung mightily, only for the blade to be blocked by the monster's lower chainsaw arms. "One blade against four? Pretty dumb right there!" It quickly jabbed its upper arms into the robot's chest, knocking it back.

"Oh no!" Yellow yelled. She looked over to BearRV, who was parked nearby. "Bear, we need to help them!"

"Agreed, vee vee!" She said. "Hop in, and let's ride!"

Yellow hopped into the bear car, and drove it up to ZooRobo. "You guys need some help?" Yellow shouted up.

"Yeah!" Blue said back. "Just, be careful about the fusing thing."

"The what?"

"Saki, I feel…" BearRV said. Suddenly, the two became enveloped in light, BearRV transforming into an orb. It levitated up, and into ZooRobo.

Inside the cockpit, the two's seats slid over, making room for a third. The cockpit resembled BearRV's upper half, but much smaller. Yellow was seated at it, gripping the steering wheel. "What the? Where…?"

"Saki, what just happened?" BearRV asked, apparently still conscious as the cockpit.

"Welcome to air Zooranger," Red started, putting on a deeper voice. "Remember to keep your arms inside at all times, and please, if you have a weird tag thing, place it into the prerequisite slot."

"You mean…" Yellow lifted up a yellow ZooTag. "This thing?"

"That'd be the one." Blue said. "And do it quick, please!"

She nodded, and plugged the tag into a slot. "That's very uncomfortable." BearRV let out.

"Sorry!"

Suddenly, a sound began to play.

"BAN BAN BOOM!  
GIRI GIRI!  
CUTTING THROUGH!  
ZOOKUMA!"

In front of the mech appeared a large, yellow bear robot. It resembled the build of the other mechs, but bear shaped. Its front feet ended in long, pointed claws.

It slammed them against the ground, letting out a loud roar. It then leaped up, and slashed at the chainsaw monster, its claws cutting directly through its lower limbs. They fell to the ground, pushing up the sand.

"Augh, my arms!" It cried out. "That thing cut off my arms!"

"And we're about to cut a lot more than that!" Blue started. "Combining time, guys!"

ZooRobo leaped into the air, splitting into pieces. ZooKuma leaped up, and started to fold out, the bear head and body forming into a body, and the front limbs folding out into arms. The other parts connected shortly after, much in the way they had with the other two.

"ZOOROBO, KUMA MODE!"

"So, you got a new form?" The monster joked. "I bet you still can't beat my speed!" The monster then began rotating in place, chainsaw arms outstretched. The sand around him began to kick up, swirling around him and becoming a tornado.

"Try cuttin' through THIS!"

ZooRobo pulled back one of its claws, which began to glow with energy. It thrust it forward, flinging the energy towards the monster. It cut directly through the sand, and the monster. Before the sand fell, it left three marks in mid air.

The monster stumbled around, weakened. ZooRobo lifted its arm up into the air. The three claws began to extend, becoming seemingly miles long. The monster looked up, stunned.

"CRASHING SLASH!" The three cried out.

The claw was brought down onto the monster, slicing directly through it. It began to spark and smoke. "I guess I was the one who got cut down!" The monster said, before tipping over and exploding into a burst of sand.

"We did it!" Blue cheered, pumping her fist into the air.

"Sorry, not yet, Carrots." Red said. "We still have some problems to take care of."

The two other pilots nodded.

"Problem one, THAT!"

Red pointed towards ZooOkami, who was dashing off in the distance, still being chased by the fighters. ZooRobo performed a number of sweeping slashes, firing them at the cloud of fighters, creating a massive explosion.

ZooOkami ran over to them. "Thanks for the save guys!" Silver thanked from inside.

"No, we need to thank you, Silver." Red started. "Without you, we would have been cut up for sure."

"Nick, did you just thank somebody for something?" Blue said, baffled. "Like, without being told to?"

"Well, isn't that what families do?"

"Family?" Blue said to herself, quietly. She shook it off. "Anyway, lets go get rid of those Gaiark guys."

The four hopped out of the mech. In the rubble of the base were the four. The three of this universe were considerably battered and beaten, seemingly unconscious, while the Yogostein they had known was mostly looking well.

"Alright, Gaiark, we're going to-" Yellow tried to start, but she was interrupted.

"Wait!" Yogostein yelled. "Please, don't. Don't destroy them."

"What?" All four of them let out.

"I know they've caused trouble, but…" He looked around the ruined base. "Their base is ruined, and you've shown how easily you can defeat them. They won't come back. I…" He stumbled for a moment. "I don't want them to die again. They're my family."

There was stunned silence for a moment.

"I understand."

Everyone turned to Red, shocked. "Seriously?" Blue started. "You're the kind of guy who can point out when someone's lying."

"He's not lying." Red started. "At least not about the family part. Let's just leave him be."

Red started to walk off. Yellow and Silver followed after. Blue stayed for a moment. She glared at Yogostein, who seemed genuinely melancholy. "If we ever see them in our world again," She started, threatening the robot. "We will destroy them."

"I understand." Yogostein said quietly. "Just leave me be."

She turned, and walked off.

* * *

The four hopped out of BearRV, and back into the field. It was night time. As soon as they got out, BearrV shrunk down, the Engine Soul popping out of the now greyscale toy. Saki picked the toy up, and put it in the nearby suitcase.

"Well, that was an adventure." Nick said, untransforming and stretching out. "I sure learned a lot."

"What did you learn, exactly?" Judy asked, also untransforming.

"Important things, Carrots."

He felt a tap on the shoulder, and turned to see Saki. She held out her palm, which had the ZooTag in it. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Nick said, grabbing it. "You're a real positive lady, you know that?"

"I get that a lot." She said. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a bunch of cakes to make."

"What?"

Saki held the phone up. "That's her job, vee vee!" The holographic BearRV said. "She works at a patisserie!"

"And I think you have a race to go to tomorrow, Bear!" Saki said in return. "Besides, Speedor probably misses you by now."

"If he isn't complaining about not being the one to come!" The two started laughing.

"What an odd couple." Nick said, shaking his head in an amused way.

"The rainbow line should be coming by here soon." Saki stated. "So, I guess this is… goodbye."

"See you later." Nick said, giving a quick salute.

"It was very nice meeting you, Saki." Judy continued.

Max awkwardly walked up to her, looking a bit sheepish. "Um, before you go…" He held out a notepad and a pen. "Could I get your autograph?"

"Sure!" She quickly grabbed the notepad and pen, and jotted down her signature.

Max looked at the notepad. It wasn't anything he could read, seemed to be a different language, but it was still a signature.

The three headed back into the city. "So, that was weird, huh?" Judy started up as they continued through the rainforest.

"Yeah, didn't realize this alternate universe… timeline stuff could get so complicated." Nick said, with a yawn.

"You guys wanna hear something even weirder?"

They turned to face Wolford, who looked and sounded very serious. "This sounds… absolutely insane, but… Everything that happened today matches up with something in ZooRangers RPM."

The two looked at him oddly.

"Seriously!" He said. "The two minister guys, Kitaneidas and Yogostein? They looked exactly like general Crunch and Shifter from that series."

"You mean, in the same way Sambash kind of looked like a villain from one of them?" Nick asked.

"No, I mean EXACTLY THE SAME!" He stressed. "And BearRV looked exactly like one of the Zords from that season too! Saki's suit was nearly the exact same as the Yellow Ranger from it too!"

"So, what are you getting at?" Judy started, not sure what to think.

"Well, I…" He paused. "What if there was some kind of… interdimensional bleed, where aspects from one reality manifested over in ours? Like, instead of becoming a real being, it just became part of a TV show?"

"That's a weird theory, but…" Judy shook her head. "We have absolutely no way to disprove that."

"So, if aspects of the Sentai reality bled over to our timeline," Nick started. "Does that mean aspects of our timeline bled out into theirs? What if we were like, a movie in their world?"

"We don't have anything to disprove that either." Judy shrugged. "But who'd want to watch something about us? It's not like we've ever done anything that exciting before now."

"True enough."

The three laughed, and headed off.

* * *

Yogostein slammed a bottle onto the table. For the last few hours he had been drinking his sorrows away. Or at least tried to. It wasn't working as well as he had hoped. He tried to take a sip of the last bottle, but it was empty.

He slammed his face against the table, letting out a loud groan.

"Yo, what's wrong, Yogo?"

He looked up, sitting next to him was Sambash. He slammed his head back down. "Nothing." He lied.

"I can tell when something's wrong, man, I'm not dumb." He said. "You don't usually drink this much this late."

"Have you ever lost your family before?"

"Can't really say I have." Sambash said. "I think my mom was a centipede, so she left me at birth."

"Oh, well, I've lost my family. The only people I could call my friends in this world."

"You have me, don't you?"

Yogostein looked back up at him.

"We're friends, right? We hang out all the time when we're not doing evil stuff!"

The robot jolted up. "You're right!" He exclaimed. "I'm not alone, I have you, and everyone else here!"

"That might be a bit of a stretch."

"I know." He admitted. "Want me to go get something to drink?" Sambash pumped his fist in response, signalling a yes.

* * *

"Any updates, Leopold?"

"We're working on a version one of the weapon, sir." The leopard said into the phone, sounding a bit anxious.

"Good. But, I have a question."

"W-what is it?"

"How will we know if this weapon can even harm them?"

"I think I have a way, Sir." Leopold started. "We've done some research, and it seems that the coin has an odd… wavelength."

"What does that mean?"

"It means this thing isn't from our world." The leopard explained. He walked over to the casing with the coin inside. "We're trying to figure out a way to weaponize it."

"How will that make it deadly to them?"

"Well, they come from our world." He started to explain. "Meaning they have a similar wavelength to anything here. If we make it so that the weapon can harness the alternate wavelength, it could become the deadliest weapon in the world."

"Amazing." Exclaimed the goat from the other side of the phone. "Have I ever told you how much of a genius you are, Leopold?"

"I don't think you've ever said that to me." He said. "So, uh, thanks?"

"Well, if you don't have anything by next week, I'll retract it. Good bye."

The phone hung up. Leopold gulped, and looked at the coin. He sat down in a nearby chair, and planted his paws up into his face.

"I don't want to do this…"


	22. Virtual Disaster

"I'm glad we're going out for a bit." Nick started. "Just you and me, out on the town, having some fun…"

"Nick, we're shopping."

The two were in the middle of one of Savannah Central's many large shopping centers. Not quite a mall, since it was wide open, but it took up a lot of open space. It was the closest one nearby, and was usually the one they went to for grocery shopping.

"Yeah, but isn't it fun to get out of the house sometimes?" Nick said.

"You hate shopping. I'm the one who usually does this." Judy said. "I'm assuming you have some sort of ulterior motive for why you wanted to come."

"I don't have any motives!" He said. "I just thought, maybe we could…" He started rubbing his arm. "Do something after this?"

"You mean, like, a date?" Judy asked, with a smirk.

"I guess." He said, awkwardly. "Maybe we could go to a coffee shop, or get some lunch, or…" His ears jolted up as he spotted something. "Oh my god."

Judy turned and looked around, alert. "What, is it a monster?" She couldn't see anything, or at least anything noteworthy.

The fox quickly ran off towards a building. Judy followed behind. They stopped in front of the window of the building, displaying a poster for some kind of electronic device. It was black and grey, sitting next to a TV. A paw was coming down from above, and lifting something out of the middle of it.

"I didn't realize it was out already." Nick said, looking up at the poster.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

The fox looked at her. "Don't you have social media, Carrots?"

"Yeah, why?" She said.

"It's the Nintendo Switch!" He said, motioning towards it. "It was everywhere a few months ago! How have you not heard about it?"

"I just follow celebrities." She stated.

Nick shook his head, before looking back up at the poster. "When I was a kid, I wanted to get a Super Nintendo." He started. "I always saw it at stores, but my family never had enough money. By the time I had the cash to get it, they stopped selling them, and I didn't have anywhere to keep it either."

"So, this is a nostalgia thing?" Judy asked. The fox nodded. "I never really cared about video games." She continued.

"Really?" The fox said, a bit surprised. "You were born in the early 90's, I thought everyone back then played video games."

"I guess not when you're busy working on important things." She joked. "Playing those things limits your productivity."

"You know Max plays video games, right?" Nick asked. "Like, he has a big collection of them. Saying that is kind of indirectly insulting him."

Her ears dropped. She really didn't like being judgmental of others, which was something very difficult. "Max is very productive." She admitted. "But I, personally, don't think I'd enjoy them."

"That's fair."

Just as the two were about to walk off, a voice called out from behind them.

"Oh, hey, Nick, Judy!"

They turned around, spotting Kyle. He was standing only a bit away from the building, carrying a bag that seemed to be full of different types of liquor, as well as a few foods they hadn't seen before.

"Hey, Kyle." Judy greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, shopping." He said. "What else do you go to a mall for?"

The two looked at each other and shrugged. He had a point. "Hey Kyle, you play any video games?" Nick asked.

"Uh, not really." He said. "Never had an opportunity to, I guess. Why do you ask."

"I was trying to make a point to my partner here, but it didn't entirely work out." He stated. There was some awkward silence.

"Well, see you guys later!" Kyle said, jogging off.

"Why did you have to make that awkward?" Judy asked as they started to walk off as well.

"He looked like the kind of guy that plays video games." Nick said. "I thought I might be able to prove my point."

"You're really weird sometimes."

The fox ran into an alleyway, looking around to make sure nobody was watching. "Video games. Interesting concept." He said to himself. "Maybe I could make some use of that." He looked down at the bag in his paw.

"I should probably get these back to base first."

The fox snapped his claws, summoning a well of darkness in front of him. He stepped through, before it quickly vanished.

* * *

"Remember how I said I wanted to do something after we finished shopping?" Nick asked as they walked up to the house.

"Yep."

"I didn't mean throwing in a third wheel."

"Listen, I need to know." Judy said. "I kind of feel too distant from him, and we're supposed to be a team. Understanding one of his hobbies is a good start, right?"

"Are you sure you aren't just doing this to prove your point?" Nick asked, a bit skeptical. "I know you hate being wrong."

"I also hate being a jerk to my friends." She said. She quickly knocked on the door, which opened up to reveal the wolf. He was dressed in rather casual black shirt and grey slacks.

"Oh, hey." He said, clearly not expecting them. "What's up, guys?"

"We just wanted to come over for a visit." Judy stated. The wolf welcomed the three in.

"I never really get guests." Max said. "The last time I had anyone over was when you locked Nick and I in here."

"Yeah, good times." Nick said, not sounding sarcastic.

"Okay then."

"So," Judy started, clearing her throat. "I hear you play video games?"

"Yeah." Max started. "I've got a lot of them. Do you play them too?"

"No, no." She said. "I'm just interested in them! You mind if I check out your collection?"

"Sure." Max said, shrugging. "I have my PS4 and some new games over by the TV."

The rabbit quickly hopped over to the TV stand. There was a pile of around five different games, each in a blue case. She quickly looked through them.

"What's up with her?" Max asked.

"She's trying to prove a point." Nick explained, quiet enough for the rabbit to not notice. "'Grr, video games bad', or something."

"Really?" Max said. "She never really came off as that kind of mammal."

"Max," Judy started, holding up two game cases. "What do you find… appealing, about these games?"

"Well, they're… fun." He said, shrugging. "I haven't beaten any of those yet, so I can't really give full opinions yet."

She looked at them again. "Nier: Automammal? Nyaoh?" She said. "What are these games even about?"

"Well, they're-"

"They look pretty violent." Judy said, placing them back on the shelf. "I don't know if I could handle them."

"I have games that aren't that violent." Max said. "If you want, I could show you some of those."

"Really?" She said, surprised. "I'm surprised someone like you has… kid's games."

"I watch a kid's TV show every week," Max started. "Of course I have kid's games."

Suddenly, their Zoolizers started to beep loudly. "Man, I was hoping something like this would happen later in the day." Nick said, disappointed. "Alright, we can handle this video game stuff after we deal with the monster."

The other two nodded, and they headed out.

* * *

"Alright, the monster should be around here somewhere." Silver started as they walked into the open block. It was a business district, specifically near an electronics store called Beast Buy.

"So, where is it?" Red asked, looking around.

The doors of the Beast Buy slid open, a large number of mammals running for their lives from the store. After the stampede finished, the monster walked out. It was mostly grey and rocky, but its head seemed to consist of most of a laptop. The rest of its body was also covered with a number of keyboard keys. Each key on its body had a pair of red eyes.

It was carrying a worker, a deer, by the throat. "What is this, some kind of joke!?" The monster slammed the worker into the ground, and stepped on top of the deer's chest. "This can't be all you have!" The monster held up two stacks of five games in both of its hands, while pressing down on the worker's chest.

"Sir…" The deer said, weakly. "This is an electronics store, not a-"

The monster stomped down. "Video games are electronics!" It shouted. "Video games are more important than anything in life! How am I supposed to cause trouble with only TEN games to be inspired by!?"

Sudden blasts hit the monster, knocking it to the ground. The games flew out of its hands. "How about you don't cause any trouble?" Blue yelled. The three of them had their weapons prepped. The deer quickly scrambled away as the monster laid there.

The monster fell limp for a second. The rangers looked at each other, confused. Had they beaten it that easily? Suddenly, the monster's body began to blink in and out, before vanishing completely.

The monster instantly reappeared, standing fully upright. "That hurt!" It shouted at them. "You dare mess with the master of computer games, Mokumokuren!?"

A sudden swipe appeared beneath the monster as it struck a pose. A triangular black flash appeared, followed by the monster's name appearing in stylized letters. Mokumokuren stopped posing, causing the image to vanish.

The three stood there, dumbstruck.

"I swear, these things get weirder and weirder every week." Red said, shaking his head.

"You must be the Zoorangers!" The keyboard monster said. "Master Kyuemon told me that you like games, so, you wanna play?"

"We don't want to play anything with you!" Blue yelled. "We're here to kick your butt!"

"Ah, so I see you guys are hardcore!" The monster laughed. "I'm going to have to take this seriously, too!" The monster quickly circled around, whipping its arms around. The eight game cases flew back into its hands.

He quickly examined them with his myriad of eyes. "Oh, I'll start with this one, it got the best reviews out of them all." The eyes on its spacebar disappeared, being replaced with two rows of blunt looking teeth. It opened up, stretching the monsters face out, as he popped the chosen game case into it. Its mouth vanished, turning back into eyes.

Mokumokuren let out a roar, as purple smoke began to emit from it. A loud voice, seemingly from nowhere, yelled something out.

"DANGEROUS ZOMBIE"

"Mmm, tastes like the dead!" He said, wiping the space bar with his wrist. He quickly flicked it into a point. "Get 'em!"

As he pointed towards the three, purple smoke began to come from the ground. Rising from it were a number of Jukkarage, though instead of their usual stone looks, they now wore tattered clothing. They started to shuffle forward, awkwardly.

"What the hell?" Red said, watching as the monsters slowly approached. He didn't seem frightened, more confused.

"I thought we were dealing with a video game monster, not a…" Blue paused for a moment. "Zombie monster?"

"I think I know how this works!" Silver said, startling his teammates. "He ate the video game, so now he has powers based on it!"

"If this was a trivia game, you'd be correct!" The monster said, shining an okay sign.

"Then that means he took the power from a survival horror game." Silver continued. The zombies were still slowly shuffling towards them.

"And that means…?" Blue asked.

"The challenge of a survival horror game is that you don't have a lot of ammo or weapons to deal with monsters." Silver explained. "And you know what we have plenty of?"

The two looked at Silver, then at each other, and then at their blasters. "Oh, I get it." The fox said.

The two prepared the guns, as Silver switched his blade to Sun Mode. They began rapidly firing at the army of zombies, wiping them out in only a few seconds.

"Son of a glitch!" The monster yelled, stumbling back. The zombies hadn't even gotten close to them! He thought this was supposed to be the strongest of the games, but it seemed he was wrong.

He pulled out another game case, and stuck it in his mouth. Again, a voice from nowhere yelled out.

"SHAKARIKI SPORTS"

"What kind of game is that?" Blue asked, turning to Silver.

The wolf shrugged. "I have never heard of either of those before." He said.

"Sounds like its sports based." Red said. "So maybe he's gonna put us into a deadly game of dodge-ball."

The monster waved its hands at the ground, shooting out what looked like a wave of pixels. The ground pixelized, and caused a rather eye-searing pink and green bicycle to appear. "See you, noobs!" He gave a quick salute, and hopped on the bike, speeding away.

Well, that might be an overstatement.

The bike was constantly leaning side to side as the monster tried to pedal as fast as it could. The three watched, fairly baffled.

"So, do we just… let him go?" Red asked.

"Why would we do that?" Blue said. "He's a monster."

"I dunno, I kind of feel sorry for him."

"I'll handle this." Silver said, stepping forward. He spun the guard around.

"SHINE SHINE MOON"

He whipped the blade forward, shooting out a whip of energy. It reached up to the monster, and wrapped around its body. Silver tugged it back, causing the monster to land in front of them.

"Now, can we start this fight for real?" He said, sounding a bit exasperated.

"H-hang on!" Mokumokuren said, getting up. "That was just round one! I need to prepare for round two, that's the rules!"

Silver was about to yell something, before Blue placed a paw in front of him.

"Just…" Blue let out a big sigh. "Just let him do it."

The monster scrambled over to the games, and seemingly randomly shoved four of them into its mouth. Once again, a voice from nowhere yelled something out.

"MIGHTY ACTION X! TADDLE QUEST! BANG BANG SHOOTING! BAKUSOU BIKE!"

"Alright, now I'm ready!" The keyboard yokai said. He spun around, a large, fairly generic sword appearing in his hands. "Prepare to face the true power of a gamer!" He brandished the sword at the three.

"Finally, an actual fight." Red said.

The three rushed at the monster, each with their weapons drawn. Read leaped in first, clashing blades with the monster in mid-air. The monster flung Red off, as Blue leaped in for a strike of her own. Suddenly, in a cloud of pixels, the monster materialized an uzi, and began shooting at her. The rabbit hopped about, avoiding the bullets.

Silver ran up next, sword drawn. The monster held both of its weapons it its chest, and dashed forward at ridiculous speeds, reappearing on the other side of Silver. The wolf looked around, confused, before a sharp pain hit. He fell to his knees.

"The boss is vulnerable!" The Mokumokuren shouted, before leaping high into the air. He came crashing down on Silver, slamming him directly into the ground. He then leaped off the wolf, and onto Blue, and then onto Red.

He leaped off the fox, and into the middle of the triangle of them. "Well, its been fun." He said, starting to sound a bit sad. "But I know how to make it even more fun!" It shouted, suddenly sounding joyful again. "Everything's more fun with CO-OP!"

The three got up, and looked at him, baffled.

The keyboard monster turned to Blue and Red, and motioned his hands. The ground beneath them pixelized, and shuffled them over to the monster. He gave a wave to Silver, without looking. "Sorry, Wolfgang, but this is a two player only game!"

"What?" Silver said, getting up.

"But don't worry, I'll give you spectator mode!"

The monster snapped its fingers, and the three became enveloped by a large glowing cube. TH cube began to shrink down, and then vanished in a burst of light. Max untransformed, and looked at what remained.

It was an NES.

He picked it up, and looked at it. It seemed to be completely normal. He popped the lid open, there was a cartridge inside. He pulled it out.

The art on the cartridge was completely black, marked only by the Mokumokuren's black eyes. Below it, in a red stylized font, read "Mokumokuren's Game of Death".

"Oh god."

He rushed off, the console under his arm.

The wolf practically flew into his basement. There was something bad happening, and there was only one thing he could do.

Set the console up.

* * *

In the middle of the basement was an old analog TV sitting on top of a stand. It was a massive, bulky black beast of outdated technology. Connected to it were a number of old consoles, from a Genesis to an SNES.

He quickly unplugged all of them, and plugged in the NES' cords. He took a gulp as his finger hovered over the power button.

Click.

The console let out a burst of energy, knocking the wolf onto the couch seated in front of the TV. He watched as the machine crackled with electricity, leading from the wires to the TV. The screen flicked on without any input.

On the screen was another pair of Mokumokuren's eyes, but rendered in a pixelated style. Under them read "PRESS START"

Max looked around. He didn't have any NES controllers, and the console hadn't come with one. "I can't." He said, hoping that somehow it could hear him.

The eyes suddenly turned angry, the text changing to "UGH FINE"

The text vanished, and the eyes raised off the screen. The black of the screen cleared in a wipe, revealing a grassy plain. Or, what seemed to pass for one in an old video game, mostly being entirely green with a handful of darker green patches.

In the middle of the screen were two 8-bit figures, standing there. They looked like Nick and Judy, Nick dressed up in his standard tacky shirt and tie, and Judy in her police uniform, which he was pretty certain she wasn't wearing before this. They bobbed up and down, in some kind of idle animation.

Suddenly, a text box appeared.

It was completely black, and showed up at the bottom of the screen. On the right side was a pixelated version of Nick's face, looking confused. "Carrots, where are we?" appeared in the box, written in white text.

Suddenly, the text box changed, switching to one with a portrait of Judy, also looking confused. "I don't know." Appeared in the box.

The two began looking around rapidly, the idle stance simply switching directions. They then looked at each other. Another of Judy's text boxes popped up, this one with her looking worried. "Where's Max?" It read.

Another text box, this one with Nick having a quizzical expression. "Didn't that monster say something about this only being two players?"

The screen darkened for a moment, as ominous 8-bit music started. From the top of the screen lowered a much higher resolution pixel version of Mokumokuren. He even had more animation in his idle, too.

"Hahahaha!" It laughed, the sound coming pretty clearly through the TV's speakers. "You two are trapped in my GAME OF DEATH!" Tinny thunder sounds played quickly after it finished. "And there isn't any way for your friend to help you!"

Max clenched both of his paws. "We'll see about that."

* * *

Judy rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She looked around. There was nothing but a wide-open field, completely devoid of anything for what seemed like miles. The grass seemed very… pixelated. Not actually real.

She looked at herself. She was suddenly in her police uniform, something she hadn't even touched the entire day. Why was she wearing this?

She looked next to her. Nick was there, also looking around. "Carrots, where are we?" He asked, confused. They had just been in the middle of the city, and now they were… somewhere.

"I don't know." She said, shrugging. The two got up, and looked around again. She turned to Nick. "Where's Max?"

The fox thought for a moment. "Didn't that monster say something about this only being two players?" He said, after thinking for a moment.

The sky suddenly darkened, laughter filling the air. They both looked up, watching the sky as a back figure lowered down. It was Mokumokuren, riding on a large, circular platform. It touched onto the ground. "Hahahaha!" It laughed, stepping off the platform. It pointed towards them. "You two are trapped in my GAME OF DEATH!"

The sky darkened completely, thunder sounding as the monster continued to laugh and approach them. "And there's nothing your friend can do to help you!"

There was silence, as the three braced themselves for a fight.

"But, that really doesn't have much to do with anything right now."

The mammals practically tripped over themselves.

"Then what was with all the build-up!?" Nick yelled, frustrated.

"When the final boss first appears, it has to be dramatic!" The Mokumokuren said. "Anyway, this GAME OF DEATH is special!" He snapped his fingers.

There was a large burst of light behind the two. They covered their eyes and turned to it. The air itself seemed to rip open, revealing three pixelated portals. One was pink, one was green, and the last was yellow.

"If you two want to get out of here, you'll have to beat my games!" The monster explained. It vanished, and appeared next to the pink portal in a burst of pixels. "First up is the Platformer Challenge! Which one of you is gonna take it?"

"Uh…" Both of them let out.

"Can't decide?" The monster said. "Guess we'll have the third wheel decide!" he snapped his fingers again.

Suddenly, two large boxes appeared over their heads, startling them. "What the heck are those?" Judy asked.

"Your stats!" The monster explained. "I'm letting your friend out there pick who goes first."

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked, absolutely confused.

Max looked at the screen. It had turned black, with his two friends appearing as detailed sprites on the screen. Below them were two sets of three bars, each colored something different. One was represented by a heart, the other by a claw, and the last by a foot.

Health, strength, speed.

Above them read "CHOOSE".

Max smacked the sides of his face. This was an important choice. Which one of them would be better to handle a platformer? Generally, platformers had enemies, traps, and difficult jumps. He looked at their stats. Nick had more health and strength than Judy, but his speed was lesser.

If he wanted to survive, he'd need the health.

"Nick!" he shouted at the TV. "Pick Nick!"

"We have our results!" The monster yelled as a short fanfare played. The black boxes above the mammals disappeared, as the portal began to spin. "Basic rules before we go!" The Mokumokuren started. "One, you need to complete the objective I give you! Two, you only have three lives! After three mistakes, if you die, you're dead for real!"

"Wait, WHAT!?" All three rangers yelled.

The portal spun faster, creating a vortex. Nick was quickly ripped from the ground, screaming for his life as he entered the portal.

* * *

Nick quickly sat up, and looked around. He was in his suit, meaning that he had somehow transformed between the split second he was sucked into the portal and now. Examining his surroundings, he was in some kind of city.

Definitely not Zootopia.

Maybe not even a city.

The building he was standing on was nearly board thin, only really capable of holding something of his width. On one side of the building was what looked like a sky, but was more like a projection. Flying cars flying around stylized buildings, projected onto a wall, infinitely.

On the other side was the same thing, but in reverse. Above him was pure blue, like a sky, but still flat as cardboard. A hole opened up in the "sky", Mokumokuren riding down from it on his platform. He lowered himself to be just in front of the fox.

"Alright!" He started, producing a microphone from nowhere. "Welcome to the first game! Your goal here is to reach the end of the stage, without losing all three of your lives!"

"How will I know when the stage is over?" Nick asked.

"When the stage stops scrolling, duh!" The monster yelled. "The challenge starts now! GAME START!" He quickly rose back up into the hole, leaving the fox confused.

"God, that guy's pretty eccentric, isn't he?" Max said.

"Tell me about it."

The fox's ears jolted up in surprise. He quickly looked around. Where did that voice come from?

"We have communicators, remember?" Max said.

Oh yeah.

"Wait, so you know what's going on?" Nick asked.

"I'm watching you on my TV, right now." Max explained. "When he took you guys, he left behind a game console, and when I connected it to my TV, it started showing you guys. I know exactly what's going on."

"So, you can see everything?" Nick said. He quickly held his paw up in a peace sign, and looked around. "Can you see what I'm doing now?"

"Yes, you're holding your paw up."

"Alright, just wanted to make sure." He said, lowering his paw. "So, you're going to help me out?"

"Yeah, platformers are my favorite genre." The wolf explained. "Like he said, you gotta go until the screen stops scrolling."

"I don't know what that means."

"Don't worry, I'll let you know when that happens." He said. "Just move forward for right now."

The fox nodded, and headed forward for a bit. After a short bit of walking across a weirdly long building, he encountered some odd floating objects. They were odd blocks, red in color, and with a large Z marked on them. There was several of them, lined up in a long row. Underneath the blocks stood a Jukkarage.

"An enemy!" Max said. "You need to beat it if you want to get past."

"That is something I can do." He reached for his sword. He patted down his suit. It wasn't there. "I don't have the Foxfire Blade."

"Wait, seriously?" Max said, surprised. "Well, if you don't have that, you just need to jump on it."

"Why would jumping on something kill it?" Nick asked.

"That's just how it works in these games."

Nick took a deep breath, and walked up to the monster, catching its attention. It stepped forward, arms raised. It also didn't seem to have a weapon, but it was definitely trying to menace him.

"Oh yeah, if it touches you, you'll probably die."

"WHAT!?"

Nick quickly started backing up as the monster approached. "You can't jump on it with the blocks in the way." Max said.

"What do I do!?"

"Just lead it out from under the blocks." He said. "It should keep following you no matter how far you go."

Nick complied with this frankly insane sounding strategy. He continued heading backwards at a brisk pace, the monster seemingly not able to run. The fox kept an eye on the blocks, and waited until they ended.

Eventually the monster was lead out. The fox leaped into the air, and came crashing down on the monster. As soon as his feet touched the monster's head, it burst into rocky pieces.

"I cannot believe that worked." Nick said, baffled.

"Something that could only happen in a video game." Max said. "Now, hit one of those blocks, it might have a power-up in it."

"Don't need to tell me that a power-up's good." Nick chuckled. He jumped up, and smacked the block on the bottom with his fist. The top of the block popped up, revealing a puff of dust. "Well, that was disappointing."

"Just keep hitting them, one should have a power-up."

The fox continued hitting the long line of blocks, each one turning up nothing. That was, until he hit the final block in the long line. Form it burst a cloud of confetti, alongside the Foxfire Blade! The blade flew out, and clanked onto the ground.

Nick quickly scooped up the blade, and held it above his head. A triumphant sounding melody played. "I got it!"

"Alright, now that you have that, you can attack!" Max explained. "Also, if I'm right, you should be able to take an extra hit."

The two continued on. Max continued helping the fox through the bizarre concepts in platformers. Endless pits were jumped over, instant death spikes were avoided, and even more enemies were defeated.

As Max sat on his couch, fully transformed into ZooSilver, he could only think of two things. One, this suit was really uncomfortable to do anything but fight in.

The second, more important thought, was that something was up. The entire thing had been fairly… standard. He had expected the monster to cheat in some way, but the only crime he was committing was just really awful game design.

Eventually, they came to the part where the screen stopped scrolling.

"So, what do I do?" Nick asked. The only thing in front of him was a wall, which seemed to have a bumpy, silver gate attached to it.

"There might be a boss fight." Max said. "Enter the door and see what happens."

Nick walked up to the gate, and placed a gloved paw on it. The gat instantly slid up, startling him. He walked through the hall it lead to, and out the other end. The area was now boxed in, Nick having to jump from a raised platform in order to reach the bottom.

There was a slam. He looked behind him, another gate had slammed behind him.

"I'm surprised you even managed to make it this far!"

He looked up, Mokumokuren lowered from above. "Doesn't matter, you'll lose to the boss of the game anyway! Introducing…" He snapped his fingers, causing a burst of pixels on the other side of the room.

Kamaitachi emerged from it.

"Oh great." Nick sighed. "This guy again."

"You know this guy?" Max asked.

"Yeah, first monster we ever fought."

"HEY!"

Mokumokuren lowered down to the startled fox. "Who are you talking to!?"

"Uh, nobody?" He lied. "Just… me, myself, and I!"

"I knew it, you had help!" The monster yelled. "I was just gonna have you fight this guy again, but I think you need to be taught a lesson!"

He snapped his fingers again, causing the Kamaitachi clone to become engulfed in more pixels. It let out a roar, causing the pixels to scatter. Its appearance had changed. Its upper half remained similar, but now it had four chainsaw arms. Its lower torso was now just a whirling tornado. The emblem of chaos appeared on the weasel's forehead.

"LEVEL UP!" Yelled a voice from nowhere.

"Meet Chaos Kamaitachi!" The Mokumokuren introduced. "He's the late game version of this boss!" The monster gave a quick wave, and rose back into the air, laughing.

Red drew his sword as the monster just floated there, menacingly. Suddenly, the monster jolted forward, spinning around with all four of its chainsaw arms outstretched. The fox leaped over it, looking back as the monster suddenly stopped and turned as well.

It slashed through the air, firing off four sharp bursts of air. Red quickly weaved between them, and rushed up to the monster. He slashed it, causing the Kamaitachi to roar in pain. Before the fox could react, it spun forward again, knocking him back.

"Agh, lucky shot!" He yelled as the monster stopped. He brandished his sword. His sword.

His sword was gone.

"What!?" He yelled. "Where'd it…!?" Before the fox could finish, the monster slashed at him again. He quickly jumped into the air, dodging the strikes.

"He hit you!" Max yelled. "You lost your power-up."

"Oh COME ON!"

"If he hits you again you're dead!" The wolf warned. "Be-"

The monster dashed again, slicing right through the panicking fox. He fell to his knees, and began evaporating. In a few seconds, he vanished completely.

Suddenly, the fox appeared in the middle of the stage, completely normal.

"What the hell?" He said. "Didn't I just die?"

"You still have two extra lives!" Max explained. "Try to not waste them."

"Oh, I won't."

Red pulled out a yellow object, and gave a quick smirk from behind his helmet. "Guess he didn't consider that I have other power-ups."

He plugged the tag into the Zoolizer, causing it to glow and emit noise.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

He bared the claws at the monster. The two locked sights, and dashed at the same time. They ripped through each other, Red ending with a slide. The weasel monster let out another roar, before exploding.

"Man, these things are great." Red said, stretching his arm. Suddenly, there was a ripping sound. The fox turned to look, seeing another portal rip through the air. It quickly swept him from the ground, and sucked him in.

The screen went black.

"GAME CLEAR!" Yelled a voice.

* * *

Nick was flung back into the field, landing on his face.

"So, how'd it go?" He glanced up, Judy was standing next to him.

"Fine, I guess." He said, getting up and brushing off his shirt. "I mean, aside from the part where I died."

"You what!?"

"Don't worry, it was just one life." He assured. "Not a very fun experience, though, try to avoid it."

"YOU!"

The skies darkened again, as the Mokumokuren lowered from the sky, all of his eyes turning angry. "YOU CHEATED!"

"I beat your game!" The fox retorted. "You didn't say how I had to beat it, there were no rules against using my own weapon!"

"Did I miss something?" Judy asked.

"Yes, and no, don't worry."

The monster growled, and stomped on the platform. It quickly hovered over to the set of portals. The pink one had vanished. The keyboard yokai pointed at the rabbit. "Since your partner did the first one, you get to do the second one!" He motioned towards the green portal.

She punched her paw into her palm. "Alright, I'm ready for this." She rushed towards the portal, and leaped into it.

The monster started laughing, and hovered over to the fox. "No matter how hard you try, you and your girlfriend aren't getting out of here alive." He threatened, before flying off.

"That probably means something bad."

* * *

Judy looked around. She had apparently transformed at some point, so she was looking through her visor. She seemed to be in the ruins of a city, not destroyed for long judging by how fresh some of the ruins seemed.

The most likely conclusion is that a war had happened… but there wasn't a sound for miles. She could tell.

"Hey, Judy!"

She practically leaped ten feet in the air.

"Oh, sorry! It's me!" The voice said through her communicator.

"Max?" She asked. It certainly sounded like him. "How are you…?"

"I'm watching you on TV." He explained. "I'm here to help you get through this. I helped Nick get through his challenge."

"Is that why the monster said he cheated?" She asked.

"Probably. Guy seems like a sore loser."

"Alright, enough of your chitchat!"

Judy looked up, seeing the monster lower from the sky on his platform. "Time to get this challenge started. The mission here is to defeat the enemy team!" He explained. "Either you get one hundred kills first… or you die."

"Enemy team?" She glanced around the ruins. There was no one else there.

The monster snapped its fingers, summoning up a massive circle of Jukkarage around her. They all seemed to wield guns, rather than the swords they usually had.

There had to at least be a thousand of them.

"So, where's my team?" She asked.

The monster burst out laughing, before falling silent. "Good luck." The monster raised back up into the sky, the sound of its fingers snapping going through the air. "GAME START!"

Blue pulled out her blasters, and circled around, examining the monsters. Many them ran off into the empty buildings, while a smaller number remained on the main battlefield.

"Alright, you're gonna help me, right Max?" She asked.

"Yeah. First off, PAY ATTENTION!"

She leaped out of the way as a group of the Jukkarage blasted at her with their, apparently, laser based weapons. "Shooter games require a lot of focus!" Max started over the communicator. The rabbit fired a few shots at the group of monsters that had fired, obliterating them.

"They're fast paced," The wolf continued. Blue looked up and around, many Jukkarage had gathered on higher levels. They were aiming through windows and over destroyed chinks of wall. "And if this is anything like an actual competitive match, those guys are at full mental capacity."

"If they are, they're a lot smarter than I thought." She said, before leaping out of the way of blasts from above.

The laser fire chased her across the battlefield, it seemed that the Jukkarage were hanging around every building she could see. She ducked into a nearly destroyed building, behind a chunk of destroyed wall, which seemed to keep her out of harm's way.

She took a deep breath, and spoke into the communicator. "How am I supposed to beat these guys?" She asked her current helper.

"That keyboard weirdo didn't tell us anything other than to beat them." Max said. "Usually in a game like this, there are different game types. Death match, king of the hill, capture the flag, but we don't have anything to go off."

"So, there's a specific goal for all of these?"

"Yeah. Death match needs you to beat at least fifty opponents, king of the hill has you capture points for as long as possible, and capture the flag has you collect an object, and bring it back to base."

"Alright, so the last two don't seem to be here." She rationalized. "So, this is probably death match."

"Makes sense for a death game."

"So, kill fifty of them?" She said, a bit concerned. "But there's at least a thousand of them out there, that seems a bit too easy."

"Are you seriously complaining about something being too easy?" Max asked as the rabbit looked over the wall. The coast seemed clear.

She quickly sprinted out from behind it, but slowed down, and watched around carefully. "No, I just mean…" She started, pausing to listen for any danger. "When something's this easy, that means something bad is going to happen."

The monsters quickly appeared again, and began firing down onto the rabbit. She continued to dash out of the way, while also occasionally firing at a handful of the Jukkarage. Around seven of them, by her count.

"I think that's thirteen I've blasted." She said, deftly dodging some more laser fire. "Including the ones from the start, that is."

"Alright, you're… doing great!" He said. "Are you sure you need my help?"

"Now that I know what I'm doing…" A few Jukkarage came running out of a building firing their guns at her. She leaped into the air, and blasted them before landing. "I think I can handle it. Twenty."

A series of red lights suddenly littered the ground, coming from different directions all around her. She dashed out of the way as a massive explosion rose from the ground, barely missing her. When did they have snipers?

She dashed into another nearby building. This one was relatively more intact, having a flight of stairs that led to the roof. Before she reached the roof, she huddled to the wall, and listened. Definite footsteps, as well as grunting. It was definitely guarded.

She poked up from the stairwell, and aimed her guns at the Jukkarage. She quickly blasted it. "Twenty one." She whispered, climbing up over the wall.

She glanced around, the monsters were covering every single roof and second floor she could see. She ducked behind the side of the roof, making sure to cover her ears. She raised one of her blasters over the raised wall, and started firing rapidly. They were bound to hit some of them.

She listened carefully to the number of anguished grunts before she pulled the gun back down. "Let's see, I think that was thirty-two?"

Her ears twitched as she heard footsteps coming from the stairs. A troop of Jukkarage come up from it, cornering her. Before she could fire back they blasted at her, knocking her off the building.

She crashed into the ground, somehow not feeling any pain. That wasn't the only weird thing, though. As she got up, she noticed that the edges of her visor were blinking red.

"Oh hey, I have a thing to say!" Max suddenly shouted, seemingly happy. "That red blinking is how the lazy kinds of shooters show how close you are to dying without having a health bar."

"So, I'm almost dead?" She said. "But I didn't feel anything."

"Trust me, that's just how it works."

Suddenly, in a bit of déjà vu, the monsters started to swarm out of the buildings, circling her. "Make this quick!" Max said. "If any of them hit you, you're dead!"

"Quick?" Blue said, twirling her blasters. "I can do quick."

She began to spin around, blasting the Jukkarage rapidly. She kept count with each one she blasted, while also weaving in and out of their fire. In a few seconds, she had gotten to forty-nine. There was still an army, but if Max was right, this final shot would win the game.

Before she could fire, the monsters suddenly stopped. They began to distort into pixels, and vanish from view.

"HEY!" She yelled. "You can't just remove everyone, how is that supposed to be fair!? I just needed one more-"

"Your 'one more'…"

She froze at the sound of the voice. It was one that still haunted her, even after months. One she'd thought she'd gotten over.

She turned around.

"Is right here, fuzzball."

It was Makirika, the mantis monster.

Though it would be more accurate to say it was Chaos Makirika. He looked significantly different from normal, a lot sleeker. The jagged spikes on his head had changed to a stylized V-shape, while his face now looked like more of a helmet, with a red visor. His once complicated body had smoothed over, retaining only the base colors. Even his sickle hands had changed, now being large spikes instead of mantis hands. Its chest had the emblem of chaos emblazoned on it. He looked more like a sci-fi hero than a bug monster.

"You."

"Yeah, its me." The monster said, stepping forward. "I dunno what's going on here, but I finally have a chance to get my revenge on you little carrot muncher!"

"I take it you had some issues with this guy?" Max asked.

"Second monster we fought." She explained. "Still one of the worst, in my book."

"Aw, lovely of you to still remember me." The monster said, mockingly. "Now, let's get this over with, killer."

She let out a growl, and quickly blasted at the monster. The shots harmlessly bounced off an orange field that projected around it. The mantis laughed as it started to approach. The beast man aimed one of its spiked hands at the rabbit, before firing off a laser.

She leaped out of the way. "Max, I need some advice!" She yelled, continuing to dodge fire. "How do you beat a guy with a shield!?"

"When this happens in a boss fight, you usually need to find the boss' weak spot." He explained. "Usually a big glowing thing."

"His shoulders, got it."

She aimed for one of the monster's giant shoulder pads, and fired. The shots still hit the shield, dissipating immediately. "Oh, come on, seriously?" She yelled, dodging out of the way of another of the mantis' shots.

"Try hitting him in the back!" Max suggested "Sometimes the shield doesn't cover that."

She nodded, and rushed at the monster. Before it could process what was going on, she leaped over it, performing a flip. During the flip, she fired at the monster's back. Still, the shots were deflected.

She landed, and skidded across the ground, dust flying up. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Is that seriously the best you got?" The monster asked as it turned to her, sounding very disappointed. "Man, you were stronger when we first fought."

"I'm stronger than I've ever been." She retorted.

"Then why can't you break my shield?" It asked. "How can you be stronger when you can't even get past me for a second time?"

Blue let out another growl, this one louder. "Judy, calm down." Max said. "I'm sure we can find a way to…"

"DISTRACTION!"

The monster blasted at the rabbit as she listened to her advisor. The sharp bolt of energy pierced through her, causing a horrible burst of pain. She fell to the ground, twitching. After a few seconds, she vanished.

She blinked back into existance a moment later, standing decently away from the monster. "Oh, so I guess that's what its like to die." She said, looking over her body.

"Fun?"

"Nope."

She punched her paw into her palm. "I think I know how to break through the shield."

"Does it involve cheating?" Max asked.

"You know it." She answered, pulling out a ZooTag. She plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The boxing gloves appeared on her paws, the sound of a bell ringing punctuating it. This caught the monster's attention.

"The heck're those?" It asked, pointing towards the rabbit.

"These represent the strength I've gotten from my friends!" She punched one of the gloves forward. "The strength I've gotten from leading, from helping others!"

She dashed at the monster, and leaped into the air. Using all her strength, she punched into the shield. The glove clashed against it, but didn't bounce off. She pressed it down harder, and harder, until the shield cracked.

In an instant, the shield broke into pieces, the force of it launching them both back. Blue skid to a halt, while the monster tumbled back, and fell. She brought her arm back, as far as she could, and swung forward, launching a massive blast of energy at the monster.

The blast hit, causing a massive explosion. When it cleared, the monster had been obliterated.

The gloves disappeared from the rabbit's already gloved paws, as she pumped one into the air. "WOOHOO!"

"Only one more challenge left!" Max said. "And considering both of you still have two lives left, this should be a cake walk!"

Suddenly, the air above Judy ripped open. A green portal had formed, it swept her from the ground, and everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR!"

* * *

Judy flew through the air, and struck a perfect three-point landing on to the pixelated grass.

"How come you stuck the landing, and I fell flat on my face?" nick asked, walking up to her. His arms were cross.

"Because I," She started, standing up. "Was expecting it."

Thunder crashed as the two looked up. Mokumokuren rode down from the sky on his platform. "Ugh, you cheated AGAIN!" He yelled, absolutely frustrated.

"Well, you cheated first that time!" Judy retorted. "You made me fight a thousand guys on my own, and then you made the boss invincible!"

"The boss wasn't invincible, okay!?" The monster said. "You were supposed to lead it over to explosive barrels, and that would break the shield!"

"I didn't even see any barrels!"

The monster thought for a second. "Hmm, maybe I forgot to program them in…"

Judy pulled her ears over her face in frustration.

"Alright, bring on the third challenge!" Nick started, striding forward confidently.

"Are you sure you're ready for the last challenge?" Mokumokuren asked, with a bit of a chuckle.

"Yeah, pretty sure." He said. "We both have two lives left, no matter who goes, we win."

The monster burst into maniacle laughter. The two mammals looked at each other, nervous.

The yokai floated down closer, and stared at both of them, its many eyes shining.

"When did I say you both had three lives?"

Their eyes dilated as the monster started to laugh again.

"You did, though!" Judy blurted out. "You said we both got three lives!"

"No, I said 'you only have three lives', I never said you both did." The monster said. "And by the way, you both have to do this next challenge."

"WHAT!?"

"And if either one of you loses, you both die." He gave a quick salute. "See you, suckers!" He raised back into the sky, laughing the entire time.

The two mammals looked at each other. "Did he just hustle us?" Nick asked. Before Judy could respond, they both heard a crash. They turned to the yellow portal, which sucked them from the ground.

* * *

The two skidded across the ground as the portal shot them out. They were both back in their ranger outfits, and seemed to be out in the middle of a desert. A vast, vacant desert, with nothing for miles.

Though, they did appear to be standing on a paved road. The Mokumokuren floated down from the sky again.

"Hello, contestants, welcome to the racing challenge!" It greeted. "The goal of this game is simple. All you have to do is reach the goal before your opponent!"

"Alright, nice and simple." Red said, rubbing his paws together. "Nice of you to be more straightforward with us."

The two rangers pulled out their bike ZooTags, and summoned up the Kitsugider and Usagider. The hopped on, and headed for the starting line, a white line painted across the ground.

They paused for a moment, looking around. Nobody else was there. "Excuse me?" Blue started up. "Where's the competition?"

"Oh, he should be here in a minute." The Mokumokuren chuckled.

The two looked back, watching as a plume of black smoke raised into the air from far away. Something was coming.

From far away, they could tell it was massive, larger than anything they had seen without being in a giant robot. As it got closer, they heard the sounds of a train, a loud whistle, and the wheels chugging across the ground.

When it got even closer, they realized what it was.

It wasn't just a massive, black steam train. It had a face on it. The face of Incinerator Banki. The thing parked directly behind them, letting a massive cloud of black smoke expel from its mouth as it stopped. The two coughed as the smog cleared away.

"Here he is," Mokumokuren introduced. "Chaos Incinerator Banki, back from the scrapheap to show you two the real meaning of speed!"

The train made a guttural growling noise in response.

They turned back to the road ahead of them, though they could still feel the monster's breathing on them.

"Alright," Max started up, through their commlinks. "My screen's showing a display of the map. Aside from a bit in the middle, its mostly just a straight line. A very long straight line."

"So, the strategy is just 'keep going fast until you tell us not to'?" Red asked.

"Basically, yeah."

"I think that's something we can handle." Blue continued.

Mokumokuren floated up to them, hovering well above the starting line. He now held a checkered flag. "On 'game start'…" He held the flag up. "GAME START!"

He brought the flag down, and the three racers zoomed off.

The dust cleared, leaving the monster coughing. It quickly turned into a laugh as his plan started to unfold. "Now I'll make sure neither of them get out of here alive!" His platform quickly raised into the air, and flew off, following the racers.

The Zoorangers raced down the desert road, side by side. The Chaos Banki Beast still remained behind them, only by a bit. "That thing is a lot faster than I expected." Red said.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be catching up to us." Blue said. "We should be able to win this easily!"

"Guys, maybe you should keep an eye on him!"

"What?" Red quickly looked back, seeing the familiar blue figure of a Jukkarage standing on top of the train monster. It gripped onto the Banki's chimney, and pulled out a large black object.

It started to chuck the object at them, seemingly being able to pull out infinite amounts of them. The objects hit the ground shattering, but creating clear obstacles. The two had to swerve out of the way as the piles of rock started to cover the ground.

"Is he throwing coal at us!?" Red yelled.

"Max, what do we do?" Blue asked.

"Uh, try returning fire!" He suggested. "If he's allowed to attack, you should too!"

Blue nodded. If the road was a straight shot for the next bit, she could probably hit the monster without worrying about the road. She leaped up, and balanced on the cycle's seat as it continued to drive. She pulled out her blasters, and fired at the monster. Instead of disintegrating, it was launched off the train, and crashed into the ground.

The rabbit quickly focused back on the road, which was now clear of debris.

"Nice shooting there, tex." Red complimented.

"Thanks, I had a bit of practise earlier." She placed a paw next on her helmet, activating the communicator. "Max, how close is the middle section?"

"You still have a while before that." He said. "Why do you ask?"

"Just want to know how long we can keep defending ourselves." She said. "Also, can you describe the middle part? That might be useful."

"Oh, it's like…" He paused. "It's like a bowl of spaghetti." There was confused silence on the other side. "Its just a really curved road going over itself a bunch."

"I might have an idea." She said. "Just let me know when we're coming up to it."

"Alright. Also, you still probably want to watch out for that guy."

She looked behind her. The train's massive, ugly face was eyeing Red, who hadn't noticed. The monster shifted over a bit, going directly behind the fox. "Red, watch out!"

"What?" Suddenly, there was a large clanging noise. He looked behind himself. Not only was the monster closing in on him, but its mouth was slowly opening and closing. Oh god, was it trying to eat him?

In a few seconds, he felt the monster bump up against the bike, pushing it forwards a bit. He felt a burst of hot smoke against his back, which clouded around him. "I can't see!" He yelled, feeling his bike beginning to swerve.

The smoke cleared quickly, the fox fixing his bike during the short clear time. "Ah, screw this!" He shouted, pulling out the Vickscannon. He aimed it behind him, without looking, and started firing rapidly.

One of the shots managed to go straight into the train beast's mouth. There was a small explosion sound as the train pulsed for a moment. It started to slow down, its neutral expression changing to a more pained one.

"Take that, smog breath!" Red cheered.

"That was great, Red, but," Blue started, moving her bike closer to the fox's. "We actually need him to be going fast to do the plan."

"Can't you ever explain your plans to me beforehand?"

"If I explained them first, then the bad guys would know what it is!"

"This guy has a furnace for a brain, Carrots!"

"Guys, you're coming up to the… windy road bit!" Max shouted into both their communicators. "If you want to do this plan of yours Judy, you better get to it quick!"

She nodded. "Alright, Red, stay close, and fire at the monster!"

"Won't that just slow it down?" He asked.

"Just aim for parts that aren't weak spots, I guess!" She said. "We just need to irritate it!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and began rapidly firing at the monster, blindly. The shots bounced off of its metal body, but they did seem to be irritating it. The train let out a roar, and sped up, eventually returning to coasting just behind them.

"Alright, that should be enough, hopefully." Blue said. "Max, how long until the first turn?"

"A minute, at the pace you guys have been going." He stated. Everything was set in place, there was just one thing she couldn't control to get the plan working.

Thirty seconds later, they spotted something on the horizon. Some kind of wall, rising up.

Looks like everything was going to work out.

As they closed in, it was pretty clear the wall was actually a large ramp, part of the first, incredibly sharp turn. Blue closed back into red, and held her paw out. "Grab on!" She yelled.

The fox wasn't sure what she was going for, but he grabbed on anyway.

As they came to the ridiculously sharp turn, Blue followed along it, bringing them up the ramp a bit as the skidded through the turn. Suddenly, she stopped.

"Watch this." She said.

The two looked back, watching as the train monster zoomed past them, going right up the ramp and into the air. There was a loud groan, and then a sudden crash. Shortly after, there was a massive explosion, clearing out the entire winding road.

"Wow." The fox let out, not able to say anything else.

"Defeated the monster, made a shortcut." She said. "We got this in the bag."

The two started their cycles up again, and made a quick leap across the ramp. The entire section of the track had been reduced to a charred wasteland, parts of the train monster scattered around. "How do you come up with these plans so quickly?" Red asked as they drove through the oddly serene landscape.

She shrugged in response.

Eventually, they made it to the other side, the track starting back up again. In a few minutes, they would be free, and kick that monster's butt.

"Hold it, noobs!"

Mokumokuren lowered from the sky, keeping ahead of them while riding his platform. "Hey, qwerty boy." Red mockingly greeted. "Here to tell us we can go home now?"

"We did kind of destroy the only other guy in this race." Blue followed up, smugly.

"Oh, you two!" The monster laughed. "See, I expected you to cheat, which is why I programmed in a bit of a safeguard!"

Suddenly, the ground around them began to crack open, leaving a trail as they continued to race. "Meet your real competitors!" The monster yelled.

Out of the ground suddenly burst hundreds of Jukkarage, each riding one of those pink and green bicycles. They seemed to be handling it much better than the yokai had, and were able to keep up with the motorcycles.

"If a single one of these guys makes it to the finish line before you, you're getting cut from the program!" The monster threatened, before flying off on his platform.

"Well, this is great!" Red yelled. "The finish line's coming up, what are we supposed to do!?"

"Uh, just shoot them, I guess!"

The two pulled out their blasters, and began firing rapidly at the bike riding stone army. Though they blasted a large number of them, explosions and bike parts flying everywhere, the numbers never seemed to dwindle.

"THIS ISN'T WORKING!" Red yelled.

"Max, they just keep coming back!" Blue said into the commlink. "What do we…?"

"I think I have an idea!" The wolf said. "Going by what the monster said, only one of you needs to win. Someone needs to stay back and handle the monsters, while the other crosses the finish line!"

"NICK!" Blue shouted. "GO ON AHEAD!"

"What!?"

"I can handle them, you just need to win the race!"

Blue Ground her bike to a halt, and hopped off. She looked behind her as the fox sped off. The army of monsters was approaching, and she couldn't let a single one of them pass. Blue pulled out her blasters, and started to fire.

Like before, no matter how many she shot down, they kept coming back. She could hold them, but the rabbit wasn't sure for how long. She blasted one after another, but it didn't seem to be doing anything to slow them down.

They were closing in, but she needed to hold strong. Soon, the blasts wouldn't be able to do anything, but she needed to hold out a bit longer. Nick could do it, she knew he could. She could trust him with her life.

That's what partners were for.

The bikes headed for her, and zoomed past. If Nick wasn't almost at the finish line, they would be done for.

Suddenly, the sky turned dark, a portal ripping through the air above her. He did it! He made it to the finish line before the monsters had. Everything was going perfectly.

Wait a second.

That portal was blue. Wasn't the one they went through yellow?

It ripped her from the ground, and everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR!"

* * *

Judy fell to the ground. It wasn't the grass from the digital plain, it was hard rock. Like that of a really old castle, or a dungeon. It was also pitch black, so she couldn't see anything. What she could tell was that she wasn't in her suit anymore.

It didn't feel like her uniform, or her normal clothes, though.

"Nick!?" She yelled into the darkness. Her voice was a bit muffled, there was some kind of scarf covering it.

"Judy!?" A voice responded from somewhere in the darkness. It was Nick, he was nearby.

Lights began to flick on, a number of torches lining the stone whiles catching on pixelated fire, which lit everything up. The two had been standing right next to each other. They glanced at their clothing.

"What are you wearing?" They both said, simultaneously.

Nick was dressed in what looked like light armor, covering most of his body and making him look slightly bulkier. It was mostly steel, with an undercoat of red cloth. He had a helmet on his head, which his ears poked through. Out of the top of it was a large red feather.

Judy, meanwhile, was covered in a hood, with a bandana covering her mouth. She was also wearing a blue, ragged outfit that covered her entire body, leading up to gloves.

The two laughed at their weird outfits for a moment, before there was a thunder clap. They turned to look down the hall, watching as a figure materialized. It was Mokumokuren.

"Welcome, heroes!" He started. "Are you ready to begin the final challenge?"

"You said there were only three challenges." Nick said. "What's the deal with this?"

"And what's with the outfits?" Judy followed up.

"Well, because you three CHEATED, I felt we needed a final tie breaker." The monster said. "And the outfits are for effect. You're a knight," He pointed to Nick. "And you're a thief." He pointed at Judy.

"Why am I the thief?" The rabbit asked, feeling a bit insulted. "I've only stolen one thing in my life."

The fox raised an eyebrow. He'd have to ask about that later.

"Who cares!?" The monster yelled back. "Its just an aesthetic thing anyway! Anyway, your goal here is to beat me, so try your best!"

"Beat you?" Nick said. "That should be easy."

The two pulled out their weapons.

Or, well, they pulled out weapons.

Nick pulled out a fairly standard looking broadsword, while Judy pulled out a pair of twin daggers, which actually looked like daggers and not carrots.

"What the heck!?" The rabbit let out, looking at the knives.

"Oh yeah, I also changed your weapons." The monster said, almost as if it didn't matter. "Probably should've told you before I did THIS!"

There was a bright flash, and when it cleared, nothing had changed. Mokumokuren stood there, several feet from them. Suddenly test appeared in front of him.

"MOKUMOKUREN draws near! Command?"

"Oh man," Max started. Somehow, they still had their commlinks up. "You guys are in an RPG. This might be trouble."

"Max?" Nick said, a bit confused. "How are you still talking to us, we aren't in our suits."

"I think he might have just reskinned them, somehow." He explained. "They're still your suits, they just look different."

"That's weird." Judy said. "So, what are we supposed to do in an RPG?"

"Defeat the enemy, basically."

"Got it." Judy tried to rush forward, but her feet wouldn't move. Its almost like they were glued to the ground, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull free. After a few minutes of struggling, she gave up.

"Oh, I guess its Nick's turn." Max finally said.

"What does that mean?" The fox asked.

"That means you're the one who gets to attack." Max explained. "RPGs are usually turn based, so after you attack, Judy should be able to go next."

"Alright, that doesn't make any sense." Nick said, but he still went with it. He rushed at the monster, the armor clanking as he did. He slashed the sword through the monster, which didn't seem to hurt it at all. Instead, a large number appeared above it, reading 100.

Almost instantly, Nick felt himself jerked back to the spot he was previously standing in. Now his feet couldn't move.

"Your turn, Jude."

The rabbit, quickly stomped her feet, prepping them. She dashed at the monster and slashed at it with both her daggers. Again, no response, but two numbers, both reading 50, appeared with each strike. She was also jerked back into place.

"Guess what, you low levels?" The monster started. "My turn!"

The Mokumokuren raised its hands, summoning massive fireballs in each of them. He thrust his hands forward, launching the flames at the two. The fire burst, striking immense pain through the two as they fell to their knees.

Large numbers flashed in front of their faces, each reading 500.

Judy rose back to her feet, rather unsteadily. "Seriously?" She said. "He can deal five hundred damage to us, but we only cause one hundred?"

Nick rose as well. "I'm starting to think this guy doesn't play fair." He joked.

"Yeah, he just took out half of your health." Max said. "If he hits you again…"

"How are we supposed to not get hit?" Nick asked. "We're pretty much sitting ducks when his next turn comes!"

"I think I have an idea." The wolf said. "Just wait until his turn comes up."

Nick dashed forward first, swinging his blade through the monster. Judy followed up, performing a similar action. Both hits only caused 100 damage.

"Time to end this!" The monster yelled, preparing to attack.

"Alright, just repeat after me."

"Hey, master program!" Nick yelled. "You call this a video game, its more like a mobile game!"

"WHAT!?" The monster yelled back, stepping down from its attack. "I'll have you know that not a single phone could handle this game's graphical capabilities, let alone its complex mechanics!"

"Sorry, but I've seen better graphics while playing Candy Crush." Nick retorted.

"Nice one." Max said.

The monster clenched its fists, and started to glow red. Text appeared below it.

"MOKUMOKUREN has become frustrated! Attack increased!"

"Wait, no!" The monster yelled. "I didn't want to spend my turn on that!"

"Too bad!"

The two rangers launched at the monster again. The monster began to prepare an attack once again. "My attack's doubled, I'll kill you both in one shot!" It threatened.

Judy gave a quick nod to Max over the commlink. "I doubt that, considering how much you forgot to program into the game already!" She taunted.

The monster stopped its attack, and stumbled forward. "What does that mean!?"

"Well, you forgot to program in the barrels during that boss fight." She said. "Maybe you didn't even program in the damage for that attack!"

"I put a lot of work into this, ingrates!" The monster yelled, starting to glow red. "Try to respect the guy who's going to kill you!"

"MOKUMOKUREN has become frustrated! Attack increased!"

"WHAT!? NO!"

The pattern continued for a while.

"That platformer was so poorly designed, it was like some bad fan game!"

"Your stuff would be laughed off of Steam Greenlight!"

"No Mammal's Sky was better than anything you've put out."

"Reviewers wouldn't even give this a good score if you paid them!"

With each insult, the monster wasted a move, until eventually his health was nearly drained. It stumbled back as Judy flew back to her normal spot. "How is this happening!?" It yelled. "I programmed this so that I couldn't lose!"

"Enough games!"

There was a burst of dark energy between the triangle the three had formed. From it emerged Kyuemon, who walked up to the stunned monster.

"M-master Kyuemon!" It sputtered. "How did you-"

"I guess you were really just a disappointment again, Mokumokuren." Kyuemon held up a red object. "Maybe you'll be better off with a power-up."

He tossed the Chaos Badge directly into Mokumokuren's space bar, and then vanished in a burst of purple energy.

The monster began to convulse, and then flashed in and out. The monster then changed suddenly, growing two crooked horns out of its massive heads. All of the eyes on its body changed into the chaos symbol, while the eyes on its space bar transformed into a crooked smile. A robe covered its body, which was covered in shifting mouths and eyes.

"Everyone knows that when the final boss is about to be defeated," The monster started, swinging its now claws hands out. "It goes into its more powerful second form!"

Stylized lettering appeared underneath the monster, reading "CHAOS MOKUMOKUREN".

Suddenly, the two found that they could move their legs again. They both drew their weapons, and started to approach the new chaos yokai. "Hold it!" It said, sticking an arm out. "Why don't we take this somewhere a bit more… advanced?"

"What?" Both of them let out.

The monster swung its arms again, shooting a burst of dark energy. Everything went black.

"GAME CLEAR?"

* * *

Max watched as the TV screen began to crackle with electricity. It burst open, shooting glass all over the room. Out of it flew a cloud of darkness which travelled up and out of the basement. Left behind were Nick and Judy, back in their ranger suits.

They looked up at him. Max was sitting on the couch, in his suit. "Have you been sitting like that the whole time?" Nick asked.

"Yes."

"That looks uncomfortable." Judy said.

"It definitely is."

He quickly jolted up, and stretched out. "Alright, we have a monster to deal with, so let's get on that." All three nodded, and rushed up the stairs.

Silver slammed the door open, all three running out. They all saw the cloud slam into the street outside, and reform into Chaos Mokumokuren. "Time to get this game started!" It yelled.

It let out another burst of dark energy, pixels following as it traveled. "Its time for this game to be over!" Silver yelled as the three ran up to the yokai, weapons brandished.

"I doubt you can beat me on super hard!" The monster retorted.

"Well, I'm definitely a higher level than you!" Silver continued. Blue and red looked at each other, confused.

"Enough of the puns." Nick let out. "Lets just fight already."

"Level one, start!" The monster held out its fists, pixels beginning to cover them. They formed into two large gauntlets, ending at blunt keyboard key points. Both of them had Mokumokuren's eyes on them.

"GEKITOTSU ROBOTS!" A voice from nowhere yelled.

"Key Puncher!"

The monster punched both of its fists forward, launching off the keys, which appeared to be rocket powered. They flew towards the rangers, who prepped their weapons. One of the keys flew towards Blue, who raised a foot, holding it at bay. She pushed it back, and smacked it with one of her daggers, changing its trajectory

Another one flew to Red, who blocked it with his sword, the flying fist pushing against it. It started to push him back, until Silver swung his blade into the key, changing its direction as well. The keys launched into the air, and circled back to Chaos Mokumokuren.

The keys landed back on the monster's arms, as he rushed forward. "I'll handle this one." Blue said, slipping the Boxer Busters ZooTag into her Zoolizer.

She leaped into the air, and the two began to exchange blows. They were rapid and furious, shockwaves flying out every time they connected. Finally, Blue jabbed into the monster's fist, and quickly followed up with a kick, knocking the fist away.

The monster stumbled back as the rabbit landed back on the ground. She dashed into the air, delivering a blow directly to the monster's face. It flew back and crashed into the ground, the gauntlets disappearing.

"Ugh, that didn't go well!" The monster said, getting up. "Time for level two!"

The monster flourished its arms again, this time causing a much larger number of flaying keys to materialize. They were only different due to the fact they had little wings jutting out of the sides.

"JET COMBAT!"

He threw his arm forward, sending the platoon of flying keys towards the three. The eyes on them began to light up, before firing a flurry of lasers towards the rangers. There was a rain of sparks as the lasers hit them.

"Alright, Blue, Silver!" Red shouted, pulling out the Vickscannon. "Let's shoot these keys out of the sky!" The other two nodded, Blue pulling out her blasters, and Silver quickly switching his sword to Sun Mode.

The three began firing up into the sky, knocking the keys out of the sky. With each one, the flying keys crashed into the ground, causing small explosions. Some flew directly towards them, seemingly in suicide runs, and by the time they were cleared out, the three were spread out.

"Time for wave two!" The monster yelled, spreading out his arms again. Three large clouds of the keys flew out of his cape heading towards the rangers.

Silver spotted this, and quickly dashed to the middle of the street. The swarm aimed at him followed him as he did. The wolf spun the sword guard around again.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time froze, Silver preparing the Eclipse Thruster. He began to jab his blade around at the highest speed he could possibly manage. He fell to the ground, using his sword as leverage to hold himself up. Time resumed again.

The massive number of flying keys suddenly exploded.

The two ran up to Silver. "You alright, Wolfsbane?" Red asked, trying to help the wolf up.

"Yeah, just…" He stumbled forwards a bit. "Over exerting myself a bit."

"LEVEL THREE!" The monster yelled, they turned to face him. The Mokumokuren pulled out a pair of thin swords, and slashed them about.

"GIRIGIRI CHANBARA!"

It dashed at them, swords raised. "Stay back for a bit, alright?" Red suggested to the wolf, who gave a quick nod.

The two raised their weapons as well, and charged in. Blue leaped into the air, rapidly clashing blades with one of the monster's swords. Red was busy dealing with the other sword, the monster somehow managing to effectively handle them both at the same time.

The Mokumokuren knocked both of the rabbit's blades out of his path, and knocked her to the ground with a single slash. It turned to the fox, and began wailing on the fox's blade. The two clashed rapidly. The monster's ability with the blades being surprisingly adept.

"Think you can handle this steel, fox!?" The monster threatened, slashing both of the blades onto the fox's. Red pushed back, but the monster seemed to be too strong.

Suddenly, the monster reeled in pain, dropping the blades. It had been struck in the back by something. It quickly spun around, seeing the rabbit, daggers drawn. "God, don't you even know the basics of one on one combat?" She asked, twirling one of the daggers around.

There was another pain in the yokai's back, launching him off. Red stepped up to Blue, and the two fistbumped. "Never let your guard down."

"Gah, stupid animals!" The monster yelled, the swords suddenly reappearing in a burst of pixels. "I'll rend your flesh form your bones!"

"That'd be a lot more threatening if I thought you could do that." Nick said, pulling out the Racing Claws ZooTag. The claws appeared on his paws, and the two dashed at each other.

The monster brought the swords down, only for Red to catch them in his gauntlets. The fox gripped them around the blades, as tight as he could manage. Using his strength, he pulled the blades down to the side. He quickly let go, and unleashed a quick flurry of slashes at the monster. The swords shattered, and the keyboard yokai flew back.

Silver ran up to the two. "How you doing?" Blue asked.

"Just needed a quick breather, don't worry."

The monster struggled to get up, and let up a roar once it finally did. "I'll use my ultimate secret weapon!" It yelled. "Prepare yourselves, for the ultimate pain!"

High paced techno music began to permeate the air, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"DOREMIFASO BEAT!"

The monster suddenly started dancing. Not even incredibly well, it was kind of stumbling around a bit. The three rangers glanced at each other as nothing else happened.

"Alright, let's just finish this." Red said, pulling out the cannon and sword. The three tossed their weapons into the air, forming the Zookaiser.

"SOLAR NATURE BLAST!"

The three fired the cannon at the monster, who suddenly stopped dancing as the blast approached him. "Wait, hold on, I wasn't-"

The blast split into two different orbs, red and blue, which sliced through the monster's body. They quickly raised up into the sky, and combined into a silver orb, which crashed down onto the monster and exploded.

The monster stumbled and sparked, letting out a final cry as it exploded. Out of the explosion flew a keyboard, which crashed into the ground, shattering into pieces.

"Well, that was a pain." Red said, relieved.

A red object raised from the explosion, and flew off into the distance, reforming into Chaos Mokumokuren. "LOOKS LIKE I HAD AN EXTRA LIFE!" The monster roared.

The three summoned up their mechs, quickly forming into their giant robots. "Alright, let's get ready to teach this guy the basic coding for a beating!" Blue quipped as the two mechs stomped forward.

"That was a pretty good one." Max admitted.

"Two against one?" The monster yelled. "That's not fair play! ENGAGING CO-OP MODE!"

A sudden cloud of pixels appeared next to the monster, which quickly formed into that of a Gashadokuro. "Get ready for a real power play, Zoorangers!" The monster said, pulling out a large staff, tipped with what looked like an escape key.

"I'll take the skeleton guy." Silver said, ZooKami readying its blade.

The two nodded, before watching as the keyboard monster approached. "Alright, let's get this started." Red said, quickly plugging a ZooTag into the cockpit.

"BAN BAN BOOM!  
GIRI GIRI!  
CUTTING THROUGH!  
ZOOKUMA!"

The bear mech appeared, and quickly combined with ZooRobo. It stomped forward, and delivered a quick slash to the monster's staff, which it held in a block.

ZooKami slashed its sword forward as well, clashing with the Gashadokuro's bone blade. The mech effortlessly pushed the monster's sword back, and delivered a quick strike to its skull, sending sparks flying.

The skeleton beast unhinged its jaw, and began spewing a number of bones at the wolf mech, who blocked them with its sword. It quickly swung the sword through the monster again, causing it to stumble and fall. As it hit the ground, it burst into a pile of bones.

ZooRobo swung its claws into the monster's staff again, sending sparks flying. "If you wanna get past, you'll have to download the new update!" The monster joked, pushing the bear claws back.

"The only update we'll need," Red started, the mech raising its claw higher into the air. "Is kicking your butt dot EXE!" The robot brought the claw down in a swift motion, slicing right through the staff.

"That's not even an update file type, you idiot!" The monster yelled as it flew back.

The mech raised the claw in the air. The claws began to glow, and stretched upwards, to ridiculous lengths.

"CRASHING SLASH!"

The mech brought the claw down onto the monster, cutting directly through it. The monster began to spark, and tip over.

"GAME OVER!" It yelled as it fell, exploding as it hit the ground. ZooRobo turned away from the explosion, jutting a claw forward.

The three returned to the ground, and untransformed.

"Well, that was a trip." Nick said. He quickly turned to Judy. "So, did you learn anything today?"

"What?"

"Well, Max helped us out a lot with his video game knowledge, so…"

"Are you still on about that?"

The fox's jaw dropped a bit in confusion.

"Did you seriously think I went to his house to rail on him for liking video games?" She asked, almost seeming offended. "I really do want to figure out why he likes them."

"Really?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's, uh, really cool of you."

"Really?" Nick said, surprised.

"Yep."

"No moral lesson about how…" The fox thought for a moment. "How having a hobby isn't harmful, or something?"

"Nope."

The fox stood there, stunned. He had no idea what to say.

Judy clapped her paws together. "So, you said I could maybe, try one of those games out?" She asked Max.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He said. "We got the rest of the day."

"Well, I'm going to go home." Nick said. "I feel humiliated and tired."

"Alright."

"See you later!"

A few moments later, the fox was left alone. He gave a shrug, and headed off.

* * *

Nick was wrapped up in his blankets, already having drifted off into sleep hours ago. It was dark, just past midnight at the earliest. The fox was woken up suddenly by loud beeping. He groggily reached for his night stand, snatching his phone from it.

He rubbed his eyes, and looked at the caller ID. It was Max. Why was he calling this late?

"Hello?" The fox mumbled.

"Hey, Nick!" It was Max, and he sounded wide awake.

"Why are you calling me, Wolfsbane?" He asked. "It's two in the morning."

"Yeah, uh, I need you to come pick up Judy."

Nick's eyes burst open. "She hasn't left yet?"

"Nope. She's been here. For the last eight hours."

"What's she been doing?"

"She got really into Nyaoh." Max said. "I have a bunch more games more her speed, but she picked that one for some reason."

"She any good at it?" Nick asked, curious.

"She's been stuck on the first level."

The fox let out a chuckle.

"So yeah, I'm really tired, and we both have work tomorrow, so can you please come get her?" He sounded desperate.

"I'll be over in a few, don't worry." Nick said, hanging up. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. Getting completely obsessed over something? That definitely sounded very Judy-like.

* * *

"So, is the weapon ready?" Herder asked as Leopold walked him into a large, open room.

"The prototype is, sir." Leopold explained, putting heavy emphasis on the word prototype. He walked the goat up to a large stand.

On the stand was a gun, relatively large for anything other than a massive animal. Its barrel was an upside-down triangle, which led to a more rounded grip embedded a bit near the back of the gun. The gun's grip and trigger were odd, a protective point of metal covering the bottom, and a larger chunk covering the top. Next to the gun sat the coin.

Herder stared at the weapon in awe, despite not being tall enough to reach it.

"We call it the Anti-Matter Blaster." Leopold said, grabbing onto it. "The name doesn't really mean anything, but its pithy."

"Pithy is good." Herder stated. "So, how does the coin function into it?"

"Well, the coin is the power source." Leopold explained, grabbing onto it. On the top piece of the gun, there was a small slot, just large enough for the coin to fit in. The leopard slipped it in, causing the gun to emit a small hum.

"Once its in, the Anti-Matter Blaster starts to use its energy." Leopold continued. He motioned to another scientist, a polar bear. He quickly dragged over a large wooden crate, which seemed to be on level with the gun.

"So, when we fire it at something…" Leopold started. He swivelled the gun around on its stand, aiming it at the crate. Herder noticed the rest of the scientists back away from it.

The leopard pulled the trigger, firing a massive grey blast of energy at the crate. The crate glowed as the beam struck, and in a few, brief moments, vanished completely.

"It completely disintegrates, molecule by molecule."

"Amazing." Herder said, genuinely awestruck. It was something the leopard saw rarely. This might actually have been the first time. "You managed to make this in a week?"

"Its amazing what you can do when your job is on the line." Leopold wanted to say. A simple "Yes, sir." came out instead.

"So, if you could do one in a week," Herder started, tapping his hooves together. "Then I suppose you could make more, correct?"

"More!?" Leopold yelled. "Sir, this is only a prototype, there's still so many things we haven't tested! We don't even know if the coin has enough-"

"Shut it, Leopold." Herder said. "I'm your boss, what I say goes. And I want more of these made, got it?"

Leopold took a deep breath. "Alright, we'll have more made by next week." He reluctantly said.

"Good." The goat said, walking away. Everyone sighed in relief as he left the room.

"Alright everyone." Leopold started. "You heard the chief, let's get to work."

There was a collective groan from everyone in the room.


	23. Lost Thoughts

"This is the last place."

The org looked at the door. This was the last room he had to clean before the entire base was spotless, and he could go back to causing trouble. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a conflict.

On the door was a very clearly marked "DO NOT ENTER" sign. But he needed to enter so he could clean. But the boss might get angry with him if he did. But he needed to. But he…

He shook the thought off. If he wanted to get back to doing things he wanted to do, he'd have to enter. The Omnipotence wouldn't really care, right? Of course not, he was just doing what he was supposed to.

Yabaiba picked up the mop, and reached for the door's steel handle. He twisted it, and slid the door open. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked. He carefully walked into the room. It was small and dark, the only light being a red glow coming from the machines in it.

Surrounding the room were tubes, each with a body in them. They all looked similar, but he couldn't place any features. In the middle of the room was a computer screen, similar to the table from the main room. He carefully poked it, causing an image to display.

It looked like blueprints for… something. Something mechanical. The Orgs were never really that great with technology, but he could tell that it was something big. He poked at the screen again, seemingly activating another tube at the very back of the room.

This one also had a body in it. But… it was different from the rest. It looked like…

"Oh, Org Master help me."

He quickly dashed out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He was definitely not supposed to see that.

Maybe the boss didn't notice? Its not like he could see him enter the room, this was out of the way of his chamber!

"YABAIBA"

The Omnipotence's voice echoed throughout the base, he sounded furious. "I'll be there in a minute, boss!" Yabaiba said, though he wasn't sure if anyone could hear him.

The Org moved as fast as his legs could carry him. He zoomed into the main hall, The Omnipotence's tube pulsing red. Definitely angry.

Yabaiba fell to his knees. "Please sir, it was an accident, I didn't mean to see anything!" He pleaded, entirely honest. "Please don't kill me!"

The Omnipotence let out another roar, sending a wave of pain through the Org's head. "GET OUT OF HERE" It yelled. "DESTROY THE CITY, OR ELSE I WILL DESTROY YOU"

Another shock of pain went through Yabaiba. "Alright, I'll go destroy the city!" He yelled. The pain quickly subsided, and he rose back to his feet. He didn't exactly have a plan, though.

"Yeesh, what'd you do to get him so upset?"

Yabaiba turned to look at the hanging cage in the corner of the room. "Hey, you!" He started, walking over to it. "Uh, what's your name again?"

"Bellwether." The sheep in the cage said.

"You're supposed to help us, right?" The Org asked, grabbing onto the bars. "Think you can help me think up a way to get rid of those ranger guys?"

"Uh, sure?" She said, a bit unsure. "If you can get me some food."

"Great!" Yabaiba yelled, clapping his hands. "What do you got?"

"Well, the best way to break up a team is to break their bonds." She started. "Maybe you should find a way to break them up?"

"Break them up, huh?" Yabaiba started, putting a hand to his chin. "I feel like I remember something like that…"

"That's it!"

Yabaiba let out a cheer, and clapped his hands. "I'm a genius, I know just the Org to get rid of them!" He quickly ran off, leaving the sheep behind.

"Hey!" She yelled as the Org left. "You didn't get me anything to eat!"

* * *

"Oh my god, Nick!"

"What?"

Judy stomped out of the bathroom. She was wearing rubber gloves, and held a large clump of fur in each paw. "You're leaving fur all over the place, can't you just clean up for once!?"

"Carrots, it's shedding season." He said, getting up and scratching his neck. "I can't exactly help it."

"And shedding season somehow means you can't clean up after yourself?" She asked,

"Oh, its not like you're any better." He grunted. "You still have fur, and you leave a trail of it too!"

"At least I make sure to UNCLOG THE BATHTUB AFTER I USE IT!" She chucked the wet fur to the ground in rage.

"Well, I don't chew all the good pencils, now do I?" The fox retorted. Judy glared at him. "Oh yeah, you don't clean those up."

"They're still perfectly good pencils!" She said.

"They have your germs on them, Fluff." He said, poking her in the nose. "I don't even want to touch them."

"Well, at least I clean my room!" She yelled. "You only clean when the inspector comes!"

"I help out around the place all the time, why should my personal space follow your weird obsessive rabbit rules?"

"Because we're living in the same space, and we need to co-exist!" She said.

"Well, what if I don't want to co-exist?" Nick said. "What if I just want to do my own thing?"

"God, you're so stubborn!" She yelled. "I wish I never met you!"

She cringed as the words came out. She didn't mean it, she was just incredibly frustrated. She could tell that Nick was hurt by it as well.

Before she could say anything, their Zoolizers went off.

"We'll talk about this later." Nick said, obviously upset.

* * *

The three rangers met up in the middle of a canal, near the harbor district. "This should be the place." Silver said as they headed into the middle of an open area.

"Maybe you can pick something up, Blue." Red suggested. It was then followed up in a much ruder tone. "Maybe a pencil sharpener."

"Rough morning, I take it?" Silver said, turning to the two. There was some awkward silence. "Well, try not to let it get in the way of this. This is about a lot more than just you two."

The two looked at each other, and nodded. They really shouldn't be fighting each other right now, they had a-

"HEY, IDIOTS!"

The three turned towards a warehouse. On top of it was Yabaiba, who gave a quick wave. "How's everything going?" He asked, in a bizarrely polite matter. "I just spent the two months cleaning!"

There was silence. Nick gave a shrug. "And…?"

The Org thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, and I'm here to finally destroy you both!" He looked at Silver for a second. "Hey, he's new."

Silver gave a wave. "Yeah, I'm ZooSilver." The other two rangers gave him a glare. "What? I never got to introduce myself to him until now."

There was more awkward silence. "I forgot what was going to happen next." Yabaiba said.

"UGH, SERIOUSLY!?"

The three turned to watch the opening of a large crate burst open, revealing a monster. The monster's head was a bit lopsided, and resembled a traffic light in shape. The resemblance continued into its three eyes, one green, one yellow, and one red.

Like most of the Org monster they had fought, its head was covered in horns. Its body was mostly sleek and silver, broken up only by bits of brown, as well as more red, green, and yellow lights. On its chest was a crosswalk sign, both displaying a mammal walking and stopping. Out of the side of its head hung several wire-like strands.

"Oh yeah, that's what was gonna happen!" Yabaiba continued. "Signal Org here is going to destroy you all! Ciao!" He gave another wave, and vanished into a puddle of green slime.

"That's right, I'm gonna put a STOP to your heroism!" The monster said, walking towards them. It stopped to give a quick laugh. "Get it?"

"That was like one of your jokes." Blue said to her red counterpart.

"Oh, come on, now you're insulting my jokes?"

"NOT NOW!" Silver yelled, getting the two's attention.

"Prepare to face my three secret techniques!" The monster said. It motioned towards its red eye. "Red beam! TOTAL DESTRUCTION!"

Energy began to gather in the eye, and quickly fired out as a laser. The three leaped out of the way as the laser hit the ground, causing a massive explosion. When it cleared, a massive hole had been formed in the concrete.

"Boy, that might be a problem." Red said as the three got up.

They all rushed at the monster at the same time. Silver leaped in first, slashing at the monster rapidly. The first few slashes managed to hit, but the monster backed off, and swung the cords hanging from it's head at the wolf, wrapping his blade up.

Blue leaped in next, quickly followed by Red. The two dealt out blows to the monster from both sides, causing the cords to unwrap. Silver jabbed the sword into the monster, sending it flying.

The monster crawled back up to its feet "I don't mean to be YELLOW, but that really hurt, jerks!"

"Oh god, this is just gonna be his entire thing, isn't it?" Red said, sounding a bit worried.

The monster motioned towards its red eye again, and fired out another beam. This one just barely missed, sending the three flying. Blue flew back into the pavement, Red into the edge of the canal, and Silver into the wall of a warehouse.

"You guys suck at this traffic safety stuff!" The monster shouted as the rangers got back to their feet. "Don't you know you only cross when the light's green? Right now, it's YELLOW! Movement control!"

The monster motioned towards its yellow eye, and fired out another laser, this one towards Silver. It struck the dazed wolf, causing him to jerk around, seemingly in pain.

"What's… happening!?" He grunted out. His body was moving on its own. It prepped his sword, and dashed at Red.

He swung his blade at him in a rather blunt way, unlike his usual style. Red quickly raised his own sword to block it. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"I can't control my body!"

Silver continued to slam his sword down on the fox, who quickly ducked, dodged, and blocked his way out of their path.

"Blue, I could use some help!" Red shouted as he locked blades with SIlver.

She gave a nod, and looked at the monster. It was doing some kind of dance, which it might have been using to control the wolf. She dashed at the traffic light Org, and leaped into the air, delivering a swift quick to its mid-section.

The monster fell and tumbled onto its back, letting out a whine.

Silver stopped for a moment, and then pulled his sword back. He stretched his arm out. "I can move again!" He gave a thumbs-up to the rabbit. "Thanks, Blue!"

"No problem!" She said back.

"Gah, stupid rabbit!" The monster let out, rising to its feet. "Prepare to feel the red-hot wrath of my rage!" It shot a laser from its red eye again, just barely missing Blue. Fire and sparks burst up from the ground.

"JUDY!"

Red ran up to her. She was hurt, the fox helping her back to her feet. "Thanks, Nick." She said.

"No problem." He said back.

"Now I got you fools red handed!" The monster yelled. It shot another red laser, downing both of the rangers. "I'm going to use my ultimate technique to destroy you both!"

"NO!" Silver yelled, rushing over. The monster shot out another yellow beam, striking the wolf. His body suddenly stopped moving completely, leaving him paused mid run.

"Jaywalking is illegal!" The monster said. "I thought you were cops!" It laughed for a second. "Well, one of you might not be by the time I'm done!"

It loomed over the two, its green eye starting to glow. "Green beam! MIND WIPE!"

Both of the mammal's ears jutted up at the sound of that. Thinking quickly, Blue pulled out a dagger, and threw it into the monster's eye.

"No, what have you done!?" The traffic light beast yelled as its eye began to sputter and spark with electricity.

There was a massive explosion of green light. As it emerged, Silver felt himself able to move again. But he was too late, his friends flew above him, and crashed into the ground. The explosion cleared, and the monster had vanished.

Max untransformed, and rushed to the two. They had also untransformed as well, and had also been knocked unconscious. He felt their pulses, they were both still.

He shook his head in relief and amusement. "How many times am I gonna have to let you guys crash at my place?" He asked.

"Hopefully nothing weird will happen this time."

* * *

Max had set up a similar situation to the one from before. The "body swapping incident" as he lovingly referred to it. The big difference was that he had put Judy on the couch downstairs, and Nick upstairs. Didn't really have a reason for why he did, but he thought it was funny.

It wasn't actually that funny.

The wolf paced around the living room, waiting for one of them to get up and say something. Hopefully something like "That was a good nap, let's go fight the monster!", and not something weird.

After a few hours, the resting rabbit began to stir. He quickly ran over to her as she got up. "Ugh, anyone get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" She asked, in a weak voice.

He helped her off the couch. "Glad you're alright, Judy."

"Thanks, Wolford." She said, stretching out. After a minute, she popped up straight, and placed her paws on her hips. "Alright, time to get back to work!"

Max pumped his fist. It seemed like everything was normal. Now all they had to do was wait for Nick-

"Because I have a suspect to find!"

Everything that could droop down on Max's body drooped. Great. Just once he'd like something not weird to happen.

The rabbit prepared to dash out the door, but max quickly gripped her by the shoulders. Gently, of course.

"Hey!" She said, struggling. "Let go!"

"Sorry, Jude, you aren't going anywhere until I ask you a few things." Wolford said.

"'Jude'?" She let out as the wolf picked her up. "What are you, my dad?"

"It's a friendly nickname." Max said. "Because we're friends."

He placed the rabbit back on the couch. "How can we be friends already, I've only been working for one day."

Max placed his paws on her shoulders, as delicately as he could. "What day is it?" He asked.

"March fifth, twenty sixteen." She said, confidently.

"Alright." He didn't want to put this too bluntly, so he hesitated for a moment. A few more questions would probably be a good way to go into it. "Who's this suspect you're looking for?"

"Nick PIberius Wilde." She stated, in a way he'd never heard her say his name. It was more business sounding, and it made him uncomfortable. "He has some connection to the missing mammals case, and I need to find him."

Max brought his paws away from her, and placed them together. "What were you doing before you woke up?"

"Uh, I was looking at the Otterton case file, and then…" She placed a paw to her forehead. "I can't remember anything after that."

Definitely a case of amnesia. And if she had amnesia, then that meant Nick had amnesia. The wolf stood up straight. "Nick's upstairs."

Judy glared at him. "Why do you have a conman in your house?"

He ran a claw through his fur. "I can explain everything simply, and quickly." He stated. "I just need you to stay right there."

"Uh, alright?"

Max gave her two thumbs up, and then ran upstairs. He opened the door to the bedroom.

Nick was gone.

He gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.

He looked around the room. A window had been opened. He must have thought he was trapped somewhere and escaped. Who knows how long ago that was.

"Problem problem problem problem!" He chanted as he raced down the stairs. His anxiety was starting to flare up.

"Let me guess, he got away?" Judy asked, a rather smug look on her face. "That's what you get for keeping a fox in the house."

The wolf fell silent, and walked over to the couch. He kneeled down and looked Judy right in the eyes, causing her nose to twitch.

"You and Nick helped solve a conspiracy that nearly destroyed the city, and have been working as partners at the ZPD for over three years."

There was silence for a minute. Maybe this had jogged her memory.

"Is this a prank?" She got up and looked around. "Is Clawhauser going to jump out and say surprise? Is this what you do to new recruits?"

Max clutched onto the sides of his head. "Oh my god."

"I'm out of here, I have a case to solve." She started towards the door. Max quickly rushed in front of it, blocking her.

"Alright, you can go find Nick." He said. "But I'm coming with you, and I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"What? Why?"

"Because you and Nick aren't yourselves right now, and I…" he took a deep breath and calmed down. "I know I sound crazy…"

"You really do."

"But, this is important." He stressed. "If someone finds Nick right now, he… he could be in big trouble."

"Well, he's in big trouble if I find him too!" Judy said.

"Alright, let's just go look for him." Max said, rubbing his temples. "Where do you think he'd be?"

"If he's trying to hustle something, then he's probably gone to Jumbeaux's." She said. "That's where he was yesterday."

"Good place as any to start." He shrugged. "Come on, let's go."

As they left, he was wondering if he should have told her about the whole super hero thing.

* * *

Where was he?

He was sitting at the edge of a canal, looking out into the ocean. Or lake. Didn't matter, he needed to figure where he was and…

Wait, who was he?

No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't remember anything. Not anything that could have happened, or even a name.

Everything had gone… blank.

Above the wall behind him, there were three figures looking down. A group of kids, each one examining the silent monster in fear and awe.

"What do we do?" Asked one of the kids, a young giraffe. "Should we call the police?"

"We should call the Zoo Rangers!" Another kid said, a lion cub. "They could kick this guy's butt."

"Do the Zoo Rangers have a phone number?"

"I think we should talk to it." Said the last kid, a beaver. The two other kids turned to look at him, confused. "He's just sitting there, not doing anything. Maybe he's a nice monster?"

"There's no such thing as a nice monster, Marty." The lion cub said, the giraffe nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm gonna try." The beaver said, running off towards the canal stairs.

"He's gonna get himself killed."

The two watched as the beaver ran up to the monster, and tapped it on the shoulder. It turned to him. "Oh, hello." It said. "Do you know where I am?"

"You're at the harbour." Marty said.

"Oh, alright." It paused for a moment. "What's a harbour?"

"It's a place where boats come in."

"Oooohhh."

"Why are you sitting here if you don't know where you are?"

"I'm not sure." It said. "I woke up here, I can't remember a thing."

"That sucks." Marty sat down next to the monster. "Like, you can't remember anything?"

"Not a single thing." It said. "Especially not why my eye hurts."

He looked up at the monster. One of its three eyes, which looked like they were made of glass, had been shattered by something. "Maybe me and my friends can help you find out who you are?"

"Your friends?" It said, turning to the beaver. "What are those?"

"Friends are others you like being around." He said. "My friends are right up there."

The monster turned to look up, seeing the giraffe and the lion, who both ducked down behind the edge. "Those are your… friends?" It asked, turning back to the beaver.

He nodded. "Come on, I'll introduce you to them!"

They both got up, Marty leading the monster up to where the other kids were. "That's Henry," He said, pointing to the giraffe. "And that's George." He pointed to the lion.

The monster gave a wave. "Hello, its nice to meet you, friends!"

"We're gonna help him figure out who he is!" Marty said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" George asked. "He is kind of a…"

"What if he…" Henry started, trailing off a bit. "You know?"

"I don't think he'll do that." Marty said. "He seems nice."

"Well, if we want to help him remember stuff, then we should probably go back home." George suggested. "We can start there."

"Maybe we could figure out his name first!" Henry said.

The three kids, along with the monster, rushed off.

* * *

"Alright, Wilde, retrace your steps."

Yesterday, he had done his usual business, the paw-psicle stand deal. Then, he made fun of the rabbit that he managed to hustle. And then, he went back home.

He wasn't sure how all that ended with him waking up in a stranger's house.

After breaking out of what he could only assume was a kidnapper's place, he quickly made his way to Sahara Square. If anyone knew what had happened, it would be Finnick. Well, hopefully he would know.

He knocked on the back of the van. The door creaked open, Finnick's grumpy head poking through. "Hey, Finn!" He started. "Did we do something weird last night, because-"

"Nick, didn't I tell you not to come over today?" The fennec growled.

"What?" Nick said, confused. "I come over every day, we have a job to do, remember?"

The fennec glared at him. "Are you off your meds?"

"You know I don't have any medication, Finn."

"Then why did you go on about it for three weeks that one time?" He asked. "If you aren't taking them, your therapist's gonna get upset."

"I don't have a therapist either, Finn."

"Okay, now I know you're off your meds." He slammed the door shut.

"What are you even talking about?" Nick shouted. "You aren't going to get your share today if you don't help out!"

The fennec popped his head out the window. "Seriously, what the hell are you talking about?" He yelled.

Nick stomped over to the window. "You know, the job we do every day, for the last twenty years?" He looked at Finnick. He was wearing a suit. "What are you wearing?"

"Alright, now I think you've just gone crazy." Finnick said. "Is this a relapse thing? Because I can tell you one thing, Wilde." He leaned out and slapped the fox on his muzzle. "Don't give up what you've got going on here. It isn't worth it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ugh, forget it." He said. "I don't have time to deal with your crazy ass right now. I have an interview to get to."

"An interview?" The van started up, and pulled out of the alley, before driving away. "FINE!" The fox yelled as it left. "I don't need you for this! I don't need anyone!"

He let out a loud groan. Great how was he supposed to pull off the adorable child hustle now? Well, thanks to that bunny cop, he did have one place that might still serve him.

He hated repeating stores though, and this would definitely be more difficult.

* * *

"This is the place!" Judy said as they walked up to the ice cream parlor.

"I know very well that it's the place." Max said, a bit frustrated. "It says 'Jumbeaux's' right there on the sign."

"Boy, you're awfully testy." She said as they stood outside the store.

"I usually get testy when everything is going wrong." Max said. "If anything you don't understand happens, just ignore it and I'll explain it later."

"Uh, alright."

The two walked in, it didn't look like Nick was there. "We'll wait for a bit." Max whispered. "He could show up at any time." Judy nodded in response as they headed towards a table.

"Well, if it isn't Officer Hopps."

Judy stopped in place and looked up at the counter, seeing the owner of the store. "Heeeey."

"Listen, I just wanted to say how, uh…" The elephant paused for a moment. "Sorry I am for how I treated your partner and you a couple years back."

She stopped to listen, her nose twitching at the words.

"You set a good example a while back." He continued. "I've decided to be a bit more lenient with my customers, if you can't tell."

She looked around. There were definitely more predators than when she was there last. In fact, there were predators period. Last time it had just mostly been elephants and a few other prey species.

"Uh… thanks." She said, heading off to the table Max was seated at.

"So?" He started as she climbed up onto the seat. "Do you believe me now?"

She paced back and forth on the cushioned seat. "If that much time has passed, why don't I remember it?" She asked.

"Amnesia."

"Seriously?" Judy said, stopping. "I thought that was just a thing sitcoms did when they wanted a clip show."

"It's a real phenomenon." The wolf said, shrugging.

"How did I get it?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'd tell you, but right now is not a good time." He glanced around. Way too many mammals around, he couldn't just blurt it out in front of her.

"Also, what's this thing on my wrist?" She held out the Zoolizer. "I've been pressing the button on it and nothing happens. Is it some kind of smart watch, or…?"

"That's another thing I'll have to tell you later."

Judy's ears jolted up as the store door opened, the bell ringing. They both looked, seeing the amnesiac fox walk through the door.

"What a coincidence, Nicholas Wilde's here too." The elephant said.

"That's right, I'm…" He paused for a moment. "Wait how do you know my name?" He said, walking up to the counter.

"Please, everyone knows your name."

"That's not gonna be good for business." The fox whispered. He cleared his throat. "I'll have one jumbo pop, please."

"One jumbo pop, coming up."

"Now I know I just-" The fox paused. He had a whole thing planned to convince the elephant into giving him one. And now he was just doing it, without a hassle. "Wait what?"

"Listen, Wilde," The elephant said as he picked out a large red popsicle from the display stand with his trunk. "I know we had a bit of a rough exchange awhile ago, but I'm a changed pachyderm."

He lowered the popsicle down into the fox's very surprised face. He caught the popsicle, and stumbled back. "Well, I guess I'll see you later!"

"Hang on, your partners waiting for you over there." The elephant said, pointing towards Judy and Max's table. "You're not just gonna leave them, are you?"

"P-partner?" He mumbled. "Uh, sure, yeah."

He walked over to the seat, eyes widening as he spotted Judy. "What are you-" He almost blurted out, before the wolf on the other side of her grabbed his muzzle.

Max shushed the fox. "Don't say anything, you'll look weird." The wolf lifted the massive popsicle onto the table in front of them, and scooched over. He aggressively motioned for the fox to come up, which he did.

"So, this your boyfriend, rabbit?" Nick asked, the rabbit sticking her tongue out at him

Max tried not to burst into laughter at this. It came out as a loud snort. He cleared his throat. "No, you, me, and Judy all work at the ZPD together."

"Oooh." It took a moment for what Max had said to fully process. "Wait, what!?"

"Check your wallet."

The fox fumbled a bit, eventually pulling out his wallet. As soon as he opened it, the glittering sight of a police badge hit his vision. His name was under it.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"I don't think it is." Judy said, placing her arms on the table. "Wolford here says we both have amnesia, and everything's pointing to him being… right."

"Well, how do you know he's right?" Nick asked. "Do you know him? Is he trustworthy?"

"At the moment, he's more trustworthy than you are, popsicle hustler." She responded.

The two glared at each other. He needed more evidence, maybe something more visual. His ears perked up. The wolf held a paw out to the fox. "Give me your phone."

"What?"

"Do it, or I'll tell the manager what you were going to use this popsicle for."

Judy chuckled as the fox's expression turned sour. He dropped the phone into Max's paw, who opened up the photo app. He placed the phone down on the table.

"You two have been working together on the force for three years now." He said, scrolling through a number of photos. Some of them contained the fox, in solo selfies. Most of them had him and Judy, wearing police uniforms, casual clothes, there was even a large set of vacation photos.

The fox looked at them, slack jawed. Judy was also surprised at how close they seemed. "you two are one of the best teams in the precinct." Max continued. "I don't think I've ever seen partners as close as you two."

There was silence for a few minutes. Neither one was sure what to say.

The wolf quickly lifted the phone off the table as he noticed juice starting to cover the table. "Oh, yeah, probably not the best place to put a giant popsicle."

"Seems pretty obvious to me, Wolfsbane." Nick said, with a bit of a laugh.

"Glad to see you still have that one."

Judy's ears jolted up again as the door bell rang again. "Uh, I have a question." She said, ducking down a bit.

"What?"

"Was there some kind of nuclear spill in the time I forgot?"

The two predators looked out from their seat. Standing in the middle of the room was Yabaiba, alongside a few Orgettes. Everyone's eyes were turned to him.

"Anyone here see a monster?" He asked, looking around. "Besides me and my friends here, of course. He's all silver, bunch of horns, traffic light for a face…"

Well, this could be a problem.

* * *

A short while after the three had found the monster, they returned to George's place. He had a treehouse in his back yard, a perfect place to keep the monster while they figure out what to do.

"Have you guys come up with a name yet?"

"I was thinking 'Blinkers'," The giraffe said.

"That's an awful name for a monster." The lion cub snapped back. "He should be named something cool, like 'Zelgar the Oblitenialator'!"

"That's too scary." The beaver said. "He's nice, so he needs a name that doesn't sound like a super villain."

"It's a cool name." The lion huffed.

"Oh, can I have a say?" The monster said. It was taking up most of the space in the treehouse. "I was thinking something like 'Signal', maybe?"

"How about 'Ziggy'?" Marty suggested.

"Oh, I like that one!" He said, standing up. His horns poked right through the top of the treehouse's roof.

"Oh man, how am I gonna explain that to my dad?" George yelled.

"Oops, sorry!"

"Hold it, Zig!" Henry said, standing up. "You can't leave, we had a lot of trouble sneaking you in here!"

Marty nodded. "If anyone sees you, you might be hurt."

"Or worse." George started. "The government could get called, and they could perform horrible experiments on him."

"Stop trying to scare him, George." Marty yelled. "Alright, Zig, we're gonna go see if we can find out where you came from."

The other two kids nodded. "You need to stay right here." Henry said. "We don't want the police taking you away."

"Or the government." The lion cub whispered as the three left.

"Alright then!" The monster said. "I'll see you guys later! Man, what good 'friends'. I wish I could do something for them."

He watched from the entrance of the treehouse, seeing the three kids run across the lawn. They stopped at the sidewalk, waiting for cars to pass.

"Augh, no!" Ziggy yelled. "Use the crosswalk, that's too dangerous!"

The lion cub and giraffe ran across the street first, Marty hesitating for a moment. The monster looked to the side, there was a truck coming and the beaver didn't seem to notice.

He quickly bolted up, poking holes through the ceiling again. "OH NO!"

The beaver started to run across the street, but tripped and fell to the ground.

"AUGH!"

The monster quickly rushed out of the treehouse, smashing through its front wall. He hit the ground running, crashing through the fence at the front of the lawn. He slid in front of the fallen beaver, and spread his arms out.

"STOP!"

His middle eye shot out a burst of light at the truck, which almost instantly ground to a halt. It was only a few inches away from the monster and his beaver friend.

"Holy smokes!" Yelled George from the other side of the street. Him and Henry ran up to their friend.

"You alright?" Henry asked.

Marty quickly got up, mouth agape. "Zig, you just saved my life!"

"I did?" The monster looked back and forth for a moment. "I did! Wow, I actually helped someone!" The lights on his chest began to flicker on and off rapidly. "I feel something, something I don't feel like I've felt in my whole life."

"I feel happy!"

The monster danced around, laughing. It scooped the three kids into its arms, giving them a hug. "Come on, let's go help out some more!"

The four dashed off down the street, all of them cheering.

The driver of the truck, a bear, stepped out, and scratched his head. "What the heck was that?"

* * *

There was lots of screaming and trampling as the parlor was evacuated. Within a few seconds, the only mammals left there were the manager, and our three heroes.

"Ugh, animals." Yabaiba said, marching up to the counter. "Always an annoyance, know what I mean?"

The elephant glared at him for a moment.

"What the hell is that thing?" Nick asked quietly, making sure Yabaiba didn't hear them.

"It looks like some kind of clown." Judy followed up.

"I can explain everything, we just need to get out of here first." Max said, hunching down.

"So, trunky," Yabaiba started, rubbing his hands together. "Thing you can get me one of those big bowls of ice cream?

"No." He pointed down with his trunk. "Read the sign, buddy. 'We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone', and right now," He smacked the monster in the face with his trunk. "'Anyone' is YOU. So, get out!"

Yabaiba rubbed the side of his face, the Orgettes behind him letting out a low gurgle of shock. "You don't know who you're messing with, pachy-paunch." He pulled out a dagger, and jabbed it into the counter. "I'm the clown Duke of the Orgs, Yabaiba!"

He snapped his fingers, causing the Orgettes to close in. "And if I don't get the largest bowl of ice cream you have, there will be hell to pay."

"This guy's an idiot." Nick said, rolling his eyes.

"Alright, now's the time." Max said quietly, getting up. He motioned at the other two, telling them to stay put.

"Does there seem to be a problem here, sir?" He started, paw rested on the table.

"Yeah, this guy won't give me any ice cream!" Yabaiba yelled.

"Well, do you have any money?"

"Money?" The Org patted himself down. "Uh, no, I think I left my wallet back in the cave…"

"And you do realize that threatening someone with a knife is a crime, right?" Max continued. He pulled out his wallet and flashed his police badge. "I'm afraid I'm going to have you arrested." He slowly moved his paw across the table.

"What?" Yabaiba said, the Orgettes seeming just as confused. "Well, how about I just go, and we can forget all about this, alright officer?"

"Right now, I think you need to…" The wolf quickly picked up the melted popsicle in both paws, and tossed it towards the monster with all his strength. "FREEZE!"

The popsicle flew into the monsters, knocking the entire group down. The popsicle was planted directly on Yabaiba's face.

"RUN!" The wolf yelled at the elephant. He gave a nod, and headed for the back door. Max turned back to Nick and Judy. "Us too, I have a lot of things to explain!"

The two nodded, and quickly leaped out of their seats, rushing towards the door.

"GET THIS THING OFF ME!" The Duke Org yelled. He quickly pushed it off, but he was now covered in red juice. "Ugh, I can feel it under my head!" He groaned. He stuck his juice covered finger into his mouth. "Oh, this is actually pretty good."

The monster quickly shook his head, and pointed towards the exit. "GET THEM!"

The three mammals dashed into a nearby alley. Max poked his head out over a dumpster, making sure nobody was coming.

"Alright, should be safe." He said.

"That was terrifying!" Nick yelled. "What was that!?"

"Alright, so." Max turned to them with a bit of a grimace. "I was hoping to tell you guys this in a bit of a less… tense situation, but…"

"Tell us what?" Judy asked.

He sighed, and ran a paw through his fur. "God, you guys aren't going to believe me unless I show you." He shrugged. "So, might as well!"

He held out his arm, which ad a device similar to the ones on their wrist. He brought it closer it, and pinched the back of the device, causing it to emit a wolf howl. He held the arm out again, and pinched the front shut.

"ZOO ON!"

There was a flash of light, and in front of them stood Wolford, who was wearing a shiny metallic full body suit, with a helmet perfectly fit for his head. He brought a gloved paw towards the sky. "WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE!" He spun around, striking a pose. "ZOOSILVER!"

He postured towards the two slacked jawed mammals. "Impressive, right?" He said. "Now you guys try it. Just slap that button on your wrists, and say 'Zoo On'."

The two looked at each other, and then examined the devices on their wrist. "Well, here goes nothing." Judy said, getting a glare from the fox.

"Zoo on!"

She slapped the button, and there was a burst of blue light, nearly knocking the fox away. The light faded, and Judy was now in a suit similar to the one Wolford was wearing, except entirely blue, and more fit to her rabbit proportions.

"Holy cheese and crackers!" She yelled, looking herself over. "This is amazing!"

"I know!" Max said. "Man, I'd love to feel the rush of morphing for the first time again."

"Excuse me!" Nick yelled. "What the hell is going on!?"

"Well, in the time you guys forgot, you also became super heroes who fight evil monsters and protect the city." Max quickly explained. "That make sense?"

"NO!"

"Listen, Nick." Judy started. "I believe in Max, and there is a monster that wants to hurt people. We need to work together just this once, Nick."

"Also, if you don't," Max started. "That monster is going to kill you."

The fox groaned and rolled his eyes. "I'm just doing this for myself, alright?" He snapped. He let out a low whine as he looked at the device.

"Zoo on."

He pressed the button in, and was overcome with a red light. It faded, revealing the fox in a similar suit, but more fox shaped.

He stretched out a bit. "Wow, it feels like all my muscles just loosened." He said. "This does feel pretty nice."

"Alright, now let's head out there and fend those guys off!" Max said, pulling out a sword.

"Yeah, how do we do that?" Nick asked. "I have literally no combat training."

"You do, but you don't remember it." Max said. "Amnesia, remember? Anyways, you'll be fine, just follow your instincts!"

The two looked at each other, and shrugged, before following the wolf out of the alley. They stepped out, and immediately spotted the monster, who in turn spotted them.

"Oh great, you guys are still alive?" He said, a bit distraught. "I thought Signal Org killed you. Speaking of which, have any of you seen him?"

"Why would we tell you anything… horn face?" Blue blurted out, trying to come up with an impromptu insult.

"Why thank you!" Yabaiba said, running his hand across his horn.

"Still not good at insults, even with super powers, huh?" Red joked.

"Shut it, fox."

Silver rolled his eyes. "Now's not the time to be fighting, we have bigger fish to fry."

"ORGETTES!" Yabaiba thrust his arm forward. "GET THEM!"

The platoon of Orgettes that had been following Yabaiba around hobbled forward, patting their heads as they did so.

"Alright, you guys ready?" Silver asked. "This is the easy stuff."

Blue shrugged, and quickly ran to fight the monsters, leaving the other two behind. "Wait, no!" Silver yelled. "We have to work as a…"

She rushed into a small group of the Orgettes, leaping into the air and delivering a swift kick to one of their faces, knocking it to the ground. She hit the ground, and immediately leaped up, roundhouse kicking a number of them in the face.

"WOO!" She yelled, raising her arms in triumph. "I feel like I've been doing this for years!"

"Wow, didn't know she was that athletic." Red said.

"Why don't you go try it?" Silver said, nudging the fox forward. He sighed, and awkwardly ran towards another group of monsters.

"Hey!" He said, as the much taller monster looked down at him. "So, I guess I'm supposed to fight you? I'm not really much of a fighter, but-"

One of the green monsters let out a gurgling screech, and raised its club to the sky. The fox yelped and held his paws out as it brought the club down. It clashed against something.

He opened his eyes, and in his paws, was a sword, blocking the club. "What the!?"

"Use it!" Silver yelled. The fox followed the instructions, and pushed the club away. He began slashing rapidly, and awkwardly, through the monsters. They stumbled back, and melted into green goo.

"Ugh, that's just gross." Red said.

"Oh man!" Blue let out, running over to the fox. "Where'd you get that?"

"Uh, I dunno, it just kind of showed up."

A few more Orgettes leaped into battle, surprising the two. Silver leaped in and cleaved through them with his blade. "They're mentally activated." He said, turning to the two. "You just need to think about having a weapon, and then they'll pop out."

Blue closed her eyes, and almost instinctively pulled out a pair of carrot-shaped daggers. "Wow!" She said, before looking at them closer. "…Why do they look like carrots?"

"That is your name, isn't it?" Red joked. He received the hilt of one of the daggers slamming into his gut in return.

"I think it's just a weird theming thing." Silver explained. "But we don't have time to get into that right now."

"Yeah, you guys have a much larger problem to deal with!"

They turned to face Yabaiba, who gave a double handed wave at them. He quickly drew his own daggers, and strolled forward.

"Ugh, he's really creepy." Blue said, shuddering a bit. Red nodded.

"You know, he's not as creepy once you get to know him." Silver said.

"Hey, I'm creepy!" The Org yelled, offended. "I'm a clown, clowns are like, creepy ninety percent of the time!"

"He has a point." Red said.

"No, you're just kind of an incompetent idiot from what I've seen" Silver retorted.

"Oh, I'll show you incompetent!"

Yabaiba rushed forward, slashing at Silver, who dodged out of the way. The two started clashing blades, until Yabaiba managed to knock Silver away. He quickly turned to the other two rangers, and brandished his daggers at them.

Suddenly, with a flick of his wrist, the Org was now carrying many knives.

"Duke Org Trick, Knife Toss Special!"

"What?"

He quickly began tossing the knifes at them, as fast as gunshots. The two ran out of the way, the knives creating a trail behind them. Thinking quickly, blue tossed her own daggers at the monster, who quickly scooped them out of the air and threw them back as its own weapon.

"Oh, that went well!" Red jeered.

"I need a gun or something!" Blue yelled over to Silver. "Do you have one of those?"

"You guys have guns!" he yelled back, trying to get up. "It's the same thing as the weapons!"

The rabbit quickly whipped out a pair of guns, and aimed them at the monster as they ran. She rapidly fired, knocking Yabaiba out of his concentration.

"Oooh, I wanna try that!" Red said. He quickly pulled out a massive cannon, which he could somehow hold without any effort.

"Holy smoked carrots!" Blue let out, seeing the massive thing.

The fox pulled the trigger, launching a massive blast of fire at the Org. There was an explosion as it clashed, knocking it down.

"Augh, that's hot!" The monster yelled, standing up. "You guys are acting weird, like, weirder than I act!" It said, pointing at them. "Oh, by the way, have you seen Signal Org anywhere? Lost that guy when I sent him to kill you."

They stared at him, blank.

"Ooooooohhhh." The clown let out. "You guys lost your memories. That was one of his powers."

"There it is, right from the horse's mouth." Red said. "Guess we do have amnesia."

"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."

"Well, if you're looking for that monster," Silver said. "Then you better find him before its too late."

"Whaddya mean by that, wolfy?" Yabaiba asked, tilting his head.

"That Org was caught in the same blast that erased these guy's memories." Silver explained. "I'm not sure, but it's entirely likely he's running around not knowing who he is anymore."

Yabaiba paused, and thought for a moment. "Yikes, that's bad!" He yelled. He gave a quick salute. "Catch you guys later this episode, I got some stuff to do!" He quickly jolted off down the street.

"What was that last bit about?" Red asked.

"Sometimes you just don't question the things those monsters say." Silver replied with a sigh. He untransformed. "Alright, we need to get your memories back, ASAP. We're going back to your apartment."

"I don't think we can all fit in the apartment." Blue said.

"You guys have a bigger apartment."

"Oh, that's nice." Red said. "Wait, what?"

"You also live together."

The two looked at each other, shocked.

"Okay, first things first." Red started. "How do we get out of these things?"

* * *

"It is now safe to cross the street!"

The monster pointed towards the crosswalk, motioning the nearby kids to pass. "And remember!" The monster yelled out as the group crossed. "Always look both ways before crossing, no matter what!"

"Is this guy seriously your friend?" Asked a bear cub.

"He's kind of scary." Said his sister.

"Don't worry, he's super cool!" The beaver assured. "He saved my life a while ago, he really likes helping people across streets."

"That's weird, but cool."

"Hey, he's our friend too." The lion cub grumbled.

"Hey, this isn't about attention, George." Henry said, slapping him on the back of the head. "Can't you just be cool for a bit?"

The lion stuck his tongue out at the giraffe, who slapped him again. "Hey, hey!" The monster said, walking over. "You guys don't need to fight, everything's fine! Now, if someone was disobeying traffic laws, that'd be something to get angry over!"

"What happened to your eye?" Asked the bear, staring at the monster's shattered, green eye.

"You know, I have no idea!" Ziggy said. "I woke up like that, and it really stung! But, what's in the past is in the past, it doesn't bother me anymore!"

"You've only been awake for like five hours, dude." George said.

"Well, it's still the past, isn't it?" The monster laughed. "Hey, who wants to go play a ball throwing game at the park over there?" He motioned towards the park on the other side of the sidewalk. "I can show you all how cool I really am!"

The kids shrugged. "Sounds fun." The bear said, his sister nodding.

"Alright, let's get to it!" The group headed across the sidewalk, stopping at the crosswalk. "But remember, always use the crosswalk, look both ways, and only cross when the light's green!"

"You've say that at every crosswalk." George said, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Well, I just don't want my friends to get hurt." Ziggy explained as they crossed.

The group made it to the park. Marty pulled out a ball from his backpack, and the five began tossing it around.

However, from a nearby bush, they were being spied on.

"This is bad!" Yabaiba said, peeking out just over the leaves. "He's lost his memory, and is playing with children, and not killing them! That's not what an Org does!"

He rubbed his chin, before reeling back a bit as a branch poked the side of his face. "Looks like I'm going to have to get a bit more serious." He tried to quickly pop out of the bush, but he seemed to be stuck.

"Great."

* * *

"Alright, here's your apartment!" Max said, opening the door.

"Wow!" Judy exclaimed. "Its way bigger than my old one!" She looked around. "Wait, there are two bedrooms…?"

"I said you guys lived together." The wolf said. "Doesn't mean you sleep in the same room."

"I wouldn't want to sleep ten feet from her." Nick said, crossing his arms.

"Oh my god." Max said, slapping his face. "You have to accept this eventually, Nick. You can't stay in the past forever."

"Well, what if I like the past better?" He said, falling onto the couch. "What if I like my life how I remember it right now?"

"I know that's entirely false." Max said.

"Yeah, your denial of it makes it seem like you don't actually like it." Judy followed up.

"Well, aren't you a moralizer?" The fox said, rolling around to face the couch.

Max sighed. "You two just look around. Maybe something here will trigger your memories."

Judy began to look around, while Nick stayed on the couch, absolutely silent and still. She puttered through the room, picking up things, going through books that were piled around. After around ten minutes she stepped back up to the wolf.

"Sorry, nothing's coming back to me." She said, a bit solemnly.

"Thought that would work…" Max said, rubbing his chin. He sighed. "Guess I'm going to have to drop the big bombshell."

"Wait, you mean us being super heroes… isn't the biggest bombshell you've got?" Judy asked. She was a bit scared.

"Get Nick up to, I really want to see his reaction to this." Max said. The rabbit gave a quick shrug, and walked over to the fox.

"I know you're awake, Nick." She said, shoving him a bit.

"Alright, I'll listen to whatever the wolfpack guy says." He groaned, sitting up. "Just as long as I get to get out of here after."

The wolf rolled his eyes. Hopefully, after this, his memories would come back and his attitude would be gone. Well, mostly gone.

"Alright, are you two sitting down?" He said.

"Well, I'm sitting down." Nick said, being a smartass.

"Its… it's a metaphor." The wolf grabbed the brim of his snout and let out a groan. "ALRIGHT!" You two!"

He pointed towards them, startling the mammals.

"YOU TWO!"

The braced themselves.

"ARE DATING!"

They stared at him, confused.

"You're dating each other!" He quickly revised. "You two are dating!"

"WHAT!?"

"I don't even like her!" The fox yelled. "Why would we be dating!?"

"What do my parents think?" Judy questioned. "Would they even be alright with this!?"

Suddenly, her head began to hurt, as she dropped to her knees. She clutched at it, grunting in pain. Suddenly she burst back up. "I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!" She cheered.

"Oh thank god, I thought that wouldn't work." The wolf sighed. He looked over at the fox. "How you feeling?"

"Can't remember a thing." He said, pretty simply. "Now, if you excuse me…" he hopped from the couch, and started to walk away. Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise coming from the device on his wrist.

"A monster attack, now?" Silver groaned.

"You guys can go deal with it, I don't want any part of this monster stuff." The fox said as he neared the door.

"Wait, you can't…" The wolf felt a paw on his leg. He looked down at Judy.

"Just let him go." She sighed. "He's always been stubborn, and if this is what he wants to do…"

Max sighed. "Can't make him."

The fox paused at the door, hearing them talk. He felt a paw on his shoulder.

"Nick, since I might not have a chance to say this to you again, and even though you don't remember…" She took a breath. "I'm sorry for this morning."

Nick fell silent, and pushed her paw off his shoulder, and stormed away down the hall.

The rabbit took a deep breath, and let it out. "Come on, we have a monster to take care of."

* * *

"Alright, you stupid kids!" Yabaiba yelled, approaching the group of terrified children. "If you don't get out of my way this instant, then I'm going to have to murder you all!"

"Stay back!" The much friendlier monster said, stepping forward. "Get out of here, you creep! Don't hurt these kids!"

"I don't want to hurt them," The Duke Org said, pointing towards the traffic light creature. "I want YOU to hurt them!"

"Why would I hurt them!?"

"Hmm, guess you have forgotten." Yabaiba said quietly to himself. "Oh well, guess we're going to do this the hard way." The clown pulled out a shell, and thrust it up into the air, spewing slime all around him. The slime quickly slithered and formed into a small platoon of Orgettes.

"Augh, what are those things!?" Yelled the lion cub. Ziggy moved in front of them, shielding the kids from the monsters as they approached.

"Hold it right there!"

Everyone turned to the street, seeing the two Zoorangers run up. "If you touch a hair on those kid's heads, your jaw'll be even looser than before!" Silver growled.

"Hey, I haven't hurt any kids yet!" Yabaiba said. "So, you can't scold me over anything."

"Saying you're going to murder children isn't good either!" Blue yelled.

"Hey, where's your third guy?" The Org asked. "He chicken out?"

"He's… busy." Blue lied. She quickly drew her daggers, and pointed them at the monster. "But we can take you on ourselves!"

"Yeah, you aren't a problem." Silver followed up. "You're just a comic relief character, you aren't even as funny without your other half. Probably wouldn't even be that funny with her"

"What did you just say!?" The org stepped forward, pushing an absent minded Orgette out of his way. "How dare you."

"Why's he freaking out?" Blue asked.

"Well, I might've just…"

"You can't just insult Tsue Tsue like that!" He growled, brandishing his knives. "I'm going to cut you to ribbons!"

"I think I just insulted his dead girlfriend, yeah."

Yabaiba rushed at them, leaping into an aerial strike. The two leaped out of the way as he brought his daggers down, but the Org quickly tossed the daggers towards both of them. They plunged onto their sides before they could react, a massive burst of sparks flying off as they fell to the ground.

The Org pulled out another pair of knives. "Let's see, which of you should I gut first?" He thought for a moment, with an exaggerated head tilt. "I know, I'll kill the wolf who's ruined everything!"

He skipped over to the fallen wolf, and leaned down. "You know, I knew a pesky wolf that ruined everything before you." He said. "He was a lot more trouble, though."

The Org raised a knife, preparing to jab it in to the fallen ranger. There was a sudden blast, knocking the blade out of his hand. He waved his hand in pain, and looked over. Blue was standing, and had her blasters drawn.

"Well, guess you're both pains." He said. He snapped his fingers, and pointed at the rabbit. "Orgettes, get her!"

"Oh, cheese and crackers."

The group of Orgettes started towards her, patting their heads. "That should distract her while I cut you limb from limb." Yabaiba said.

He quickly spun around, blocking the wolf's blade with his knives. "You think you're pretty slick, don't you, moon boy?" The Duke Org taunted. "Well, I don't think you and your friend can handle this without red tail here!"

Silver let out a growl, and quickly swung the blade again, only for Yabaiba to block again. Blue blasted at the Orgettes with her blasters as they closed in.

"Face it, you guys are done for!"

* * *

The fox strolled down the hill, right next to a large, stone bridge. It was old, and most mammals didn't think anything of it when they crossed. And that was when they did cross, this part of the city hadn't been lived in for years.

But he payed attention to it. To the fox, it was his home.

Or, it was.

He walked under the bridge, and ran his claws across the stone surface. In his mind, he had been there just the day before, but it had actually been years.

It looked like it had been years too, in that it seemed no one had come around in a long time. It hadn't changed, it was exactly like he remembered.

Living under the bridge was technically not illegal, but Nick liked to make sure he wasn't found. While scoping out easy living locations, he had discovered a hollow part of the bridge, perfect for keeping a stash of objects when he needed to leave. It was behind a loose brick, around halfway through it.

He searched for a good few minutes. He couldn't find it. The brick had been repaired at some point. He let out a sigh. Despite it looking exactly the same, the bridge had changed. Everything had changed.

He fell to the ground, dirt kicking up around him. His phone started to ring.

"Hello?" He said, answering it.

"Hey, Nick." It was Finnick. "Just wanted to check in and see if you're still acting crazy."

"I mean, depends on how you look at it." He said, a bit solemn.

"I don't understand, but you sound more like yourself." The fennec said. "Anyway, I just wanted to call and let you know I got the job."

"The job?"

"Yeah, the job at McPawnalds." He continued. "I've been talking to you about it for like two weeks?"

"Oh, yeah." Nick lied. It didn't seem like something Finnick would do. He had always been anti-establishment. "Sorry, can you just… remind me why you wanted a job?"

"You're the guy who convinced me, remember?" The fennec answered. "I mean, I really don't want to keep mooching off you either, but you were right."

"About what?"

"Change, man." Finnick said. "You changed yourself, changed it for the better. You have a respectable career, and a girlfriend. I don't have anything but a van. But, y'know, maybe I can change that, too."

There was silence.

"You okay there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said. "I just need to think about some stuff."

"Alright, I'll let you be then."

The fox placed the phone on his chest. Everything had changed, nothing was like he remembered it. His home, his friends, his life, it was all different. He was stuck in the past. He looked at the phone, and opened the photo app. He scrolled through the photos from a few years back.

His first day during police work, the second day, the third day. He took so many photos, each of them with her. With Judy. He saw their first vacation, the first day in the apartment, the first day they became heroes.

In every photo, he looked happy. He looked happier than he had ever been before.

"God, I'm such an idiot." He said, getting up.

He needed to find her.

* * *

Silver continued to spar with Duke Org, who was surprisingly swift. The Org gracefully blocked each strike Silver tried to put into him, each time resulting in a clang against his knives.

"You know, I'm not usually this strong." Yabaiba said, pushing the wolf back with his blades.

"I know, that's what's pissing me off." Silver grunted.

He leaped in again, the Org once again managing to block.

With Blue, the action was a bit less tedious. She leaped up into the air, and delivered a flurry of blasts to the Orgettes, knocking most of them down. This didn't kill them though, the Orgs seemed a bit stronger than usual.

"Alright, enough of this!" She yelled, pulling out a ZooTag.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The boxing gloves appeared on her paws. The rabbit rapidly punched the monsters in front of her, causing a burst of green goo to fly across the park. "I'm sure sanitation can deal with that." She said to herself.

"What the!?" Yabaiba yelled, catching the Orgettes being destroyed. Silver used this chance, delivering a series of blows to the Duke Org. he flew back, and crashed into the ground, kicking up dust. He quickly sprang up. "You guys think I didn't come prepared for this?"

He pulled out two more of the shells, and threw them up into the air. The slime from them hit the ground, summoning up even more of the minions.

"Because I did!" He yelled. "I came SUPER prepared for this!"

The army of slimy ogres rushed at the two, nearly completely surrounding and swarming them. "Now if you excuse me," Yabaiba continued, closing in on the amnesiac org. "I have a monster to bring back!"

"Hold it right there, you one horned snake!"

"Oh great, this again?" Yabaiba turned around, seeing Zoored. He had somehow gotten past the army of Orgettes without being noticed. "Oh look, the whole gang's here, guess it's time to put on a big show!"

Without a word, Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and began rapidly blasting the Org. The blasts hit, covering the monster with soot and burns. He wobbled for a second, and passed out.

"Okay, that worked somehow." Red said to himself. He turned to his two teammates, who were surrounded by the monsters. "Okay, I need something to help them." He smacked his head a few times. "Maybe I have some other weapons."

He thought to himself, "I need something different". He quickly, instinctively, pulled out two small objects. One was red and marked with a sword, the other was yellow marked with a claw.

He looked at them for a second, and then to his wrist. It felt like he had done this before. He probably had, but couldn't remember.

"So, I guess I just…" He uneasily slid the red object into the device.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

Without warning, a massive sword appeared in the fox's paws, causing him to nearly fall over. "Holy shit!" He yelled, trying to get his balance back. "This thing's heavier than my emotional baggage!"

He dropped the sword to the ground, and using all of his strength, began to whip it around. He felt like he was in the hammer throw event. He abruptly stopped, causing a wave of energy to burst from the sword, which flew towards the monsters.

In a few seconds, there was a massive explosion of slime.

The two groaned as they wiped slime off of their suits. "Great, now I got Org guts all over my shiny suit." Silver muttered.

Blue's ears perked up as she spotted Red. She quickly ran over and hugged the fox, surprising and nearly crushing him.

"I knew you'd remember eventually!" She said, letting go of him.

"Well, I…" He paused. Blue's ears drooped. "I haven't."

"Then… why did you come back?"

"Because I don't have anything left." He said, frankly. "Everything I remember being normal is gone, I have nowhere else left to go. Even if I never remember anything…" He paused for a moment, and placed his paws on her shoulders. "Maybe we can make new memories. Maybe we can recapture whatever we had. Please."

She nodded. "Its your choice, and if you want to keep doing this…"

"Then there's nothing we'll do to stop you." Silver chimed in.

"Uh, hey!"

The three turned around, Yabaiba had risen back up. "If you guys want to continue your meaningful conversation, I'm gonna go get my monster back."

"Kids, run!" The traffic light monster said, motioning for the kids to, well, run. "Get out of here, I'll protect you!"

The kids nodded, and ran off farther into the park.

He put up his fists, lacking any other sort of weapon, as Yabaiba approached. He attempted to bunch the Duke Org, but Yabaiba swiftly scraped his daggers across the monster's skin.

"Stop that, Yabaiba!" Blue yelled, before firing her blasters at the Org. In a swift motion, he slashed the blasts out of the sky with his daggers.

"Seriously, this is important!" he yelled back. "I don't need you three furries getting in my way!" He leaned back, energy seeming to gather in his horn. His head thrust forward, shooting a bolt of energy at the three. There was a massive explosion, and the rangers fell to the ground.

"Wow, didn't even know I could do that." The Duke Org said to himself. He turned back to the cowering monster.

"What do you want with me!?"

"I just want you to go back!" Yabaiba yelled. "How are you supposed to be useful when you're acting all goody good?"

"What?"

"C'mon, I know you can remember." Yabaiba said, leaning uncomfortably close to the monster's face. "Signal Org."

The monster stepped back as it heard the words. Electricity began to spark from its head as he clutched at it. "I remember!" The monster shouted, in pain.

"Great to have you back." Yabaiba said. "Ready to go destroy some rangers?"

"NO!" The monster shot a beam out of its red eye, launching Yabaiba back and onto the ground.

"What are you doing!?" Yabaiba yelled as he got up. "You can't hurt me, I'm your master!"

"You're not my master anymore!" Signal Org yelled. "I don't want to hurt anyone again, I like helping out! It makes me feel good!"

Red crawled up, feeling a burst of energy as the monster said those words.

"I want to change, I don't want to be the old Signal Org!"

Yabaiba laughed for a moment, which quickly turned into a groan. "You're starting to sound like that goddamn grill!" He quickly tossed his daggers into the monster's chest, knocking it to the ground.

He stomped on the monster, and kneeled down as it struggled. "Change? You can't change! Orgs are meant to destroy, cause havoc!" He stated. "Nobody really changes, even if they think they have. The old them is always buried deep inside, waiting to get out."

He pulled out a small red object, a Chaos Badge.

"Lemme show you some real change."

He jabbed the badge into the monster's red eye, and quickly stepped off as the monster rose back up.

The monster grunted in pain as its body began to change. Its head twisted around, going from horizontal to vertical, the red eye now on top. The shattered green eye grew, forming into a cracked smile. The creature's horns shifted as well, now more aligned with its new, taller head. A second pair of wires burst from the other side of its body, with both of them growing longer. Its entire body turned a shiny black and a sickly looking yellow, as the crossing signs on its chest became more angular, taking up most of its torso.

"CHAOS SIGNAL ORG!" It roared.

"There we go, that's much better." Yabaiba said. "Now, lets get to…"

"You…"

He turned to see red, who had risen from the ground, though standing a bit uneasy. His other two partners still laid on the ground, not unconscious, but incredibly weakened.

"You monster." The fox growled, attempting to step forward.

"I see one of you is ready to fight!" Yabaiba chirped. "Alright, Siggy, let's-"

"DON'T INTERUPT ME!"

The fox's voice had suddenly grown incredibly harsh, a glow coming from his visor. The yell had shocked both of the monsters. "You can't just do that. He wanted to change. He wanted to become better. And you just TOOK THAT AWAY FROM HIM!?" The fox was practically roaring in anger, louder than he had ever been before.

"Oh no." Blue said, trying to get up. Silver understood what was going on, and tried to get up as well.

"YOU ALMOST TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ME!" Red yelled. A dark glow emitted from him. "I'm not going to let you do that to anyone else!"

"Oh no, oh no, oh NO!"

"SAVAGE ON"

There was a pulse of energy, knocking everyone nearby back. The thing standing where Red was made a hissing sound as the smoke from the blast cleared. The hiss quickly turned into laughter.

"Ohhh, it feels good to be back!"

The fox monster quickly bent over in a physically impossible way, the sound of bones cracking as it did. It glared as the two rangers with its glowing eyes and let out a laugh. "Bet you guys missed me, huh?" It said, before quickly snapping back up. "Man, feels like I've been locked in there for months!"

"We haven't missed you at all, Savage." Silver said, both rangers prepping their weapons.

"Relaaaax." He said. "No need to get violent, yet. The amazing insecure fox wants me to slaughter the clown, so we're basically on the same side."

"I don't trust him." Silver whispered.

"I do." Blue said, a bit disgusted. "The guy… monster… whatever, is pretty true to his word."

"The rabbit gets it!" Savage shouted. "As long as I get to kill someone, I'll do whatever."

"Alright, Savage." Blue sighed. "You take Yabaiba, we'll handle the monster."

"Yabaiba's the clown, right?" He asked, before laughing. "Aw who cares, I was just gonna kill the clown anyway."

"I don't really like all this talk about killing me!" Yabaiba shouted. "I kicked your butts a few minutes ago, I can kick them again!"

Savage laughed again. "Good luck."

He lunged at the clown, leaping many feet through the air and gripping directly onto him. The savage fox dug his claws into the Org's skin as they started to tumble around. He quickly pushed off of Yabaiba, and delivered a few sweeping slashes, knocking him back.

The Org dashed forward, attempting to swipe at the fox with both of his blades. Savage quickly grabbed onto them, and ripped them from his hands. "You know, weapons are so dull." Savage said, tossing the knives away. "I like to fight with pure strength."

"I don't know if I can deal with this." The Org whispered to himself.

The two other rangers stepped up to the newly revitalized traffic light monster. Upon spotting them, it let out a growl, its top two eyes rapidly flashing.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about the memory wipe." Silver said, pointing towards the shattered mouth of the creature. "The green light was destroyed."

"Yeah, least we won't have to do that again." Blue sighed in relief.

The monster thrust its arms forward, causing the wires coming out of its shoulders to lift into the air. They jolted forward, rapidly jabbing into the ground. The two quickly weaved around as the wires struck forward.

The monster turned towards Silver, its wires suddenly jutting forward again. Silver quickly spun the guard of his sword.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time slowed down, the wolf quickly jabbing his sword forward rapidly as the wires approached. Time resumed, and the wires suddenly fell to the ground, having been sliced to pieces.

"Well, that's that out of the way!" Blue yelled, as the exhausted wolf pumped his fist. She drew her blasters, and fired into the monster's side. It let out another roar, its red eye beginning to glow intensely.

It quickly spun around, rapidly firing out blasts at them. This created a circle of explosions, launching the two into the air before they crashed into the dirt.

The Org clenched its fists, causing the cut wires to quickly regrow.

"Great." Silver groaned.

Savage leaped into the air, slashing at Yabaiba's chest again. The Org fell onto his back, starting to crawl away as the fox approached. "Stay back!" He shouted, delivering a kick to the fox's head.

Savage seemed completely unfazed as the foot struck. He gave a bit of an annoyed groan, before shoving it out of the ay. The monstrous fox leaped up, and crashed down onto Yabaiba's chest, leaning down and glaring at him with a smile.

"Smile, clown."

Savage bared his claws, and began jabbing them into the Org's body. He writhed in pain as goo began to seep from the wounds. The Org let out a yelp of pain, before pushing the fox off of him.

"You're crazy!" He shouted, clutching his chest. "If you want an actual fight, go find Long, that guy's a toughie! See ya!" The Org melted into a pile of ooze, and vanished.

"Long, huh?" He said to himself. "Well, it is almost time, and I'll need someone to fight when it happens…" He laughed and turned to the other rangers, who were still fighting the traffic light monster. "The clown got away, so I'm gonna duck out now! See you all next week!"

"What!?"

There was a burst of dark light from Savage, who quickly fell back to the ground, reverting to ZooRed. "Ugh, that was an awful headache." He said as he got up. He spotted the two, striggling as the Signal org continued to attack them with its wires. "Hold on guys, I'm coming!"

He pulled out the yellow ZooTag, and stuck it into the Zoolizer.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

The claws appeared on his paws, and he dashed towards the monster's wires. In a red flash, he was gripping both sets of wires.

"Don't mess with my family!"

Using his strength, the fox started whipping the monster around in a circle. After a few cycles, he flung the monster up into the air. The claws started to glow, as he swung them rapidly above his head, launching out a flurry of laser slashes.

The monster exploded, a traffic light crashing into the ground a moment later. "Red, you saved us!" Blue shouted, running up and punching him in the side. "Good job!"

"Hey, wouldn't be the first time, Carrots." He said with a laugh.

She laughed back, before realizing something. "Wait, how do you…"

"I got my memories back!" He said. "It must've happened when Savage took over… Anyway, guess that heartfelt speech to you was pretty pointless, huh?"

"It meant a lot to me." She said.

"Well, I'm just glad you got them back." Silver said, butting in a bit. "Because I really did not want to explain how to pilot a giant robot to someone."

"Yeah, that could've been a disaster." Red said. "Guess its time to do the robot thing, right?"

A small, red object on the ground floated up into the sky, and off into the horizon. In a burst of light, the monster reappeared, its eyes rapidly blinking in anger.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Blue said as the three pulled out their mecha summoning equipment.

In a flash, ZooRobo and ZooKami appeared in front of the beast, which let out another roar. "Least he can't make any more puns." Red said.

"There's a bright side to everything." Blue responded, jokingly.

The two mechs stepped forward, brandishing their weapons. The monster's red eye started to glow as it held out its hand, motioning for them to stop. The two robots glanced at each other, and continued forward.

The monster's yellow eye started to glow, and fired a beam into ZooKami, causing it to freeze. "Oh great, this again!" Silver yelled, watching as the controls started to move on their own.

ZooKami slashed its blade at ZooRobo suddenly, causing the combo mech to stumble back in a fire of sparks.

"What the hell, Max!?" Red shouted.

"He's controlling ZooKami!" Silver responded. "I can't do anything right now!"

ZooKami slashed its blade again, crashing into ZooRobo's own fox tail blade. ZooRobo knocked the sword back, and punched the wolf robot in the mechanical gut, knocking it back a bit. "The only way we can do this is to destroy the monster's eye!" Blue said.

"I think I got the thing for that." Red said, pulling out a golden Zootag.

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

The bison mech appeared, and flipped around, forming into armor for ZooRobo. "ZOOROBO, BISON MODE!"

The robot aimed its blasters towards the charging ZooKami, and fired directly at it, knocking the robot to the ground. "HEY!" Silver yelled from inside. "I'm still in here, you know!"

"Sorry Max!" Blue shouted. The robot turned to the Org, who looked up from the struggling ZooKami.

They aimed the blasters directly towards the monster's eyes, and fired. The blasts caused two massive explosions on the Org's face, knocking it back. When the smoke cleared, they could see that both of its eyes had been shattered.

ZooKami stopped struggling, and got up from the ground. "Thanks for that." Silver said. "Not the knocking me down part, that hurt a lot."

"Hey we said we were sorry." Red said back.

The monster got back up, but it looked rather uneasy. It seemed to be blinded, feeling around at nothing, and not even facing the mechs themselves.

"Alright, let's finish this." Blue said.

ZooRobo brought its guns together, causing them to gather energy at their tips.

"BISON RAMMING SHOT!"

The blasters fired out the burst of energy, which formed into a bison's head. It charged through the back of the monster, and out the other side. The monster let out one final roar as it fell to the ground and exploded.

"That was zootastic." Red said.

The three reappeared in the park. "Man, it's good to have you back, Red." Silver said, placing a paw on his head, which the fox swiped away. "Thought you left for good."

"Why would I want to give up all this?" He said. "I got everything I need here."

"You're not just saying that because you get a bed, are you?"

"Might be part of it."

The three prepared to untransform, only for a small voice from behind to yell out.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?"

They turned to look, seeing a small beaver child, his eyes watering. "Why did you do that?" He repeated, much more softly.

"Did… what?" Blue asked.

"You killed my friend."

The three clenched their teeth behind their masks. Oh yeah, the monster did make a speech about that, didn't it?

"Well, we…" Blue started, trying to think up a reason. "We had to."

"Why!?"

"Because he was going to destroy the city." Red stated. "He could've hurt a lot of innocents."

"Why did you have to kill him!?" The beaver yelled. "Couldn't you just talk to him? He was my friend, he was nice and helpful!"

"Well-"

"I thought you were super heroes!" He yelled. The child burst out crying, and ran off.

"Well." Red said, plainly. "I think we just scarred a child for life."

* * *

"So, do you remember it?"

She turned to the fox. They were sitting on the couch, mostly resting after the long, terrible day. "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember everything after we lost out memories?" He asked. "Because I do."

"I do too."

"That was terrible, huh?" He said, slouching down a bit. "It was like my mind was caged up, begging to be let out. Then suddenly it just came back. It was like a light was turned on."

"Huh."

"But I learned something incredibly important." He continued. She looked at him, and he looked back at her, giving a smile.

"I need you, Carrots."

She snickered at how sincere he sounded.

"No, seriously." He said. "You're my grounding, without you, I'd still be that jerk living under a bridge. The confox that everyone hated, the mammal who locked everyone out. I'm thankful I'm not that mammal anymore."

"You're awfully introspective today." She said, a bit surprised.

"There's been a lot of stuff going on, you know?" He said. "Not even just the monster and super hero stuff. I haven't had a lot of time to think, but I feel like I'm coming close to a personal breakthrough."

"Is this about that family stuff?" She asked. "I think that's a bit weird."

"I've never really had a family, Judy." He said.

"Your missing dad, yeah." She said. "But you still have your mom."

"That's not what I mean." He said with a bit of a laugh. "I've never felt like I belonged anywhere until this all started." He paused. "Well, there was… never mind."

"What?" She asked. "You keeping another secret from me?"

He popped up. "That's a story for a later time, Carrots." He quickly wrapped his arms around her, much to her shock. "What's in the past is in the past, and I'm here for the present."

She smiled, and returned the hug. They stayed like that for a good few minutes.

She wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.

* * *

"I'm really not sure how you keep bungling things up so bad, Yabaiba." Sambash said with a chuckle. "The boss man's really upset at you."

"What!?" The org yelled in surprise. "What'd I do? I did what he told me to, even if it didn't go that great!"

"Why don't you ask him?" The biker monster said, placing his feet up on the table.

"Hey, master guy!" He shouted up to the tube. "Are you angry at me?"

A burst of energy knocked both Yabaiba and Sambash to the ground.

"I AM COMPLETELY FURIOUS"

"W-why?"

There was silence. "DO YOU SERIOUSLY NOT REMEMBER"

"Uhhh." The Duke Org thought for a moment. "I just remember cleaning, and then getting yelled at, and then the rest of the day. Or, the last five hours at least?"

"What, do you have short term memory or something!?" Sambash yelled as he got up, slapping the Org on the back of the head.

"Yeah, actually, I do!" Yabaiba said. "Its super personal so don't bring it up!"

"Oh, uh, sorry."

Yabaiba started to walk away, before quickly turning back to Sambash. "Hey, do you know where Long is? I need to tell him something."

"Uh…"

"LONG IS AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN" The Omnipotence announced.

"Oh, thank you, sir… master… boss!" The Org ran off.

"I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE RESURRECTED URA"

The Org climbed up the mountain for a good half hour, until he eventually made it to the top. On the top of the mountain was Long, just as the Omnipotence had said. He seemed to be practising, training.

"Hey, Long, old buddy old pal!"

The armored warrior quickly glanced at Yabaiba, the intensity nearly knocking him back down the mountain.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you some… important news." He said, tapping his fingers together.

"Spit it out before I use you as a training dummy."

"Well, I was fighting this weirdo earlier, real savage beast type guy."

"Was he a fox or a rabbit?"

"He was a fox." Yabaiba said. "yeah he was super strong and I almost died. But I might have told him about you? So, you might want to…"

"You told him about me?" Long said, turning to Yabaiba. "What did you say?"

"I just told him you were a good fighter." The org said. "But he's strong and I just thought you might like to know."

"Oh, Yabaiba, my stupid friend." Long placed an armored mitt on the Org's shoulder. "You've done the only useful thing I've seen from you."

"Uh, thanks?"

Long let go, and turned to look across the city skyline. "Oh yeah, there was something else I wanted to tell you." Yabaiba quickly interjected. Now he was starting to get annoying. "But, I can't remember it, so I guess I'll just… let you be."

"Smart idea." Long said as the Org quickly ran off. He clenched his fist. "Soon, Savage will be in my grasp."

* * *

The goat hurried into the lab. "Well?" He shouted, startling the personnel. "How's everything coming?"

"Well, its…" Leopold paused for a moment. "Everything's going great!" He gave two thumbs up, but sounded uneasy.

"Wonderful!" Herder sounded. "I want to see the new weapons."

Leopold clapped his paws. "I'll be with you in a moment, chief."

He quickly ran off, and started a conversation with a group of scientists at the far side of the room. It was a good five minutes before he came back.

"Follow me, and I'll show you our other two prototype weapons." The leopard said, motioning for Herder to follow.

He brought the goat up to a table, two objects placed on it. One was a small, pistol shaped gun. It resembled the large cannon from the previous week, only a lot smaller, and with an actual handle. The other object was sword-shaped. In fact, it was basically just a sword, with a completely rounded guard, and a blade that didn't appear to be sharp at all.

"Here they are." Leopold said. He still sounded a bit wary, which Herder had picked up on. "Here's the more portable version of the Anti-Matter Blaster." He picked up the gun and showed it to the goat. "It's weaker, but a lot more precise."

He picked up the sword next. "This is the Anti-Matter Blade." He started, swinging it around. "It can cut through anything, or at least any form of matter that exists on Earth."

"Fascinating." Herder said. "Show me them in action."

"Um, well…"

The goat glared at the leopard. "What's wrong, doctor?" He asked. "Are you keeping something from me?"

Leopold let out a deep breath. "Sir… chief, the coin, the coin you found, it…"

"It what?"

"It ran out of power."

"WHAT!?"

"I'm so sorry!" He said, sounding absolutely desperate. "We needed to test weapons, so we used it a lot, and it just fizzled out the other day. We don't know how to recharge it, and the only way to continue is if there were more of them."

"Where am I supposed to get more of them!?" Herder yelled. "I don't even know where the first one came from!"

"I'm sorry sir, but without the coin, we can't… We can't go on to the last part of the project."

Herder stomped the ground with his hoof, and let out an angry snarl. He started to storm away. "Be thankful this technically isn't your fault, Leopold!" He shouted. "Or else you'd be out of here in under a SECOND!"

The door slammed. Leopold began to wobble back and forth. Another scientist, a rhino, stomped up to him to hold him up as he collapsed. "I'm so tired…"


	24. Breaking News

"Tomorrow's the day I finally get them, Tom."

"You say that every week."

The porcupine stopped in the middle of the hall, and gave a quick glare at the hefty tapir. "Well, this time I mean it."

"You say that every week, too, Charles."

The porcupine cringed. He had been trying to get an interview with the Zoo Rangers for the last five or so months, but every time he could never make it in time.

"Listen, when this happens tomorrow, the same thing is going to happen." The tapir said. "You're going to freeze up, or get scared, and then they'll vanish before you get the courage back up."

"NOT THIS TIME!" He shouted. "This time, Charles Spikerton is going to get an exclusive interview with them!"

The tapir rolled his eyes as the porcupine continued. "I'm going to get another ratings boost, and finally get that promotion!"

"Listen, Charlie." The tapir continued. "I know I'm just your camera man, and I don't really have a say in what you do, but…" He paused. "I think if we keep this up, we're going to get killed."

"What do you mean?" The porcupine asked. "Like, killing it in the ratings?"

"No, I mean actually die." He continued. "Remember that big robot invasion a couple weeks back?"

"Yep." Charles said. "That was a major boost, remember?"

"A bunch of those robots tried to kill us." Tom finished. "And then there was that body swapping thing."

"Okay, don't remind me about that one. That one was just weird."

"Basically, I don't think anything good will come out of this." The tapir finished. "But I'm just suggesting that, you're the boss, you make your own decisions. Night."

He walked down the hallway, leaving the porcupine alone. He stood in the middle of the hall, thinking about it. Maybe he was letting his job get in the way of his life too much. Maybe he was…

Suddenly, there was someone else walking down the hall. He looked down the hall, seeing Peter Moosebridge, the face of ZNN, approach.

"Hey, Charles." He said, stopping to talk to the porcupine. "How's everything going?"

"Fine, I guess." Charles said back, a bit dismissive.

"Well, you look tired." The moose said. "You should go home and get some rest, should be busy tomorrow, it is a Monday, after all."

The moose walked off down the hall. Charles grinded his teeth. That's why he needed the promotion, to get rid of Moosebridge's smug, smarmy, well groomed face. Just because he was a field reporter meant that the moose never treated him with any respect, always subtly mocking him.

He gave a sneer as soon as the moose had disappeared down the dark hall. "Stupid Moosebridge." He muttered. "I'll show him who the real reporter is. He just sits on his ass all day, doesn't even go out and get news himself…"

He started down the hall, still muttering to himself. He opened the doors, and walked through the parking lot, headed for his tiny car. He searched his pockets for his keys. Always trouble.

His ears jolted a little. There was footsteps behind him. Someone was coming towards him. He searched for his keys a bit faster. He found them, and fumbled with them as he tried to get them in the lock.

Something placed a hand on his spines.

"Hello there."

He turned around. Lighting the empty parking lot up like a light was a massive figure, at least compared to him. Dressed from head to toe in shining armor, and a bright red visor that shone its light down directly on him.

"I am Long." It said. Charles opened his mouth, prepared to scream. "If you scream, I will kill you on the spot." The monster created a massive fireball in his palm, threatening the porcupine.

"What do you want?" He asked, quietly.

"I want to make a deal." Long said, kneeling down. "I heard you want to become more powerful, correct?"

"I mean, getting a promotion is like becoming more powerful…" Charles said.

"Well, I can give you that." Long said. "I can give you anything you want."

"Anything?"

"Anything." He said. "Well, as long as you can give me some… information."

"I can give you whatever you want." Charles said. "As long as I get to ruin Moosebridge, I'll give you whatever."

Long let out a slimy laugh. "I like you." He pulled out an object, a small statue, brandished with what looked like a porcupine. He handed it to Charles.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He asked.

"Jab it into your body, as hard as you can." Long explained. "Then, your power will awaken."

The porcupine gulped, and then jabbed the bottom of the statue into his chest. He started to convulse, twist, and grow into a new monstrous form.

"I feel… amazing!" The new monster said.

"Excellent." Long said, standing up to face the monster. "You can do whatever you want, but tomorrow, you will get me my information."

"Yes… sir."

"Good. Now, get to work… Marashiya."

* * *

The moose jolted up from his incredibly soft bed. A noise had pierced through the night, startling him out of his slumber.

He looked to his bedside table, the phone was ringing.

He picked it up, the display showing an unknown number. He answered.

"Who is this?"

There wasn't an answer right away. But there was heavy breathing. "how did you get this number?" Moosebridge yelled into the phone.

"Moosebridge." The voice on the other end started. It sounded artificial, like someone putting on a voice, except it was someone doing it really well. "Your time has come to an end. You will pay."

"Who is this!?" The moose asked again, in a much harsher tone.

There was only the sound of white noise at the end.

The moose grunted, and hung up. He then quickly dialed in another number.

"Hello, police?"

* * *

"Man, feels like a long time since we've done anything like this, huh, Carrots?"

"Nick, we were doing police work just the other day."

"I know, but it feels like months."

The fox looked around. Usually, they never got called in on Mondays, but this seemed to be pretty important. They were standing in the middle of the ZNN lobby, around two dozen other officers there as well.

Some of them they recognized from the station, but most of them seemed to be from other precincts from across the city.

"So, why are we here again?" Nick asked.

"How do you not know?" Judy retorted, a bit surprised.

"Well, you woke me up by yelling that we had to go to work, so I got ready and you drove me here."

She stared at him blankly for a second. "Oh, yeah, sorry." She apologized. "Well, last night, Peter Moosebridge got a threatening call, so he got the police to keep guard of the station while he does the morning report."

The fox nodded. "So, we're basically keeping watch for any crazy weirdo who walks in."

"Pretty much, yeah."

The fox walked over to a nearby seat, and laid down on it. "Seems like a waste of time for us to be here." He said. "We're not exactly body guard material."

Judy hopped up next to him. "Yeah, I thought it was weird too." She said, shrugging. "But Bogo really wanted us to be here for some reason."

"Well, it is a Monday." The fox joked. His face suddenly turned a bit worried. "Wait, you don't think…?"

She glanced back at the fox as he jolted up. "What?"

"What if Bogo knows?"

The two stared at each other for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

"How in the world would Bogo know?" Judy asked, still laughing a bit.

"Yeah, nobody else has been able to figure it out unless we told them." Nick continued.

They calmed down. "Mm, we should probably be taking this a bit more seriously." Judy said. "Assassination isn't a joke."

"It's probably just some weird fan who got mad at him for something he said on Twitter." Nick said. "Popular public figures get this kind of stuff all the time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you never heard about how Gazelle got a bunch of death threats during the pred scare stuff?"

"Ugh, seriously?" She said, a bit disgusted.

The fox nodded. "Real terrible stuff there." He said. "But it was just words, nothing ever came of it, obviously. I'm betting whoever it was that threatened him won't even show up."

"I mean, that makes me feel a little better." She said. "But it is still Monday, we need to stay alert."

"Got it."

"Alright, everyone!" A voice yelled out. The two looked over the back of their seat, it was a raccoon in a suit. "The morning report starts in a few minutes, so we need half of you down here to guard the entrance, and half of you to go up and guard Moosebridge."

Nick quickly raised his paw. "Looks like we have a volunteer!" The raccoon said.

"Nick, seriously?" Judy whispered.

"Haven't you ever wanted to see how they do this show?" He asked. "It's not every day you get a chance to appear on TV!"

"Nick, we show up on TV every Tuesday." She said.

"Yeah, but that's not really us, is it?"

She shook her head.

Soon enough, her, Nick, and around ten other officers, were planted around the studio. Moosebridge and his co-anchor, Emily Snow, were sat at a large stand in front of a green screen, and read off some notes as assistants readied them.

During this, the raccoon came back out. "All of you stay quiet, alright?" He said to the police officers. "Don't want the show getting interrupted unless it absolutely needs to."

"Got it, boss." Nick started. "Want us to go get you a coffee, too?"

There were laughs from the other officers as the raccoon gave Nick a glare. He turned to the two anchors as the assistants exited the scene. "Alright, you're on in three, two…" He motioned with his paw, signalling that the camera was on.

"Good morning Zootopia, its another wonderful summer day…"

"Well, this isn't as interesting as I thought it was going to be." Nick whispered.

"At least we get to watch something besides a door." Judy responded, the fox nodding in agreement.

As the report continued, Judy's ears twitched at something. She heard footsteps from the floor above, and continuing upwards. They were fast, frantic sounding, like whoever was making them had to get somewhere fast.

But, they seemed to be heading for the roof, considering how far away they were getting.

"Nick, I think I-"

She tried to finish, only for their Zoolizers to suddenly go off. "CUT!" The cameras cut out as the raccoon stomped over to them. "WHAT WAS THAT!? I TOLD YOU TO BE QUIET!"

"Well, we, uh…" Judy tried to explain.

"We forgot to turn off our alarms." Nick lied. "We are incredibly sorry about that." The rabbit nodded along.

"Just… don't do that again." The raccoon said.

"Oh, we won't, we won't even be here." Nick continued. "Because we're both going to… use the bathroom."

The raccoon looked back, shocked and surprised. "At the same time?"

"Yes, at the same time."

The two quickly rushed off, much to the confusion of everyone in the room. "Those two are weirdos." The raccoon said, heading back to the camera. "Alright, three, two…"

The two dashed up the stairs, pausing as they entered an empty room. "So, the Zoolizers went off." Nick said, a bit out of breath. "Where do you think the monster is?"

"The roof." Judy said. "I heard someone running up there before they went off."

"You have amazing ears."

"Thank you."

"Why would the monster be here though?" He asked, the two starting to run off again.

"Maybe the monster is the assassin!" Judy suggested.

"Why would the monster want to kill Moosebridge?" Nick asked as they ran up the stairs. "That seems incredibly petty for these guys."

"That's something to worry about after we get it out of here!"

The two quickly transformed, bursting through the door to the roof. Standing on the other side of the rooftop shadowed under the large neon Z, was the monster.

It heard the door slam open, and turned to face them, startled. It had a large porcupine face on its chest, which blended into its spike covered shoulders. The rest of its body was covered in what looked like black leather, belts of it wrapped around different parts of the body, some covered in spikes. Its head resembled a mask of spikes, the only part not covered in the spikes was the eyes and mouth.

"Augh!" It let out, stumbling back a bit. He pointed towards them. "What are you two doing here!?"

"Uh, we get warned when there's a monster attack?" Red started. "Pretty useful."

"Really?" The monster seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, before focusing back on the Zoorangers. "So, guess we're gonna fight?"

"Looks like it." Blue said, the two pulling out their weapons.

The Rangers dashed at the monster, who awkwardly tumbled out of the way as they tried to strike. He rolled across the ground, and awkwardly climbed to his feet. "H-hold on for a second!" It shouted, raising its hands. "Just give me a second…"

The monster started stretching out, bending down, and other stretching techniques. It looked like it was trying to get used to moving around.

"What's he doing?" Blue asked.

"I dunno, calisthenics?" Red said, shrugging.

After a few minutes of that, the monster finished by twisting its head around. "Alright, I'm good." It said, before quickly snapping into a fighting pose.

The porcupine monster dashed forward, leaping into the air to deliver a chop to the ground. The two sidestepped out of the way, and prepped their weapons as the monster let out a spinning attack, arms outstretched.

The force of the blow knocked them both back, even with the weapons blocking it. The monster seemed to stumble as it recovered from the spin. Using this opening, the two leaped in, striking with their blades at the same time.

The force of the attack knocked the monster forward, onto its face. It started to get up, awkwardly.

"Yeesh, what's with this guy?" Red asked, swinging his blade onto his shoulder. "Its like you've never fought before."

"Yeah, aren't you beast guys supposed to be good at martial arts?" Blue chimed in. "The last two we fought were."

"Did the pig actually do any martial arts?" Red asked, the rabbit shrugged in response.

"This is just a…" The monster started, climbing to its feet and turning back to them. "A warm-up! Yeah! I'll kick your butts in no time!" It clenched its fists, and thrust its arms forward, causing a storm of needles to spray from its shoulders.

The sudden spray of spikes shot around them, none managing to directly hit. The burst of sparks created by the spikes knocked the two to the ground.

"Guess he does kind of know what he's doing." Red said, climbing to his feet.

Blue quickly hopped back to her feet, and readied both daggers. "Alright, spikey, let's see how you deal with these cuts?" She quickly dashed forward, and jumped into the air, delivering a quick series of slashes to the monster's chest-face.

The force of the blows knocked the monster back. "I wish he taught me how to use this thing!" The monster shouted. "Oops, probably said that too loud!"

The monster thrust its arms forward again, firing off another round of spikes towards the rabbit. She deftly ran out of the way, a trail of the spines flowing behind her. She quickly shuffled her knives out for her blasters, leaping into a roll and rapidly firing them.

The monster stopped firing as the blasts hit, leaving him stunned for a moment. Using this opportunity, Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired a blast at the monster. The force of the fireball knocked the monster back into one of the giant neon letters, shattering it.

The monster flopped back to the ground, unsteadily landing on its feet. It shook off the pain, and let out a bestial growl. Suddenly, its arms began to glow, and became enveloped by the light. Once it faded, the monster's arms were now suddenly massive spikes.

"Now this is more like it!" It said, dashing towards the fox. He quickly pulled up his sword, blocking as the monster swung its spike hand down onto him. The force of the blow knocked red to the ground, leaving him vulnerable as the monster raised the arm.

"RED!" Blue yelled out. In an incredibly fast motion, she leaped into the air, delivering a kick to the monster's side. It tumbled back, and to the edge of the roof.

"Saved my tail there, Blue." The fox said as she helped him up.

The monster ley out a loud growl. "You jerks ruined my chance!" It shouted at them. "Now I have to wait for the late-night show. It quickly scraped its spiked hands together. "But I'm not out yet, I can still beat you guys up and make the boss happy!"

It rushed forwards again, thrusting one of its arms down at the fox. He quickly dodged out of the way as the spike pierced through the concrete.

It pulled the spike out, and began rapidly thrusting the spikes towards him. He held up his sword, which blocked the rapid hits, each of which pushed him back a bit.

Blue leaped out from behind Red, and slashed down at the monster's actual head with both her daggers. It stumbled back, letting Red take charge and swing his own sword into the monster's stomach.

The monster let out another growl, and smacked the fox aside. "NEEDLE SWORD MOUNTAIN!" It shouted. It began rapidly thrusting the spikes into Blue's body at incredible speeds. The force of it lifted her up into the air. It delivered the final blow, knocking the rabbit across the roof, leaving her unconscious.

"NO!"

The monster laughed as its hands returned to normal. "That was great!" It said to itself. "Now, I have business to deal with." It continued, turning to the downed fox. "If you want to fight me again, keep this in mind! You'll have to deal with MARACASHI!"

The fox stared at it, trying not to laugh.

"Wait, that's not it…" The monster said, trying to remember something. "Oh, it's MARASHIYA! You're gonna have to deal with Marashiya again!" It quickly leaped into the air, and off the side of the building.

Nick untransformed, and ran over to Judy, who had untransformed after hitting the ground.

He lifted her up. She was still breathing, but she was weak.

"I don't want to go through this again…"

* * *

The porcupine rubbed at his chest as he entered the building. "Hey Charles!" Greeted the antelope receptionist. "You doing alright?" She asked, noticing that he seemed to be in pain. He walked past her without saying anything, he had somewhere to be.

He headed into the elevator, and hit the basement floor button. It was silent for a minute, before the elevator stopped, the doors sliding open.

He headed into the dark expanse below the building, twirling a key ring on one of his digits. The dark room lead to a hallway, lined with doors.

"So, is this the place?"

He let out a shrill yelp as the voice startled him. He turned around, to see the incredibly imposing figure of Long. "Um, yes, this is the place." He answered back, trying to get some composure. "The records should be around here somewhere."

The two moved down the hallway, Long either producing a wave of heat around him that caused Charles to sweat, or his intense existence itself causing the sweat.

They went to the very back of the hall to find the door. Charles stuck the key into the lock, and slowly opened it. Inside was a room, lined with filing cabinets.

"If you're looking for information, this is the best place for it." Charles said as they walked in. Long's presence seemed to light the room up instantly. "We, uh, have news articles all the way back to nineteen-fifty in here."

"Excellent." Long said, looking around. "I'm sure I can find something of use here."

"So…" The porcupine started, incredibly terrified. "Why didn't you…" He took a gulp. "Tell me that the Zoo Rangers would attack me?"

"You're the one who's been following them for the better part of a year." Long said, not even looking at him. "I feel it should have been safe to assume that they would come."

"I mean, I guess, I just…"

"I have a second part to our deal."

"What?" Charles said, surprised. "I've given you your information, that means I-"

Long quickly spun around, and smacked the porcupine into one of the cabinets. It was crushed under the force of it, papers from inside fluttering around.

"You are my minion." Long said, his visor glowing with an intense heat. "You will do as I say. And what I want you to do is… provoke, the Zoorangers."

Charles fell to the ground, and rubbed his head. "'Provoke'? What does that mean?"

"Rought them up. Make them angry." Long explained. "Your Needle-Sword Mountain technique would be perfect for that."

"Oh, well," Charles started. "I already hit the Blue Ranger with that!"

"Good, but not enough." Long said. "Go practise your techniques. Once you master them, you should be able to destroy them, and the one you hate. Go."

"Alright, uh, Master." The porcupine quickly ran out of the room, leaving Long alone.

He turned to the cabinets. He only needed recent news. He went over to the one marked as the current year, and opened it. He perused through it, and a few other years. All in all, he found three articles he found interesting.

The first was an article from a month ago, about how the Department of Defense was planning something to deal with the monster attacks. He had heard nothing about this before, but it interested him.

The second was from around a year ago, about a mysterious treasure chest that was unearthed. He looked at the picture in the document, which looked incredibly familiar to him. It could come in use.

Finally, he found an article form a few months back, around the time he first attacked the city with a monster. There wasn't much interesting to it, aside from a few amusing mistakes, like calling Makirika "Mantor". But there was one interesting part. The first and third articles shared a similar name in them.

Herder.

Long laughed as he set the articles on fire. "I wonder how long I'll let that rodent play his game." He asked himself, before bursting into flames and vanishing.

* * *

"Why weren't you there!?"

"I was asleep!" The wolf yelled from the other side of the phone. The fox had it on speaker mode, placed on the coffee table.

It had been many hours since the monster had attacked. In fact, it was already dark outside. And Judy still hadn't woken up. He was worried, and frustrated.

"Doesn't your thing go off when a monster shows up?" He yelled at Max.

"Yeah, but I don't have it on me all the time!" Max yelled back. "That thing very uncomfortable to sleep with."

"If you had been there, Judy would be fine!" He yelled.

"Nick, I get it." He started. "You're frustrated because you think this was your fault, and you're taking it out on me."

"Wow, its amazing how well you get to know me in a few months."

"But this isn't either of our faults." He continued. "It isn't Judy's fault either. Instead of bickering with each other, we should focus on figuring out what the monster is trying to do. Give me some details."

"Apparently, it called up Peter Moosebridge last night and threatened him." Nick explained. "Then we managed to chase him away before anything could happen."

"That seems very… personal, for a monster." Max said, surprised.

"That's what I thought." Nick said. "Reminds me of the time we fought Bellwether a few months back."

"You what?"

"Yeah, there was the time she turned into a wolf monster and tried to kill us." He continued. "Could be something like that."

"So, someone's using monster powers to get revenge on Moosebridge for something?" Max said, confused.

"Seems like it."

Suddenly, the fox heard a crashing sound from Judy's room. "Hang on, I'll be back in a sec."

He rushed into the room, seeing Judy, laying on her back, legs crossed. The lamp on her nightstand had been knocked over. "Oh, great, you're awake!" he said, cheerfully. "We have a mystery to figure out, so…"

"I'm gonna go out." She said, getting up off the bed. Her tone was a bit rougher than usual. "Where's that cool jacket you have?"

"Why do you want my jacket?" He asked, watching her kick open the door to his room. "HEY! Get out of there!"

He followed her into his incredibly messy and dark room. She headed over to the closet, and picked through his various tacky shirts.

"You have an awful dress sense, you know that?" She said, rather bluntly. She picked out the red jacket, and flung it on. It fit her, surprisingly enough, though it hung around her torso a bit more than on Nick. "This thing's the only good shirt in there, Slick."

He blinked a few times in confusion, watching as the rabbit picked up a pair of pointed sunglasses from his dresser. She put the glasses on, and left the room.

"Are you feeling alright?" Nick asked as he trailed behind her.

"Never felt better!" She said. "I feel like a new rabbit!"

"Where're you going, anyway?" He asked as she opened the door.

"I dunno, seedy places." She said, frankly. "See you, foxface!" She quickly dashed down the hall.

Nick ran over to the phone. "What the heck's going on?" Max asked, having heard at least part of the conversation.

"I don't know," Nick started. "But Judy's acting weird. I have to go catch her, so-"

Through the open window was the sound of a fight. "HEY!" Yelled a voice, as the sound of a motorcycle driving off echoed through the air. "THAT RABBIT JUST STOLE MY BIKE!"

Nick let out a massive, massive sigh. "Meet me here ASAP, we have to go look for Judy."

"Pretty bad day, huh?"

"Yeah."

* * *

"You're on in ten, Mr. Moosebridge!"

"I'll be out in a moment!"

The moose sat in his dressing room, staring at the mirror in front of him. He was still incredibly nervous, not something he usually was. Being watched by millions of people was something he could handle, but the threat of an unknown assailant was a much tougher thing to cope with.

He applied the last touches of wax to his antlers, and groomed up his face. He was looking good.

He stepped out into the hallway. Despite him having done this thousands of times, this time it felt different. It was dark, as it was normally, but he could feel a sense of dread.

He headed down the hall, until he heard something. Footsteps. He quickly spun around. There was no one in the hall besides him. He turned back around, and headed for the studio.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his neck. He thought he felt something, but when he felt it, there was nothing. "Ugh, stupid bees." He said, heading down the hall.

He entered into the studio, and headed for his seat.

"Alright, we're going on air in three minutes!" The raccoon said to all the employees. "Everyone get ready!"

A handful of assistants ran up to Moosebridge and Snow, adding the final applications.

"We're on in three, two…"

"Welcome to the late night ZNN report." Moosebridge started. "I'm Peter Moosebridge."

"And I'm Emily Snow." Started the co-anchor.

"Tonight, we have…" The moose paused, clutching the back of his neck. His eyes suddenly turned a glowing purple.

He clutched his hooves, and slammed them into the desk. "I've had enough of this shit!" He yelled, knocking a mug off the table.

"What the hell are you doing?" Emily shouted as the moose got up. He proceeded to punch her in the face, knocking her to the ground.

"Stop the camera!" The raccoon yelled, the cameraman frantically trying to shit it down. "What in the name of GOD has gotten into you, Peter!?" The raccoon continued to yell walking over to the pissed off moose.

Moosebridge gave a quick kick to the raccoon, knocking him to the ground. "I'm outta here, losers!" He yelled, quickly storming out of the room.

The moose stomped out of the building, and into the warm night. "Never liked working there anyway!" He said to himself. There was a crash behind him.

He turned around to see a large, spiky figure walking towards him. "Well, looks like everything's going perfectly!" it said, rubbing its hands together.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Well, I'm not someone YOU care about, Moosebridge." It said. "But I'm really afraid I'm gonna have to use you for something."

"What?"

"Close your eyes, this will only hurt for a bit."

* * *

The rabbit pulled the motorcycle into a parking spot outside of a bar. The Lost Traveler's Tavern, in the middle of the seediest part of Sahara Square. It wasn't exactly what you'd call a respectable business, run down and dirty. It was the epitome of a biker bar.

It was exactly where she wanted to be.

She kicked the door open, and walked inside. As expected, there were hushed chuckles as she hopped up to a bar stool.

There was some awkward silence the elephant bartender walked up to her. He was a bit rough looking, but didn't seem to judge her. "What'll you have?" He asked.

Before she could say anything, the rhinoceros next to her spoke up. "Probably carrot juice!" He laughed.

The rabbit growled, and placed the sunglasses on the counter. "Are you making fun of me?" She said.

"Personally, I don't think a cute little bunny like you should be here." The rhino said. "Only toughies are allowed in this building this late."

"Not really, but whatever." Mumbled the bartender.

"You wanna test me?" Judy said, standing up on the stool. "You wanna go, asshole?"

"I bet I can squish you in five seconds flat, bunny." The rhino said with a laugh. "I don't really think it'd be worth my time."

"Really now?" Judy started, climbing up onto the counter itself and stepping in front of the rhino. "I bet you're just all talk. I bet you're just scared a 'cute little bunny' can kick your ass to Tundra Town and back!"

"Hey, I-"

"I've beaten up guys ten times stronger than you, bud." She continued, gradually growing more angry. "So, let's go, and I'll prove how shitty you are."

"I actually would really not like to hurt you." The rhino started.

Before he could say anything else, Judy leaped into the air and delivered a swift kick to the rhino's face, knocking him to the ground.

"You wanna go now!?"

The rhino snorted, and got up. Judy put up her dukes. This was exactly what she was looking for.

He raised a massive fist into the air, and slammed it down onto the counter. Judy leaped out of the way as it hit, the wood bursting into splinters.

She leaped down to the stool next to the rhino, and sent a jumping kick into the rhino's gut, knocking him back again.

"Try not to get blood on the walls." The bartender said, nonchalantly. "Its hard to clean that stuff up."

Judy hit the ground as the rhino stumbled backwards. The rest of the bar patrons fell silent, watching the two prepare to fight.

The rhino raised its giant foot into the air, and tried to bring it down onto the rabbit, who again ducked out of the way. She quickly sprung to a handstand, and sprung up, delivering a double footed kick to the rhino's side.

The surprising force of the blow knocked the rhino back, and tumbling onto a nearby table. It was crushed under his weight, glass shattering and his back being covered in soup.

"Thanks, asshole!" The jackal seated there yelled, his chair being the only thing not crushed.

The rhino tried to get back to his feet, but Judy leaped through the air, and delivered a flying kick directly to his face. She was pretty sure she saw a few teeth fly out, and definitely saw some blood splatter against the ground.

Man!" She said, delivering another kick to the rhino's face. "I sure am just a 'cute little bunny'!" She laughed, and continued to stomp on the rhino's head until he was unconscious.

She quickly glanced around. "So, who wants to go next?"

There was an air of nervousness, as nobody spoke up.

"No one?" She said, not exactly surprised. "Well, someone's gonna."

She cracked her knuckles.

* * *

"So, what are we looking for, exactly?" Max asked.

The two had been driving through the city for a good few hours, trying to find the bike Judy had stolen. The rider had given them the license plate number, KR123.

"Trust me, I'll know it when I see it." Nick said from the passenger's seat. Of course, there wasn't much else to go off of. They had gone through almost every district's seediest parts, places Nick knew very well, and only had Sahara Square left.

Soon, the two's eyes locked on an ambulance outside of a shady looking bar. They parked in front of it to watch. The medics were hauling out tons of unconscious, or at least heavily injured, bodies.

"Think we should check that out?" Max asked.

Nick had been to the tavern a few times, mostly during late jobs in Sahara Square. The place was usually pretty rough, and every time he went there a fight broke out (None of which were his fault, by the way), but seeing medics there was definitely a sign that something wasn't right.

"Oh, definitely."

The two managed to get in to the bar, the only mammal left inside being an elephant, who seemed to be the bartender.

"Hey, D, been a while?" Nick greeted.

"Nick Wilde?" He said, surprised. "Didn't think you'd come here again after joining the force."

"Probably wouldn't if I wasn't trying to solve something." He said.

The elephant glanced at Max. "Is that your partner?"

"No, I'm just trying to help out." Max said. "So, what's up with all the people being hauled off to the hospital?"

"Big fight happened a bit ago." He explained. "Wouldn't expect a rabbit to be that strong."

The two glanced at each other. "Did you just say rabbit?" Nick said, worried.

"Yeah, it was a rabbit." The elephant picked up a pair of sunglasses, and tossed them towards the two. "She left these behind, if it helps."

Nick examined the sunglasses, they were definitely his. He looked back up at the elephant. "Did she order anything before she left?"

"Just some carrot juice."

The two walked out of the establishment, Nick sliding the glasses into his pocket. "So, Judy went to a bar and beat up twenty mammals?" Max said, surprised.

"Seems like it." Nick responded.

"That doesn't seem like a thing she would do." Max continued. "Like, at all, ever."

"I think something happened to her when we fought the monster." Nick started as they entered the car. "It hit her with an attack where it went like…" The fox quickly mimicked the porcupine monster's moves, rapidly jabbing his paws forwards in a haphazard manner.

Max chuckled a bit. "Seriously?"

"What, you expect me to explain that with words?"

The wolf rolled his eyes. "So, this is a porcupine monster?" He asked. Nick nodded in response. "I've seen this, this happened in an episode of Zoo Rangers Jungle Fury. One of the monsters used an attack to turn one of the rangers into a…"

"An asshole?"

"Well, more of a juvenile delinquent." He said. "But Judy's an adult, so I guess she just turned into an asshole, yeah."

"So, she's just going around beating people up?" He sighed. "We gotta stop her before she actually kills someone."

The Zoolizers began emitting a loud beep, which was only overtaken by the fox's frustrated screaming.

He slammed his head on the dashboard a few times. "GOD! DAMN! IT!" He yelled with each slam. He stopped, and rubbed the top of his head in pain. Probably a bad idea to do that. "Why does this have to happen now!?"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Max said, placing a paw on his shoulder. "The monster isn't far from here, there's a chance Judy might show up!"

The fox's face lit up. "And if she does, we can talk some sense into her!" He finished, the wolf nodding along. "Alright, Wolfsbane, let's get going!"

* * *

The monster watched as the pal faced monsters hopped around through the sand, smashing nearby car and building windows. "That's it, boys!" It yelled, perched on top of a flipped car. "Keep gathering that fear!"

Soon, the monster saw a car screech through the sand covered road, the sand spraying through the air. Out of the car climbed the two Zoorangers, Red and Silver. "Alright, spikes, we're here to stop you for good!" Yelled the fox as they approached the crouching monster.

The monster stood up, and hopped off the car. "Who the hell are you guys?" It said, rather dismissively.

The two Rangers looked at each other, confused. "You fought me this morning, remember?" Red said.

"I wasn't there, so you wouldn't know who I am." Silver said.

"I've never seen either of you weirdos before in my life." Marashiya said. He quickly moved to a fighting stance. "But if you wanna fight, let's do it!"

He dashed at them as they pulled out their weapons. The porcupine beast quickly performed a double handed chop at both of them, the Rangers quickly blocking it with their blades. They simultaneously knocked the monster back, and jabbed him directly in the stomach.

The monster stumbled back, and quickly thrust its arms forward, firing a volley of spikes towards them. They dodged out of the way, but left the car behind them unprotected.

"HEY!" Silver shouted. "I ONLY HAD ONE PAYMENT LEFT ON THAT!"

The wolf dashed forward, preparing to strike with his blade. Marashiya quickly pulled two spikes out from its shoulders, and held them out in front of the blade, blocking it. Silver pulled back, and the monster quickly jabbed the spikes forward.

Silver managed to block it in time, but not before the monster quickly began thrusting them rapidly. Silver kept blocking, until the monster unexpectedly performed an overhead attack, rapidly drumming on Silver's helmet with the spikes. He then jabbed the distracted wolf in the stomach, knocking him back.

Without missing a beat, Marashiya flipped the spines into the air, and smacked them towards Red, causing an explosion at his feet. The fox fell over, completely surprised.

"He wasn't like this earlier." He said as the two got up. "He was a lot more haphazard."

"Why's he even attacking Sahara Square?" Silver asked. "I thought the ZNN Studio was downtown."

Red shrugged, before the two leaped into the battle together. They slashed at the monster, managing to deal some damage. It gave a quick chuckle, before beginning to spin around. The porcupine dashed forward, still spinning, becoming like a spiky tornado.

Marashiya headed towards Red first, who quickly knocked the spiky tornado back. The thing was still spinning at incredible speeds, and flew towards Silver. The wolf knocked it back as well, turning the fight into a tennis match. The monster suddenly stopped, and let out a spray of spikes.

The spikes struck at both their feet, creating a burst of sparks that launched them into the air and onto their backs.

"You guys are lame." Marashiya said, sounding almost disappointed. "I was hoping you could be worth my time, but whatever."

Red slammed his fist into the ground. If Judy was here, they wouldn't be having this trouble, he just knew it.

"So, I'm gonna go back to destroying stuff." The porcupine monster continued. "You two just stay there, for your own good."

As the monster started to walk away, the three of them heard the sound of an engine. The monster turned around, seeing a motorcycle coming towards them.

"What the hell?"

The bike suddenly went into a wheelie, and dashed off the flipped car. It flew through the air, and landed directly onto the stunned Marashiya.

The monster was pounded into the sand by the motorcycle's weight, the machine bouncing off him slightly and skidding to a halt.

"WOO!" Cried the driver, hopping off. It was Judy, transformed into her Zooranger form. "Wasn't that AWESOME!?" She said. She glanced around at the her fallen partners, who were staring at her, completely baffled. "What, did you not see that?"

Red rolled back over, and placed a paw to his forehead. "We did, I just thought we had hope for a minute."

Silver climbed up, and walked over to Blue. "How are you feeling." He asked.

"Never better!" She said, jumping up and punching him in the shoulder. It was an incredibly hard punch, sending him reeling. "Hmm, wuss." She said, dismissively. "Heard the thing go off, which means there's a fight. There is a fight here, right?"

"Yeah, you just ran over the guy we're supposed to fight." Red said, standing up.

"Oh, good!" She said, almost too excited. "Maybe that'll get him angry!"

"She's kind of scaring me." Silver whispered to Red.

"Rabbit!" The porcupine yelled, standing up. What seemed like anger turned to a chuckle. "Man, I like you! Let's go!" It raised its fists, Blue following suit.

She rushed at the monster and leaped into the air, delivering a kick to the monster's head. The monster flinched, but he quickly plucked the rabbit out of the air with a downwards punch.

Blue landed on her feet, and flipped back into the air, rapidly kicking the monster's chest-face. The monster spun around, flicking the rabbit off through the air. She slid across the ground, and pulled out her blasters.

The creature spun towards her, but she rapidly fired at him, the blasts only seeming to deflect off. "Guess I need something tougher!" She chuckled, pulling out a small blue object.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The gloves appeared on her paws, the sound of a bell ringing going through the air. She dashed at the monster, who was still spinning, and landed a powerful punch. Spikes on the monster's body shattered, launching him off.

The porcupine beastman rolled across the ground, and felt at its shoulders. A number of the spikes on his shoulders had been broken off. "Wow, you're a lot stronger than you look." He said. He tensed for a minute, causing new spikes to grow in the broken one's place. The broken ones fell to his feet, Marashiya getting back into an action stance.

Blue was about to dash forward again, but was pulled back by her ear. "Heeey, let go!"

"No way, Blue." Red said, still gripping onto the rabbit's ear. "There's no way you can beat him alone."

"Of course I can, I can handle anything!" She said, punching her fists together. "Just lemme go!"

"Red's right, Blue!" Silver said. "We have to do this together!"

"Wow, this feels weirdly familiar." Red said to himself.

"UGH, FINE!" Blue said, crossing her arms with a huff. "But I get to land the final hit, okay!?"

"Wwwwwwhatever!" Red let out, throwing his paws up. Him and Silver drew their weapons out and stepped next to Blue. "Let's just do this."

Marashiya pulled out two of his spines, and the 4 dashed at each other. Red jumped in first, clashing with the monster's spine weapons, before knocking one out of his hands. He jabbed the blade into the monster's stomach, knocking it back.

Silver followed up, switching his sword to Moon Mode. He whipped the laser blade around the monster, snapping the spines off of his shoulders. He then dashed in, switching it to Sun Mode, and placed the blade on the monster's gut, firing off a burst of fire.

The force of the blast launched the monster back into the turned over car. It got up, actually seeming angry for once. "RINSHI!" He yelled, pointing towards the Rangers. "GET THEM!"

All around them, from nearly every building, hopped out a dozen or so of the pale faced Rinshi, some carrying spears, some not. "Yesss, more guys to beat up!" Blue said, distressingly cheerfully.

She dashed into a crowd of the zombie like monsters, and leaped up, unleashing a hail of punches down on them. In a few moments, a bunch of them had been wiped out. Red and Silver watched in awe as she continued to pummel through the Rinshi.

Though they didn't lose awareness as two of the monsters sneaked behind them. Red chopped right through the Rinshi's spear, and then jabbed through it, causing it to crumble into stone. Silver lashed through the monster easily, and the two went off to cut through even more of the monsters.

In a few minutes, the ground was littered with stone pieces, and not a single Rinshi remained.

"You stupid shits!" The monster yelled, walking forward. "I'm gonna finish you off!" Marashiya thrust its arms forward, firing off a burst of needles towards them.

Blue leaped in, and rapidly punched the stream of spines, preventing any of them from hitting. The monster grunted, and continued to fire the spines. Blue continued to punch, moving forward as she did. She reached the very front of the monster, and leaped into the air.

"PUNCH DELETE!"

She through a straight punch through the monster, a burst of energy launching it off, into the flipped car. The car exploded, and was quickly followed by another explosion. The three watched a small, grey object fly from the explosion.

"Hah, guess we didn't have to solve a mystery after all!" Red said, stepping towards the explosion. "Now, lets see who this guy is."

A tall figure stumbled forward as the explosion cleared. It was Moosebridge, who fell to his knees.

"What!?" All three of them yelled.

"Where am I?" He asked, weakly. He quickly glanced around, spotting the Zoorangers. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We should be asking you that?" Red asked. "Why did you fake being threatened?"

"What?" The moose said. "I didn't do that at all."

The three Rangers looked at each other confused. "Then why were you a monster?" Silver asked.

"I was what!?" He yelled, standing up. "The last thing I remember was feeling something hit me in the back of the neck… then I woke up here."

"Moosebridge being the monster doesn't even make any sense." Blue chimed in, sounding like her normal self. "He doesn't have any motive for doing any of this."

"You're right, he doesn't!" Yelled a voice from behind them.

They turned around, seeing a porcupine holding a smartphone. "Charles?" Moosebridge said, confused.

"Who?" Red asked.

"Oh, I remember him!" Blue said. "He was there during the fight with the mantis guy!"

"I don't remember that at all."

"Of course you don't!" Charles shouted. "No one does! I'm just a field reporter! But I won't be for long."

"What are you talking about, Charles?" Moosebridge asked.

He sighed. "I'm getting you fired, and taking your place."

"What!?" He said, surprised. "How are you going to do that!?"

"See, I got some help from this weirdo guy in armor…"

"Long." Nick whispered.

"Let me become a monster, and using my monster powers, I hit you with a needle that caused you to turn into an asshole on air!" He continued. "Then, I used the thing that turned me into a monster, to turn you into one! Then, I waited for the Zoo Rangers to show up, and I recorded the entire fight. Including when you were revealed, Moosebridge."

"And what exactly is your plan?" Silver asked.

"I'm going to make a scandal, and become the new face of ZNN, like I DESERVE!" He yelled, pounding his chest.

"What did I ever do to you!?" Moosebridge yelled. "I've never done anything to hurt you, I've only treated you with respect!"

"Yeah right!" Charles yelled back. "You always talked about me behind my back, I know you did! No one liked me, no one cared!"

Blue let out a laugh. "Wow, you're crazy." She said, incredibly bluntly.

Red slammed his paws into his helmet. "Oh my god…"

Silver stepped forward, and pointed his blade at the porcupine. "You won't get away with this incredibly petty plot!" He said.

"If you wanna stop me, you have to catch me first!" The porcupine laughed, and quickly dashed off.

"Alright guys, let's go-" Red tried to start, only to be interrupted by Blue making a loud sigh.

"I think I'm gonna go look for more fights." She said, placing her paws behind her head. "See ya!" She leaped into the air, and over a rooftop, leaving the two rangers, and Moosebridge, behind.

"Silver went over to the reporter. "Moosebridge, you should head home." He said. "We'll have everything sorted out soon." The moose nodded, and headed off.

"Great, can this day get any worse?" Red asked himself, frustrated. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We chase after Blue." Silver said, shrugging. "Its better to have a full team in case something happens."

Red nodded. "Yeah, you're right." He said. "I just feel really… worried."

"It's not all terrible!" The wolf chimed in, cheerfully. "We managed to get rid of the monster before it got upgraded, which makes the rest of this pretty easy!"

"Alright, that is pretty good news." The fox said, with a laugh.

The two headed off, chasing off after the rabbit.

Unbeknownst to either of them, in a nearby alley, was a certain golden armored monster. He clutched a small statue in his gauntlet, and stepped out into the moon light. He gave a quick laugh, and tossed the statue into the air.

"Well, I guess I know what to do for some fun." He said. "That rodent better be ready."

Long vanished, leaving only a trail of yellow mist, which swooped through the night sky.

* * *

They had been chasing her for ten hours.

Ten hours of running around the city, since they no longer had a functioning car. They ran from one seedy area to another, finding a similar situation each time. A bunch of unconscious bodies, all directly caused by one rabbit.

The stress of the whole situation was starting to take its toll on Nick.

Eventually, though, they had caught up with her. They cornered her in a back alley in the middle of Tundra Town.

"Ugh, can't you guys just leave me be!?" She shouted, stomping one of her feet. "You guys keep ruining this for me!"

"Well, excuse me!" Nick shouted. "We're doing our jobs!"

"Yeah, and if you don't come with us, then we're all going to get fired!" Max continued. He was sounding equally as frustrated with this as Nick was.

"Who cares about police work?" Judy said with a sneer. "Its all so PC, you can't get violent with it!"

"Judy, this isn't like you!" Nick yelled. "Just come back with us, and we can sort everything out."

"If you wanna take me in, you gotta fight me!" She said, starting to hop from foot to foot. "No powers, just you and me, fox!"

The two stared at her, dumbfounded. "Is this seriously happening right now?" Max asked.

"Yeah, yeah it is." The fox quickly raised a paw up. "Excuse us for a moment."

Nick elbowed the wolf in the side, and motioned to follow him. They made it safely out of the rabbit's hearing… well, hopefully she wasn't paying attention.

"I can't do this." Nick whispered.

"Listen, I know she's your girlfriend, but this is the only way."

"No, I don't mean it like that." Nick followed up. "I mean I actually can't fight her. Physical combat was one of my worst subjects at the academy."

Max quickly turned back to Judy, who was thankfully just looking at her phone. "HEY!" He shouted. "CAN I FIGHT YOU INSTEAD?"

"No!" She shouted back. "I just want to fight Nick!"

He quickly leaned back down into the huddle. "Well, there goes that idea." Something suddenly hit the wolf. "Wait, I've seen you fight a whole bunch at this point, what's the deal?"

"No powers, man." He stated. "Without the Zooranger stuff, I'm like a twig in paw to paw."

"Just try it." Max sighed. "Have you ever fought her before?"

"I mean, we had sparring matches a few times." He said. "Boxing matches."

"How did those go?"

"She beat me zero to ten."

"Oh. Well, we don't have much of a choice, so…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He snapped. "I'm just saying that you're going to pay for my hospital bills when this is over with."

The fox walked back up to the rabbit, who slipped her phone back into her jean pocket. "So, you ready to go, slick?"

"Yeah, and don't call me 'slick'."

"Just because I don't like being called 'Carrots' doesn't stop you."

"Whatever."

The rabbit ran up to the fox, and quickly delivered a kick to his ribs, sending him flying across the alley. He slid across the alley, and next to Wolford. "Well, that went worse than I expected."

The fox quickly sat up, and clutched at his chest. One of his ribs was cracked, it wasn't major, but it was hurting like hell.

"Is that how your sparring matches usually go?" Wolford asked, in a tone that probably made it a joke.

"Usually I last a few minutes."

"God, you're weaker than I thought." Judy said with a laugh. "I know, why don't you both take me on, that might be fun!"

"I wasn't very good at paw to paw stuff either." Max whispered. The fox scowled in response.

"We have to be smart about this." Nick said. He glanced around, the alley was mostly empty, aside from a single garbage can. Not much to work with.

"Okay, you go distract her." He started. "You're bigger, so you can probably last more than 20 seconds.

"Then what?"

"You'll see." He grunted as he got to his feet. Not like Judy ever explained her plans, they usually worked.

Max sighed, and stepped up towards the rabbit. "Oh, you guys got something clever going on, right?" Judy guessed. "Doesn't matter, I'll probably beat you both anyway."

"You are absolutely insufferable right now." Max said. He quickly started to kick at the rabbit, unable to punch at her due to her much smaller size. She hopped over every attempted hit, and then kicked the wolf in his shins.

He yelped in pain. It felt like his ankle was cracked. When did she get that strong?

He started to slash down at her, no claws. She continued to block with surprisingly fast reflexes, before leaping up and kicking Max in the side of his snout. He wiggles one of his teeth, it had gotten loose.

"This really isn't going well, Nick!" The wolf shouted as he continued trying to hit the rabbit. "And my back is REALLY starting to hurt!"

"Just grab her!" The fox shouted back.

Taking the advice, he swiped Judy up by the ears, lifting her into the air. She flailed around, her small limbs unable to hit anything. "Hey! Lemme go!"

"Not in a hundred years." The wolf said. "Or, at least until you snap out of this."

"Bring her over here!"

The wolf turned to look over at Nick, who was holding a trash can lid. Oh, he got it now.

Max dashed over and quickly threw Judy into the empty can. Nick leaped up and slammed the lid on, proceeding to standing on top of it.

"That should hold her for a bit." He said, relieved. The can suddenly started to shake, and almost instantly tipped over, knocking both of the predators away.

Judy stomped out of the can, looking as angry as she could. "UGH! THAT'S NOT FAIR AT ALL!" She shouted, sounding like a child. She started to stomp over to them. "I'm gonna kick both of your asses so hard you won't be able to sit for a week! I'm gonna make it so you have to eat through straws! I'm gonna…"

The two grounded predators watched as she started to blink, and teeter over. "…I'm gonna take a nap."

She instantly passed out on the spot.

The two got up, Max lifting the rabbit over his shoulder. "Guess all that running around finally got to her." He said.

"Kind of an anti-climactic way for this to end." Nick sighed. "Oh, that sounds like I'm complaining, doesn't it?"

Max nodded.

"Well, let's just get her back to the apartment, maybe we can sort her out there."

* * *

"How did you get this footage?"

The raccoon watched the computer monitor, the porcupine standing next to him. The video showed the Zoo Rangers, fighting against a monster. At the end of the video, it showed their own Peter Moosebridge, revealed as the monster.

"An anonymous source sent it to me when I got up." Charles lied. "Looks like Peter's been up to no good, huh?"

"With last night's freak-out, and this…" The raccoon clacked his claws together. "He might be bad for publicity. We need someone to replace him for the reports today, though…"

"Well, I could always try it." Charles interjected. "I am your best on scene reporter…"

"Point." The raccoon said. "We could give it a try, I don't see what could go wrong."

The porcupine pumped his fist. He had finally done it. "So, let's get to work!"

The two headed off to get ready for the morning report. As they left the office, a golden mist flew in, forming into Long. He gave a small laugh. "Well, destroying him is going to be fun."

In a few hours, Charles was seated at the desk, next to Emily Snow. "Nice to see you this morning, Charles." She greeted. "I don't think I saw you at all yesterday."

"Oh, I was doing stuff, not a big deal." He lied. "Just surprised that I'm here right now! Shame about Peter, though."

"I don't know what got into him last night." Emily said. "He was always one of the nicest guys here. You know, he really liked your field reports."

Charles paused for a moment, his heart beating faster. "R-really?"

Emily nodded. "He said that you'd make a fine anchor once he retired. Guess it came a bit earlier than anyone expected." She glanced at the porcupine, who was shuddering. "Are you alright?"

He gulped, and adjusted himself in the chair. "Yes, I am… perfectly fine!"

"Alright, we're on in three, two…"

"Hello Zootopia!" Charles started, suddenly sounding right as rain. "You're probably wondering just what happened with our previous anchor, Peter Moosebridge. Well, this morning, I, Charles Spikerton will give you the full scoop."

"Last night, we received some worrying footage." Emily followed. The footage recorded of the Zoo Rangers played on a screen behind them, the two watching. The footage skipped to the end, to the part where Moosebridge was revealed.

"Moosebridge was transformed into a monster, and caused serious damage to Sahara Square." Charles said. "It is unknown how this happened."

"One wonders why this happened to Mr. Moosebridge at all." Emily said. "But I suppose we won't know until-"

"Oh, I can tell you."

"Who was…?" The raccoon was suddenly kicked across the room by something he couldn't make out. The pig in control of the camera was launched across the room as well.

A cloud of golden mist appeared between the two reporters, and burst into flame. Long was standing where the fire once was.

"I can tell you exactly why the moose was turned into a monster."

"Who in the world are you!?" Emily shouted.

"What are you doing here!?" Charles cried, terrified.

"See, my dumb animal friends, he is not the real monster here." He turned towards Charles, who nearly fell out of his chair. Before he could, Long grabbed him by the shirt, and lifted him up. "This is your real monster!"

He pulled his face in closer to the porcupine, the heat emanating off of Long causing him to sweat. "A worthless, cowardly creature who wanted to ruin someone else's life for his own gain." Long continued. "You transformed the moose into a monster, and tried to frame him so you could take his job. Can you deny this?"

"I-I wasn't in control!" Charles yelled. "It was the monster controlling me!"

"Charles…?" Emily said, confused.

"LIAR!" Long shouted, slamming the porcupine into the desk. "Allow me to show you."

Long pulled out the porcupine statue, and slammed its flat end into the Porcupine. He started to glow, and suddenly transformed into Marashiya.

"NO!" The monster shouted. "We had a deal! I did what you wanted!"

"Did you really think you could trust me?" Long laughed. "And you're still in control." Long said, Marashiya stepping back in fear. "A weak, pathetic fool who doesn't deserve any power he has."

The dragon armored monster flashed a red object. "You don't deserve anything, if I'm being honest."

He tossed the Chaos Badge into Marashiya's midsection, causing him to fall to the ground in pain.

Marashiya quickly began to transform. His face gained an even more mask-like appearance, as the spikes on it straightened out and began to curve forward, resembling a spiked pompadour. His face also gained a pair of built in sunglasses.

Chains began to drop from his body, each with a large spine dangling from them. The porcupine head on his chest changed as well, growing spikes that grew past the monster's shoulders. Its shoulders remained similar, but the spikes became slightly longer.

Spines began to envelop the monster's right hand, forming into a massive spike. The spike suddenly expanded outward, now resembling the barrel of a minigun. The monster stood back up, and laughed.

"Chaos Marashiya." He started. "Back on the streets."

"Wonderful." Long started. "Go cause some trouble."

"Trouble's what I'm best at, man!" Marashiya quickly aimed its gun arm at the front wall of the room, and fired a bunch of needles into it. After a second, the wall burst open, revealing the outside world. The monster ran to the hole, and jumped through it, letting out a cheer.

Long gave a quick glance to the snow leopard, and then vanished in a burst of gold mist. What was left was a horribly confused and terrified news crew.

* * *

Max flumped the snoozing rabbit down on the couch. She was snoring incredibly loudly, something that she didn't usually do. Probably related to the personality change.

Nick sat at the kitchen table, still lightly clutching his chest. Still hurting.

"So, do we just wake her up, or…?" Max asked. "She could probably kick our asses again, that wouldn't be fun."

The wolf glanced at the fox, noticing that he was clutching his chest. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm feeling fine." Nick lied. "I'm just worried."

"About what?"

He fell silent for a moment. "What if we can't get her back to normal?" He finally said. "What if she's stuck like this?"

"No, we can sort this out." Max assured him. "This kind of stuff is always sorted by the end."

"But we beat the monster." He said. "And she's still like that. I just don't know, Max…"

"Its not going to be a problem." He said. Max wasn't sure himself at this point, though.

Suddenly, there was a loud yawn. "Man, that was a good power nap!" Judy said, stretching out.

"How you feeling?" Max asked.

"Pretty good, ready to go fight monsters!" She said with a smirk.

"Well, we already beat the monster." Nick let out. "So tough luck."

"Awww."

Max stepped up to her, and crossed his arms. "Judy, its time for therapy."

"Therapy?" She said, dismissively. "I don't need therapy."

"Yeah, you do." Nick said, turning to her. "You're acting crazy, you need to go back to normal."

"This is the new normal!" She said, standing up on the couch. "This is me, and you have to deal with it!"

"You're acting like a child." Max scolded. The rabbit proved his point by sticking her tongue out at him. "Act like an adult."

"Why are you guys trying to ruin my fun!?"

"Because beating up innocent civilians isn't good!" Nick shouted. "Why can't you get that through your-"

Suddenly, the Zoolizers started beeping loudly. "Oh, isn't this just great!?" Nick nearly screamed.

"But we beat the monster, how did…?"

"Who cares!?" Judy shouted, bursting up into the air. "We get to fight stuff!" She quickly dashed off the couch, and out the door.

Nick got up, flinching a bit. "Seriously, are you alright?" Max asked again. "Because that wasn't an alright motion."

"I. Am. FINE." He said, harshly. He headed out the door as well.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Max whispered to himself, before following after his partners.

* * *

The porcupine monster stomped through the ruins of the block outside of ZNN. Flipped over cars, ruined buildings, it was horrific. "This is my territory, you animals!" Marashiya shouted, scaring away a few remaining civilians.

He glanced around, and spun his neck. "Feels good to be out again."

"Hey, pointy!"

"Oh, here we go!" The monster said. He didn't even look towards the direction of the voice, and pointed his gun arm. He fired a round of needles towards the direction of the voice.

"Hey!" Blue yelped as she jumped out of the way. "You're not even gonna pay attention to me?"

"Why should I?" Marashiya asked. "Its not like you can beat me, no matter how much you want to."

"Oh yeah!?" She said, dashing up to the monster. She leaped into the air, preparing to deliver a kick. The monster raised its gun arm, blocking it, and flicking the rabbit back.

She landed on her feet, sliding up next to the other Zoorangers. "Hey, pokerface," Red started, stepping forward. "How are you alive? I'm pretty certain we destroyed you."

"How the hell should I know?" It said. "Let's fight for real, already!" he quickly aimed his gun arm at them, and fired a round of spine at them. The Rangers quickly dodged out of the way, before the spikes erupted into a massive explosion.

Red and Silver ran up to the monster, attempting to strike it with their weapons. The porcupine quickly blocked each swipe with its massive arm, and then spun around knocking the two away.

Blue ran up next, daggers drawn. She jumped into the air, and slashed at the monster with them, though it continued to block. It smacked the rabbit up into the air, and fired a round of needles at her. The needles stabbed and graved her, emitting a burst of sparks from each one. She fell to the ground, leaving a crack, but got up quickly.

"That didn't hurt!" She said, grinding her teeth. It pretty obviously hurt her.

She dropped the daggers, and rushed at the monster for a third time. "How many times is this gonna take, rabbit!?" Marashiya yelled. He effortlessly smacked the rabbit away again.

"STOP IT!" Red yelled, rushing over to the rabbit as she prepared to attack again. He grabbed her by the ears. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"Yeah, you can't take him by yourself." Silver said. "We still need to work as a team."

"I don't wanna work with you party poopers!" She said with a huff. "I wanna do it myself!"

"Well, you can't!" Red said. He spun her around, and gripped onto her shoulders. "Please. Just go back to normal. I just want my family back."

The rabbit's visor flashed purple for a second, before she started shrieking in pain. She pushed the fox back, and fell to her knees. She punched herself in the head a few times, and got back up without saying a word.

"Huh, you're pretty interesting, rabbit." Marashiya said. "You got a lot of Bestial Qi in you."

"Bestial Qi?" Silver said. "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

"That must be it!" Red said. "When Blue got attacked before, she must have been infused with that Bestial… whatever!"

"We just need to get it out of her somehow." Silver looked over at the monster. "Thanks for telling us that!"

"Yeah, like you guys know how to get rid of Bestial Qi Infusion." He laughed. "You'll never be able to work as a team again!"

The monster dashed at the three. He ignored Blue, who continued to stand still, and continued to the other two. He swung his large gun hand at them, which Silver managed to block. The wolf thrust his blade forward, knocking the monster back. Red leaped into the air, and slashed at the monster's hairdo, knocking it back even more.

"We're going to get her back to normal!" Nick yelled. "And you can't stop us!"

All three were startled as Blue let out a sudden roar, and quickly dashed forward. "I DON'T WANT TO!" She yelled, delivering a powerful kick right to the fox's face. He flew through the air, and crashed into the ground.

"RED!"

Silver turned to the rabbit, who's visor was continuing to glow purple. "I like feeling this powerful." She said, in a hoarse voice. "I've never felt like this before!"

"See?" Marashiya said, stepping next to the rabbit. "She's a real Predatory Fist user at this point. I know, why don't we become a gang?"

"What?" Silver said.

"I can make you all powerful." The monster started. "Watch this!" It held up its gun arm, which started to glow purple. "PREDATORY PORCUPINE FIST, BESTIAL QI INJECTION!"

He aimed the gun at the recovering fox, and fired a single, glowing needle. It struck him in the back, and vanished.

"That move infuses whoever it hits with Bestial Qi." Marashiya explained. "Once someone is given a taste of its power, its hard to just give up."

Red started to convulse on the spot, beginning to glow purple. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't lose everything because of a goddamn news reporter.

At that moment, the weight of everything hit him at the same time. Losing Judy, his broken rib, the dark power suddenly coursing through him… It was enough to drive someone crazy.

He let out a massive growl as the purple energy turned black.

"Oh no!" Silver shouted. He quickly turned to the porcupine monster, who seemed to be stepping back in fear. "You idiot! You have no idea what you just did!"

"The power…" The monster muttered to itself. "What is that?!"

"SAVAGE ON"

The black energy dispersed in a massive wave as the monstrous fox spun around. It then reeled back in, seeming to absorb into his body. "Mmm, this feels good." Savage said to himself. "I just need a bit more…"

He quickly glanced at the terrified rabbit. His toothy maw turned into a grin as he walked over to her. "So, rabbit," He started. "I hear you've gotten a bit of a new lease on life."

She stood there as Savage walked around her. No one dared to go near him.

"You like fighting, right?" he asked, gripping onto her shoulders from behind. "Hurting people? Bringing them to near death?"

"I…"

"There's no shame in admitting it, Carrots." He laughed. "Its something everyone wants to do deep down. I should know."

She was tensing up.

"You and I have the power to ruin this world." He continued. "So why don't you just accept it? If Nick didn't accept it, I wouldn't be here."

She clenched a paw. "Nick wouldn't do that." She said. "Nick wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Then what about you?" He continued. "I thought you two were friends, closer than friends, even. He doesn't seem to like your behavior."

He continued to snake around her. "So, Fluff, what is it?" He asked. "You said this is the new you. And the new you…" He leaned in closer to her ear. "Is certainly a. Lot. Like. ME."

She clenched both fists and delivered a punch to Savage. "I'll never be like you!" She shouted. She let out a yell, a pulse of purple energy shooting out from her. The force of the blast knocked everyone, except for Savage, down.

"Ah, like a good wine!" He said as the energy seemed to flow into him.

Blue collapsed. Silver ran up to her. "You alright?"

"Silver?" She said, weak and confused. "What are…?" She saw Savage. "WHAT'S HE DOING HERE!?"

"Wait, can you remember anything?" The wolf asked.

"I remember being attacked by a monster on top of the ZNN studio." She said. "Nothing after that. Seriously, what's going on?"

"Oh, you know, big climatic monster fight." He said. "Savage is here, like usual."

"I really wouldn't call that the usual."

"Sorry for my brief appearance today!" Savage suddenly cried out. "But I have big, big, BIG things to prepare for, and I'd like you all to be prepared." He gave a quick salute. "Ciao!"

There was another burst of dark energy, as Red turned back to normal. "RED!" Blue yelled, running over and hugging him.

"You back, Carrots?" He said, a bit weakly.

"Did I go somewhere?"

"We'll talk about this later." He said, standing up fully. "We have a real monster to deal with."

She glanced over at Chaos Marashiya. "So, do we know what this guy's about?" She asked.

"He shoots needles out of his horrifyingly malformed arm." Red explained. "Got an idea?"

"Well, I feel like the answer's pretty obvious." She shrugged. She quickly pulled out her Rabblasters, and twirled them on her gloved digits. "Fight firepower with firepower."

"Oh, that's a good one." Red said, pulling out the Vickscannon.

"Alright, looks like everything's back on track!" Silver said, quickly tapping Red on his helmet. "Told you everything would be sorted out." He quickly spun the guard on his Eclipse Thruster, changing it to Sun Mode.

The three aimed their weapons at the porcupine monster, and fired them off all at once, rapidly. The force of the continuous blows launched the monster through the air, crashing through a nearby building.

"Stupid animals!" It shouted as it stumbled out of the ruins. "I'll make you pay for this!" The monster fired out rounds from its gun arm, crating a massive burst of explosions in front of the three.

The porcupine monster chuckled, and stepped out completely. Without warning, the three Zoorangers leaped through the air, the Zookaiser formed. They landed, jabbing the monster with the blades on its front.

The three yelled at the same time as they pulled the trigger, firing a blast directly into the monster's stomach. In a few seconds, the porcupine was filled with energy, and burst into a massive explosion.

The three watched as a small grey statue flew through the air, and broke apart as it hit the ground. The explosion cleared, leaving behind an unconscious porcupine.

"That was incredibly satisfying." Red said with a sigh of relief.

"You guys are really going to have to explain everything to me." Blue said. "How much did I miss?"

"To give you the short story," Silver started. "The monster pumped you full of evil energy, and turned into a… uh…"

"A very violent child." Red said, incredibly bluntly. "You beat up at least fifty different mammals last night."

"Yikes." She said. "I don't think I want to know any more."

"Alright guys, let's get ready." Silver started. The three watched as a red object flew into the sky, and then off into the horizon. Chaos Marashiya reappeared, and let out a roar.

The three summoned their mechs, the two stomping towards the porcupine. "I'm going to tear your machines down you pansies!" it threatened, rushing towards the two robots.

"Oh yeah, like hell you will!" Red mocked. "Let's combine them up, guys!"

The two robots smacked the porcupine away simultaneously, and then leaped into the air. The three robots reconfigured and combined together.

"ZOOROBO OH KAMI!"

"Guys like you really need a hair cut!" Blue joked. The massive robot rapidly slashed at the porcupine monster. Once the robot finished, it kicked the porcupine off.

"What did you do to me!?" the monster shouted as it got up. The monster's body was completely smooth, no spines left on it, including on his gun. It tried to fire out of its gun arm, but only the sound of empty clicks came out.

"Man, I love when these fights go quickly!" Red cheered.

"SOLAR ECLIPSE DESTROYER!"

The super robot slashed both of its blades down, shooting off two energy waves. It then slashed them horizontally, unleashing two more. The four waves crashed into the monster's body, before exploding.

"NOW THAT STINGS!" The monster yelled as it sparked and crackled with energy. It quickly exploded, ZooRobo Oh Kami turning around and striking a pose.

"Nature, defended!" Blue cheered.

* * *

"And so, Charles Spikerton was apprehended by the authorities, and I got my job back." Moosebridge said.

"I guess what we can all learn from this," Emily started. "Is that power does truly corrupt."

"Honestly, I'm just happy a scandal didn't come from this!" Moosebridge laughed. "In other news, the mysterious rabbit assailant that was reported to have attacked over fifty mammals last night, has not been seen, or identified."

Nick flicked off the TV, and rubbed his head. "All's well that ends well, huh?" He laughed, before letting out a groan.

"I can't believe I did all that." Judy groaned. "That was terrible."

"You don't know how happy I am that it was just brainwashing." Nick said. "Imagine if that was how you actually felt."

"I would never want to hurt anyone, you know that." She said. "I don't even like hurting the monsters…"

Nick nodded. "You're too cute to harm anyone intentionally." Judy quickly jabbed her fist into the fox's side, causing him to let out a sharp yelp.

"Whoops."

"You love that one, don't you?" He laughed, before letting out another groan.

"You feeling alright?" She asked. "You've been making a lot of pain noises for the last few hours."

"Just a bad headache." He said.

"Have you taken any ibuprofen?" She asked. He nodded. "How much?"

"More than I probably should have." He said. "Hasn't calmed it down at all, but I am very tired."

She rolled her eyes. "Go to bed, we have work tomorrow." She said. The fox nodded, and slinked off the couch, heading towards his room.

She laughed. That dumb fox, he'd probably feel fine in the morning. Well, hopefully. She didn't want to have to go to work by herself.

The fox flumped down onto his bed, and curled up in the blankets. The headache was terrible, one of the worst he'd ever had. He didn't know how it happened, or why it wasn't going away. It was like a pounding in his mind, something wanting to get out.

He closed his eyes.

They burst open, his vision had turned completely red. Before he could scream, he blinked, and it was normal again.

He gulped, and tried to fall asleep.

* * *

"How does something like that even run out of power?" Herder asked himself as he walked around his living room. It was large and well decorated, but pitch black. The deal with the coin had been keeping him up at night for over a week.

He needed to get it working again, or else…

There was the sound of footsteps, ones that weren't his.

The goat lived alone.

He looked into the hall, a glow beginning to emerge from just out of his sight. He was petrified by whatever it was, unable to move no matter how hard he wanted.

The light fully emerged into the room, a massive golden figure wearing ornate armor. "Hello." It greeted, rather gently. "Are you Thomas Herder, head of Zootopia's defence department?"

The goat stuttered for a moment, instead of producing any words.

The creature laughed, and kneeled down. "Rhetorical question." He said. "I know exactly who you are. And I know your current plight."

"You… do?"

"You're looking for a source of power to charge your ultimate weapons, correct?" It asked. Herder gave a weak nod. "I know where you can get the exact power you're looking for."

"Why would you…" He gulped down his fear. "Why would you want to help me? You're one of those monsters."

The monster stood up. "You and I have very common goals, Herder." It said. "This would be beneficial to not just us, but the entire world." The armored creature turned around. "Though, if you don't want my help…"

"No, please!" He said. "Help me, where can I find more of those coins?"

"In the museum." He said, not turning back around. "There's a treasure chest worth of them there. Though, you asking for it would be suspicious." He turned around. "Why don't I get it for you instead?"

"You would do that?" Herder said, surprised. "Who are you?"

"My name is Long." He said. "And trust me, I only have your best interests in mind."


	25. Medals, a Thief, and a Savage

The fox teetered out from his room, still clutching his head. "How you feeling?" Judy asked, holding two cups of coffee.

The fox stumbled over to the couch, and fell down on it. "I feel like I've been stepped on by a rhino stampede." He said. "Twenty times."

"So, you want me to call you in sick today?" The rabbit chuckled, placing the coffee on the table.

"That would be a godsend."

"You know, we've missed a lot of days recently." She said. "Monday, Tuesday, and now you're going to miss a third day in a row. Not good work ethic, Nick."

"Seriously?" He said, sounding insulted. "Half that was kind of your fault."

"I was joking."

"Not exactly in the mood for jokes right now, Carrots."

"I'll call you in sick, don't worry." She laughed. "Its just good this isn't a monster attack day, or else-"

Before she could finish, their Zoolizers started to buzz, the fox curling into a ball at the sound of it.

"Great." He groaned. "You had to jinx it, didn't you?"

Judy sighed in response. "This doesn't usually happen. Something's up." She got up from the couch, and pulled out her phone. "I'm gonna tell Silver you're not coming, alright?"

"What!?"

"You have a headache, you can't fight like that." She said.

"No, I'm going!" He said, getting up. "Something like this is more important than a headache."

"Your job isn't as important then?" She asked, skeptically.

"A job is a job, it's not that important compared to the fate of the world."

"That's a good way of looking at it." Judy admitted. "Besides, we've gotten out of worse spats with Bogo."

"Yeah, what's he gonna do, fire us?" Nick laughed. Judy cringed a bit at this. He very well could.

Bogo had been acting very lenient with them for a while now. It was starting to get suspicious. What if he did know? What if he was letting them off easy because of the super hero stuff? She shook it off, that was something to worry about when there wasn't a monster trying to hurt innocents.

The two rushed off through the door.

* * *

"Oh come on, why did it have to be here?"

Judy looked up at the building, it was the national history museum. The building where she almost let her parents die.

"Well, that sucks." Nick sighed. "I hate being reminded of this kind of stuff."

"You sure both of you are okay with this?" Max asked, a bit concerned.

"We're fine." Judy said. She took a deep breath, and the three quietly peeked in through the glass doors.

Inside, they could see a number of Rinshi hopping around. There were a few unconscious bodies littering the ground, the security guards. "What do you think's going on?" Nick whispered.

"Looks like they're after something." Judy said. "On my mark, we transform, go in, and find out."

The three transformed, and burst through the door, catching the attention of the numerous Rinshi. The zombie monsters started to hop towards them. "Alright, undead weirdos!" Red started, quickly pulling out the Vickscannon. "You ready to see my boomstick?"

He aimed the cannon at a large chunk of them, and fired, knocking a good number of Rinshis through the air.

"Red, what did I tell you!?" Blue shouted. "No guns in-doors!"

The fox blinked a few times as the smoke cleared, revealing a heavily charred and broken section of the floor. "Oh. Whoops."

The three ran farther into the museum, slashing and shooting past the Rinshi as they went along. Blue shot through a bunch of the ghouls, while Red and Silver carved through them. Eventually, the hoard of monsters vanished, and they stopped in front of a broken glass case.

Blue stepped up to it. "This looks familiar." She said.

"Yeah, it's almost like we've been here before." Red joked.

"This isn't familiar to me." Silver said. "I was only here during the… you know."

"What was in this case?" Blue asked, examining it. Suddenly, it clicked. "This is where that treasure chest was!"

"Wait, seriously?" Red said, surprised. He quickly chuckled, and nudged the rabbit in the side. "Looks like you owe me some money."

"I never agreed to that bet, remember?"

"Oh."

"If those monsters are here, then I bet whoever's in command is here too." Blue said. "C'mon!"

The three quickly ran down the hall, eventually coming to the massive circular room, another reminder of what had happened previously. It had been months since that, so the place had been fixed up.

In the middle of the room, sitting on top of the large chest, was Long. "I was wondering when you'd get here." He said, hopping down from the chest.

"Long." Blue muttered, her heart beginning to race.

"Its been a while since we last had a fight." He said. "And you've even gotten a new member. I wonder if you have any chance now?"

A burst of fire quickly came from Long's hand, it quickly forming into a large bow. He pulled back, and fired, all within a few seconds.

The three leaped out of the way as a massive explosion erupted from the ground the fire arrow hit. The three rangers hit the ground running, each of them going into a pincer formation. They all leaped at Long, weapons out.

The dragon warrior effortlessly grabbed Red's blade, flinging him to the ground. He gracefully continued into a kick, knocking Silver away, and then continuing by slapping Blue as she leaped into the air. With a final move, he punched her across the room.

"I see you really haven't improved much." Long chuckled as the three struggled to get up. "I know you can, though. But right now, I have more interesting things to deal with."

Long turned back to the chest, but quickly glanced at the wolf as he tried to get up. With a growl, Silver rose, and rushed at Long. He swung his blade at the monster, who blocked it with the back of his hand. Silver continued to try and attack him, but the armored dragon continued to block without breaking a sweat.

"Actually," Long started, grabbing onto the blade. "I don't see any potential in you."

"I'll show you potential-"

Long quickly delivered a punch to the wolf's gut, sending him flying across the room. He crashed into the wall, leaving a massive dent.

"Go die like the animal you are."

He turned back to the other two fallen Rangers, who were silently seething. "You two are far more interesting." He said, pointing towards them.

The two growled, and rushed at him again. Blue leaped back into the air, blasters drawn this time. She fired rapidly as red attempted a low blow with his sword.

In a lightning fast motion, Long smacked the blasts from the Rabblasters directly into Red's blade, knocking it out of his hands. He followed it up with a high kick to the shocked rabbit, knocking her directly into her partner. To add insult to injury, Long shot a blast of lightning at them, launching them back.

"You rely too much on your weapons." The monster said. "If you want to become stronger, using your instincts is the key."

"And you're telling us this, why?" Red grunted, trying to get up.

"Oh, it's just something to do."

Long snapped his fingers, and vanished in a burst of fire, the treasure chest following.

Red quickly fell to his knees, Blue getting up and racing over to Silver's body. "Max, are you-"

He let out a wheezing grunt, before fully passing out.

Judy untransformed, and started pounding the ground, crying.

"He was playing with us." Nick mumbled, catching Judy's attention. "He could've just left whenever he wanted."

The fox keeled over, clutching his head. Judy rushed over, and helped him back up. "We're failures." He mumbled.

"Just because we lost one fight doesn't make us failures!" Judy yelled. Nick smacked her away, hopefully by accident.

He clutched at his head. "We couldn't protect our friend, we aren't strong enough!" He yelled. "We haven't progressed at all! We're still stuck at the same level we were when we started!" Before Judy could say anything, he screeched in pain, falling back over.

The rabbit fell to her knees, and started crying.

From high above them, just outside of the glass ceiling, a small, flying figure watched. It had caught the entire fight, and let out a laugh.

"Well, this is interesting."

It quickly flew off through the air.

* * *

Long dragged the heavy chest through the hall of the large, clean house, leaving massive scuff marks. "I brought you what you asked for, Herder." He announced, dropping the chest to the ground with a loud crash.

The goat slid off of his couch, and walked over to the massive chest. "This is a treasure chest." He said, a bit confused. "I'm looking for coins."

"Watch."

Long pulled back his arm, and thrust it into the base of the chest, causing a burst of light to shine from under its lid. He pushed the lid off, it slamming into the ground as well.

Herder hustled up the chest, and stared down into it. A veritable pool of the coins, an ocean of sparkling silver discs of power. He looked up at the armored monster's glowing face. "How did you…?"

"I know more than you possibly know, Herder." Long said. He then leaned in closer to the goat. "And what if I told you I can get you more?"

"I think this is more than enough." Herder said.

"Is it really?" Long asked. "More is always better."

Herder paused for a second. "Alright, how do we get even more?"

Long chuckled. "Go into the other room, and turn around."

Though he didn't know how this would help, Herder followed, and turned to face Long. The armored monster picked out a coin from the chest, and walked around to the goat's back. Herder felt a sudden painful shiver crawl up his back, and end at the back of his skull. He was frozen.

He then felt something move into the back of his head.

There was a sharp pain in his chest, as a glowing green mist burst forth. Suddenly, something began to crawl out of it.

A wrinkly, grey, mummy-like creature fell to the ground from the hole in his chest. It came out head first, and started to crawl out. It slowly stood up, the goat frozen in fear, and began to slowly lurch forward.

"What is that!?" Herder yelled in terror.

"That is a physical manifestation of your desires." Long explained. "I believe they call it… a Yummy."

The Yummy reached into the chest, and pulled out a pile of the coins in both hands. A sudden, horrible black maw appeared on its face, as it dumped the coins into it. "Its eating them!" Herder yelled. He tried to run over and stop it, but Long held the goat back by one of his horns. "We have to stop it!"

"Interesting." Was all Long had to say.

The creature finished, tons of the coins laying at its feet. It slowly turned around, and began to glow.

It started to morph, taking on a weightier bulk, its head transforming into that of a more goat-like nature. Two massive horns burst from the sides of its heads, which quickly curled around. Its arms grew patches of white fluff, while also gaining two silver bracelets.

Its legs gained hooves, and a much more muscular tone. The fluff appeared around all of its body, even seeming to form an organic cape that hung off its back. A belt appeared around the monster's stomach, marked with a red jewel. And as a final touch, two shoulderpads, resembling a goat's head, appeared.

The monster growled, and stepped forward. "Medals…" It grunted. "I need medals!"

Long laughed as the terrified goat fell over. "Well, aren't you something?" He said. "You want more Cell Medals?" He asked, the monster nodding. "I'm sure you can find some if you… look around."

The monster grunted, and smashed through the wall and into the outside world. It quickly ran off, leaving the two behind.

"What the hell was that?" Herder asked, trying not to sound panicked.

"The Goat Yummy." Long said. "The key to our absolute victory."

* * *

"How you doing?" Judy asked as the wolf stumbled to his feet from the couch.

"I've felt better."

After the disaster of a fight, Nick and Judy brought Max back to the apartment, where he slept for a good few hours. He stretched out a bit, groaning in pain a bit. "Should be able to fight if it comes up." He said.

"If you say so." Sighed the rabbit.

Max looked around the apartment. "Where's…?"

"Mopey is in his room." Judy said. "Hasn't come out since we got back."

"Is he alright?"

"He's had a headache since last night." She explained. "It seems like its just getting worse. I think the stress of everything might have caught up to him."

"Has he taken anything?" Max asked, sitting back down on the couch.

"He said he did, but…" She shrugged.

"Well, that Long guy is planning something." Max started. "If Nick isn't feeling better when he starts whatever it is, what will we do?"

"We'll just tell him to stay here." She said. "I'm not really sure he can handle it."

The Zoolizers suddenly started blaring. "Speak of the devil." Max joked as Judy let out a sigh.

"Alright, we should head out." She said. As soon as she finished, Nick's bedroom door slammed open.

"Alright, let's go!" He shouted, stumbling forward. The poor fox looked like he was about to fall over, gripping to the door handle, as well as his head.

"No." Judy said, sternly. "You're staying here."

"What?" Nick said, in disbelief. "But… you can't do this without me!"

"I know." She sighed. "But I don't want anyone to die on my watch. And I'm the leader, so what I say goes." She finished, sounding rather smug.

"Fiiiiine." Nick groaned. "I'll just go lay down." He headed back for his room, and slammed the door shut. From the other side, they could hear the fox groaning in pain.

"We should let him be." Max said. Judy gave a quick nod, and the two headed out.

The fox climbed into his untidy bed, and pulled the blankets over him. He let out a groan of pain as the pain thumped through his head again. Why wasn't it going away? Usually his headaches vanished after sleeping, but it only seemed to be getting worse and worse.

He kept tossing and turning in the bed, trying to get in a comfortable position. He let out a massive groan, and kicked the blankets off of the bed. The fox rolled off of the bed, and climbed to his feet. He stumbled over to the nearby wall, and slammed his head into it repeatedly.

Stumbling back, his vision became heavily blurred. The throbbing wouldn't stop, it was getting more and more intense. Red covered his vision, he tried to clear his eyes but all he could see was blood red. The fox let out a horrifying growl as he fell to his knees.

The red covering his eyes swirled around, overtaking his emerald eyes and turning them deep red. The fox stood up, and let out a laugh. The fox looked at itself, seemingly in bliss. "So, this is what a real body feels like?" He asked himself. "Feels really good."

The fox peeked out of the door, and looked around. Nobody was there, he had come in at the perfect time. Silently, he headed for the door, and headed out.

Whoever that fox was, it wasn't Nick.

* * *

"Get away from me!"

The deer crawled across the ground, away from the hulking goat monster that closed in on him. The monster let out a growl, and prepared to attack. Suddenly, lasers began to pelt the monster, causing him to stumble back.

"Stop right there, you…" Blue started, having fired the shots. "What is that thing?"

"I'm not sure." Silver said. "Never seen anything like it."

The monster let out another growl, and turned back to the cowering deer. The thing's head suddenly stretched out, attached to a fleshy, snake-like neck. It hovered over the deer, its mouth opening wider than it looked like it should have.

The thing started to inhale, the fur of the deer being pulled up. Strange objects started to rise up from under the deer's fur, and burst through his clothing. Round, silver coin like objects. They flew up into the goat monster's mouth, which it seemed to swallow with delight.

"What's it doing!?" Silver asked, terrified.

"I dunno, but it's probably not good!" The two took aim, Blue using her blasters and Silver using his sword. They fired off blasts at the monster's neck, each striking and causing its neck to retract back in.

Silver rushed in first, and knocked the monster across the street with his sword. Blue ran up to the deer. "Are you alright?" She asked the nearly unconscious deer.

He groaned in response. She felt his pulse, it was incredibly weak. "We can't let that thing finish whatever its doing." Blue said to the wolf.

"I think we might be a bit late on that."

The two looked around the ruined street, bodies littering the ground. "Oh my god…"

The monster let out another growl, and shot its head out towards them. They leaped out of the way as it slammed through the wall of a nearby building, and then retracted.

It let out another grunt, turning towards Blue. "Medals…" it groaned, before rushing towards her.

She leaped up into the air, and kicked the monster back, though it was only a stumble. "Care to explain what you are?" She asked, pulling out her daggers.

The monster groaned in response, and swung one of its large hands down at her.

She quickly hopped out of the way as the fist left a crack in the ground. "Not the talkative type, I guess."

Silver rushed in and struck at the monster with his blade again. The monster spun around, and started swinging at the wolf. "Wish I could help, Blue!" He said as he continued to block the monster's attacks. "Nothing about this guy is ringing a bell!"

Blue leaped up, and slashed the monster in the back. It didn't seem to affect the monster, as it quickly tossed Silver aside, and smacked the rabbit back into the ground. The goat thing raised its hoof upwards, and prepared to stomp on the rabbit, but was struck in the back by Silver.

The monster's head extended out again, arcing behind it and smacking Silver directly in the face, knocking him to the ground. The monster stomped down before its head even retracted, Blue barely managing to roll out of the way.

Its head whipped back into place, as the monster suddenly leaped up into the air. Its neck began to extend back and forth rapidly, showing the two Rangers with blows. It landed back to the ground, rattling like a jar full of coins.

The two had been knocked down. "You know, if Nick was here…" Silver started as the two got up, probably trying to bring some levity to the situation.

"Shut it." Blue snapped back. She quickly pulled out a blue object, and plugged it into her Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The gloves appeared on her paws, and she leaped into the air, delivering a punch directly to the monster's head. The force of the blow caused it to extend off to the side, but it quickly wrapped around and struck Blue directly, launching her into a wall.

Silver ran in next, switching his blade to Moon Mode. The monster thrust its head forward, but the wolf ducked out of the way, and thrust the laser whip forward. It wrapped around the monster's neck like a lasso, binding it. "Blue, smack it around a bit now!" Silver shouted.

The rabbit nodded, and leaped back up into the air, rapidly punching the monster in the face. Silver pumped his fist as he watched. Suddenly, the monster's head pulled back, dragging the wolf in close to the monster, who delivered a hard punch that sent him flying.

"Are we even doing anything to his guy!?" Blue shouted in frustration, stomping one of her feet against the ground.

The monster stomped forward again, and the two prepped their weapons. A smug sounding voice sounded from above them.

"I think I've seen enough. Looks like you could both use some help."

They looked up, watching as a small… thing floated down. It looked like a red gauntlet, though it turned a dark green at the bottom. On its wrist was a decoration of a bird, with similar coloration, and it end in inky blackness, two black tassels hanging down.

The monster grunted, and backed off at the sight of the hand.

"What the hell is that?" Silver asked. The rabbit gave a heavy shrug in response.

"What I am doesn't really matter right now." It said, wagging a finger at them. "All you need to know is that we're here to save you."

"'We'?" Both of them said. The hand pointed up, and all three parties looked.

A figure leaped through the air, and landed on the ground, slashing the monster with a sword. With the slash came a burst of the silver coins. The figure spun around again, slashing again, this time knocking the monster flying.

"Alright." The figure said, stepping forward. He turned to the two stunned mammals. "You two should be fine now."

The figure was mostly black, but still incredibly colorful at the same time. It looked like a Sentai Ranger, though a bit more armored. The armor split into three discernable pieces, head, torso, and legs, each one marked with a different color.

In the center of its body was a round marking, split into red, yellow, and green, alongside the splits present in the armor. The marking seemed to display three different creatures, some kind of bird, a feline, and an insect. The being's head was mostly red, with green, bug like eyes. Its arms ended in yellow gloves with odd protrusions, and its legs were covered in green armor from the knees down.

On its waist was a slanted belt, with red, yellow, and green objects placed in it.

"Who are you?" Silver asked, stepping up and admiring the suit.

"I'm Kamen Rider OOO!" He said, giving a thumbs up.

"Kamen Rider?" Silver said, confused. "What's a Kamen Rider?"

"He is, obviously." The hand said, butting in. The hand made a shooing motion. "You two get out of here now, you obviously aren't capable of handling a Yummy."

Blue let out a small chuckle. "A… a 'Yummy'?" Silver let out a loud snort as well.

"I don't see what's so funny." The hand said.

"Listen, all you need to know right now," OOO said, pointing towards the monster with his thumb. "Is that that thing is a Yummy."

"Well, can we help?" Blue asked, before getting interrupted by Silver.

"Shh, I wanna see this!" He said. "Mr. Ohs, can you show us your stuff?"

"Uh, sure?" OOO said, a bit confused.

The hand flew in between the two again. "Like I said, stay out of this. This is our business."

"Can't argue with that, I guess?" Blue shrugged.

OOO turned back to the monster, who had just crawled back up. It seemed to sniff the air for a moment. "MEDALS!" It roared, before rushing at the Rider.

It charged head first into OOO, who held it back by the horns. The Rider kneed the monster a few times, causing it to stumble back. OOO bared his hands out like claws, causing the protrusions on his arms to extend out into full on claws.

He leaped forward, and struck at the monster, causing more of the silver objects to fly out of it. The monster was flung back, but quickly moved to its feet. Its head suddenly extended out, and attempted to strike the Rider, who stepped out of the way as it crashed into the ground.

"This guy's definitely something!" OOO said, rushing forward again. The monster's head quickly retracted as OOO slashed at it again. This time, however, it seemed fairly ineffective.

The monster grunted, not in pain, more in annoyance, before shooting its head out, launching OOO back across the street.

The hand flitted down to the fallen Rider. "Looks like this guy's getting a bit resistant." It said. "I think I know a way to deal with that." The hand flicked its wrist, causing three coins to appear in its grasp.

"Good thinking, Ankh!" OOO said, grabbing the medals. He stood up, straightening the slanted belt, and pulled out three more coins from it.

He slipped the left and right coins in first, and the third one in the middle. He slanted the belt again, and pulled out a much larger round object. He slid it across the belt, chimes ringing as it crossed over the three sections.

A voice yelled out from the belt.

"SAI! GORILLA! ZOU!" As the voice yelled, three large versions of the coins appeared in front of OOO. They then fused together, and slammed into the Rider's chest, transforming him completely.

OOO's previous colors had changed to white, grey, and silver, forming a complete pattern. His head now had a large protrusion form it, like a horn, while his eyes turned red. His arms now had large coverings on them, and far more pronounced shoulder pads. His legs were now heavily armored as well.

"Sagohzo…" The sound of drums played for a moment. "SA-GOH-ZO!"

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Silver shouted.

OOO let out a roar, and then dashed at the monster. He pulled his fist back, and launched it directly into the monster's stomach. There was a burst of the coins as the monster was launched through the air, crashing into a nearby building.

OOO pulled out the round object again, and slid it over the belt once more.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

The Rider rose up into the air, legs locked together, and then slammed back into the ground. There was an explosion of rubble around the monster, which somehow dragged its legs under the ground. The monster struggled as it was dragged over to the Rider, the ground shifting around it as it moved.

OOO pulled his arms and head back, his fists and horns starting to glow with energy. Once the monster was within range, he thrust the three points forward, preparing to finish off the monster.

The move didn't connect, and OOO fell to the ground. "What the!?" He shouted, looking back. The monster had turned into a cloud of the silver coins, which quickly whipped through the air and formed back into the monster.

"He's made of Cell Medals!" Ankh said, sounding both pleased and in disbelief. "Eiji, we've hit a motherload!"

The Rider stood back up, and rushed back at the monster. He tried to punch it again, only for it to disperse into the medals again. He continued to try and hit it, none of the punches connecting.

"I think we should help." Blue said to the wolf.

"Please!" Ankh said, floating up to them. "You can't take on a Yummy, period."

"Even if we can't do any real damage, I think we can still do something!" Blue argued.

The hand let out a laugh. "You ARE a lot like him. Alright, go ahead." The two Rangers stepped forward, past the hand. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

The two quickly moved in behind the monster, it being too distracted with dodging OOO's attacks to notice them. "Alright, when that thing reforms," Blue started. "We both fire on it, and that should distract it long enough for Ohs to punch it."

"Sounds good." Silver said. "But that thing will fly directly at us when he punches it, what should we do then?"

"I dunno, I guess we just hit it back?"

The two shrugged at each other, and prepared their long-ranged weapons. Blue pulled out her blasters, Silver switched his blade to Sun Mode. "Alright, on my mark." Blue said as they took aim. She watched the monster reform and disperse, keeping track of the timing.

"NOW!"

The two fired, shooting a burst of fire and lasers at the monsters back. It stumbled forward, just as OOO launched another punch. It struck right in the monster's engorged stomach, sending it and a bunch of medals flying.

The two rangers prepared their weapons for a second hit, but the monster suddenly spun around in midair. It launched its head towards the ground, with enough force to launch it farther into the air. The four watched as the monster continued this into the distance.

"Well, that was an odd one." Ankh said, floating up next to OOO. He was holding the red, yellow, and green medals, which OOO used to quickly replace the ones in his belt.

"TAKA! TORA! BATA! Ta-To-Ba! Tatoba, Ta-To-Ba!"

In a flash, OOO had transformed back into his red, yellow, and green form.

"Thanks for the help." OOO said, sounding a bit out of breath.

"Don't mention it!" Judy said, the two untransforming. "Helping out is what we do best."

"Sounds like you two will get along just fine." The hand joked, OOO responding by slapping him away.

Max walked up to the Rider, and examined him. He clenched his fists, and looked him right in the eyes. "You are SO cool."

"Uh, thanks?" OOO said, a bit bashful. "I can explain everything that's going on in a bit." OOO continued. "But first, we really need to clear up all these medals."

The two looked around, the battleground was littered with the small, silver coins. There had to be over a thousand of them. "Allow me to do my business." The hand said, gesturing as if it was bowing.

It quickly whipped around the area, and in a few seconds, the coins had all vanished. "Ah, haven't had the taste of Cell Medals in a long time." He said.

"Wait, hold on a second!" Judy said, leaping up and pulling the hand down to her level. "That monster was stealing them from all these unconscious mammals!"

"So?"

The hand paused for a moment, before jolting back up in surprise. "Wait, what!?"

"It was collecting medals from these people!?" OOO said, also in disbelief. "How was it doing that?"

"It was sucking them out like a vacuum." Max explained.

"Without those… medals in them, it looks like they're just dead." Judy continued.

"Ankh, can you do anything about this?" OOO asked the hand.

"What do you expect me to do!?" He yelled, a bit defensively.

The hand was smacked down by Max. "You can at least try something to help them!" He yelled.

"Fine, fine!" Ankh finally conceded. "I'll see if there's something I can do." He floated over to the nearby unconscious deer, and placed himself down on its chest. "Hmm… this is interesting." He muttered to himself.

Ankh floated back over to the Rider and animals. "Good news, I can do something about this." He said, all three sighing in relief. "Bad news is that it'll be a bit invasive."

"Whatever!" Judy shouted. "Just do it already before they actually die!"

"Fine, don't have to be a nag, rabbit." The hand said.

He floated over to the deer, and splayed out his fingers. The medals began to slide out of his palm, and land on the deer's head. The medals seemed to fuse with him, going under his skin. After a few had been introduced into the deer's body, it rolled over, making a grunting noise.

"See?" Ankh started. "Alive."

Ankh did this for the rest of the bodies littered around the road, each of them making some sign of life afterwards. The hand floated back up to them. "There, that's every one of them healed up." He said with a sigh. "And every medal he dropped."

"You sure?" OOO said, quickly grabbing the hand and shaking him, causing more medals to fall out.

"HEY! These ones are extras!" Ankh yelled breaking from the Rider's grasp. He swooped down and picked the medals back up. "Besides, we need at least one Cell Medal to explain what's going on to these guys."

"You have a point." OOO said, reluctantly. He turned back to the two mammals. "You guys have some kind of home base?" He asked. "Like a restaurant, or…?"

"We have an apartment."

* * *

"Well," Ankh started as they entered the cramped apartment. "This is more than you've ever had, Eiji."

"Fair enough." Replied the Rider. He bent down as he entered, and headed over to the couch. He sat down on it, taking up most of the space. "You don't mind if I sit here, right?" He asked Judy.

"Fine with me." She said with a shrug. "I prefer to pace for this kind of stuff anyway."

"So, what exactly are you guys?" Max asked, popping up from behind the Rider. "What's a Kamen Rider, why are you just a floating hand, why are you here, you know."

"It's a bit complicated." OOO said. "My name is Eiji Hino, and this is Ankh." He motioned towards the hand.

Ankh gave a wave. "I'm a hand because I'm missing a piece of my body, which was at one point a completely separate entity."

The two mammals stared at him.

"He said it was complicated, what did you expect?"

"He's just being a wise guy." Eiji said. "Ankh is a Greeed, which are monsters made up of those medals. Don't worry, he's a nice one."

"Nice is a stretch."

"And you guys are Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, right?" Eiji asked. "AkaRed sent us to help you."

"She's Judy Hopps, I'm Max Wolford." Max said. "Nick Wilde is currently sleeping in his room."

"You could've been a Nick Wilde." Ankh said. "It's such a generic name compared to 'Hopps'."

The rabbit growled, before continuing on. "So, was that monster we fought a Greeed?" Judy asked. "It was made of those medals."

"No, that one was a Yummy, like I said earlier." Ankh explained. "they're much simpler than us Greeed, but that one was… different. Yummies aren't supposed to be able to control the Cell Medals they're made of."

"Cell Medal…" Judy thumped her foot against the ground rapidly. "I've seen those things before."

"How?" Ankh asked, flinging himself directly into Judy's face. "Where!?"

"Give me one and I'll think on it." She said, holding out a paw.

Ankh grumbled, and spat one out onto her hand. She held the medal, which looked much larger in her tiny paws, and looked at it intensely.

Her ears popped up, and her nose began to twitch. "The Den-Liner." She muttered.

"The what?" Max said, his ears popping up.

"Wait, you were on the Den-Liner?" Eiji asked, a bit surprised. "You met Momotaros?"

"Ugh, that idiot." Ankh groaned.

"You guys met him too?" The rabbit chuckled. "How'd that happen?"

"It's a nonsensical story involving time travel." Ankh said. "You shouldn't worry about it that much."

"But, why did you see a Cell Medal on the Den-Liner?" Eiji asked.

"We were in the middle of a fight with this giant monster!" Judy started. "And it blasted a hole in the side of the car, and I saw one of these slide out!"

"So, a Cell Medal came into your world…" Ankh started. "Because someone on the Den-Liner didn't clean that well? For over half a decade!?"

"Seems like it." She shrugged.

"Is it weird that I'm the only one here who has no idea what you're talking about?" Max interjected.

"Oh yeah, we never did tell you about our weird time travel adventure, did we?" Judy said with a smile. "Good times."

"I wonder how a Yummy even showed up, though." Eiji started. "I thought only Greeed could create them?"

"It's definitely an odd event." Ankh said.

"It might have something to do with that chest that Long stole." Max started.

"Chest?" Ankh asked. "Was it weird, grey, had a thing like that…" He pointed towards Eiji's belt. "On it?"

"Yeah, actually." Judy said. "That matches it perfectly."

"Well, I'm surprised your world is overrun by Greeed right now." Ankh said. "That treasure chest held all the Core and Cell Medals the Greeed were made of."

"That sounds bad." Max said.

"It is." Eiji continued. "If they run amuck, then your world is in danger."

"Even more than it already is, you mean?" Judy said. "We're already dealing with a lot."

"You better get that other member of your team up." Ankh continued. "You'll be needing all the help you can get."

"I think we can let him sleep a bit longer." Max said. "We get alerted when a monster attacks anyway, and it hasn't gone off yet, so we have time." He leaned in a bit closer to OOO, his tail wagging. "Hey, can you show me how you do that transforming stuff, its super cool."

"Now isn't the time-"

"Ankh, relax." Eiji said. "Can you sense the Yummy doing anything?"

"Uh, not really."

"Then we're fine for right now." He continued. The Rider pulled out what looked like a black folder, and placed it on the table in front of him. He opened it, revealing an array of colorful medals.

There were six sets, each a different color. Red, yellow, green, blue, white, and purple. Three were missing, one from the red, yellow, and green sections each. "These are the core medals, they were the main part of each Greeed."

"The red ones are mine." Ankh said. "The rest belonged to a bunch of dead assholes."

"Are the three missing ones in your belt?" Max asked.

Eiji nodded, and pulled out the red medal. He flipped it into Max's paws. The medal had a large, jagged crease through it, unlike the rest of them. "What happened to this one?"

"It was broken." Ankh explained. "For a while, I was dead because of that."

"I managed to fix it a while ago." Eiji continued. "This is actually our first time working together again in years."

"Must be pretty nostalgic for you, huh?" Judy said with a laugh.

"It is." Eiji said. "Ankh's helped me through a lot, he's a good friend."

"I'm sure he thinks the same way." Judy continued. She looked up at Ankh. "Right?"

The hand froze. Silently, he floated over to Nick's bedroom door. "What are you doing?" Eiji asked. "They said not to-"

He pushed the loose door open. "I knew something was up." Ankh said. "There isn't anyone in here."

"WHAT!?"

Judy rushed over, and slammed the door open even more. The room was even messier than it usually was. His blankets were on the ground, and on the wall near the door was a large dent. "What happened!?" She yelled. She was terrified, where was Nick? Did he decide to go out and fight with his headache? Did someone kidnap him?

"I think there might be more going on here than just a Yummy." Ankh said, floating back over to Eiji. "I think we should all prepare for when it attacks next."

* * *

"So, I said to the guy," The bull started. "That's why you don't grab me by the horns!"

Him and his cohorts, and elephant and a rhino, burst into laughter. They were hanging out in an alley, all of them massive and well built. Grade A thugs, in all honesty.

"Excuse me?" Said a slimy voice from behind them.

The bull turned around, and looked down. It was a fox, dressed in a tacky floral shirt and tie. He was hunched over, fur mangled, eyes blood red. It had a grin that seemed to stretch farther than its face could handle.

"I was just wondering if any of you know-" It tried to say, before the bull interrupted.

"Listen fox, I think you're in the wrong neighborhood." The bull said, stomping down. "We don't really like your kinda types around here."

"I was just trying to ask a question." The fox cooed, not sounding angry, but rather pleased.

It pointed its paws towards the bull's face, causing razor sharp, needle like claws to extend from it. They extended out at least a foot, and looked incredibly unnatural.

The fox swished his claws through the air, not even making contact with the bull.

"What the hell was-" The bull paused, and fell to his knees. He let out a blood curdling scream as he fell over, dead.

The fox kicked his body over with very little effort, considering the size difference, and revealed a large marking through the bull's clothes and skin. It was shaped like a Z, or maybe an S. There was some kind of smoke raising from the wounds.

The fox licked his chaps, and unhinged his jaw, opening it unnaturally wide. Inside the thing's mouth were rows of sharp teeth. The smoke flitted through the air, and into the creature's mouth.

His jaw snapped like a steel trap. "Mmm." He stepped over the body, and approached the other two large mammals, who started to cower back in to the alley. "As I was saying," He started. "Do any of you know about a guy named 'Long'?"

They both shook their heads, not uttering anything but terrified mumbles.

"Great!" It said, clasping its paws together.

Screams of terror rippled through the air, and abruptly stopped. The fox walked out of the alley.

"Even if I never find this guy," He started. "I'll at least get to have some fun!"

The fox froze, as he heard metallic footsteps from behind him. He leaned back to look, it was a golden armored creature, alongside something that looked kind of like a weird goat.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation." The armored creature said. "You're looking for someone named Long?"

The fox laughed, his entire body twisting around unnaturally, with a loud crack as his neck snapped into place. "Lemme guess, you're Long, ain'tcha?"

Long chuckled. "Exactly what I'd expect from someone like you, Savage."

"So, you know who I am?" Savage asked.

"I've been trying to meet you for a very long time." The dragon warrior continued. "Though, I must say… I never expected you to be this powerful."

"You're pretty tasty looking yourself." Savage followed, licking his lips. "What do you want?"

"A test of strength." Long explained. "Let us see who the better villain is." He motioned towards the goat monster. "Just me and him, you stay out of this."

The goat Yummy groaned and stepped back. The two glared each other in the eyes.

Savage rushed forward first, extending his claws back out and leaping at Long. The armored monster blocked the attack, the claws clanging against his arm. The reversed the attempt with a blow to the fox's gut, knocking him into the air.

The fox thrusted himself downward, and rapidly slashed at his opponent. Long continued to block the strikes with his arms, but Savage quickly pried them open, and delivered a kick to Long's chest, knocking him back.

Savage landed on the ground, and Long dashed forwards again, this time kicking at the fox. He dodged out of the way of each blow, and leaped up, attempting to smack Long with his tail. Long grabbed it, and threw the fox into the ground. He tried to stomp on him, but the mammal rolled out of the way before it could connect.

The fox got to his feet, and attempted to slash at the armored monster again, Long grabbing the claws directly with both of his hands. This left him wide open, as Savage propelled himself into his chest. This knocked the armored warrior backwards, and freed Savage from his grasp. Long created a bow of fire in his hands, and prepared to fire. Savage's claws started to glow with dark energy, as he pulled them back.

The two fired at the same time, the resulting explosion charring the entire street they were standing in, but neither of them seemed harmed. Savage dashed forward again, this time sliding under the dazed Long's legs, and pulling him down. The dragon warrior crashed into the ground, but quickly reversed the attack by pushing himself up into a flip, flinging Savage into the air.

Long landed on his feet, and raised his hand towards the fox. He fired a bolt of lightning from his fingertips at Savage, who quickly extended his claws. He slashed them forward, reversing the direction of the lightning. The bolt crashed into Long, causing an explotion of sparks around him. He quickly recovered, and leaped into the air, kicking Savage back down to the ground.

The fox's body left a crack in the ground, but he quickly sprung to his feet as Long hit the ground shortly after. The fox slashed forward, firing off several lasers, which Long quickly deflected. With the distraction of the lasers, however, Savage was able to run up to him, and deliver a tackling strike directly to his gut.

Long was only somewhat phased by this, and delivered an elbow into the fox's back a split second after it happened. Instead of crashing to the ground, the fox landed on all fours, and used his strength to spring up again, rapidly slashing at Long's helmeted face. The dragon warrior grabbed the fox by his torso, and held his palm up. It started to glow as he thrusted it into Savage's body, launching him to the ground.

Long paused as the fox got up. "You're better than I thought you'd be." Long laughed.

"Same to you, bud." Savage laughed in return. "Never seen anyone as strong as myself before."

Long stepped forward. "Thing is, I know you can be stronger." He said, surprising the fox.

"What's that mean?" He asked, sounding a bit insulted. "Am I not strong enough for you?"

"Its your body." He said.

"Hey, I worked hard to get this body!" He returned. "You don't know how painful it was waiting for those two to call on me."

"Oh, I know how painful something like that can be." Long said. "But that body is a weak vessel for your power. If you work with me, I can set you free from it, and unleash the real you."

The fox's ears twitched. "Sounds interesting. What do I have to do?"

"Unfortunately, the first thing you'll have to do is give the fox his body back." Long said.

"Ugh, seriously?" Savage groaned. "That's not just something I can do. His mind's locked up tight, there's no way I can get it freed myself."

Long glanced over to the Yummy, who was standing idly by. "I think there might be a way you can."

"I'm listening."

* * *

"Told you guys to prepare." Ankh said as he floated into the middle of a city block. Blue and Silver, alongside OOO, followed him.

"I think we should be looking for Nick." Blue said. "What if something bad happened to him?"

"I think Judy's right." OOO said. "I don't think the two of them are strong enough to handle the Yummy on its own."

"If this 'Nick' went out to fight the Yummy on his own, he's probably dead." Ankh said, incredibly bluntly. Blue let a baffled gasp of surprise, and Silver clenched one of his paws.

"Ankh, seriously?" OOO said.

"I'm just being honest." The hand said. "The only thing that can defeat a Yummy is the power of a Cell or Core Medal."

"That's not what I mean." OOO said, exasperated. "You have to consider their feelings."

"You're saying that like I have feelings."

"Okay!" Silver shouted. He got in between the two, and pushed them away from each other. "Let's just stop arguing for a bit, alright."

"Silver's right." Blue said, reluctantly. "There's a monster around here, and it's probably hurting people. We need to solve this quickly."

"Just be glad I'm not working with you, rabbit." Ankh said with a huff. Blue glared at him from behind her visor.

"Boy, that was fun to watch!"

The four turned to a nearby building. Standing on top of it was… Nick?

"Nick?" Blue yelled. "What are you doing up there?"

"We were really worried about you, man!" Silver shouted up. "Come down here and tell us what happened!"

"'Nick'?" He said, looking around. He turned to look behind himself. "Do you see a 'Nick' anywhere, buddy?"

The Yummy from before walked up next to the fox, and let out a growl. "I'll take that as a no."

"Oh no." Blue said, the two rangers stepping back.

"Why is your friend working with the Yummy?" OOO asked.

"That isn't Nick."

The two leaped down from the building. "Got that right, rabbit meat." The fox said, stepping forward. "Ol' Nicky boy is gone! All that's left is… SAVAGE!"

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?" Blue shouted, absolutely furious. The level of her voice shocked everyone, including Savage. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"Calm down!" Savage laughed. "All I did was take over his body and leave his mind as a prisoner inside it!"

The rabbit was trembling with anger at this point.

"See, I've actually been using you two for a long time now." Savage continued. "With every time I was summoned, I drained some of your energy. And as I continued to do that, I got stronger and stronger. With the thing from yesterday, I gained enough power to fully take over Wilde's body."

"Wait, who is this guy?" OOO asked.

"He's called Savage." Max explained. "He's some kind of evil monster that's been taking over their bodies now and again."

"Taking over their bodies?" OOO said. He went into thought for a minute.

"I'm not a 'monster', glitter boy!" Savage shouted at the wolf. "To put it simply, I'm millions of years of built up violence incarnate!"

"What does that mean?" Blue reiterated, this time more confused.

"Violence is an emotion, sweetheart, and when you have such a sickly utopic world as this…" He paused, for dramatic effect. "It can be a bit hard to let it out. Sure, there was that Nighthowler thing, but there hasn't been a single war in centuries! How am I supposed to let anything out when nobody wants to HURT EACHOTHER!?"

"I think I've heard enough." OOO said. "You two take on the Yummy, I want to fight Savage personally."

OOO pulled out two of the medals, the red and green one, and quickly replaced them with yellow ones. He slanted his belt, and ran the device over it again.

"LION! TORA! CHEETAH!"

OOO began to change again, though this time his middle section remained the same. His head gained a lion like mane around it, his eyes changing to blue. His legs gained yellow armor on them as well.

"RA-TORA-TAH! RA TORAAAA TAAAH!"

OOO bared his claws as he finished transforming, and stepped towards the fox. "Nice trick." Savage said, dismissively. "What are you gonna do, bore me to death?"

"Everyone, cover your eyes!" He shouted towards his teammates.

The Zoorangers were just about to attack the Goat Yummy before it happened. "What?" Blue shouted back. "Why?"

"JUST DO WHAT HE SAYS, RABBIT!" Ankh yelled.

The mane around OOO's head began to glow with an intense light. It then let out a massive burst of the light, powerful enough to cover the entire city block. Luckily, Blue managed to cover her eyes. Everyone else wasn't as lucky.

The light cleared, leaving everyone besides OOO writhing in pain. "I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED!" Silver screamed.

OOO then unsheathed his claws, and dashed towards Savage at incredible speeds, faster than should be possible. He became a yellow blur, zipping by the monstrous fox, who was tossed around by the force of the blows.

He crashed into the ground, and let out a whine. "Ugh, didn't realize pain felt this bad."

"Hold on!" Blue said, running up to OOO. "That's still Nick's body, you can't hurt him too bad."

OOO nodded silently. Blue turned back to the other monster, who was still blinded. "Chance." She whispered to herself, before running over. She quickly pulled out her guns, tossing one up into the air. She plugged a ZooTag into the other gun, and caught the other as it came down. She aimed it at the monster, and fired.

"CUTTING ON THROUGH!  
SLICING THE SKY!  
CHANBARA BAN!  
RABBLASTERS!"

The blasters shot out a sharp laser blast, which went right through the blinded goat's torso. Medals began to spill out of the wound.

Blue ran over to Silver, and kicked him in the head. The force of it cleared up his eyes. "Oh, hey! Thanks, Blue!" He looked over at the monster, watching as Ankh swooped down to steal as many medals as he could.

"So, how are we gonna deal with the monster?" Silver asked. "We couldn't do anything to it before."

"We hit it with the strongest stuff we have."

"That is incredibly basic and probably not going to work."

"I know, but it's the best we got."

The wolf shrugged. "Alright, guess I'll get straight to it!"

The wolf raised his sword up, it starting to gather white energy in its blade. He spun it around in a clockwise motion, until it reached back where it started.

"COSMIC ECLIPSE SLASH!"

He brought the sword down, shooting the energy at the monster. It collided with the Goat Yummy's large frame, causing an explosion, Cell Medals flying out everywhere.

The monster let out a growl as it stepped through the explosion. "Looks like we're going to actually fight now!" Blue said, the two preparing their weapons.

Savage leaped up into the air, slashing at the Rider with his lengthy claws. OOO blocked, and delivered a strike to the fox's midsection, causing him to spin around in midair. Savage quickly straightened himself out, and fired a few laser slashes at the Rider, who continued to block.

OOO thrust his arms forward, knocking the energy back and flinging Savage back to the ground. "Kay, you're better than I thought." The fox grunted.

"Why are you doing this?" OOO asked. "Why are you using their friend like this!?"

"Because I can only channel myself through them." Savage explained. "Do you know what its like not having a body?"

"No, but I do know what its like to be used for evil." OOO said. "What you've done is completely unforgivable."

"Obviously, I'm a bad guy." The fox laughed. "What am I supposed to do, not do messed up stuff?"

OOO clenched his fist.

The two rangers dashed forward as the Yummy shot out its head towards them. Silver slashed down on the monster's neck, causing it to crash into the ground. Blue hopped up on it, and started running across to the monster's body.

The monster started to swat at the rabbit as she danced on top of its body, avoiding each swipe. With Silver, the monster's head attempted to ram into him, but he continued to dodge out of each blow's path. Blue quickly dug her blades into the monster's neck, sending pain through out it.

The monster's head began to writhe around, giving Silver the chance to attack it. He slashed through the Yummy's neck, causing more medals to fly out. Again, Ankh swooped in to collect them before they hit the ground.

"Why are you collecting those things?" Silver asked.

"Well, the Yummy can manipulate its form," Ankh started. "So, if I collect all the medals making up his body, eventually he'll be entirely gone."

"Oh, smart idea!"

The two gave each other a thumbs-up, before the monster's head slammed into Ankh. Medals flew from his body as he was knocked aside, more spilling out as he slammed into the ground. The goat head dislocated its jaw, and began vacuuming the medals up.

Its head quickly retraced after sucking up all the medals, smacking Blue off of its back. The yummy let out a massive grunt, and leaped up into the air, slamming its head down and flying off.

Blue got up, and looked over to OOO, who was still fighting Savage. She glanced around, spotting Yummy getting away. She groaned, and got up. "Silver, lets go help Ohs!" The wolf nodded, and they both ran over.

Silver whipped around the fox, and quickly trapped him in an arm lock. "Tell us how to get Nick back!" He shouted.

Savage swung himself forward, and then back into Silver's gut knocking him away and freeing the fox. He spun around and kicked Blue, launching her off. "Sorry, but there's no way to do that!" He said to the downed mammals.

"We've done this before, and we can do it again!" Blue shouted, forcing herself up. She let out a roar of anger. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!"

She dashed at the fox, readying her fist. It started to glow with blue energy. Savage let out a large smirk.

"There it is."

Time seemed to slow down as her punch connected to the fox's face. OOO and Ankh watched on, stunned, while Silver tried to rush over to stop her.

There was a burst of energy, as the fox spin through the air, and crashed into the ground. Blue raised her paws to her mouth, realizing what she just did. "Oh gosh, Nick!" She untransformed, and ran over to the body.

He let out a groan of pain, and sat up. "You alright?" Max said, having also untransformed.

"Uh, yeah." Said the fox, in Nick's voice. "My headache's gone at least." He glanced around. "Where am I?"

Judy gave the fox a big hug, shocking him. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"We were worried about you for a while." Max said as the rabbit let go. He smacked Nick in the shoulder, causing him to let out a whine.

"Oh, everything hurts." He mumbled. "Feels like I went through a meat grinder and was put back together wrong."

"Yeah, that might be partially my fault." Said OOO, stepping forward. "I take it you're Nick Wilde?"

"Yeah." Nick said, getting to his feet. "And who are you, some kind of lion-themed superhero?"

"Oh, hold on a sec." OOO quickly swapped the medals around, turning back to his red-yellow-green form. "I'm Kamen Rider OOO."

"And I'm Ankh."

The fox looked up and yelped at the sight of the floating hand. "Oh, maybe my headache isn't gone."

"Not a hallucination, Nick." Judy said. "That guy's real, whether you like it or not."

Ankh floated down, directly into Nick's face. He floated around him, seeming to examine him. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing." He said, floating back up.

"Great, just being a creepy floating hand, huh?" Nick said. He turned back to Judy. "So, what exactly happened while I was out?"

"We'll explain everything to you at home." She said. "Besides, we need to come up with a plan to deal with that monster."

The three mammals headed off, OOO and Ankh trailing a bit behind. "You're acting a bit odd, Ankh." Eiji said. "There's something up, isn't there."

"I'm not sure." Ankh replied. "I can sense something in them but… We'll talk about it later.I have something more important I need to talk to you about, anyway."

* * *

The monstrous goat lifted his prey, a weasel, up into the air. "Please don't hurt me!" It muttered. The Yummy opened its mouth, and began to suck the medals out of the weasel. In a few moments, it became limp. The goat patted at its stomach, and headed down the alley.

The monster, after it had escaped, had gone after more mammals to steal medals from. In the last while, it had acquired over three hundred.

"You've done a lot in the last hour."

The goat's head extended and looped around to get a look behind it. It was Long. Its head retracted, and the goat turned around.

"Medals!" It grunted. "Need medals… need power!"

Long chuckled. "Ah, so that's what you're after, hmm? I think I can give you some of the power you crave." He held up a red object between two of his fingers, and tossed it into the goat's stomach.

The goat burst into a cloud of Cell Medals, which quickly began to multiply and morph into a new shape. The recombined, revealing the monster's new form.

Its head remained the same, but the bulk of its torso now extended into its back rather than its stomach, giving it a large hunch. Its feet were bigger, and more perfect for stomping. The fluff covering its body turned back, and covered more of it, excluding the belt, which was now marked with the chaos symbol, rather than the gem.

The biggest change was its arms. They were fleshy tubes, considerably closer to its extending neck than anything else. Instead of hands, it now had two more heads, minus the horns of the main one. The monster stomped on the ground, and pounded at its chest with its head-hands.

"Go get more medals now, Chaos Goat Yummy." Long said.

The monster grunted, and leaped off into the air. It crashed down into an open plaza, scaring a number of civilians. It let out a roar, before its head and arms began to extend upwards. They twisted and curled around each other in a very loose manner.

The three heads opened their mouths, and began to suck. The suction effected a massive part of the Downtown area, anyone within its range instantly collapsing. Cell Medals flew through the air, and entered the monster's horrific maws.

"This is going a lot better than I expected." Long chuckled as he watched from a nearby building. He turned into a golden mist, and floated off.

* * *

"So, Savage just… took over my body?" Nick said, shocked at what he had just heard.

Judy nodded. They were both sat on the couch, Max standing behind it, and Eiji crouching down a bit. "He said he was manipulating us from the start, that he was draining our energy in order to become stronger and take us over completely."

"Why'd he take over my body?" Nick pondered. "You're the more athletic, healthy one."

"He said something about being a personification of everyone's violence." Max explained. "I don't entirely get it, but maybe he wanted a predator's body? They are more dangerous."

"Then why didn't he just take over yours?"

"Uh…" Max froze up for a moment. "I have no idea."

"Well, whatever." Nick said. "I don't like being used for stuff like that."

"I understand." Eiji said. "I was used like that before."

"Some creep scientist guy tried to make Eiji turn into a monster so he could destroy the world." Ankh explained. "Not a very fun experience for anyone involved."

"Doesn't really sound like it." Nick said, leaning back. "So, do we even know what's going on with this… Yummy?" The fox tried not to laugh at the name, but a small chuckle came out as he said it.

"Its definitely something involving Long." Judy deduced. "He stole the treasure chest that was supposed to be full of medals."

"But what is he even trying to do?" Max asked. "Does he need the medals for something?"

She shrugged. "How are we supposed to know? Its not like he shows up that often."

"I just have a bad feeling about this." Nick said. "I think there's something bigger going on."

"How can you get bigger than what we're already at?" Judy asked. "We're already protecting the world."

"Not like that, Carrots." Nick said with a chuckle.

"He means there's something going on that you all need to be wary of." Ankh explained.

Eiji nodded. "If Long is trying to collect the Cell Medals, then there is definitely something up." He paused for a moment. "Personally, I'm more concerned about how we haven't seen any of the Greeed yet."

"They should've been freed once the chest was broken open." Ankh said. "But I haven't sensed anything other than the Yummy."

"Man, this alternate universe stuff is confusing, huh?" Nick joked, nudging Judy in the side.

There was a sudden strong gust of wind through the window. "When did it get so windy?" Judy asked, hopping off of the couch. She went over to the window to close it, but spotted something terrifying. "Guys? We have a problem."

Nick, Max, Eiji, and Ankh crowded around the window, seeing a massive object sticking out in the middle of the sky. It seemed to be creating a massive suction effect, small objects floating through the air towards it.

"What the hell is that?" Nick asked.

"The Yummy." Ankh said, sounding worried. "Its different, though… it feels stronger."

"It must've been upgraded!" Judy said, gripping her head.

"Your monsters get upgraded?" Eiji asked. "That sounds like a pain."

"Trust me, it is." Nick sighed.

Judy backed off from the window. "Alright, we definitely need a plan for this." She said. "We can't just rush in unprepared."

"Actually," Eiji started. "Me and Ankh were discussing a plan earlier. But you're not going to like it."

"Does it involve self sacrifice?" Nick asked quickly.

"What? No!"

"Then it's A-OK with me!" Judy quickly nudged the fox in the side. "It was a joke, Fluff."

She glared at him for a moment. "So, what's your plan?" Judy asked.

"Simple," Ankh started. "You three stay out of this, and we deal with the Yummy."

"WHAT!?" Judy yelled. "You can't just do this yourself! This is our city, we protect it."

"You couldn't even beat the Yummy when it was normal, how do you know you can beat an upgraded one?" Ankh argued.

"And you know Eiji can beat it by himself!?" She retorted. "Besides, we have all three of us now, we can help."

"This isn't your fight, rabbit." Ankh growled. "Why do you think we were sent here?"

"I'm coming anyway." Max said. "I wanna see you transform again. Have I mentioned that you're cool?"

"I have absolutely no say in this whatsoever." Nick said, flatly.

Eiji paused for a moment. "Alright, all of you can come."

"Seriously, Eiji!?" Ankh yelled.

"But!" He continued, raising a finger. "None of you can help unless absolutely necessary. You still have a lot to do, and I don't want any of you getting hurt."

"Fine." Judy said with a huff.

"You're such a pushover!" Ankh yelled. "You aren't helping them like this!"

"This is their city, Ankh, they deserve to at least be there." Eiji said.

"If any of them end up getting killed, don't blame me!"

"Can we stop arguing and go already!?" Nick yelled. "That thing is harming people every second we stay here making asses of ourselves!"

"Nick's right." Eiji said. "Let's go."

* * *

The five ran into the plaza, all of them looking up at the massive tower the monster had transformed into. "So, how are we supposed to handle something like this?" Nick asked. "Just asking since I have no idea what this thing does."

"It has an extendo-neck." Max said, stretching his neck as far as he could.

"Couldn't tell that myself, obviously." He muttered. Judy elbowed him again. "Seriously, stop doing that, I'm still in pain."

"He also has suction powers." Judy continued. "And he can turn into a cloud of those medals."

"Doesn't look like he's noticed us yet." OOO said, before turned to Ankh. "Should we…?"

"No." Ankh said. "Save that for when we need it." He flicked his wrist, summoning three more medals. Green, red, and blue, respectively. "Try this combo first, it should work well enough."

OOO quickly nodded. "Got it." He grabbed the medals, and placed them into the belt, running the device over it.

"KUWAGATA! KUJAKU! TAKO!"

OOO transformed again, this time turning into a mixed color form. His head was green, with two horn like protrusions and orange eyes, while his body was red, and had shoulder pads with wing like designs on them. On his arm was a large disc, marked with a large symbol. His legs were blue, and seemed to have suction cup like dots on the armor.

"Whoa!" Max said in awe. "He can do that too!?"

"How many animals is this guy?" Nick asked.

Large wings that seemed to be made of red energy burst from his back. They gave a mighty flap, sending OOO up into the air. He flew up, following the monster's neck. Electricity began to crackle between his two horns, as he let out a burst of lightning at the monster's necks.

The Yummy started to whine and screech. The suction stopped, hundreds of Cell Medals dropping to the ground around them. The creature's heads spotted the Rider, and whipped at him. OOO zipped and dodged each of the monster's necks.

His legs suddenly burst out into eight tentacles, which wrapped around the Yummy's necks, tangling them up. The monster attempted to retract the heads, but OOO flew against the monster's direction, pulling it up into the sky. He quickly flipped around, and threw the Yummy back down into the ground.

The monster crashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater. OOO gently landed back to the ground, the other running up to him. "That was impressive." Nick admitted.

"Why can't we have stuff like that?" Judy asked.

They turned to look as the monster rose up. It let out a massive roar, opening its hand-mouths. They emitted a pulse of energy, which shook the heroes. Ankh glanced around, noticing that the Cell Medals littering the ground were starting to shake themselves.

"Eiji!" He said, flying up next to OOO. He quickly summoned two more green medals. "Quick, use these."

"What? Why?"

"We have a waste problem."

Everyone looked at the shaking medals, which suddenly started to crack one by one. Dark energy seemed to flow from them, forming into an army of new monsters. They were tall, humanoid, mostly black but wrapped in part by what looked like bandages. Instead of a face, they simply had a black hole.

The monsters stumbled towards them. "What the heck are those!?" Judy asked.

"Waste Yummies!" Ankh explained. "They're by-products of destroyed Cell Medals!"

OOO quickly snatched the medals from Ankh, and wasted no time in transforming.

"KUWAGATA! KAMAKIRI! BATTA!"

OOO transformed again. His head remained the same, and his legs looked like they were in his base form. His midsection was now green, and had two blades folded up at his wrists.

"Gaaah ta-Gata-Gata-Kiri, Ba! Gatakiriba!"

"How exactly is this going to help us fight an army?" Nick asked.

Suddenly, OOO began to glow green. The energy flowed out of his body, and formed into an exact copy of him. Then it happened again. And again. And again.

Fairly soon, there were at least fifty OOO.

"How do you keep getting cooler!?" Silver yelled.

The army of OOO rushed into the Waste Yummy army, unsheathing the blades on their wrists, and began fighting them. The Waste Yummies seemed to go down easily, but there were a lot of them. The OOO didn't seem to be having any trouble, however.

Judy looked back at the main Yummy. It started to stretch out its arm-necks into the air. They quickly lashed down towards two of the OOO, chomping into them while they weren't looking. The heads swung them around, before the copies vanished in a burst of green energy.

The heads continued to attack the copies, whittling them down slowly. "Okay, I'm not gonna stand here anymore!" Judy said. "ZOO ON!" She transformed, and rushed into the crowd of Yummies slashing through two of them with her blades.

"Get back here!" Ankh shouted. The other two mammals transformed, and rushed in "Hey! We had a deal!"

"He's gonna die if we don't do something!" Red shouted back as he slashed through a Yummy. "Besides, I haven't gotten to do anything this whole episode… of my life."

Blue hopped across several of the Yummy's heads, slashing them and leaping off to the next one before they vanished. She hopped over to the nearest OOO. "Eiji? Is that you?" She asked.

OOO kicked a group of Yummies back, and shot bursts of energy out of his claws. "Technically, all of these guys are me." He said. "What is it?"

"Yeah, the goat monster is trying to kill you." She explained. "We're gonna help you now."

OOO gave a quick chuckle. "Well, guess I can't stop you." He said. He looked behind him, watching the heads strike down another two of his copies. "You guys take care of the Waste, I'll deal with the main course."

"Got it!"

The copies began to vanish, leaving behind a single OOO. His legs began to glow, before he leaped high into the air. He slashed at one of the monster's necks, causing it to retract, and then hit the ground in front of the monster.

"Are you really alright with this?" Ankh said, floating up next to him. "We are supposed to be protecting them."

"They can protect themselves." OOO said. "Trust me, they're capable."

"You're such a pushover."

Back with the Zoorangers. Red leaped into an air spin, pulling out the Vickscannon and firing it rapidly towards the army of monsters. He hit the ground, and pulled out a red ZooTag. "Wow, been a while since I used this thing!" He laughed, plugging it and pulling the trigger.

"BRING THE HEAT!  
BURNING HEART!  
BOOM BOOM!  
VICKSCANNON!"

The cannon fired a massive fireball, which quickly scorched through a large chunk of the Yummies. The fox quickly threw the cannon up in the air, and pulled out his sword, slashing at a few Yummies behind him.

Blue launched herself off a Yummy, and landed next to the fox. "You're certainly active today!" She said, quickly pulling out her blasters and firing at a few of the mummy monsters.

"I know, I just feel really rejuvenated." Red said back, slashing at another Yummy. "Oh yeah, I'm really sorry about how I acted this morning, you must've been really worried."

"Its fine!" She replied, leaping up and slashing through another monster. "You weren't entirely yourself."

"I just got frustrated because…" He paused, but quickly spun around and fired the Vickscannon at another group of Yummies. "I just don't want any of you to get hurt."

Silver rushed in, slashing his blade at both sides of him, wiping out the Yummies. "I didn't realize you were such a caring guy!" He laughed.

"Its true, you guys mean a lot to me!" He said, slashing at some more of the monsters.

"You know, if we work together…" Blue leaped up, Red holding up his sword. She leaped off of it, and spun around, firing her blasters and wiping out more of the Yummies. "We can do a whole lot more!" She finished, hitting the ground.

OOO attempted to slash at the monster with his arm blades. The monster simply transformed into a cloud of medals, and avoided the attack completely. It started to laugh as Eiji grew frustrated. "How am I supposed to beat this guy if he just keeps avoiding all my attacks?"

"I have an idea." Ankh said, floating up to him with three blue medals. "Why don't you give him a taste of his own medicine."

OOO nodded, and quickly transformed

"SHACHI! UNAGI! TAKO!"

OOO's head now had fins on it, resembling a fish, and had yellow eyes. His legs remained the same as they were with the previous mixed combination. His midsection was blue now too, and had a long whip hanging from his arm.

"Sha-Sha-Shauta, Sha-Sha-Shauta!"

"Come on, try and hit me!" OOO said, egging the monster on.

The goat grunted, and extended its head towards the Rider, who quickly transformed into a watery version of himself. Head travelled directly through his liquid body, and retracted as quickly as it had come out when the monster realized it didn't hit anything.

"Come on, try again!" OOO mocked. The monster grunted, and rushed at the Rider, attempting to hit him with its arms. The Yummy's attacks went directly through OOO's body still. The Rider walked directly through the monster. "Alright, time to finish this."

He spun around, and slid the device over his belt again. The Zoorangers ran over to watch, having just cleared out the remaining Waste Yummies.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

OOO lashed the whip at the Yummy, tangling him in it. His legs then liquified again, and burst up like a water spout, dragging the Yummy into the air alongside him. His legs reformed, but then burst into tentacles. He brought back the whip as the tentacles formed into a drill, propelling OOO towards the monster.

The drill tentacle kick connected, and brought the two back to the ground with a massive explosion. Liquid burst from the explosion, and quickly reformed into OOO, who ran up to the others. "That should do it!" He said, wiping his hands.

"That was great, Eiji!" Blue said, leaping up and giving him a high five. "Its nice to have that thing out of our fur."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Ankh started. He pointed over to the explosion. The Rangers and Rider watched as the Yummy burst from the explosion, letting out a massive roar.

"It survived a Scanning Charge!?" OOO said, baffled. "I think we're going to have to use… it."

"Its dangerous, but I agree." Ankh summoned up three red medals. "Time to team up."

"I have a feeling something really amazing is going to happen." Silver said, starting to get excited.

He put the medals into his belt, and started to transform.

"TAKA! KUJAKU! CONDOR!"

OOO transformed, his head resembling that of his base form, but with more wing-like designs on the edges, as well as red eyes. His mid section was the same as in the mixed combo, while his legs were now red, and had blade like protrusions coming from the back of them, as well as small spikes jutting up from the tip of them.

"TAAAA JAAA DORU!"

"Let's see if this guy can handle the taste of a super combo!" Ankh said.

Without hesitation, Eiji ran the device over his belt.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

Six massive wings burst from his back, lifting the Rider into the air. Large illusions of the medals appeared in front of him, pointing directly at the monster. He pointed his legs towards it, and the wings flapped, making him burst forwards.

He kicked through the three illusions, before hitting the monster and causing a massive explosion. OOO fluttered out of the explosion, and landed next to his partners again. They watched as countless medals burst from the explosion, and clanged against the pavement.

"Good going there!" Ankh said, him and the Rider gripping their hands. Ankh let go. "Wait, no…"

The medals swirled around, gathering together as the explosion cleared. They quickly reformed back into the Goat Yummy.

"Seriously!?" Red shouted. "How many times are we going to have to go through this!?"

OOO stepped forward, his eyes shining. He seemed to examine the monster intently for a moment. "There's a Cell Medal in there that looks different." He said. "It has a red marking on it."

"That's it!" Ankh said, snapping his fingers. "If we destroy that medal, we destroy the Yummy for good!"

"Got it-" OOO suddenly started to spark with electricity as he let out a groan of pain.

"The super combo is too much!" Ankh said, pulling out a yellow and green medal. "Use these before you turn back!"

OOO grabbed the medals, and replaced them with the other two. He transformed back into his base form. "Thanks for the quick save."

"No problem." Ankh said. "But that combo definitely isn't powerful enough to defeat him."

"Why don't we do it together?" Blue butted in. "That's how we get out of these jams."

"Together…" Ankh paused for a moment. "That's it!"

"What?" Sounded everyone besides Ankh.

"I've sensed something in all three of you since we got here." He explained. "There's power inside you, and I can help bring it out!"

"Great, let's get to it then!" Blue said.

"This might hurt a lot."

Ankh zipped towards the rabbit, and went into her body, causing a blue flash. It cleared quickly, leaving a small, blue medal hanging in the air in place of her. Ankh quickly grabbed it, right before Red started to scream.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"

"Don't worry, she's alive." Ankh assured. "I can bring her back at any time." He quickly dashed into the fox, transforming him into a medal as well.

"Are you sure you can do that, Ankh?" Eiji asked, a bit concerned.

"I am around ninety percent sure."

"I don't really like those estimates." Silver said, right before the hand dashed into him and transformed him into a silver medal.

Ankh handed the three medals over to OOO, who glanced down at them. Silver, red, blue, marked with a wolf's head, a fox's head, and a rabbit's head. He sighed, and plugged them into his belt.

"OOKAMI! KITSUNE! USAGI!"

OOO transformed, his head becoming silver and black, its shape changing to be pointed like a snout. His bug like eyes remained, though they were crystal white, and two protrusions, shaped like ears, extended from the mid to back section of the helmet.

His midsection and arms turned a more orangey-red, two small lumps forming on his forearms. They had tubes connected to them, connecting into his back, and had small silver tubes extending from them. His shoulder pads were also much pointier now.

His legs turned a light blue, and were covered in light armor. The biggest change was his feet, which were now more elongated, emulating that of a rabbit's feet. A dance beat started to play as he finished transforming.

"OH! KITSU SAAGI!"

"What the?" OOO said, his eyes suddenly turning green. "Is this a super combo? It feels so powerful."

His eyes shifted to a dark grey, as he started to look at himself. "Wow, this is amazing!" The Rider said, but with Max's voice. "What's going on?"

His eyes turned red. "I have no idea." He said, in Nick's voice. "But I am very uncomfortable with this."

The eyes changed to blue. "Ankh, what the heck's happening!?" She yelled, in Judy's voice.

He floated around the new OOO form, and examined it. "Interesting, four souls in one body. With that power, you can defeat that monster for good!"

"We'll try!" OOO said, switching back to Eiji.

They dashed at the monster, stumbling a bit. "How do you move with these legs!?" Judy shouted.

He started waving his arms. "These arms are way too long for my liking." Nick said. "And why don't you have any claws?"

"Hey, at least you guys can move parts of your body!" Max said. The monster watched on from a distance, and shrugged, before launching its heads towards them.

The heads struck at the mixed-up Rider, knocking them to the ground. "Alright everyone, work together!" Judy said. "Nick, work the arms, Max, keep your sights on the monster, I'll work the legs!"

The Rider hopped to their feet, and entered a battle stance. It quickly dashed at the monster, and started to rapidly punch at it. "Man, maybe I was wrong about the long arms!" Nick said.

"I'm gonna do a kick!" Judy said. The fox pulled back the punches, as their body's legs started to glow. They leaped into a roundhouse kick, smacking the monster right in the head.

The force of the kick caused the monster to go flying through the air, and crash into a building. "Wow!" Max started. "That was incredible, I didn't realize you were this strong!"

"Each medal has a different power," Eiji explained. "I guess Judy's is being really good at kicking."

"So, that means I have a special power too?" Nick said. "Great, let's test it out!"

They ran over to where the monster had landed after crashing into the side of a building. It got up, and Nick aimed his arms towards the monster, the red on him starting to glow.

They quickly shot out rapid shots of fire towards the monster, causing it stumble back even more. "Why does everything I have involve fire?" He asked himself.

"My turn next!" Max said. The silver on his head started to glow, as the Rider leaned back. The swung himself forward, letting out a massive howl, strong enough to send most of the monster's Cell Medals flying, leaving it as a malformed clump of them.

"There it is!" Ankh said, pointing towards a red medal in the center of the monster's body. "Hit that with a Scanning Charge!"

The Rider nodded, one of the arms fumbling for the device on the side of the belt. "What is this thing, anyway?" Nick asked.

"The O Scanner, just use it before he reforms!" Ankh demanded.

Nick ran the scanner over the belt.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

Almost automatically, Nick pointed the arms down, causing a burst of fire to launch them into the air. They spun around, Max letting out another howl, launching them towards the monster. Judy readied her feet as they came in contact with the monster's weak spot.

"SEIYAAAAA!"

There was an explosion, Cell Medals scattering absolutely everywhere. OOO recovered from the finisher, and looked down as the medals in his belt started to glow. They flew out, launching Eiji back, and crashed onto the ground, turning back into the mammals.

"Quick, use these before they see you!"

"TAKA! TORA! BATA! Ta-To-Ba! Tatoba, Ta-To-Ba!"

The three rangers got up, and looked back at OOO, who had transformed back to his base mode. "Good thing you guys didn't look, you almost caught Eiji in his underwear!" Ankh said.

"Hey! Don't tell them that." Eiji said, embarrassed.

"So, we beat the monster, right?" Blue asked. "We're done with this?"

"I can't sense the Yummy…" Ankh started. "But I can sense… something."

"Something tells me that we're going to have a big problem in three, two…" Red started.

The three looked over at the monster's remains, a red object floating out of it. It flew through the air, and stopped on the horizon of the city. Instead of flashing and reforming into the monster, the Chaos Badge exploded, turning into thousands of Cell Medals, which then combined into the Goat Yummy.

"Huh, happened earlier than I thought."

"How did it turn giant!?" Ankh yelled.

"Don't worry about it." Blue said.

"Yeah, this is our wheelhouse." Max continued. He pulled out a disc, which quickly caught Ankh's eye.

The three summoned their mechs, appearing in the distance to fight the monster. ZooRobo stomped forward first, slashing at the monster. The Yummy blocked it with one of his arms, causing the sword to bounce off.

The monster's arm necks extended out, lashing into ZooRobo. ZooKami rushed over and hacked at the monster's necks, but they couldn't seem to be stopped.

"Great, this thing's too strong for the robots!" Red said.

"I can't even summon anything at this rate!" Blue followed. "Silver, its up to you right now!"

"What do you think I'm trying to do!?" He shouted as ZooKami continued to hack at the monster's necks to no effect.

"Looks like they're having some trouble." OOO said. "Wish we could help them, right, Ankh?"

There wasn't a follow up.

"Ankh?" He felt at his belt. "Where did the taka medal go…?"

Silver continued to tray and cut through the monster's arms, to no effect. "What am I supposed to do!?" He yelled, slamming his head onto the control panel.

"I think I can help."

He looked up, spotting the floating hand of Ankh. "How did you get in here?" The wolf asked, confused.

"Never mind that." He said, pulling out a red medal. "I think you can use this."

Silver grabbed it. "I can use one of these?"

"Try putting in that slot there."

Silver slid the medal into the slot on the control panel. The entire room started to glow red, as an eagle's screech could be heard. "What's happening!?"

A massive emblem appeared in the night sky above the monster and the robots. All three looked up at it in awe. "Is it the apocalypse already?" Red joked.

"I think its…" Blue started. He ears popped out as something flew through it.

It was a massive, robotic eagle, colored red and black. It let out another screech, and made its way for ZooKami. The robot held out its arm, and the eagle perched on it, fusing perfectly with its arm. Its arm now resembled an axe, with the wings as blades.

"Whoa!" Silver said. "Is this my own extra mech!?" He was giddy at this point. "I'm going to call it…" He struck an over dramatic pose in the seat. "KAMIEAGLE!"

"You need to come up with a better name." Ankh chided, the wolf's ears drooping a bit.

ZooKami swung the wings into the Yummy's arms, slicing it in two. The monster roared in pain, as the robot stomped over and cut off its other arm. "That thing's pretty cool!" Red admitted. "Can it do anything else?"

"Let's find out!"

Silver aimed the bird directly towards the armless monster, which started to stumble back. The eagle began to glow red, and let out another screech while flapping its wings. It fired off of ZooKami's arm and towards the monster. It crashed through the Yummy's body, causing the monster to stumble and then explode into thousands of Cell Medals.

Silver watched as a small flying object started quickly lapping up the medals before they could hit the ground. It was definitely Ankh, who had disappeared from the cockpit.

ZooKami looked up at the eagle, which gave one last screech before flying up and into the emblem, which quickly vanished.

"Aw." He sighed. "I wanted to keep it."

"You can always combine with us, remember?" Blue said.

"I guess, but… I liked having my own thing."

The mechs vanished, and the three landed back next to OOO. "That was incredible!" He said, walking up to them. He turned to Silver. "How did you summon that big eagle?"

"Ankh gave me one of the medals, apparently it just works with the mechs." He answered, shrugging.

"There's a lot of weird things with those robots." Red said. "There was that whole thing with the train…"

"We'll tell you about that later, we promise." Blue said.

"Ah, that was a good round of medals." Ankh said, floating back up to the group. He flicked his wrist, summoning the taka medal. "Here's your medal back, Ei-"

Suddenly, a golden blur rushed past them, snatching Ankh right out of the sky. The turned to look, seeing…

"LONG!" The Zoorangers shouted stepping forward.

The armored monster held Ankh in one hand, gripping tightly to his wrist. The arm let out a horrible scratchy moan of pain. In the other hand held the taka medal. "Nice to see you again, Zoorangers." He laughed. "Also nice that you managed to walk right into my plan. And you even gave it to me gift wrapped."

"Let go of Ankh!" OOO yelled. He stepped forward, causing Long to grip onto the medal harder. Ankh's grunts turned to near screams of pain.

"If you come any closer, I'll smash this medal into tiny pieces." Long threatened. OOO instantly stepped back, as Long loosened the grip on the medal.

"Y-you…" Ankh groaned. "How… are you… alive!?"

"Ankh, do you know Long!?" Blue shouted.

"Oh, he does." Long said with a laugh. "But I know him much better. I was there when he was born."

"Wait, if you were there when he was born…" OOO paused for a moment. "That means you're eight hundred years old!?"

"Don't flatter me too hard." Long laughed. "Now, Ankh, I'll let you go, but you need to give me something first."

The hand clenched into a fist.

"I need all the Cell Medals you just collected. And if you don't do it willingly, I can do it myself."

Two Rinshi hopped up to Long, each of them holding open a bag. Long held Ankh over the bag, and squeezed even harder, causing medals to start pouring out into it. In a few moments, the bag was filled to the brim.

"Excellent." He tossed the hand and the medal back over to the group. "I could've just killed him, you know. But I have bigger chickens to cook."

He thrust his hand towards the Rinshi, firing lighting that completely obliterated them in a second. He grabbed the bag, and turned into golden mist, which flew off.

Eiji ran up to Ankh's body, and picked him up. "You alright, Ankh?" He asked.

"The only thing that hurts worse than my body… is my pride…"

* * *

"So, how exactly do you know Long?" Judy asked as they walked out into the outskirts of the city.

"Like he said, he was there when me and the other Greeed were created." He explained. "That was eight hundred years ago, and he looked completely different."

"How could you tell it was him, then?" Nick asked.

"He had an… aura."

"So, you're getting picked up by a big train?" Silver asked, trying to move the conversation along. "Is this the time travelling one or the rainbow one?"

"Rainbow one." Eiji said.

"I wouldn't go on the DenLiner again if you forced me." Ankh growled.

"Seriously what is it with you guys and trains?" Silver asked, turning to his friends.

"Don't ask us." Nick shrugged.

"I just can't believe all those Cell Medals got taken." Ankh continued. "What does someone that isn't a Greeed even need that many for?"

"Probably something world shattering, judging by that guy's power." Eiji said.

There was a sudden burst of light above them, all five looking up. An incredibly long train was moving through the air, and heading directly towards them. It skidded across the grass, and came to a halt.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye." Eiji said to the Zoorangers. "It was nice, if a bit weird, fighting alongside you."

"You can say that again." Nick joked, receiving another elbow to the side by Judy.

"Its always nice working with heroes as experienced as you are." Judy said, giving a quick salute. "Maybe we'll meet again at some point."

"Highly unlikely." Ankh said, a bit snide.

Max stepped up, a bit cautiously. "Hey, do you think I could… borrow that red medal?"

"Well, I do have two more…" Eiji said, thinking about it.

"Seriously!?" Ankh yelled. "That's my soul!"

"Kidding!" Eiji said, Ankh quickly slapping him. "Ow. Sorry, but this medal is incredibly important to me. I know you think they're cool, but… maybe you can find something about yourself that's just as cool."

Max nodded. "I'll try my best."

"One last thing before we go," Ankh started. "What happened to all those people that the Yummy stole medals from?"

"The news said they'll be fine." Judy said, shrugging. "They just need to rest."

"Great, so I could've saved some medals..." Groaned the hand.

The train car door opened, Ticket popping out. "Hey, are you numbskulls ever going to get on!?"

"Sorry, we were just saying goodbye!" Eiji said. "See you all!" He said with a wave as him and Ankh rushed over and entered the train. The door slid closed, and the Rainbow Line took off into the air.

"Was that a puppet?" Max asked, a bit stunned.

"Yep." Judy said, nonchalantly.

"Better not to think about these things that much." Nick said. "It'll save you a headache."

Max and Nick started off, but the fox turned around as he realized Judy wasn't following. "Hey, Carrots!" He shouted from several yards away. "Are you coming home, or…?"

"Oh, yeah!" She said, ears perking up. She quickly ran back over to Nick. "Sorry, I was just… thinking."

"About what?" He said, nudging her. "About how great I am?"

"Far from it." She sighed, but with a bit of a laugh. "I think you're right."

"Well, that's new." He said. "What am I right about, exactly?"

"I don't think we're strong enough."

"Carrots, aren't you usually optimistic about this sort of thing?" He said, a bit worried.

"I don't know if I can be." She admitted. "We haven't grown, we couldn't even handle that monster without help from Eiji. He was clearly stronger than us."

"So, what are you saying?" Max asked. "How are we supposed to get stronger?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "That's what has me worried, we're not getting any stronger, while our enemies are planning against us. We can't just relax like this any more."

"If you're getting at what I think you're getting at…"

"We need to train."

The fox let out a massive groan.

* * *

"Wait, Chief Herder's coming today!?" Said one of the scientists, a gazelle, in surprise.

"Apparently!" Leopold shouted. "I just got the call like, five minutes ago, I have no idea what he's doing!"

"What if its layoffs?" Another scientist, a rhino, suggested. All three of them cringed at the prospect.

"Whatever it is, everyone look like they're busy!" Leopold ordered. "I know we've just been taking a break for the last week, but if Herder finds out he will freak out!"

The door behind him slammed open, causing his fur to stand on edge. "What were you saying, Leopold?"

"Nothing sir!"

There was a loud scraping noise. Leopold turned around, seeing the goat trying to drag in a massive treasure chest. "What is that?"

"I'll tell you if you help me bring it in!" Herder demanded.

The three scientists helped drag the chest into the room. Everyone there crowded around to look at it. Leopold gazed into it, and pulled out one of the many medals swimming around its inside. "Sir, are these…?"

"Indeed they are, Leopold." He said with a grin. "I have a bag full of them in my car."

"This is incredible!" The leopard said, trying to hold as many as he could in his paws. "We can continue development on the weapons now!"

"You definitely can." Herder said. "But I have a quick revision. I want to talk to you about it in private, Leopold."

"Oh, yes sir!"

Leopold and Herder moved through the crowd, and walked towards an office. "Trust me, Leopold." Herder said, opening the door.

"This is going to change the city forever."

* * *

"Pretty interesting game you're playing, Long."

Long turned from the sight of city's skyline to see Enter. "Oh, Enter, haven't seen you in a while." He said, calmly.

"I've been readying for my game." He said. "But I see you've already found a Mon'Amie in Savage, hmm?"

"I'm impressed you found that out." Long said. "You do have eyes and ears everywhere, huh?"

"I'm going to cut to the chase." Enter said, still calm. "Just what, exactly, are you planning."

"Easy." Long said with a laugh. "I'm going to ruin the Zoorangers forever."

"How exactly do you plan to do that?"

Long walked up to Enter, and held out two objects. Enter's eyebrows raised up in surprise.

They were statues, one resembling a rabbit, and the other a fox.


	26. Trainy-ing! Controlling Your Qi

"Alright guys, ready for another go?"

There was a collective groan from the other two. Judy turned to look at them. The fox and wolf were dressed in light exercise outfits, both looking incredibly tired. "You know we're both nocturnal, right?" Nick asked, rubbing his eyes.

The three had started (Or rather, Judy forced Nick and Max) to train early in the morning. They had been doing it for the past week, the regiment consisting mostly of jogging around the park, and then doing various other activities like sit-ups and push-ups.

"You know this is necessary." Judy said. She was also dressed in workout clothes. "We need to get stronger to keep fighting, and we can't get stronger if we don't start working out more!"

"Do we have to do it at five AM?" Max asked.

"Yes." The rabbit said, bluntly. "Its always better to work out in the morning than at night. Besides, aren't you guys excited to see how we are tomorrow?" She asked. "We're gonna beat whatever they throw at us no problem!"

"It's been hurting how we do at work, Carrots." Nick said. "Max and I show up tired, and I have to sleep in the car for two hours."

"At least you don't have to drive." Max said.

"The fate of the world is a lot more important than our jobs." Judy said. "So, if you show up tired, no big deal. As long as we get stronger. Right?"

The two nodded, weakly.

"Great!" She said, clasping her paws. "Let's get to it! Like always, three laps around the park first!" She dashed off.

The fox and wolf looked at each other, both letting out massive groans. Reluctantly, they both ran off after her.

Around an hour later, the three had finished exercising.

"Woo!" Judy let out, before chugging down the last of her water. "Wasn't that invigorating?"

She looked at Nick, who was laying belly down on the ground. "Everything hurts." He groaned, slightly muffled by his tongue hanging out.

She looked over at Max, who was also laying on the ground, his legs up in the air. "I feel like a corpse." He muttered, before rolling over.

"You two are so overdramatic." Judy said, rolling her eyes. "You don't have to do this every day."

"How else are we supposed to tell you that we hate this?" Nick asked, getting up.

"I know you both hate it, but training is important." She said. "You would know that if you passed paw-to-paw at the academy."

"She's got you there." Max said, also getting up.

Judy pulled out her phone. "Oh cheese and crackers, its almost time for work!" She yelled. "You want a ride, Max?"

"A ride doesn't involve walking all the way back to my place, so yeah."

They headed over to the cruiser, and got in. "Hey, I have a question." Nick said as the car started to move.

"Is this about how you can get out of training?" Judy asked. "Because you can't."

"No, its just…" He paused for a moment. "For the last week, we've mostly just been patrolling. Do you think we can tackle an actual case with this early morning training?"

Judy scoffed. "We're great officers, we can handle anything." She said. 'I don't think we have anything to worry about.

* * *

The apartment door slammed open, the fox and rabbit sluggishly dragging their bodies in.

"'Oh, we can handle it.'" Nick started, performing a rude imitation of Judy.

"Nick…"

"Went really well, didn't it?" He said, angry. He flopped down onto the couch. "Great police officers, woo!" He raised his fist into the air, sarcastically.

"Nick, I didn't know that we'd-" She tried to continue, before the fox interrupted her.

"I didn't know lemmings could be master thieves!" He shouted. "We ran around the city for fifteen hours, and didn't even catch one of them!"

"We can worry about that later." She said. "Its midnight, and we have bigger things to worry about."

He sighed. "Sorry for yelling." He said. "I'm just really tired."

"I am too. Let's just go to bed."

The fox sat up. "Good idea."

The two headed for their rooms, Judy pausing for a moment. She let out a chuckle, and turned to the fox before he entered his room. "Hey, at least we don't have to train tomorrow, right?"

Nick laughed back. "Risking our lives fighting a monster is much more manageable than your training."

The two entered their rooms, and both of them nearly instantly passed out.

As Judy slept in her bed, dreaming about what could possibly happen the next day, she was unaware as something came into her room. A golden mist seeped through the cracks in her window, reforming into a massive red eyed creature that could barely fit into the room.

It looked down at her, silently, and pulled out an object. It placed the object on the rabbit's head, it seeming to disappear into her skull. The creature waved a hand over her, sending a wave of purple energy.

The creature disappeared into a burst of golden mist, which moved through the cracks in her door, and then into Nick's room. It reformed, still too large to fully fit. IT repeated the exact same process on the fox, and gave a small laugh once it finished.

It dispersed into mist again, and retraced its path out of the building. It reformed in the alley outside.

"The first step has been set." It said to itself. "The rest… is up to them."

* * *

It snapped its fingers.

Unlike Nick and Judy, Max HAD only gone on patrol that day. He got home much earlier, and got a much better sleep.

Well, until the monster alert went off.

The loud beeping shocked him awake. He scrambled to slap the device onto his wrist, scooping it up from his nightstand and fumbling with it.

As he put the device on, the information of where the attack was happening filled his mind. He got out of bed, and picked up his phone. "Hopefully they're up for it after today." He sighed, before speed dialling up Nick.

"Hey, this is Nick Wilde's answering machine. If you're trying to reach me, I'm either too busy to answer, or I'm ignoring you."

Why did he even call Nick?

"Hello, this is Judy Hopps."

"Judy, It's me, we have-"

"I can't come to the phone right now, so, if its important, please leave a message."

The wolf fell into silence as a beep sounded. Judy never missed his calls, especially on Mondays. Were they really that tired? At the least, the beeping should have woken them up.

He thought for a moment, always best to do that before panicking. The monster was located very near their apartment going by what the Zoolizer told him, they probably noticed it and were in the middle of fighting it. That's why they couldn't answer their phones.

Hopefully he was right.

Max rushed out of his house, and transformed, before leaping off into the night sky.

* * *

Silver rushed into the middle of a plaza, lined with large trees. There wasn't anyone, or anything, there. No monsters, no other Rangers. Just him.

He was pretty sure this was the place, though.

Silver glanced around the plaza, looking for something. His ears picked up the sound of… something flying towards him?

Before he could react, something scraped past his midsection, plunging into the ground in front of him. It was an arrow, silver, and with an odd, bushy… tail at the end of it.

He pulled it out of the ground and examined it. Alright, there was definitely someone here, but…

Before he could finish his thought, a rain of energy shot down at him, causing sparks to fly off of him as the wolf was knocked to the ground. He got back up quickly, and looked around, still no sign of anyone. Whatever this monster was, it was toying with him.

He looked up, seeing something in the sky, glittering. He spun the guard on his blade around, switching it to Moon Mode. He thrust the laser whip up towards it, but more of the energy fired from the flying thing, breaking the whip.

That could've gone better.

More arrows flew at him, which the wolf quickly dodged. Then more energy knives rained from the sky, which he also avoided narrowly.

Wait, was he dealing with TWO monsters here!?

He spun around, quickly switching his blade to Sun Mode, and sprayed a burst of fireballs around him. Before one of the fireballs hit a tree, something leaped out of it and hit the ground.

"Well, I was hoping to keep that going a bit longer!" The monster laughed as it stepped forward.

He heard the other monster land behind him. "Well, we don't have much time." It said. "So maybe it's better just to get this over with quickly." Silver quickly glanced back and forth at the two.

The first monster had a red and white head, with blue eyes and pointed ears. It also wore a blue longcoat, which seemed to be covered in decorative eyes… or maybe not decorative, Silver wasn't entirely sure. It wore rather normal brown boots, and white, baggy pants. A furry collar went around its neck, which split off into a tail at the back. The monster seemed to have a large fox's head embedded in its chest.

The second monster seemed to be female, and was mostly covered in dull browns and golds, aside from a few sections on her arms and legs which were colored pink and blue. It had rather long, blade-like ears, or at least what could at best be described as ears. Its head seemed to be completely featureless, only having a few black slits where its eyes should be. It had very large sleeves, each of which had several large knives hanging from them. On its chest, between its breasts, was a design that seemed to mimic the head of a rabbit.

"Who are you two?" Silver asked, continuing to look at them.

"Fox Fist User, Tsuneki!" The fox monster said. It twirled around a blue and brown bow, before bowing. "At your service!"

Fairy Fist User, Hiso." The other one said, in a much more collected tone. "The master sent us here to kill you."

"You can't kill me." Silver scoffed. "I'm not the only who's going to fight you! My teammates will show up soon enough."

The two monsters started laughing.

"What's so funny!?"

"Sorry, wolfy boy," Tsuneki started. "But your friends aren't coming to save your hide this time!"

"Maybe you should just run along and play with your toys." Hiso mocked.

Silver stumbled a bit, before turning to the rabbit monster. "How did you…?"

Tsuneki quickly fired multiple arrows in Silver's direction, striking him in the back while he was distracted. "Keep your eyes on the hunt, boy!" The monster shouted. "You should really focus on getting out of this alive!"

The wolf growled, and rushed at Tsuneki, swinging his sword at it. The fox monster blocked the blade with his bow, and smacked Silver back with it. He then felt multiple strikes in the back as Hiso jabbed at him rapidly.

Silver fell to the ground, and Tsuneki crouched down to look at him. "Are you sure the boss really wants us to kill this guy?" He asked. "He's way too weak, I don't even sense any qi on him. I think we're too good for this."

"I'M too good for this." Hiso said, harshly. "This guy fits perfectly on a Beastial Qi Fist User's level."

"That hurts, you know?"

Silver quickly got up, and socked Tsuneki right in the face, knocking him to the ground. He spun around and attempted to strike Hiso with his sword. The rabbit monster effortlessly grabbed onto the blade.

"See, he's totally on your level." Hiso said, not even seeming to notice the wolf, who was trying to push his blade into her hand.

"Ugh, shut up."

Hiso flipped the blade out of the way, and delivered a few quick kicks to Silver's gut, knocking him back. The fox monster quickly got up, and cracked his bow over Silver's skull, knocking him back to the ground. "I'm not this pathetic." Tsuneki scoffed.

Hiso picked the wolf back up from the ground, and delivered a few slashes to him with the knives on her wrist. He stumbled into Tsuneki's grasp, the fox wrapping his arms around his. Hiso stepped forward and kicked the wolf directly in the snout, before rapidly jabbing him in the stomach. She stepped back as Tsuneki let go, Silver stumbling forward.

He felt a sharp pain in his back. Tsuneki had just stabbed him with an arrow. He ripped it out of the wolf's back, causing him to untransform and fall back to the ground. He was battered and beaten, parts of his fur tangled with blood.

"Just pathetic." Hiso said.

"It isn't fair…" Max mumbled.

Tsuneki crouched down again. "What was that, wolfy?"

"Its not fair." He sputtered. "Two against one… isn't fair…"

"Wah wah, cry me a river." The fox said, getting up and kicking the wolf over. "There's no such thing as fairness in a hunt."

"I suppose its time to finish you off." Hiso said, placing a foot on top of the wolf's battered body. She paused for a second, before removing her foot. "…You got lucky this time, wolf."

"Whats going on?" Tsuneki asked.

"Master says to keep him alive." She said. "We're almost out of time anyway, we should head back."

"Awwwww." Tsuneki groaned. "It would have been hilarious to see their faces!"

Hiso slapped him in the face. "This isn't about your personal amusement, lower level." She said. "This is about appeasing Master Long."

"Why should I, I barely know the guy!" Tsuneki said. Hiso turned to him, and grabbed him by the throat.

"Because I'm stronger than you, so if you don't want to be killed, you do what I say."

She quickly let go. "Jeez, fine." The fox finished, before they leaped off into the horizon.

Max let out a groan as he rolled onto his back. "Everything's fine. You've survived worse than this." He said to himself, weakly. That was a lie. He had never been in as much pain as he was right now.

He laid there on the cold ground, and he could only think one thought.

Where were Nick and Judy?

* * *

"So, this is Zootopia."

The figure looked around as early morning light shone over the city. The white creature pulled out a map, and examined it. "Flots Flats…" He said to himself. "Should be around there… but where am I?" He glanced around. There were no street signs nearby, the road seemed to be one way – leading directly to the entrance he came in from.

He spotted a pig, who seemed to be getting the paper at the front of his lawn. He jogged over to him, putting the map in his belt. "Excuse me, sir!"

The pig glanced up, taken aback by the creature's appearance. "What the heck are you supposed to be?"

He looked down at his white outfit. "I'm, uh…" He paused as an idea came to him. "I'm a Zoo Ranger!"

"Oh, you're one of those weirdo heroes." The pig said, dismissively. "Why are one of you guys talking to me?"

"I just want to know what street I'm on." He said. "I'm new here, trying to find a place."

"Oh, so you're a tourist super hero." The pig said. "Well, you're on Prairie Road. This is where tourists from overseas come in most of the time."

He pulled out his map. "Alright, Prairie Road… Shouldn't be too far from here." There was a sudden loud grumbling noise. The figure kneeled down clutching his stomach. "Ohhh, I haven't had breakfast yet!" He glanced back up at the pig. "Are there any good breakfast places nearby?"

"Uh, there's a few nearby."

"Is there any with, uh…" He paused and looked at the pig. How could he make this not completely awkward? "Is there any place that sells… meat… products?"

"Well, Buga Burger has a good breakfast menu." The pig said, surprisingly not seeming weirded out. "Pancakes, hashbrowns, I heard the centipede breakfast sandwich is pretty good."

"Oh, I… I think I'll pass on that." He said, getting up. "What about fish?"

"There's a fish market nearby." The pig said. "You can probably find something there."

He gave a quick bow. "Thank you!" He then quickly dashed off.

'Man, I just want some pork buns…"

* * *

The fox sat up in his bed, and let out a big yawn, stretching his arms out. He smacked his lips a few times, and got up. He exited the room to see Judy up. She was always an early bird.

"Man," He started, sitting down on the couch. "I had a really good sleep last night."

"Saaame." Judy said back. She brought over some coffee, and sat down next to him. "It feels really nice to not have to wake up that early."

"You're the one who wanted to do this training thing," Nick chuckled. "And now you're happy you don't have to do it?"

"Oh, please." She scoffed. "I just have more energy than you two, it still sucks getting up that early."

"So, should we get ready for today's scheduled monster attack?" Nick asked as he sipped some of his coffee.

"Lets just relax for a bit."

Judy's ears popped up as a loud knock sounded from their door. It was less a knock, actually, and more of a pound.

The rabbit got up, and went over to the door. She opened it up, revealing the injured Wolford.

"Hey, how's everything going?" He said as he stumbled in.

"Oh my god!" Judy yelled, seeing the state of the wolf. "Max, what happened!?"

Nick got up, and quickly helped the wolf to his feet as he started to tip over. "Did the Wolf Pack get to you or something?"

They lead the wolf over to the couch, and sat him down. "I'll try not to get any blood on the couch." He said, weakly.

"Who cares!?" Judy shouted. "Just tell us who did this to you!"

"Two monsters…" He said. "Why weren't you there…?"

"Two monsters?" Nick said. "That's new."

"What's not new is our Zoolizers acting wonky." Judy said. "Even after we had them fixed. They probably didn't go off last night."

"Or we slept through them."

"We're really sorry." Judy said to the wolf. "I'm team leader, I should've been there."

"Don't worry." Max said with a weak laugh. "I'll be fine, I just need a… quick nap." He fell over onto the couch cushions, fast asleep.

"So, how are we going to handle this one?" Nick asked. "We've never had to deal with two monsters before."

"I think I have an idea." Judy said. "But you're not going to like it."

* * *

"You're right, I do hate this."

The two were sitting in the cruiser, dressed in their uniforms. They were on the job, on a day they usually weren't. "I was really hoping for at least a bit of a break." Nick complained.

"We're doing this because we need to look out for anything suspicious." Judy explained. "If the two monsters attack, there could be lots of mammals hurt. As long as we're aware, we'll be able to take them out."

"Oh, I get it." Nick said, not entirely getting it. "I will admit, it was pretty impressive how you talked us out of that fiasco from yesterday."

"Grizzoli and Trunkaby might not be fast, but they're clever." Judy said. "I'm pretty confident they can catch those thieves."

"They just sounded glad to have an actual case." Nick chuckled. He paused for a moment. "I am PARCHED! What's say we stop at the nearest Snarlbucks to get some supplies for this little stakeout?"

"You just want to try out the new mocha flavor, don't you?"

"You know me too well, Carrots."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll get you something at Snarlbucks." She paused for a moment. "I am kind of hungry."

A few minutes later, the two pulled into the Snarlbucks parking lot. Both of them hopped out of the cruiser, and headed in through the medium sized doors. "I'm gonna go to the little fox's room, alright?" Nick said.

"At least tell me what you want first."

"Plain donut, and one of the new blueberry mochas, extra whip."

The fox quickly headed off towards the bathroom as Judy got in line. She waited for a few minutes, occasionally moving forward to match with the line. It always took so long. About five minutes later, she was almost at the end.

She looked around. Usually Nick would tell her he was done when they made snack runs. It had been a while, and the fox still hadn't come out of the bathroom.

Her Zoolizer started beeping.

Mammals from around the shop stared at her. She gave a sheepish grin, before running off to the bathroom.

She pounded on the door. "Nick, we have an emergency!"

No response. She pounded louder. Still nothing.

She took a deep breath, and opened the door. "What are you even doing-" She stopped as she looked around the small restroom. It was empty.

Judy rushed out of the Snarlbucks as fast as she could. She spotted the cruiser, no one was sitting inside it.

Where did Nick go!?

She shook it off. Maybe he ran off to fight the monster without telling her. It didn't matter, since the longer she tried to figure this out, the more innocent mammals would be hurt.

She dashed behind the Snarlbucks, and quickly transformed. She ran off.

* * *

Blue stopped in a park, tall trees planted throughout. The park was only a short while from the Snarlbucks, so it didn't take her that long to run there.

She walked around, through the shade of the mid-morning sun. She heard footsteps nearby, instinctively pulling out her blasters in case it was a monster. The footsteps got closer, and she spun around to see who it was.

"Hey, put those things down!"

It was Silver. She sighed in relief. "You got the alert too?" She asked. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Like I said, I just needed a quick nap." Silver assured her. "Besides, there are three of us here, so we can them even if there are two!" He paused and looked around. "Where's Red?"

"I was hoping you could answer that."

"So, you don't know where he is?" Blue looked at the wolf for a moment. "Alright, that was a dumb question."

The two heard a rustling in the trees above them, causing them to go on full alert. Blue leaped back as an arrow flew at her feet. Silver leaned down and examined the arrow, it was the same kind the fox monster from last night was using.

"The monsters are definitely here." Silver said. He sniffed around. "Well, one of them is."

"Two on one is better than two on two." Blue said, prepping her daggers.

The two looked around at the trees, watching for movement. Blue's ears perked as she heard rustling in the leaves. She spun around and tossed her daggers into the tree, a loud yelp sounding from it.

The fox monster tumbled from the tree, landing to the ground on his side. It got up, and pulled the daggers from its back, tossing them to the ground. "What's the big idea!?" He yelled, stomping over to them. "You aren't supposed to throw things at me, I'm supposed to do that to you!"

"Who cares!?" Blue shouted, pulling out her blasters and firing at the monster.

It quickly knocked the blasts away with its bow. "What's the matter rabbit," It started. "I thought you had a thing for foxes?"

"What?"

As the rabbit was distracted, Tsuneki pulled out three arrows, and quickly fired all of them at once. The two leaped back as the arrows plunged into the ground. Silver quickly leaped back towards the monster, over the arrows, and clashed his blade with the fox monster's bow.

"Hunting a wounded animal is never fun!" Tsuneki said, quickly reversing Silver's strikes. He spun around and roundhouse kicked the wolf away. "Why don't you go back to licking your wounds?"

"Shut it!" He spun the guard around, switching it to Moon Mode. "Blue, lets do this together!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" She said, starting to dash forward.

Silver whipped the blade forward, lashing the rope of light around the monster's wrist. Blue leaped up, getting some leverage by pushing off of the wolf's head. She fired her blasters at the monster's bow, causing him to drop it.

"Ouch!" It shouted as the bow clanked to the ground. Silver quickly dashed up, and grabbed the bow. "Hey!" The monster shouted. "Give that back!" Silver delivered a quick kick to the monster's chest, knocking him back.

"Sorry, but your hunt's over!" The wolf said, cracking the bow over his knee. He tossed the pieces to the ground, awaiting a response from Tsuneki.

Instead of the anger he was expecting, Tsuneki simply laughed.

"You two are such idiots!"

"We just destroyed your only weapon!" Blue shouted. "You're the idiot for laughing about it!"

"Oh yeah, my only weapon." It scoffed. Tsuneki held out his hand, a burst of purple energy suddenly igniting from it. The energy shifted into the form of a new bow. "This bow is merely an extension of my Fox Style, I can just create another with my Qi!"

"Well, isn't that something." Silver said, both of the Rangers a bit shocked.

"Doesn't mean we can't just destroy it again!" The rabbit said. She quickly fired at the bow again, the monster quickly sidestepping out of the way of the blaster's fire.

"This is where the real hunt begins, friends!"

Tsuneki pulled out what looked like a simple leaf, and placed it on his forehead. Suddenly, around fourteen clones of the fox monster extended out from him, encircling the two Zoorangers.

They all aimed their bows at the two, and fired. Before the arrows could hit, the two leaped out of the circle, and onto the other side.

Tsuneki snapped his fingers, causing the clones to jump off into the trees. "If you two want to complete this hunt, you're going to have to find the real me!" He leaped off into the trees himself, vanishing from sight.

"Oh great." Blue sighed. She looked around, the shade of the massive trees blocking out the sun entirely. There were a lot of hiding places in this park, how would they even be able to find one of them? "This gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Hey, don't worry!" Silver said. He tapped at the snout of his helmet. "I've got their scent, we'll just follow it until we find the real one!"

"Good thinking, Silver!" Blue complimented, jumping up and giving the wolf a fist bump. "You sniff, I follow."

Silver nodded, and started sniffing around the area. He dashed off, Blue following right behind him. They ran for a moment, before Silver stopped between four trees.

"I'm getting an overwhelming fox stench here." He said. The wolf recoiled a bit. "There's another smell, smells really bad."

"Is it connected to the monster?" Blue asked.

"Its hard to tell since its just a smell, but-"

Blue's ears twitched as she picked up the sound of rustling in the leaves. "WATCH OUT!" She pushed Silver out of the way as four arrows launched towards them. The arrows connected in the air, and clattered to the ground.

"They're in the trees!" She said. Blue quickly fired her blasters into the trees, but before the shots could hit, the fox monster leaped out and surrounded them.

One of the Tsuneki clones rushed at Blue, who leaped into the air and slashed it with her daggers. The clone burst into a puff of smoke, leaving behind a single leaf.

Silver locked his blade with another clone's bow. He pulled his sword back, and jabbed it between the bow and the string. He pulled it back, tossing the bow away, much to the clone's dismay. He then thrust the saber into the monster's chest, causing it to poof away.

"At least we know they're ridiculously weak." Blue said, a bit thankful.

She quickly spun around, and slashed at the ankles of another Tsuneki that was sneaking up on her. It fell down, but before it could crash into her she stuck her daggers into the air. The monster was impaled on them, and burst into smoke.

The last of the clones backed up nervously, and prepared to shoot an arrow. Silver nonchalantly switched his blade to Sun Mode, and shot a fireball forward. The Tsuneki clone fired as well, but the fireball incinerated the arrow as it passed through. The flame struck the clone, who caught on fire, and then vanished.

"Four down, ten to go." Blue said, twirling her daggers. "Got a scent, Silver?"

He sniffed around for a moment. "Yeah, there's something over there!"

They ran forward for a bit, until Silver suddenly stopped in the middle of an even more heavily forested area. "They should be around here some-"

Before he could finish, arrows began shooting out from the trunks of the trees. The two danced around as the arrows continued to rapidly fire, them only barely managing to dodge most of them.

"Can you even see them!?" Blue shouted, looking around as she continued to dodge between arrows.

"No, they're too fast!"

"Don't you have a thing for that!?"

"Oh yeah!"

Between shots, Silver quickly spun his blade's guard, turning it to Eclipse Mode. Time seemed to slow down for the wolf. He looked around at the arrows, tons of them hanging in the air. He unleashed a flurry of sword strikes all around him.

Time returned to normal, and the arrows completely halted. The dozens of arrows shattered into pieces, and collapsed to the ground. "Thanks for the breathing room!" Blue said. "Time for me to finish this."

She pulled out a blue ZooTag, and plugged it into her Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The gloves appeared on her paws, complimented by a bell ringing. She hopped from foot to foot, the two waiting for something to happen.

An arrow flew, and the rabbit leaped up to deliver a punch directly to it. The arrow split from the force of the punch. The forest stood still afterwards.

"I don't think you'll be able to take them all out unless you, y'know, can see them." Silver said.

"Guess you're right." She said. "But, maybe I can…"

She winded up a punch, and slammed the glove into the ground. The force of the punch caused a massive quake, shaking the ground for a good few meters. Out of the shade of the trees stumbled the ten other Tsuneki clones, who were dazed by the quake.

"Get behind me!" Blue shouted. Silver did as she said, not really understanding why. The rabbit began punching forward rapidly, unleashing bursts of energy towards one of the clones. She began to turn, Silver following behind her, still unleashing her fury at them.

She had made a complete circle in only a few moments. They watched as the monster flailed in pain for a moment, before they all disappeared in puffs of smoke.

"Alright, that just leaves the real one!" Blue said. "Catch his scent yet?"

Silver sniffed around for a moment. "I can't smell it any more." He said, shrugging.

"Wait…" She paused for a moment. "HE GOT AWAY!?"

"Looks like it."

Judy untransformed, and smacked herself in the face multiple times. "WE WERE SO CLOSE!"

"Listen," Max started, also untransforming. "If he got away, that means he's going to attack somewhere else very soon."

"Good point." She sighed. "I'm going to head back to work. You go… rest."

"I said that I'm fine now." Max reiterated. "I'll just head back to my house and wait for the monster alert to go off again. "See you in an hour, probably."

He started to walk off through the forest. Judy started off as well, but glanced back.

Max was limping.

* * *

Judy walked back in to the Snarlbucks parking lot. She glanced at the cruiser as she got closer to it. There was movement inside.

Nick was there.

She wanted to dash up to the car, but she was both incredibly disappointed in the fox, and just glad to see him alive. She walked slowly towards the car, making sure the fox spotted her disappointed slash angry expression. He clearly did, his ears dropping down and eyes widening.

She quietly opened the door, and slid into the driver's seat. "Alright, what did I do now?" He asked.

"You know what you did."

"Clearly I don't if I have to ask."

Judy rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You abandoned me during a monster attack!" She yelled. "Why would you ever do that!? We're a team!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," He started. "I didn't even know there was a monster attack! I've been waiting in the car for twenty minutes!"

She glared at him. "Did you just get back to the car?"

"Yeah."

"Nick, an hour passed between you going too the bathroom and now."

He blinked at her a few times, confused. "What?"

"A few minutes after you went to the bathroom, a monster alert went off." She explained. "You weren't in the bathroom, or in the car. Where were you?"

"I got out of the bathroom twenty minutes ago, like I said."

The rabbit groaned. "You're usually better at lying than this!" She said. "Did you have someone you wanted to meet at this place, or…?"

"I swear, I wasn't doing anything other than using the bathroom." He said, placing a paw over his heart. "I didn't see or hear anything before that."

Judy paused for a moment. "So, this is the second time one of us has just… missed a monster alert."

"Seems like it." Nick said. "They aren't hard things to miss, so…"

"I think there's something weird going on." Judy said, starting up the car. "Stay alert, and in my sight at all time."

"Alrighty then." He said, flipping his pointed shades on. He glanced around for a moment. "Hey, you didn't get my order."

* * *

"You don't know how lucky I am to have found a good noodle place here!"

"Its always nice to see new faces here." Chuckled the red panda.

The white creature had stopped at a small noodle place in the middle of a rather seedy part of the city. He had just gotten back on track to finding Flots Flats, but his stomach had started growling.

He looked around the quaint establishment. "This reminds me of the noodle shops back home." He said with a bit of a laugh.

"I try to make it feel as authentic as possible." The red panda said. "It's the closest I get to my home too."

He quickly picked up the box of noodles. "Guess I should be paying you, right?"

The red panda nodded. The figure pulled out a small, green purse, and opened it up. He pulled out a few coins. "I think this should be enough to cover it?"

He put the coins on the counter. The red panda examined them. He really, really hoped he would accept them. "So, you're from overseas too?" The red panda chuckled, taking the coins. "Nice to meet someone from over there."

"Oh, uh, yeah." He stumbled. "Overseas, definitely."

"What brings you over here?" He asked. "Business trip, convention… some kind of race?"

"Business." He said, quickly. "I'm looking for an apartment called Flots Flats."

"Flots Flats, huh?" the red panda thought for a moment. "I don't think I've seen that place, but I can tell you where its not."

"Where?"

"In the middle of the Rainforest District."

He looked out the shop's glass doors, and into the muddy streets. "I guess you're probably right."

"A place like that would be downtown, how did you end up on the other side of the city?" The red panda asked, intrigued.

"Well, I went to get breakfast at the fish market, then I checked out a few souvenir places… A few shops, antique stores, places like that… Then I got hungry again, and came here."

They looked at each other for a moment.

"I get distracted very, very easily."

"No kidding." The red panda laughed. "If you want to make it there before nightfall, you better get going now."

"Good idea!" Before he could exit, he turned around. "Oh, I might come here again later, so keep the name 'Dan Hisatsu' in your head, alright?"

"Gotcha."

He exited the restaurant, and paused for a moment, looking down at the noodle carton. He opened it up, and split the included chopsticks. Dan pulled a wad of the noodles to his mouth, only for it to hit his helmet.

"How am I going to eat these…?"

* * *

Judy paced around the apartment as Nick watched, a bit frustrated. "We didn't spot a single monster that entire time." He said.

"I know."

"So, we went to work on our day off for no reason."

"I know."

"And the monsters might attack tomorrow."

"I KNOW!" She shouted. "My idea was a bust, you don't have to rub it in!"

"Sorry." He said, sincerely. "Just a bit frustrated."

"I am too." Judy said. She paused for a moment. "What do you think the monster's plan even is?" She asked.

"Considering the only two encounters so far, I'd guess they're trying to split us up." Nick guessed.

"That would explain why the monsters didn't show up for the rest of the day." Judy continued. "If they were splitting us up, then they'd have to wait for us to actually be split up."

"That doesn't explain my missing hour of time, though."

Judy went back into her thoughts. "These monsters are those Beast Men type monsters." She said.

"How could you tell?"

"It had a giant fox head on its chest." She explained. "Every other Beast Man guy we've fought had an animal head on its chest."

"Ah, the glory of design consistencies."

"My point is that every one of those monsters so far has been a mammal transformed into one of the monsters." She continued. "So, these two have to be someone in the city."

"So, the first monster was a fox, right?" Nick asked, Judy nodding in response. "What if its Kyle?"

"That's a possibility." She said. "But some of the Beast Men haven't been their species. Lupina wasn't really a mantis."

"Alright, fair point." He said. "So, it could just be anyone in the city, right?"

"Also a possibility." Judy said, before sighing. "But when I fought that monster, it felt like…"

She paused for a moment, leaving the fox curious and in suspense.

"It felt like what?"

"It felt like it knew me." She finished. "It talked like it knew who I was."

"That's… weird. And creepy."

"That's exactly what I thought!" She said. "It has to be someone I know, but… I don't know who."

"Well," The fox said, getting up. "Its late, and we have work tomorrow. I can say for certain that there will be monster attacks tomorrow, and we can settle this whole thing."

"Alright." Judy sighed. "I'm going to bed, this has been way too exhausting. Good night."

"See you tomorrow, Carrots."

The rabbit went into her room, closing the door behind her. "I should probably go to bed too." Nick said to himself, getting up. Wouldn't want to be completely out of energy for tomorrow, right?

He headed into his messy room, and crawled into bed. Hopefully he would get a good sleep.

It wasn't even five minutes after that he heard a loud beeping.

"OH COME ON!" He shouted, jolting up from bed and staring down at his wrist. The attack was happening rather nearby. He sighed, and exited the room, knocking on Judy's door.

"Fluff, time to get up, we have a job to do!"

No response, so he knocked again. Did she really fall asleep that quickly?

"I know you want to sleep, but this is an emergency!"

He knocked again, louder.

"Judy, seriously!"

He opened the door.

His eyes widened. She wasn't in her bed, and a nearby window was open. "Oh no, oh no." She repeated to himself, looking out the window. This is what Judy said had happened to her, but now it was happening to him.

He slapped his paws into his face, and quickly ran out of the apartment.

* * *

The fox transformed as he ran into a field. He looked back, still able to see the apartment. Why was the monster attacking so close to their home? This entire situation was confusing.

"Hey, Red!"

The fox looked back into the field, seeing Silver run up to him. "Look who managed to show up." He said, coyly. "You feel better?"

"I am at a full one hundred percent." Silver said, giving a thumbs up. He glanced around for a moment. "Let me guess, you don't know where Blue is, do you?"

"Absolutely no idea." He admitted. "She told me that something like this happened earlier."

Silver nodded. "It was exactly like this, except, you know, your roles were reversed."

"Yeah. There should be a monster here, right?" Red asked. He glanced around seeing nothing but an empty field. "Where is it."

Silver glanced up, and pointed. "There!" The fox looked up, seeing something glinting in the clear night sky. It seemed to be falling towards them.

The leaped out of the way as the monster hit the ground, sending a shockwave out around it. Red looked up to see the rabbit-like form of Hiso, who turned to him.

"Get up, fox." She said. Red crawled to his feet, and pulled out his sword. Hiso readied herself as well, striking a fighting pose.

Red and Silver dashed at her from both sides. Red leaped into the air, attempting to strike her with his blade. Silver did the same, except without the leap. She effortlessly slapped both their weapons around at the same time, and jabbed them both in their faces, knocking them back.

"Wow, you two are just as capable as I thought you'd be." She taunted, in a sarcastic tone that sounded familiar to the fox. "Of course, you are dealing with Pixie Fist User, Hiso!"

"'Pixie'?" Red chuckled, getting back up. "That is the least threatening title I have heard in a long time."

Hiso turned back to the fox, shooting him a glare with her eyeless face. She drew her hands in, and then thrust them forward, firing off a barrage of knives at him. He leaped out of the way as the knives stabbed into the ground.

Silver got up, and rushed back at the rabbit monster, who spun around and began blocking his strikes with her wrists. She knocked the sword out of the way again, and delivered a double palm thrust to the wolf's chest, launching him back to the ground.

"You two are such idiots." She started. "You have only fought Bestial Qi users before, you've never had to deal with a Phantom Qi user."

"What's the difference?" Silver asked, struggling to get back to his feet.

"Pure power."

She twirled around, shooting out a pulse of energy that brought both of the Zoorangers back to their knees.

Red chuckled. "I thought the difference was how arrogant you were!"

Hiso stomped up to the fox, and lifted him by his neck. "Watch your muzzle, fox, or else."

"Or what?" He spat out. "You'll sprinkle pixie dust on me?"

Hiso growled. Her long ears began to spin around, lifting her and Red up into the air. "Neat trick." He continued. "Don't you have a castle to fly over?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Silver yelled up to the fox, watching as Hiso prepared a knife in her free hand.

"Shut it, fox!" She yelled. "Or else I'll-"

"Sorry, but it looks like this flight's over."

Hiso looked down as something poked her in the chest. It was a large cannon. Red pulled the trigger, the close range of the blast causing an explosion. They both fell back to the ground, Red managing to roll onto his fours, while Hiso landed on her back.

Her ears span around as she was lifted back into the air and to her feet. "YOU!" She shouted, turning back to the fox. "YOU TRICKED ME!"

"Yeah, its called a hustle." He said, brushing off dirt. "Sweetheart."

Hiso clenched her fists, and let out a roar of anger. She started to dash towards the fox, who responded by plugging a gold ZooTag into his Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paws, and he swung it down. The rabbit monster halted in her tracks, and held the sword back with her hands. "Silver!" Red shouted. "Do something!"

"Oh, right, yeah!" He said. The wolf spun his sword's guard around, changing it to Moon Mode. He lashed it at the rabbit monster's hands, lassoing them. The rabbit glanced over at the wolf, before he pulled the blade down, tugging her hands down as well.

The blade slashed through her, cutting the laser whip as well. She stumbled back, letting out a screech of pain as sparks burst off her. Red leaped forward, and performed a spinning slash, cutting right through the monster again.

She stumbled back once again. The rabbit monster, instead of reacting in anger, started to laugh. "I've done what the Master wanted me to do." She said, smoke still billowing from her wounds. "And it seems like you…" She pointed towards the fox. "Have everything figured out."

"I'm a lot more clever than you think." Red said. Hiso let out another laugh as her ears started to spin. She lifted off into the air, and flew off in the direction of the apartment.

"What the hell is going on?" Silver asked, running up to Nick as he untransformed.

"I'm pretty sure I know what's going on." Nick said, brushing off his fur. "There's only one mammal who acts like that to my sarcasm."

"What?" Max said, untransforming as well.

"This doesn't involve you, Max." Nick said. He sounded a lot more solemn than usual. "Go home and rest, you're clearly not doing as well as you say."

"I'm part of the team, why can't you tell me?"

"We'll tell you soon." Nick assured him. "Go home."

The fox started walking off, leaving the wolf behind. He let out a sigh, and limped off.

* * *

The fox entered into the apartment quietly. He sneaked over to the open door of Judy's room, and peeked in. She was fast asleep, He let out a sigh, one of both relief and exasperation.

He walked over to the rabbit, and shook her. She let out a whine as he shook her again. "Nick, I'm trying to sleep." She said, sounding exhausted.

"I know." He said. "But I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"I just went and fought a monster." He sighed. "The same thing happened, you went missing, and you showed up when I came back."

The rabbit jolted up, now wide awake. "Seriously!?" She said, baffled. "What in the world's going on?"

"I think I know."

* * *

"No, Master, I haven't been slacking off."

Ken sat down on the hotel room's bed. The room was rather simple, pastel colors making it feel comfortable. The bed was also incredibly soft.

"I just got a bit… distracted." Ken continued into the communicator. "Yes, I used the map. You know I don't have a good sense of direction."

He placed a hand onto his helmet as he continued talking into his wrist. "I'm almost there, don't worry." He said. "When should you be here anyway? Tomorrow? Alright, I should have this sorted out by the time you get here."

He got up and started pacing around the room. "I know about what happened to them, that's why I'm here. And that's why you're coming. We both need to help them."

"Yeah, I'll try to figure out what happened to it when I meet them." Ken continued. "If I can, I'll try to get it back. Alright, see you tomorrow." He gave a quick bow, placing his palms together.

He rose back up as the call ended, and stretched out. "Got a busy day tomorrow, Ken." He said to himself as he headed back over to the bed. "Better get some rest!"

He fell over on the bed, head hanging off the other side, arms splayed out. He almost instantly passed out.

* * *

Judy had gotten very little sleep after Nick explained what he thought was going on. When she got out of her room, it looked like the fox had even less sleep than she did.

The apartment was deathly silent as Judy prepared some tea and coffee. She brought the drinks over to the couch, and sat next to the fox.

"So, you're absolutely sure that's what's happening?" She asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"I'm pretty sure." He said, grabbing the coffee and blowing on it. He took a sip. "We can make it through this. We've made it through worse."

"I'm not really sure we have." Judy said. "There's still so many questions, though. I have no idea what to do about this."

"Its pretty obvious what we have to do." Nick said, getting up. "We find Long, and get him to explain it. Preferably after we beat him to a pulp."

"That's the best idea we have right now." Judy admitted. "But until then, keep in my sight at all times."

"Same to you, Carrots."

Silence fell again, this time more of an awkward silence rather than a concerned one.

"So, do we go to work, or…?" Nick asked, rubbing his neck.

"We're not exactly in the best condition to." Judy said with a sigh. "I say we just wait until something happens."

"Can't do any harm if we don't do anything, right." He clapped his paws together. "So, wanna watch TV?"

She shrugged, and the fox plopped back down onto the couch.

Around an hour of awful TV later, the buzzer finally went off. Both of them sprang to their feet and stretched out. "Finally, I could feel myself getting dumber just by watching that." Judy said.

"You get used to it after a while." Nick said. "Alright, let's go!"

The two dashed out of the apartment.

* * *

The Rangers ran into a ruined building, obviously ruined for several years, and not touched by the city. They looked around the rubble, some of it seeming to be relatively new. "Really creepy place, fitting for a real creepy guy." Red said.

The two heard footsteps behind them, and spun around, pulling out their weapons.

"Whoa, whoa!" Silver yelled. The two relaxed their weapons as he walked up. "That's two times in two days!"

"You really need to stop sneaking up on us like that!" Blue said. "If you keep doing that, you will get shot!"

"I know, but…" Silver glanced up at a nearby overhang. "LOOK!" He pointed up.

They turned to look up at the floor above them. Sitting at the edge of the broken concrete was the golden figure of Long.

"Finally, I've been waiting for you two all day." He said. He hopped down from the upper floor, and crashed into the ground. "And I see you've brought the pup as well."

"Long!" Blue shouted, pointing her daggers at the armored monster. "We've figure out your plan!"

"I haven't!" Silver said.

"I know you've figured it out, why do you think I showed myself?" Long continued.

"We're going to kick your ass, and then get everything back to normal!" Red yelled.

"Um, excuse me?" Silver said, raising a paw in the air and interrupting them. "Hello, third member of the team here, completely lost. Anyone want to explain what's going on? Where are the other monsters?"

"Silver," Blue started, turning to the wolf. "We're the monster."

His ears popped up in surprise. "Excuse me, what?"

"Somehow, dragon breath managed to transform us into monsters." Nick explained. "We're here to find out how."

"I'm surprised you were the one to figure it out, honestly." Long chuckled. "I would've expected the rabbit."

"That rabbit monster gave it away." Red said. "There's only one mammal that reacts like that to my sarcasm." He quickly nudged Blue in the shoulder.

"So, you want to know how I did this?" Long started. "I sneaked into your apartment and infused you with the QI of Tsuneki and Hiso. Simple, really."

"Well, we could have guessed something like that." Blue shrugged. "But how do you keep transforming us?"

"Like this."

He snapped his fingers.

Red stumbled forward, letting out a grunt of pain. "Nick?" Blue said as the fox continued to growl. Purple energy seemed to burst from him, and quickly enshrouded the fox. The cloud of purple smoke grew larger, and then burst away, revealing Tsuneki.

The fox monster turned back to the two other Rangers, and gave the two a quick chuckle. "Looks like you found me!" He joked. He quickly pulled out his bow, and aimed it at them. "But it looks like you found me too late."

He fired a volley of arrows towards the two, who leaped out of the way. "Come on, fight me!" Tsuneki shouted as he fired another arrow at the rabbit.

Silver rushed forward, and attempted to slash the monster with his sword. He hesitated. The monster was still Nick, who was his friend. He couldn't just attack him…

The monster laughed, and slowly turned to Silver. "C'mon, hit me." It said, attempting to goad the wolf into it. "Do it!"

Silver started to shake. He couldn't move.

Sparks shot up from the monster's back. Blue had shot him in the back. "Nick won't feel any pain!" She shouted. "We need to beat this guy to free him!"

Silver tightened his paws around his sword's grip, and swung it across the monster's chest. Tsuneki sparked, and flew back, tumbling to the ground. "Great, I thought that would work!" The monster bemoaned as it got up.

The two Rangers leaped at the monster, both striking him. The monster flew forward, sparks flying as it tumbled across the ground. It got up, the eyes on its coat spinning around. "Looks like this isn't going well for you, Long!" Blue shouted, turning back to the dragon warrior.

He remained silent, arms crossed.

"He is really creepy." Silver said, shuddering a bit. "I really do not want to be near him at all."

Tsuneki took advantage of them being distracted, pulling out his bow. He fired a few shots, separating the two. Blue twirled her daggers, and leaped forward.

Long quickly snapped his fingers.

Blue cross-slashed across the monster's chest, causing it to let out a scream. The scream wasn't the monster's voice, but one far more familiar to the rabbit's ears.

It was Nick's.

She looked up, terrified by what she had heard. As the monster stumbled back, she noticed that its once blue eyes had turned an emerald green. He stumbled to his knees, and looked at her.

"Judy…? What's…" He glanced down at his hands, and let out a scream.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Blue yelled, turning back to Long.

"I'll let her explain."

"What?"

He snapped his fingers again, causing Blue to keel over in pain, purple energy starting to emanate from her as well. Nick tried to get up to help her, but the unusual body caused him to tumble over. He reached out as the energy began to cover her. "JUDY!"

The energy cleared, revealing Hiso, who gave a threatening laugh. "Master Long can control all kinds of Qi." She explained. "As such, he can swap our minds around."

Hiso went into a battle stance, and dashed at the fox-turned-monster, kicking him across the ground. "Stop it!" Silver yelled, running in for a sword slice. The slice cut across the rabbit monster's chest.

"What the HELL, Max!?" She yelled. The wolf suddenly noticed that her six black slits had turned lavender.

"Judy!?" He yelled, startled. "Is that you?"

The monster's eyes turned black again. "Not anymore!" Hiso proceeded to slash into the wolf's chest, and knock him back with a palm thrust.

Nick got up, seemingly getting used to the body. He prepped himself, but a sudden poof of smoke surrounded him, and he found himself back in his Ranger form. "Oh, this is annoying as hell." He grunted, pulling out his sword.

He rushed at Hiso, leaping up into the air. There was another poof of smoke around both of them, Red being replaced with Tsuneki, blue eyes and all, while Hiso was replaced with Blue.

The midair monster pulled out his bow and fired a volley of arrows at the completely unprepared rabbit, an explosion of sparks knocking her through the air.

Silver got back up, and rushed at the fox monster. He swung at Tsuneki, who blocked the strike with his bow. The fox monster swiped at the wolf with his bow, his eyes turning green midway through.

The momentum of his arm was already carried before Nick could do anything, sending Silver flying. He smacked into a wall, cracking it. "Oh god, I'm sorry Max!" He shouted.

"Can we stop beating me up!?" Silver shouted, getting back to his feet.

Nick turned around, seeing Hiso run up to him. She began to strike at him, the fox-turned-monster attempting to block. Judy was quickly put back in control of the monster body, as Tsuneki returned to being in control.

Tsuneki smacked at Judy with his bow, but she managed to get a hold of the new body and knock it back. She plucked a knife from the monster's sleeve, and started slashing at Tsuneki with it. The fox monster took a few hits, bit quickly knocked it out of her hands.

The two swung at each other at the same time, put quickly transformed back into their Ranger forms, punching each other in their faces. They both recoiled in pain, and then turned back to Long. They readied their weapons, and dashed at him.

He snapped his fingers once more, transforming them both back into the monsters. "This is getting incredibly FRUSTRATING!" Nick shouted.

"Turn us back!" Judy yelled, stumbling forward a bit on her odd feet.

"No, I don't think I will." Long said, emotionless. "I'm leaving you two like this forever. Good luck."

"You can't do this!" Nick yelled. "We aren't monsters!"

"Sure look like ones to me." Long chuckled. He suddenly became tense, spotting something behind them.

The two started to turn around, but instinctively leaped out of the way as a burst of projectiles fired forward. The crystal-like blasts pierced into Long, causing rapid explosions on him. He stumbled back, and clutched his chest.

"You."

The three turned to look at the being that fired the projectiles. From the burst of morning light stepped what looked like a Sentai Ranger, clad entirely in a white, orange, and black outfit. He had black, sharped shoulder pads, and a belt that resembled that of karate gi. He had a V-shaped black and orange marking on his chest, an odd claw-shaped marking, possibly a logo, next to it.

His helmet was vaguely shaped like a rhino, having a large, protruding horn coming out of the front. In one of its hands it carried a large, red and silver weapon, shaped like a blade with a hand grabbing onto it.

"Well," Long started, standing back up straight. "If it isn't the most worthless Gekiranger."

"You won't be saying that after I kick your ass for good, Long!"

The Ranger leaped over the two mammals-turned-monsters, and struck Long with the massive blade weapon, causing him to stumble back. The Ranger attempted to strike with the weapon again, only for Long to block it.

The rhino-like Ranger reversed the high block with a kick, stunning Long for a moment. Using this to his advantage, the Ranger rammed his head into the dragon warrior, horn first. Long flew back, and tumbled across the ground.

He let out a laugh as he got up. "I see you've gotten better since we last fought."

"A decade of training will do that!" The Rangers yelled back. He quickly flipped the blade of the weapon backwards, nothing obstructing the hand-like part.

"Twisting Bullets!" He shouted as he thrust it forward. An orange colored crystal like spike shot out of the weapon, Long quickly deflecting it. The Ranger ran forward, continuing to fire at him.

Long continued to deflect the projectiles, until the Ranger was up close. He leaped into the air, flicking the blade back forward, and slashed through the monster. Long flew back, and gave a grunt as he hit the ground.

"Enough of this." He said, sounding a bit frustrated. "I've done what I needed, time to leave."

"Hold it!"

The rhino Ranger rushed forward, and attempted to slash at Long again, only for him to burst into a cloud of golden mist and fly away. "Damn it!"

He turned to the two previously Rangers, and recoiled a bit. "Whoa, whoa!" Nick said, rising his hands up. "Don't shoot, we're not monsters!"

The Ranger recuperated himself. "Oh, I know." He said. "Its just weird seeing old faces again."

"Oh wow," Max said, untransforming and running up to the three. "You're the White Ranger!"

He looked at his outfit for a moment. "I guess I am mostly white." He said. "But I'm actually Ken Hisatsu, GekiChopper!"

"All the other Rangers we've run into have colors in their names." Judy started. "I'm pretty sure 'chopper' isn't a color."

"Its because I have a massive knife!" Ken said, holding up the weapon. He shook his head for a moment. "You don't need to tell me what's going on, I already know."

"Oh, good." Nick said, crossing his arms. "So, you can get us out of this mess?"

"Technically, yes." Ken answered. "But we need a more… peaceful place to talk about it."

"We can go to my house." Max said. "I don't think you two will even fit in your apartment anymore."

Nick and Judy looked at each other, and then recoiled at the sight.

"Can your house fit five people?" Ken asked.

"It's a house, of course it can."

"Alright!" He shouted, pumping his fist. "Let's go solve everything!"

* * *

"So, when are we going to solve everything?"

Ken looked up from the couch, seeing the fox monster staring down at him. "Look, I said I can technically help you." He said. "We have to wait for my Master to show up. So, be patient."

Nick growled, and tried to walk over to another seat, but tipped and fell over. He pounded the ground in frustration, Max running over to help him back to his feet. "How do you even walk around like this!?" Nick yelled.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it!"

The two looked over to Judy, who was rather unsteadily walking behind the couch. She almost instantly slipped, falling on her back. "Or not."

Max sighed, and ran over to help her up as well. "I like being tall, but everything about this body sucks!"

"Yeah, our faces don't even move!" Nick said, exaggeratedly posturing. "How am I supposed to look smug and sarcastic when I don't have a mouth?"

"At least you have eyes!" Judy said. "Its like looking through a mask in here!"

Ken quickly stood up between the two, arms out. "You just need to relax for a bit." He said. "Everything will be sorted out soon enough!"

Nick grunted, and awkwardly shuffled over to a chair. Judy remained silent, and continued standing behind the couch. "Try not to move around." Max said, out of breath. "You guys are really heavy. Its like thirty pounds of rubber."

Judy ignored the comment, and turned to Ken. "So, Ken, I'm guessing you know about Long?"

Ken fell silent for a moment, and sat down on the couch. "I'm part of the Beast Fist Sentai, Gekiranger." He started. "Long was our big villain. He's incredibly powerful, and absolutely immortal."

"Immortal?" Nick said. "So, he lives forever?"

Ken nodded. "He's so powerful that we couldn't even destroy him." He continued. "We had to use a special technique to transform him into a ball."

"A ball?" Judy chuckled. "Seems pretty embarrassing."

"Oh, it definitely was." Ken laughed. "One of my teammates, Jan, took the ball with him when he went world travelling." He continued. "A few months ago, he called, saying that it had 'vany-ished'."

There was awkward silence throughout the room.

"That's Jan speak for 'disappeared'."

"Ohhhhh."

"From what we can tell," Judy started. "All of the monsters we've been fighting are supposed to be dead, so how did Long come back?"

"Whoever brought the other ones back probably freed him from the curse." Ken said.

"So, we've been fighting an immortal, all-powerful dragon demon." Nick sighed, falling back into his chair and facepalming. "Wonderful."

"Scorch was just kind of a loser in Zoo Rangers." Max said. "Didn't realize he could be that dangerous."

"How are we supposed to beat that?" Judy asked. "We're not even powerful enough to take on the clown guy ourselves!"

"That's why my Master's coming!" Ken shouted. "He's great at teaching, he'll be able to whip you all to a higher level in no time!"

"A Master?" Max asked, leaning in. "You mean like, a Sensei?"

"Isn't that what I've been saying?"

"So, this 'Master' is going to teach us how to beat Long?" Nick asked, sounding a bit excited.

"No." Ken said, bluntly. The fox monster slumped back in his seat. "Not even the most powerful warriors can defeat Long."

"That's not a very good sign."

"But, he can teach you how to get back to normal!" Ken continued. "And he'll definitely make you all stronger! That's the reason we even came!"

There was a loud knock at the door. Ken bolted up. "That must be him!" He rushed over to the door, and opened it, revealing…

"Oh my god, it's Doggie Kruger!" Max shouted.

It was indeed Doggie Kruger, the canine-like creature that had gotten Nick and Judy into this whole thing to begin with.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were-" Ken started, before being interrupted.

"He'll be here soon." Kruger said as he walked in. He glanced around, spotting the two transformed mammals. "Been a while." He said. "How's the assignment going?"

"Oh, pretty well." Nick started. "Except for the fact that we GOT TURNED INTO MONSTERS!"

"Hmm, yes, unfortunate." He said, before turning to Max. "And who might you be?"

"I'm, uh, the third member." Max said. "Warrior of the Eclipse, ZooSilver, and all that!"

Kruger stared at him for a moment. The wolf could feel his eyes piercing into his soul. Kruger finally broke contact. "You're probably wondering why I'm here."

"Considering we haven't seen you since day one, yeah, it's a bit of a mystery." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"AkaRed sent me here to figure out a certain mystery." He said, vaguely.

"Is it the mystery of 'Why we're suddenly monsters', because we have that already figured out." Nick said.

"Nick, seriously!" Judy yelled. "Mr. Kruger is still a higher rank than us, treat him with some respect!"

"No need to flatter me, Hopps." Kruger said. "As of right now, I am an equal, and we need to work together to solve this."

"Still doesn't mean he has to be rude." Judy muttered under her breath.

Max sneaked up to her, and started to whisper. "Why didn't you guys tell me you knew Doggie Kruger?"

"How do you know who he is?" Judy whispered back.

"He was in Zoo Rangers SPD, he was one of the best characters!"

Kruger turned to Ken. "I'm also here to give Mr. Hisatsu a stern talking to about his recent behavior."

"Oooh, what did hornhead do?" Nick asked, leaning forward.

"I didn't do anything!" Ken pleaded.

"He was supposed to arrive around 24 hours ago." Kruger explained. "He was supposed to help you before anything like this happened. But instead, he spent the time at antique shops and cheap noodle places."

The three turned to look at Ken, who's back was pressed into the door. "Seriously!?" Judy shouted, stomping over to him. "You could have prevented this, but you were… slacking off!?"

"I get distracted very easily!" He said, pushing her back. "Besides, its not like I've ever been to a city in another dimension before, of course I had to explore! Look at this…"

He pulled out an old looking, bronze amulet. It was pointy and somewhat evil looking. Judy looked at it, and she could swear that she had seen it somewhere before.

"I got this for two bucks!" Ken said. "Imagine all the secrets this thing's hiding!" There was another, much softer knock at the door. Ken put the amulet away before Judy could analyze it any more.

"Oh, that must be him!" Ken said, excitedly. He turned back to the door, and opened it.

On the other side of the door was a large caracal dressed in baggy, red clothes. He wore what appeared to be multiple scarves of different colors and sizes, the most prevalent being a large blue one, a white one with a brown paw mark, and one with three pomp oms hanging from it. He also appeared to be wearing a blue vest, which was obscured by the scarves.

Despite looking like a caracal, his build wasn't like any Judy had ever seen, resembling that of the Sentai Rangers… or in an odd way, Kruger himself. The strangest part of the caracal was its paws, which appeared to be completely unevolved feline paws.

It was very strange.

"Master Xia Fu!" Ken said. He punched one of his fists into his open palm, and bowed down. Xia Fu bowed in return.

"Sorry I'm late!" He said, in a somewhat jovial tone. Judy could tell he was somewhat elderly, but Masters tend to be. "I was getting something ready for later."

He walked over to Kruger, the two shaking hands. "Xia Fu, haven't seen you since the circus incident." Kruger said.

"It wasn't that long ago." Xia Fu said with a laugh. He looked over to Nick, then back at Judy, and then to Max. "Usually this is the part where people go 'your Master is a cat?'"

"Its probably a lot more odd in your world." Nick said, getting up. "So, you're gonna get us back to normal, right?"

"Don't be rude to Master Xia Fu!" Ken yelled, running over and grappling the fox monster.

"Guys!" Judy ran over, and smacked them both in the head, separating Nick from Ken's grip. "We should at least be able to introduce ourselves without fighting!" She cleared her throat. "I'm Judy Hopps, this is Nick Wilde, and over there is Maxwell Wolford." She took a bow. "Sorry about how me and Nick look, we're usually a lot less…"

"Monstrous?" Max chimed in.

"Exactly!"

"I know about what happened." Xia Fu said. "And please, there's no need to be so polite about this!"

"But!" Ken sounded.

"Quiet, Ken." Xia Fu said, bluntly. "The first step to me helping you is simple. I just need you both to… stand over by that wall."

The rabbit and fox looked at each other, recoiling a bit at the monstrous sights again. They shook it off, and walked over to the wall on the other side of the couch.

Xia Fu stood in front of them, his paws behind his back. He examined the two for a moment, before his once closed eyes popped open. "My word…" He said as he turned around. "I've never seen so much qi in a single creature before!"

"This might be a stupid question," Nick started. "But what the hell is 'qi'?"

"To put it simply," Xia Fu said. "it's a super energy that can be used to fight. It comes in different varieties, both good and evil."

"My team fought guys who used Bestial and Phantom qi." Ken continued for Xia Fu. "We used Wild, Violent, and, in my case, Diamond qi types to defeat them."

"So, we have a lot of 'qi' inside of us?" Judy asked. "What's that mean?"

"The amount you hold is impressive, its more than bodies like yours should be able to handle." Xia Fu continued. "And it isn't even a single type of qi, I'm sensing all kinds within your systems. Wild qi, Bestial qi, Violent qi, Diamond qi, Raging qi, Savage qi…"

"Whoa, hold on a sec." Nick said, stepping forward. "What was that about 'Savage qi'?"

Kruger stepped forward as well. "Yes, tell us more about it, Xia Fu."

"Well, Savage qi is the ultimate form of Wild qi, which is the good qi, if you recall." He started to explain. "Using Savage qi, my students were able to unlock incredible powers. Why are you both so interested in it?"

"Me and Judy have been dealing with this… evil force that takes over our bodies sometimes." Nick explained.

"It calls itself Savage, but I think the name is coincidental." Judy said.

"Savage is what I'm here to investigate." Kruger explained. "AkaRed isn't entirely sure what it is, but we have a feeling it might be some sort of side effect. Of what, we're not sure."

"Hey, maybe I can help?"

The five turned to Max, who was raising his paw. "Do you know something about Savage?" Kruger asked.

"Well, I might know something." He said, tapping his claws together. "It might not be related to anything, though…"

"Well, it can't hurt to tell us!" Nick said.

The wolf took a deep breath. "So, when I was training with Dr. Mikoto, there was this… thing that happened during it. It was the one time Savage managed to take over my body, but Mikoto helped me regain my senses before I could cause any trouble."

"There were a few times when it seemed like he knew you…" Judy said.

"Yeah, that's where that came from." Max continued. "Also, if no one's realized it, I haven't been taken over by him at all."

"How did you manage that?" Kruger asked.

"You'd have to ask Mikoto about that." Max shrugged. "He did something with my Zoolizer, and then it just stopped happening."

Kruger pounded a fist into his paw. "Then it has to be connected to the Zoolizers." He deduced. "The Silver Zoolizer was designed by Mikoto, so it had more flaws compared to AkaRed's designs. May I see them?"

The two looked at their wrists, the Zoolizers weren't there. "Sorry, it looks like we left them on our other bodies." Nick said, sarcastically.

Kruger grunted. "Has anyone tampered with your Zoolizers recently?"

"Well, there was-"

Judy smacked her hand over the fox's monstrous face. "Nope! Nothing like that! Guess AkaRed's designs weren't perfect after all."

"Now we know that Savage was caused by a flaw in the system." Kruger said. "We just need to figure what he is, exactly."

"He said he was some kind of evil force." Max started. "The personification of violence, or something like that."

"I might have an idea." Xia Fu, now sitting on the couch, sounded.

"What is it, Master?" Ken asked.

"As I walked over, I noticed something strange about this world." He started. "It has much more qi than in our world, but it doesn't seem like the qi has been mastered by anyone. I suggest the theory that this Savage is made of untamed qi, manifesting through violence."

"That would make sense." Kruger stated. "AkaRed designed the Zooranger system to use the power of the five animal Sentai. That would include the qi."

"And since there's no other way to channel qi in this world, Savage manifested through that!" Judy deduced.

"Wow, we really managed to get through a lot of info there." Nick said. "Now that we've gotten that all sorted out…" He walked over to Xia Fu and kneeled down. "Can you PLEASE help us get back to normal?"

"I will, but we need to wait for a moment." Xia Fu said. "Be patient."

"Listen, tiny paws, do you know how hard it is to move around in this thing?" Nick said, starting to get annoyed. "I want to be back in my body, ASAP!"

Suddenly, there was another knock at the door.

"Max, was it?" Xia Fu said, turning to the wolf. "Could you get that, please?"

"Well, you are guests…"

He walked over to the door, and opened it. On the other side was a pizza delivery pig. "Did you order this pizza?" He asked.

Before Max could say no, Xia Fu spoke up. "I ordered it!"

The pig leaned in, looking at the collection of odd characters inside. He gave Max a quick, confused glance.

The wolf sighed. "I will give you a fifty dollar tip if you never mention this again." He took out his wallet, and slapped around seventy bucks into the pig's hooves.

"Thanks, sir!" The pig said, before rushing off.

Max carried the pizza into the living room. "Just place it down here." Xia Fu said, patting a paw against the table. Max obliged, placing it down.

"Master, is this why you were late?" Ken asked. "You were… ordering a pizza?"

The caracal pulled up a triangle, and hit it with a rod. "In life, there is training. There is training in baked goods, too!"

"You're so wise, Master!"

The four others glanced at each other, confused.

"I am pretty hungry." Nick said.

"Same," Judy followed. "We've only had breakfast today."

Xia Fu opened the pizza box, an overwhelming smell of fish instantly emanating from it. Everyone reached for their noses (If they had noses) to cover up the disgusting smell. The pizza was entirely covered in anchovies, if there were any other toppings, they were buried under the fish.

"Why did you order nothing but fish!?" Max screamed. "AHHH ITS LIKE I'M DYING!"

"In order to complete your training, you must remove unneeded details." Xia Fu explained. He raised his paws up into the air, and started rapidly jabbing forward at the pizza. With every jab he grabbed an anchovy, and scooped it into his mouth.

In a few seconds, the anchovies had vanished, revealing a rather normal looking pizza. It had pineapple, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and bits of tofu. There were still a few pieces of anchovy on the pizza, however.

"Sometimes, however, unneeded details can help improve." Xia Fu finished, wiping off his mouth with a napkin.

"I don't get it." Nick said, confused. "How is that supposed to help us turn back to normal?"

"Well, it wouldn't be training if I told you, now would it?" Xia Fu said with a laugh. "Now, who wants pizza?"

"I am pretty hungry." Nick said.

"We haven't had anything to eat since breakfast." Judy continued. The two each grabbed a slice of the pizza, and brought it up to their faces.

Nick examined the pizza for a moment. "How are we supposed to eat these without mouths?" He asked. Judy shrugged in response.

"Well, if you can't eat them," Ken started, snatching the pizza from Nick's hand. "Then that means more for me!" He slammed the pizza into his helmet, and let out a groan. "Oh, yeah, helmet." He wiped the grease off his helmet and looked around. "Anyone want this piece?"

The room was silent.

"The anchovies were enough for me." Xia Fu said.

"I've already had my lunch." Kruger sounded.

"Dude, you ruined the slice." Max said, sounding a bit angry. "Nobody wants it." He reached over the couch, and picked up a slice before standing back up. "But I will gladly eat this piece!"

The wolf started gnawing on the piece as Xia Fu stood up. "It appears the pizza has served its purpose." He said, walking up to Nick and Judy. "Now, if you are to understand my message, you must train."

"Oh great." Nick moaned. "More training."

"C'mon, Nick." Judy said. "This guy is a kung-fu master, imagine the stuff we'll learn!"

"Will we get to learn how to shoot energy blasts?"

"Nick, that's not-"

"Yes." Xia Fu answered, much to the rabbit's shock.

"Well, count me in!"

The three headed out of the house, leaving Ken, Kruger, and Max. Ken looked down at the pizza. "You know, I was really hoping there'd be pepperoni on it." He sighed.

Max swallowed some a bite of pizza. "What's pepperoni?"

Ken tried to speak up, but was interrupted by Kruger. "Do not say a word."

* * *

The two stood on a hill, overlooking part of the city. In the grassy field were two wooden dummies, which seemed to be connected to the ground.

"How did you get these here?" Judy asked, turning to Xia Fu.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Xia Fu said with a laugh. He walked in between the dummies, and turned back to the two. "Your training is simple. You need to dismantle these two dummies."

"Well, that should be easy." Nick said with some relief. "Do we get any tools too do it, or…?"

"You must do it by hand."

"Oh." They both said.

The two walked up to the dummies. Nick grabbed onto his dummy, and pulled at it. It was buried deep in the ground, and would not budge. Judy tapped at hers, the thing was made of completely solid wood, there was no way they could do this with just their hands.

"Master Xia Fu, this is impossible." Judy said, frankly. "We can't rip apart wood with our paws!"

Xia Fu was sitting on the grass, looking away from them. He held a cup of tea in his paws, and took a sip before saying anything. "I've seen my students make miracles happen." He said. "Surely, you can do this simple task?"

The two glanced at each other, and started to get to work. Nick started slamming his fists into the dummy, chipping off some of the wood. Judy started testing different areas to see if there were any weaker ones.

Hours past, the sun was nearly all the way down from the sky, and neither of the two had made much of an impact on the wooden figures. Sure, chunks of them were missing, but they certainly weren't dismantled.

Nick fell to the ground, back against the dummy. He smacked his forehead with his fist. "Man…"

"This is more difficult than I thought it'd be." Judy said, also sitting on the grass. She had her knees tucked in, and arms wrapped around them. Her massive blade ears bent back in order to let her.

"You thought breaking wood apart with our paws would be easy?"

"No, I thought sitting down would be easy." She said. "These ears are a pain. You just have a coat to get in the way."

"I think this coat is part of my flesh." Nick said. He poked at one of the eyes on it, which twitched, freaking him out. "I think those eyes are alive."

The two started laughing as they admired the sunset.

Max, Kruger, and Ken came up the hill, seeing the two laughing while surrounded by wood chips. "Did we miss something?" Max asked.

"Training." Xia Fu simply said.

"Are they done the training yet?" The wolf asked.

"Judging by them still being monsters, I'm assuming not." Kruger answered.

"They'll figure it out eventually." Xia Fu laughed.

"Well, can they figure it out right now?" Max asked. "Because we have a monster issue Downtown."

Xia Fu's eyes popped open, and the two stopped relaxing and scrambled over. "A monster attack!?" Judy shouted. "Why did it have to be now!?"

"Just how the dice roll." Ken said. "Sometimes you just need to go with what life throws at you."

Xia Fu stood up. "Excellent philosophy, Ken." He turned to the two transformed mammals. "Your training is now to defeat the monster, using your bodies." He placed a paw on both their shoulders, and gave a nod. "Good luck."

They both turned to each other, and then back to Xia Fu. "Okay, I guess we can try." Nick said, a bit unsure.

Judy elbowed him. "We will do it, Master." She grabbed Nick by the shoulder, and started dragging him off. "Seriously, you have to stop being so rude…"

"I should probably go with them." Max said, before Xia Fu stuck his paw out in front of his face.

"Let them do it themselves, they need to figure it out on their own." He said, moving the paw out of the way. "But they probably need someone to make sure they don't get killed."

Max and ken looked at each other, and then dashed off to follow Nick and Judy. Kruger stepped up to Xia Fu. "Personally, I would like to see how good their skills are." He said. "Would you mind if I follow?"

"Keep this a secret, but I was going to follow them too."

* * *

The two rushed into a construction site. "This is the place, right?" Nick asked as they headed into the unfinished building.

"I mean, probably?" Judy guessed. "It feels like a place we would find a monster."

"And a monster you have found."

The two turned around, seeing Long resting up against a pillar. He seemed to radiate light all around him, brightening the darkness of the night. "Long!" Judy shouted, stepping forward. "You're going to turn us back right now!"

"I said it before," The dragon warrior said, stepping away from the pillar. "But the answer is 'No'."

"Alright then." She said. "then we're gonna show you how bad of an idea this was!"

She made a gesture towards Nick, similar to that of pulling a string. Nick nodded, though she wasn't sure if he got it. She dashed forward, and thrust her arms out, shooting a flurry of energy knives at Long. He proceeded to smack each and every one of them out of the air.

"Please, you don't know how to use those bodies." Long scoffed. "Those styles require decades of perfection, you're just peons trying to use powers you-"

Long reeled back, feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder. There was an arrow stuck in it. He looked back over at the fox, who was holding a bow. "Look at that, I'm a natural born Robin Hood!" He joked, giving a thumbs-up.

"A lucky shot, mutt." Long growled, pulling the arrow out of his shoulder. There was no blood, but a yellow mist exuding from it. He placed a gloved mitt over the wound, pushing the mist back in. When he removed his hand, the wound had vanished.

Long dashed forward and leaped through the air, he landed a flying punch onto Judy, knocking her to the ground. He turned to Nick, who stumbled to prepare another bow. Long pulled back, creating a flame bow. He fired it, and then started to rapidly fire flame arrows at the fox.

He dodged out of the way, tumbling to the ground as the arrows trailed behind him. He got to his feet, and dashed at Long, attempting to hit him with his bow. Long grabbed it, and ripped it from his hands. The dragon warrior cracked the bow over his head, knocking him to the ground.

Judy got back up, and pulled out knives from her sleeves. She started to slash at Long, who continued to block the attacks. He knocked the knives from her hands, and hit her with both palms. There was an explosive force, launching her back to a nearby pillar.

"You will never be strong enough to defeat me." Long said, growling. "I am immortal, the most powerful being in the world! You'd need hundreds of years of training!" He held up his hands, lightning sparking from his fingertips. "Unfortunately, you won't get that training."

Before he could fire the lightning, pain struck him in the back. He turned around to see GekiChopper and Silver. "I suppose you two are here to save them?" Long sarcastically guessed.

"Yeah!" Silver yelled. "And I'm gonna get my revenge on you!"

Silver dashed forward, sword drawn. "Wait!" Chopper yelled, following him. Silver slashed with his blade, Long catching it in his grasp. GekiChopper rushed up and slashed at Long, knocking him back and making him let go of the blade.

"You can't just rush at someone like Long!" GekiChopper scolded. "He isn't a normal monster!"

"So, what do we do?" Silver asked.

"Gotta play smart." Chopper answered. "Like this!" He flicked the blade of the weapon back, and aimed up at a girder above Long. He fired two shots, digging through the girder. It started to crack, and fell on the stunned Phantom Qi user.

"I wouldn't call property damage smart." Silver said. Chopper gestured over to the two wounded allies.

"Let's get them somewhere safe." He said. Silver nodded, and the two ran over to Nick and Judy. GekiChopper lifted up Judy, while Silver did his best to lift Nick onto his shoulders. The two hurried off, attempting to find somewhere safe in the rather open area.

They ran behind the construction site's cabin, and rested the two against its metallic walls.

"The suns down." Silver said. "As long as we stay quiet, he shouldn't be able to find us. At least, for a little bit."

Nick and Judy started to groan, getting the two other Rangers' attention. "You guys alright?" GekiChopper asked.

"I'm fine, just my pride was hurt." Nick said. He then let out a groan of pain. "No wait, everything's hurt."

"We can't beat him." Judy sighed, placing her hands to her face. "We need to get back to our bodies, but…"

"Master Xia Fu's style is having people realize the training." GekiChopper explained. The three turned to look at him. "It's like a riddle, you need to find out what he means on your own."

They fell quiet for a moment. "Let's see…" Judy started, standing up. She started to pace around. "We have to use our bodies…"

"We already use our bodies all the time!" Nick shouted. "What, are we supposed to use them even more!?"

Judy's head popped up, and she let out a quick clap. "That's it, I know what to do!"

She rushed out from behind the shed. "Are you crazy!?" Silver yelled. "You're gonna get killed!"

"No, I'm not!" She said, defiantly. "LONG, COME OUT AND FIGHT!"

Mist flew through the construction site, before reforming back into the armored form of Long. "So, I see you're ready to die, rabbit." He said, stepping forward.

"Not just yet." Judy said back. "Because I know how to defeat you!"

Long gave her a stare, and then laughed. Without a word, he dashed at her. Judy took a deep breath, and prepared for the fight. Long threw a punch, but Judy leaned back as he swung, the punch missing her by an inch.

Long grunted in surprise, before the rabbit flipped, kicking long away. She spun in the air, and landed back on her feet. Long recuperated, cracking his neck, and attacking her once again. He attempted to kick her, but Judy leaped into the air, and kicked him right in the face.

As Long stumbled back, he noticed a purple glow starting to come off her. He started to laugh. "Oh, I see." He said. Judy said nothing back, and ran at Long.

She started to rapidly kick him, but he blocked each one. In a seamless motion, she fell to the ground and swept Long off his feet. He fell forward, and the rabbit thrust her legs up, launching him.

"I can't believe she's managing to beat Long!" GekiChopper said as the three peeked around the corner of the cabin. "I've never seen a style like that before!"

"I think I get what she's doing." Nick said. "I'm going in there too."

"Good luck!" Silver said as Nick ran into the fight.

"So, the fox joins us as well!" Long laughed as Nick ran up to him. Nick took a deep breath, and bared his hands at the monster.

He dashed at Long, and slashed at him with both hands. They cut through him like claws, knocking him back. Nick dashed forward again as Long blocked. He grabbed onto both of Long's arms, and started to pry them open.

"Impossible!" Long shouted, before the fox double-palmed him back. He noticed the same purple energy flowing off of Nick as well. He grunted in frustration as the two rushed at him.

He tried to block both their swipes and kicks, but kept failing, at least one of the two managing to strike at him. Nick grabbed onto his arm, and started to claw into it, while Judy ran up and rapidly kicked him in the face. The fox let go on the last blow, as Long was sent flying.

"We figured out Master Xia Fu's lesson!" Judy yelled, stepping forward. "We need to fight like ourselves, not with weapons, or like anyone else!"

"We're the strongest we can be when we work together." Nick continued. "We don't need anything else to help us but ourselves!"

The energy started to flow from them as they let out yells. "What's happening!?" Silver yelled, the force of the energy starting to push them back.

"They're getting rid of the bad qi!" GekiChopper said. "When they get rid of that…"

There was a burst of purple light, knocking Silver and Chopper back, and nearly knocking Long off his own feet. Long looked on as the dust cleared. A fox and a rabbit now stood in the place of the monsters.

The two looked at each other. "We did it!" Judy shouted, jumping up a bit to give Nick a high five. "We're back to normal!"

"I knew you'd be able to figure it out, Carrots."

"No you didn't."

Silver and GekiChopper ran up to them. "That was incredible!" Silver said.

"I've never seen anyone channel that much qi at once before!" Chopper said. "Now we can totally defeat Long!"

Long began to laugh maniacally, head to his forehead. The four looked over as he finished. "Do you really think you'll be fighting me?" He asked. "I feel like you're forgetting something very important."

He raised his hands into the air, one glowing purple, the other glowing yellow. Purple and golden mist began to flow through the air, gathering on either side of the Infinite Dragon. The mists formed into solid forms, Tsuneki and Hiso.

"Still four against three!" Nick said, a bit smugly. "The odds are in our favor."

"Really now?"

Long flashed a red object in both his hands. Two Chaos Badges. He looked at them and laughed, before tossing the two badges directly into Tsuneki and Hiso.

They started to spark with red electricity. The four heroes stepped back as the light connected between the two monsters, beginning to drag them together. The two abruptly slammed together, forming into a red orb of energy.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Long yelled as the orb let out deafening crackles of electricity.

The orb began to shift into a new shape, before it burst into a small explosion that rocketed dirt into the air. The dust cleared, revealing a single, completely new monster.

Its head was similar to Tsuneki's but completely white, only six black slits lining the side of the face to break it up. Hiso's ears seemed to hang from the monster's back, resembling wings. Its body seemed like a combination of both monsters, similar to Tsuneki's but with Hiso's coloring. It still had Tsuneki's longcoat, but the sleeves fused into Hiso's sleeves, and knives hung from the bottom of the coat. The eyes on it now seemed stationary, with the Chaos Emblem instead of pupils. On its chest was a fox head, with two stain glass ear-like protrusions coming out from behind it.

"We are Hisuneki." It said, speaking with both Tsuneki and Hiso's voices. "Prepare to be killed."

"Ready to go?" Judy asked, holding up her wrist.

"Fluff, I've been waiting to do this for hours."

"ZOO ON!"

The two transformed into ZooRed and ZooBlue, all four Rangers striking a pose.

"DEFENDER OF THE MOON!" Blue flipped up, and landed on her knees, arms out to her side "ZOOBLUE!"

"CHAMPION OF THE SUN!" Red made diagonal slashing motions with both of his claws, and then pulled both of them away from his face, claws bared. "ZOORED!"

"WARRIOR OF THE ECLIPSE!" Silver slashed his blade in a cross pattern, and then jabbed it forward. "ZOOSILVER!"

"Refining my ability, I cut open the path to the future!" GekiChopper performed a few arm thrusts, before swinging the large weapon down. "Amazing Ability! GekiChopper!"

The four dashed at the monster, who proceeded to pull the large blades from its back. Blue leaped in to kick the monster, followed by Red leaping over her to perform a slash with his claws. Hisuneki held the massive blades up, causing the two to bounce off it.

GekiChopper and Silver ran in next, attempting to slash at the monster with their blades. Hisuneki quickly moved the blades out, blocking the attacks. It knocked the blades back, and rapidly slashed at the two, sending them flying.

The double monster connected the two blades into what looked like a large bow. It aimed it upwards, and pulled back, creating a string of energy. It let go, firing a barrage of energy arrows up into the air. They fell down around it, striking the Rangers and causing explosions.

The dust cleared, leaving the four on the ground. Hisuneki broke the bow back into the blades, and looked at them. "I don't think we can beat this guy without weapons." Red grunted as Blue and him got up.

"Well, then what, is the lesson we learned pointless now!?" Blue yelled.

"I didn't say to not use weapons."

They turned around to see Xia Fu and Kruger entering the site. "Weapons are a supplement." The caracal continued to explain. "You need to learn how to mix the two."

"Mix the two…" Blue's ears perked up. "That's it!" She rushed over to GekiChopper, who had gotten up. "Ken, I need your weapon!"

"What? Why?"

"Just give it here!"

She leaped up, and grabbed onto the large weapon. Suddenly, it started to glow, the rabbit dropping back to the ground. Blue pulled out her daggers, which also started to glow. They tossed the weapons into the air, where they collided and caused a flash of light.

From the light fell a large weapon, which landed in Blue's paws. It was a massive axe, white in color everywhere but the blade. The blade itself was curved, resembling a rhino's horn. The axe was around twice Blue's height, but she seemed to carry it effortlessly.

The rabbit twirled the axe around, and slammed the handle into the ground. "Wow, you'd think this would be a lot heavier." She said, surprised. Blue grabbed it with both paws, and twirled around, slamming the blade into the ground. "But this is exactly what we need!"

"How?" GekiChopper asked.

"Like this!"

She rushed at the monster, and leaped up into the air. Hisuneki guarded with his blades, as Blue brought the axe down. It cut right through the blades, destroying them for good.

"Impossible!" The monster yelled, tossing the broken blades to the ground.

"Nothing's impossible!" She yelled.

She slashed at the monster a few times, the axe having broken its defense. The other Zoorangers rushed in, Red leaping in with his sword to strike a blow to the monster's chest. Silver switched the blade to moon Mode, and wrapped it around the monster.

He lifted it into the air, and dropped it in front of Blue. She swung at it with the axe, launching the monster into a nearby girder. It fell to the ground, and struggled to get up.

"Wow, that thing's pretty wild!" Red said, punching the rabbit in the shoulder. "Hey, why don't you call it the Wild Axe?"

"…I'll consider it." She said, before running over to GekiChopper. "Ken, let's finish this guy off for good!" Blue shouted.

"Oh, okay!" He said, a bit unsure. "…How do I do that?"

"Combine your powers!" Kruger shouted. "Use your combination finisher!"

"But I don't have a weapon!" GekiChopper shouted back.

"Use your qi!" Xia Fu yelled.

"Oh yeah!"

GekiChopper grabbed Blue by her waist, and lifted her up. "I'm going to infuse you with my qi now, alright?"

"Will it hurt?"

"Hopefully not!"

Energy began to flow from GekiChopper into Blue's body. She felt a sudden surge of energy run through her.

"QI CUTTING STRIKE, GEKI EDITION!"

GekiChopper tossed her up into the air, the Wild Axe starting to glow white. She slashed it at the monster, causing a crystalized blast of energy to strike impale itself into the monster. Using the force of another swing, she flung herself into the monster, the axe directly hitting the crystalized blast, sending it completely through the monster's body.

Hisuneki stumbled back, and exploded, Blue spinning around and jabbing the hilt of the axe into the ground and giving the peace sign.

The Wild Axe started to glow again, Blue letting go of it as it split back into the weapons that created it, as well as a white ZooTag. Blue caught the ZooTag as it fell to the ground.

"Alright, we did it!" She shouted, pumping her fist.

"Should we just prepare the robots before the monster turns giant?" Red asked, pulling out his ZooTag.

"No, you usually wait for the monster to turn giant." Chopper said. "Its kind of a rule."

"It's a dumb rule."

The four watched as the two badges flew from the monster's remains, circling each other. They flew off into the distance, and burst into energy, reforming Hisuneki on the horizon. The monster let out a roar in both of the monster's voices.

"Alright, Silver!" Blue said, turning to the wolf. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah!" He said, taking a step forward. The wolf froze in place, and started to shake.

"You alright?" Red asked.

Silver suddenly collapsed, untransforming back into Max. He tried to get up, but let out a yelp of pain. "I can't move." He said, weakly.

The two rushed over and tried to help him to his feet. It didn't work well due to the size difference, them only managing to get him up to his knees, and even then Max was tilting a bit. "You overexerted yourself!" Blue said. "I told you to take a break!"

"Yeah, I said to take a break too." Red yelled. "But nobody ever listens to me!"

"Guys, I'll handle Max." GekiChopper said, grabbing Max's paw and helping him up onto his shoulder. "You have a monster to deal with!"

They nodded, and summoned their mechs, which quickly formed into ZooRobo.

"You're fighting a two on one battle, fools!" Hisuneki roared. "There's no way you can win!"

"As long as we work together, we can defeat any monster!" Blue shouted back. ZooRobo prepared its blade, and stepped forward.

Hisuneki let out a laugh, and aimed its hands at the robot. It fired a flurry of knives towards ZooRobo, causing it to stumble and fall to the ground. The rabbit-fox monster held out its hands as ZooRobo climbed back to its feet. Energy, qi, seemed to flow out from the monster, creating the two massive blades.

"Oh, come on, seriously!?" Red said in disbelief.

Hisuneki let out a chuckle, before swinging the blades forward. It was yards away from ZooRobo, but the blades still managed to hit. The mech began to spark as the monster kept slashing.

"They're in trouble…" Max said weakly, trying to move. "I need to help them…"

"No." Kruger said, walking up to GekiChopper. "Ken, you need to help them yourself."

"What?" He said, surprised. "I'm not even a part of their team!"

"Summon your mech, it will unlock a power that will let them beat this monster." Kruger explained.

"Oh, I get it!" He said. "Take care of Max while I deal with this, alright?" He said, handing the wolf over to Kruger.

"I didn't agree to this."

Ken pulled out an odd-looking blade, a gem embedded in its edge, and a rhino head carved into its hilt. He lifted it into the air, causing the gem to glow.

Nothing happened.

He jabbed it into the air again, still nothing happened.

"SaiDain should be showing up now!" He said, looking at the blade. "Why isn't it working?"

"Ken," Xia Fu started, patting GekiChopper on the shoulder. "Did you actually bring SaiDain?"

He grabbed onto his helmet at screamed. "I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING!"

"You forgot to bring your mech!?" Kruger yelled, dropping Max to the ground.

"I'm fine, just leave me here." Max groaned as Kruger stomped over to the rhino ranger.

"We specifically told you to bring your mech!" He scolded.

"I just thought that bringing the sword would let me summon him!"

"SaiDain can't travel through dimensions, Ken."

They looked up, watching as Hisuneki continued to slash into ZooRobo. Ken gripped the blade in both of his hands. "Master Brusa Ee!" He shouted at the blade. "Give me the power to help them!"

The blade started to glow, which quickly enveloped GekiChopper himself. They turned into a ball of light, which zoomed through the air and into ZooRobo.

The cockpits in the robot swiveled around as a third one rose from below. GekiChopper was standing on a platform, two small red and blue pillars behind him. The platform was decorated with a rhino head at the front, and a small pedestal.

"Yo, how's it going?" He greeted, waving to the other two Rangers.

"Absolutely fantastic!" Red yelled sarcastically. "Hurry up and put the thing in the thing!"

"It looks like a tag!" Blue said.

"Oh, you mean this?" He said, flashing a white ZooTag at her.

"Yes! There should be a slot for it to plug in over there!"

Chopper glanced down at the pedestal. It had a slot in it. He shrugged, and popped the ZooTag into it.

"DAI SAI!  
GRAND SAI!  
BREAKING THE FIST  
ZOOSAI!"

In a flash of light, another mech leaped through the air. It struck Hisuneki in the chest, sending the monster flying. The mech crashed on the ground, giving them a good look.

It was a stout rhinoceros robot, in line with all the other mechs they had gotten. The most notable part of it was its head, which was flat and blade-like, with glowing slits for eyes on its side. The rhino let out a cry, and leaped into the air.

It unfolded out into two arms, ZooRobo's normal arms folding back and in to make room for it. As the mech split in half, a faux rhino head revealed itself from the back. The mechs combined, the rhino head plugging into ZooRobo's chest. It quickly sprang open, revealing a headpiece that gave the mech a bandanna. The mech's arms ended in the rhino's face blades, which quickly twisted down, making them resemble axes.

"ZOOROBO, SAI MODE!"

ZooRobo swung the axes around, and started to stomp towards the monster. "You can't expect that to work twice!" Hisuneki yelled. It quickly swung the blades, and connected them back to its back. They began to flutter, lifting the monster up into the air.

It thrust its arms forward, firing off dozens of knives. ZooRobo held the axes in front of it, the knives harmlessly bouncing off of them.

"WHAT!?" The monster yelled.

"This guy's super strong!" Blue said. "You can't cut through his hide!"

"Its using the spirit of the Beast Fist God, SaiDain!" GekiChopper yelled. "He won't fall to someone like you!"

"Well, he wouldn't fall to weak attacks like yours!" Red continued.

Hisuneki growled. "I'll show you!" It fired more knives, which continued to bounce off the axes.

ZooRobo walked forward as the daggers flew at it. It stopped, and swung its arms out, sending the remaining blades flying. The axes started to glow, the mech swinging them and firing off bursts of crystalized energy.

The crystal slashes flew through the air, and circled around Hisuneki, cutting directly through its wings. The monster fell to the ground with a scream, and quickly got up.

"Time to finish this!" GekiChopper yelled

They put the two axe heads together, and stomped forward. They started to glow white as the robot approached the now cowering monster.

"HORN CRACKER!"

The mech lifted its arms into the air, and swung down through the monster's body. The force of the swung cut directly through it, causing Hisuneki to split in half. The two halves separated from each other as ZooRobo turned and struck a pose. The halves seemed to transform back into Tsuneki and Hiso, who both let out a cry as they exploded.

"Nature, protected!"

"That was Zootastic!"

The mech vanished, and the three reappeared back in the construction site. The rabbit high-fived the fox, and jumped up into the air to punch GekiChopper in the shoulder.

"We did it!" She yelled, raising her arms to the air.

"I am so glad that nightmare is over." Red said with a sigh of relief. They glanced over to Max, who was sitting up, paw clutching his head. They both ran over to him. "You okay?" Red asked.

"I'm fine." He said.

"No, you're obviously not." Blue said. "We need to get you to a hospital."

There was a cough, and the three looked up to see Kruger and Xia Fu.

"We should be going now." Kruger said, Xia Fu giving a nod in response. "We've done everything we needed to do. Please, get some help for your friend."

"Guess I'll be seeing you guys later!" Ken said, giving a quick salute.

Blue gave a quick nod to Ken. "It was nice meeting you, Ken."

"You're kind of a hard head, though." Red said, a bit dismissively.

"What was that!?" Ken yelled, bending down and getting directly in the fox's face.

The two growled and placed their helmets together, before backing off and laughing. "You're not bad company." Red said.

'You aren't either, fox!"

"Well, is anyone going to say goodbye to me?"

The six turned towards the construction site. Standing in front of it was Long, who seemed to cast a glow in the night. "What are you still doing here, Long?" Blue asked.

"Shouldn't you be running off to your mountain?" Red jokingly asked. "Coming up with another plan that won't work?"

The air fell silent as Long started to laugh. He laughed and laughed, with each second of it feeling like days.

"A plan that doesn't work?" he said as he finished laughing. "My plan worked flawlessly."

"How!?" Blue yelled, stepping forward. "We beat the monster, you didn't do anything to beat us!"

"Your plan just made us stronger!" Red continued. "That's a backfire if I ever heard one!"

"Why don't I let him show you?" Long said. The two looked at each other, confused.

Suddenly, something dashed from the shadows of the construction site, rushing past them. They spun around, watching as a green streak rapidly attacked the others. They watched them fall to the ground as they let out cries of pain. The streak dashed between the two, and stopped next to Long.

It was a massive, crystalline creature, slightly taller than even Long. It resembled a wolf… or a lion… or a fox… it seemed to emanate something from every animal, but its head was distinctly a mix of canine and feline features. Its head jutted forward, giving it a hunched appearance, with a crystal mane covering the back. It had massive hands, connected to massive claws, and thick arms that looked like a crystal version of an elephant's skin.

The claws themselves all seemed to be different, ranging from curved to razor thin, to knife-like. It had multiple tails, resembling crystalline fox, tiger, lion, and wolf tails. Its legs were digitigrade, like a horse, but its actual feet resembled that of a rabbit's. It was an utter mishmash of animals, its crystal body changing from green to blue. The most striking part where its eyes, which oddly enough resembled a goat's, except they were blood red.

"What the hell is that!?" Red asked, the two stepping back.

"Aw, don't you two recognize me?" It said with a laugh. Its voice was incredibly slimy, and familiar. "We've been friends for so long!"

Blue stepped forward. "It can't be." She said. "…Savage?"

"Bingo, sister!" It said, pointing towards her. "you're probably wondering how I got this sweet new body, right?"

"yeah, I thought you were just a metaphysical concept manifesting through energy or something." Red said. "You're only supposed to be able to control us, what are you doing away from our bodies?"

Savage patted Long on the back. "Gotta thank my friend here for that!" Long swatted at the monster, causing him to reel back. "Sheesh."

"This is what this entire plan was leading up to." Long started to explain. I knew that, somehow, you'd find a way to overcome the evil qi I infused you with. And with that energy, came Savage's own."

"While you two were fighting that mishmash monster, he was busy creating my body out of my energy!" Savage finished. "And guess what? We're going to kill you now!"

The two prepared their weapons. "Not without a fight!" Blue said.

The four ran at each other, Red leaping into the air to slash at Savage. In a single motion, Savage grabbed the sword, and flung Red into the ground. He proceeded to stomp down on him, before kicking him across the ground.

At the same time, Blue rushed at Long. She quickly tossed her weapons at him, but he smacked them out of the air. She jumped into a kick, but the Phantom Qi master grabbed her by the foot, and flung her into the air. He created a flaming bow, and fired it at her. She fell to the ground next to Red with a hard thud.

"Even with that pitiful training, you're no match for us." Long said, sounding a bit bored. "Pathetic."

"I was hoping they'd go out with a bit more too." Savage said, disappointed by the display.

The two crawled to their knees, but they couldn't get fully to their feet.

"NICK! JUDY!"

They turned back to look at their friends. Kruger, Xia Fu, GekiChopper, and even Max were standing.

"Combine your powers!" Kruger shouted. "Create a miracle!"

"Manifest your qi!" Xia Fu continued. "If you pool them together you will gain the power to beat them!"

"Me and Ken will keep them busy!" Max quickly transformed into ZooSilver, and pulled out his weapon. Him and GekiChopper ran forward, towards Savage and Long.

"Manifest our qi?" Blue said as she got up.

"What does that mean?" Red asked.

They looked over as Silver and Chopper fought against the two powerful beasts. They didn't stand a chance, they were getting completely pummeled. It was only a matter of time before the monster killed them.

"We need to do something quick!" Red said. "Or else…"

"Let's try this manifesting qi thing!" Blue said. She held her paws out, and fell silent. The fox glanced at her for a moment, before following. They stayed like that for a minute, but nothing seemed to happen.

"This is working great!" Red said sarcastically.

"Just concentrate!" Blue said, not changing positions.

'We need to help them.' Blue thought to herself. 'We need the strength to protect them… no, the power to protect everyone!'

Kruger and Xia Fu watched in awe as the rabbit started to glow with a blue aura. Red opened his eyes and watched as well, as the aura moved through her arms, and into her paws. It formed into a solid orb. She opened her eyes as she felt the object.

"I did it!" She said. She looked the orb over, there didn't seem to be anything to it. "But, what does this thing do?"

"You need both your powers!" Kruger said. "Nick, concentrate on something you want to protect!"

"…Protect?" He glanced over at Blue, seeing Judy within the suit. He took a deep breath, and shut his eyes. The fox began to glow red, which pooled itself into a second orb.

Long, who had his foot crushing down on GekiChopper, and Savage, who was strangling Silver, turned to look. The two Zoorangers held the orbs up, them starting to glow and float. The red orb suddenly gained several points around it, while the blue orb formed more into a crescent.

The orbs started to shrink down, and placed themselves back in their paws. They looked at the new objects. Blue held a blue and silver Zootag, a large crescent moon design topping it. Red held a ZooTag as well, his red and gold, with a sun design marking the top.

They glanced at each other, and then over to the monsters. Savage let go of his prey, dropping the wolf to the ground. He started to walk over to them. "What the hell are those?" It asked. "You two better not try anything funny."

Both Zoorangers grabbed the ZooTags by their large ends, and plugged them into the Zoolizers.

A heavenly sounding choir started to sound.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed in a flash.

Red was clad in golden samurai-like decorations, not armor since it seemed to be connected to the suit. It covered a chunk of his body, but large parts of his arms and legs, and a bit of his midsection, weren't, revealing red. His helmet now had a large U-shape extending from its brow, the back of the helmet now becoming spiked. His gloves now sported much more noticeable claws.

Blue was clad in similar armor, but it was lighter than Red's. The details remained the same, except her armor was silver, with blue revealed underneath. Her helmet also had a large U-shape coming out of it now, and the back of it now had two curves that pointed upwards. She was more heavily armored on her feet.

"Casting a shadow over the darkened land!" Red started. He moved both his hands above him, and then moved them down in a quarter circle motion. He brought them close to his chest "Master of the Sun!" He then bared his claws, striking a pose. "ZOORED SOLAR!"

"Shining a path for those in need!" Blue moved one arm above her head, and the other down. She swung them, the one pointing down moving and curving up, vice versa for the one that was pointed up. Her pose resembled a crescent. "Goddess of the Moon!" She broke out of the pose, and kicked forward several times, before stomping her foot on the ground. "ZOOBLUE LUNAR!"

"Oh my god!" Silver yelled, getting up and running over to them "You guys got super forms!? That's amazing!"

GekiChopper swung his blade at the distracted Long's feet, and rolled away, getting up and heading over to the two as well. "We'll hang back and let you handle them!" He said.

The two upgraded Rangers marched forward, and then broke into a sprint. Blue seemed to be moving at double her speed, whipping around Savage and Long. She leaped up a few times, delivering what felt like hundreds of kicks in only a second.

Red followed afterwards. He moved slower, but a single slash from his claws caused Savage to reel back. He knocked into Long's back, the two were now surrounded on both sides by the Zoorangers. Blue leaped up and deliver a strong kick with all of her might, knocking them both into Red. The fox slashed forward with both his claws, with a force strong enough to send both of the monsters flying.

They tumbled across the dirt, and got to their feet. "This isn't going well!" Savage said. "What are we going to do!?"

Long remained silent.

Red held out his paw, a burst of energy coming from it. The energy formed into a long, golden rod, with a hollow circle at the end of it. It was marked with eight points surrounding it, the middle part of each side having no spikes.

"SOLAR STRIKER!" He said, spinning it around and slamming the hilt into the ground.

Blue held out her paws as well, energy coming from them. They formed two silver khopesh, blue lines running up the side of the curved blades. The hilts ended in small hooks that didn't seem to serve a purpose.

"LUNAR SLICERS!" She yelled, slashing the blades against each other.

"Oh, and it just got worse!" Savage yelled.

Red thrust the rod forward, it seeming to extend to strike at the opponents dozens of feet away. He rapidly did this, until the circle of the rod caught on fire, which only seemed to speed the attack up.

The two reeled back from the hits, until Blue stepped forward with her blades. She started to spin, becoming a small tornado. She dashed across the dirt, carving a trail in it, until she whizzed past the monsters, slashing directly through their legs.

Red ran up this time, and started to smack the two with the rod. He knocked them side to side, but quickly knocked the monster into each other and dodged out of the way as Blue started to slash her sword from far away. The rapid slashes manifested as energy, and flew into the two, sparks flying from them with each strike.

The monsters stumbled back, obviously weakened, as the Rangers gathered back together.

"Time to finish this." Red said.

"Let's make it flashy!" Blue continued. Red held out the rod, the circle facing upwards. Blue used the hooks to connect her khopesh onto the sides of the circle, making it resemble an overly large bow.

She grabbed onto the back of the rod, and they channeled their energy into it. The bow started to glow with both of their colors.

"SOLAR CYCLE BLASTER!"

The bow unleashed a massive blast of energy, ripping apart the ground beneath it as it headed right towards the monsters. Long quickly punched Savage, knocking him out of the way of the blast. It struck the Phantom QI user, causing him to let out a terrifying scream of pain, before bursting into a massive explosion.

The two lifted the rod and slammed it into the ground, before turning around and posing, right before the explosion cleared.

Savage scrambled to his feet and stumbled over as the smoke cleared. "LONG!" He shouted. Nothing remained, save for a small, golden ball. He fell silent for a moment. "He sacrificed his life for me…"

The two Zoorangers untransformed. "Did we just…?" Nick started, his heart racing.

"I think we did." Judy said, shocked. A smile crept across both their faces.

"WE BEAT A GENERAL!"

They grabbed each other's paws, and started jumping up and down in excitement, before closing in for a hug.

Max untransformed and ran over to them. "That was incredible, you guys!" he said.

"I know, right?" Nick said. "This is the kind of power we need!"

"I didn't even feel like I was conscious." Judy said. "It was like I was on autopilot."

"You'll be able to control it better as you use it more." Kruger explained. "I don't suggest using it often, however. Those forms could be a massive power drain."

"Got it." Judy said.

Ken and Xia Fu ran over, looking worried. "We need to get out of here."

"Why?" Max asked. "They got rid of the monsters. Well, one of them."

"Savage is good a reason as any to get out of here." Judy said.

"It's not that." Xia Fu started. "Long is immortal. He cannot die."

"Uh, tell that to his ashes over there." Nick said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.

There was a sudden crack of thunder, everyone turning to look over at Long's death spot. The golden ball lifted into the air, and started to spin around, golden energy flowing around it. The force of the energy was like a tornado, the heroes having to brace themselves as it gathered. There was a bright flash, followed by laughter.

Judy opened her eyes, to see a horrifying sight.

Long, completely revitalized. It was like they had done nothing to him.

"You should listen to your friends more." Long said, laughing. "I am the Infinite Dragon. I cannot die, and I cannot be killed. But I must say…" He paused, and started to laugh. "After over a decade of being trapped in that cursed ball… You two have given me the most interesting experience I've had. I must thank you for that."

He turned to Savage. "Wow, I thought you sacrificed yourself for me." He said, feeling a bit relieved. "You had me scared!"

"I only let myself die because I don't know if I can revive you." He explained. "You're too valuable to lose. Come, I must introduce you to my colleagues…" The two transformed into mist, gold and green, and flew off through the sky.

Nick blinked a few times, and finally broke the stunned silence.

"Did we just lose?"

* * *

The group headed into the outskirts of the city. "I feel that could have gone better." Ken said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Definitely." Judy replied. "I can't believe we got tricked like that."

"That scaly creep managed to trick all of us!" Nick said, frustrated. "He even tricked Xia Fu and Kruger!"

"He managed to trick AkaRed as well." Kruger said. "But we didn't have a choice."

"Long is a manipulative one." Xia Fu said. "He managed to nearly destroy the world with his trickery."

"I'm just gonna say he's probably the most dangerous villain we're going to have to fight." Max guessed. "Aside from like, the big final villain."

There was a honk from above, the group looking to watch as the Rainbow Line skid to a halt in front of them.

"Guess its time to say goodbye for real!" Ken said. He gave a quick fist bump to the three, and headed into the train. "Hey, do you guys have pork buns here?" He asked as he stepped in.

"It was a pleasure to train you." Xia Fu said. He bowed down, Nick and Judy following suit.

"Um, Master Xia Fu?" max asked before the caracal could walk away. "Do you think you could see… my qi?"

Xia Fu opened his eyes, and stared at the wolf for a moment. "You have…" The wolf waited in anticipation.

"An average amount of qi." He finished. "I'm sorry, but there isn't much you could do with it."

His ears dropped. "Oh."

"it's nothing to worry about." Xia Fu said with a laugh. "You don't need qi to be a hero." He gave a quick wave and stepped into the train.

The three looked up at Kruger. "Hopefully it won't be months until we see each other again." Nick said, holding up a paw for a shake. Kruger didn't respond.

"Do you two remember what AkaRed told you?"

"What?"

"About your third member."

"Third member…?" Nick said, confused. "He's right here!" He motioned towards Max.

"He isn't your third member."

Max's ears drooped down even lower as that exited Kruger's mouth.

"He was an emergency plan. He wasn't in the original plan." Kruger explained. "The third Zooranger is still out there, you just need to find him."

"Don't talk to him like that."

"Excuse me?"

He looked down at Judy, who looked absolutely furious. "You don't get to talk to MY team like that!" She yelled. "Max is my friend, and our teammate, that's more important than whatever plan you have."

Kruger sighed, and silently walked into the train car. The Rainbow Line took off.

"…Thank you, Judy." Max said.

"We should probably get you to a hospital." Nick said, looking the wolf over. He was bruised and bloody, even worse than he was this morning.

"Yeah, probably a good idea."

The three started to walk back to the city. "Hey, so now that we've been trained by a master, and have super powerful upgrades, do we still have to do the training?" Nick asked, hopeful that the answer would be 'No'.

"Yes." Judy said. "We can't slack off just because we're stronger now."

Nick groaned, as Max trailed behind them.

"You guys are stronger…" He whispered to himself. "…But what about me?"

* * *

"Sir, we've run into a bit of the problem with the system." Leopold said into the phone.

"Is it a problem we can solve, or is it a problem you'll lose your job over?" Herder replied.

"No, its…" His voice wavered, so he cleared his throat. "Its something we can fix."

"What is it, then?"

"We don't have a real energy source for the system." He explained. "We could work one out, but the level of electricity or radiation would be more than the amount the city uses yearly!"

"That is a problem." Herder said calmly as he slouched back into his sofa. "I might have a friend who can help."

"A… a friend?" Leopold said nervously. "You know someone who has a power source that powerful?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but I can ask him." Herder said. "I'll call you back once I've figure it out." He hung up before Leopold could say another word.

"An energy source, you say?"

Herder let out a shriek as Long walked into the room. "You can't just do that!" He yelled. "At least knock first!"

"I have an energy source all ready." Long said. "But, I have one condition for you."

"A condition?" Herder said. He thought for a moment. "What is it?"

"I need you to find the perfect candidates for the system." Long started. "Violent, dangerous criminals who will show no mercy dealing with our little problem."

"I can do that, but…" He paused. "Are you sure that's the kind of mammal we need for this job?"

"If you don't follow my orders, you won't have a power source." Long declared. Long's visor lit up, shining directly into Herder's face. "And you won't have a life."

"Okay!" Herder said, terrified at the monster. "I'll get criminals for it. I can go through the records to find some, probably death row guys…"

The room suddenly got a lot darker. Herder looked around, Long had vanished.

"Perfect."


	27. Double Vision

The room fell silent as the five villains glanced over at the, even by their standards, rather uncouth monster. The place was an absolute mess, even more so than usual. Shattered bottles and scrap metal littered the ground, all the results of the new villain's temper.

Savage sat at the table in the middle of the lair, glancing around.

"Hey, who wants to fight!?" He shouted, looking around the room. Sambash and Yogostein were seated across from him, Yabaiba cowering behind the large robot. None of them said anything to the crystalline creature's offer, other than letting out dismissive grunts and turning away. Savage scoffed. "Y'all are a bunch of pansies."

Kyuemon stepped up to Long, whose back was to the wall. He seemed to be watching, rather intently, as this monster made their teammates miserable. "Why did you bring that... thing, here?" Kyuemon asked.

"Because he'll be useful." Long said, rather frankly.

"How?" Kyuemon asked. "He's tormenting the others, I hardly consider that useful."

"He will be soon enough." Long chuckled. He then turned to the yokai to ask a question. "Where is Enter?"

"Enter is at the top of the mountain." Kyuemon said. "Like he always is."

Without a word, Long transformed into a cloud of golden mist, and flew out of the lair. Kyuemon started to walk off, but was interrupted.

"Hey!" Savage shouted at him. "Why don't you come over here and we can have something to drink?"

"If you are trying to advance on me, I will inform you that I am a man." Kyuemon said.

"You say that like I care about your gender."

Kyuemon scoffed, and disappeared in a burst of dark flame.

At the top of the mountain, Enter was pacing around. The sun was rising, and it was his turn to enact a plan. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to think at all for the last week due to Savage's horrid behavior.

He turned around as Long materialized behind him. "Ah, Mon Amie." Enter greeted. His expression turned sour quickly. "What do you want now?"

"A favor." Long said. "I have a plan to get rid of the Zoorangers."

"Why do you need me, then?" Enter asked.

"Because it requires someone with your talents, and your monsters." Long explained. "See, none of my beast men are particularly... technology savvy."

"But my Metalroids are." Enter chuckled. "Well, I'm not one to ignore the values of travail en équipe."

"Excellent." Long said. "Here's the plan."

* * *

Judy looked up at the building in front of her. It was an antique shop, which could probably be used to describe the it. Old, rustic, made of stone and with the wear and tear of potentially a hundred years. It was small, and the only sigh was a wooden one with "ANTIQUES" written on it in cursive. It was held by rusted chains, which creaked as the wind blew it back and forth.

She stepped through the door, a bell sounding as she did. Inside the store were multiple layers of shelves, three to be exact. One for mammals her size, and two more for larger specimens. Lining the shelves were a plethora of useless knickknacks, statues of mammals, small chairs, and old jewelry.

"Oh, hello there!"

The rabbit turned to see an elderly goat. She was probably the owner of the store. "Are you looking for anything?" She asked.

"Oh, well..." Judy cleared her throat. "This is probably a dumb question, but I'm looking for an amulet. Its all spiked, very cheap looking... One of my friends found one at an antique shop, but I don't know if it was this one." She explained. "Tall, skinny, dressed entirely in black and white spandex?"

"I don't think I've seen anyone like that recently." The goat said. "But I think I know about the amulet." She headed over to a shelf, Judy trailing behind her. She picked something off the shelf, and held it down in front of the rabbit.

It was an amulet, exactly like the one Ken had. She grabbed onto it. After the fight, she had realized where she had seen the design. It was the Chaos Emblem, something that was on nearly every monster they fought.

The spikes on it were exact, it was astounding how close it was. "I didn't think there would be more than one." Judy said. "Where did you...?"

"Those amulets are incredibly common." The goat explained. "The story goes that, a hundred years ago, they found thousands of them buried in Mt. Animalia. They're just made of smooth stone, but the craftsmanship on them is wonderful!"

"Do they know who buried them on the mountain?" Judy asked.

"Nope, no one's sure who it was that carved them all." The store owner said. "They say it might have been an earlier tribe that lived on the mountain thousands of years back."

"Thank you for your help, ma'am." Judy thanked. She paused for a moment. "How much is this?"

"About three dollars."

"I'll take it."

* * *

"So, you spent three bucks on that?" Nick said as he looked over the stone amulet.

Judy nodded. "Don't you think its weird that these things have been around for thousands of years?" She asked. "And that they're in the shape of our bad guy logo, AND they were found where we know the monster's base is?"

"Yeah, that is weird." Nick said, placing the amulet on the table. "But you spent three bucks on it?"

"Nick, this is evidence." She said. "I needed to get it."

"You know where that three bucks could have gone?" He asked, looking at her. "Into our rent."

Judy facepalmed. It was almost time for their rent to be paid. Over the course of the last few months, their pay had been docked due to them starting to show up less and less to work. And in all the cases of them not showing up, it was because they were trying to protect the world.

Financially, they were struggling, mostly living off of fast food (She didn't feel guilty about it because of the training program) and they hadn't been able to buy anything else recently either. It was kind of turning into a disaster, but she didn't mind.

"Nick, this is evidence." She said. "The connection between whoever our villain is and Mt. Animalia goes back farther than just this year. It looks like it goes back farther than when we time traveled, too."

"Yeah, but you still didn't have to buy it." He said. "You could've just told me."

She shrugged. "Sometimes I don't even know why I bother."

"Because you love me." The fox said slyly.

"Not right now I don't." She said quietly.

Suddenly, there was a loud beeping. "Looks like we got a job to do." Nick said, getting up off the couch.

Judy took a deep breath. "Alright, lets try to get this over with without anything weird happening."

"At this rate, it'd be weird if something weird didn't happen."

* * *

The monster kicked open the door to the electronics store. "Alright boys!" It said as it exited, a mob of Buglers following behind it. "We just gotta wait for the stars to arrive, and we can get to work!"

The monster had a rounded, green upper body, what seemed like several surveillance cameras covering it. Its head seemed to be a simple disc in the middle of its body, with its eyes being three triangles each one a different primary color. Above its head was a large V-shaped emblem, the same as seen on other Metalroid monsters. It had overly large shoulder pads, which hung above its actual shoulders. They also had a variety of cameras coming out of them.

Its right arm was mostly normal, metallic and green in color, but its left consisted of a large video camera. Its midsection also seemed to have a surveillance camera in it, and a film reel stuck onto its waist. Its legs were rather bulky, having massive upper guards with cameras stuck in them, and bulky feet.

The group of robotic monsters marched into the middle of the parking lot, and waited. A few moments later, the red, blue, and silver heroes arrived, Red and Blue on motorcycles, Silver from above.

"Alright, you junk heaps!" Red yelled out. "Prepare to be scrapped!"

The main monster stepped forward, and pointed its camera at the fox. The three guarded, prepping for an attack. Instead, there was a flash of light.

"Click!"

The three stood there, stunned at what had just happened. "Did he just take our picture?" Silver asked, dumbfounded.

"Beware!" The monster yelled. "I, the mighty Copyroid will be your ultimate downfall! I will call the curtain down on your film, I will be the magnet that erases your video tapes!"

"Those are some awful metaphors." Red said, shaking his head.

"Alright guys!" Blue said, drawing her daggers. "Let's cut this guy's reel short!"

"See, THAT was a good metaphor!"

The monster seemed to stumble back as they rushed toward him and his minions. "PROTECT ME!" He shouted, absolutely terrified.

The Buglers ran ahead of the monster, and the Rangers began to clash with them. Blue flipped through the air, tossing her daggers towards two of the purple robots. They sparked as the daggers impaled their heads. She hit the ground, and then instantly jumped back up into the air, delivering a spinning kick to the Buglers surrounding her.

Red started to spin his sword around, its wire extending out. It slashed through a number of the Buglers before retracting back to the hilt. There were still more of the robots, so Red flung the blade into the air. He leaped forward, and slashed at a few of the monsters with his claws, moving through the air as he did so. With a final slash, the Buglers exploded, and his sword landed back in his paws.

Silver thrust his blade forward as well, impaling a few Buglers on it. He pulled it back, the robots exploding as he did. The wolf quickly spun the guard around, switching it to Sun Mode. He thrust the sword up into the air, firing off rapid blasts of fire that launched into the sky. The fireballs quickly came back down to the ground, eradicating the Buglers surrounding him.

The Metalroid watched as they continued to fight the Buglers. "This is good stuff!" He said to himself. It noticed that the Buglers' numbers were starting to wane. "Hmm, that's not good, I need to keep rolling.

A Bugler suddenly flew through the air, and crashed into a car next to Copyroid. "Hey, you!" He said, helping the Bugler to his feet. "Stand still for a second..." The Bugler obliged, as Copyroid aimed its camera at it.

"Click!"

There was another flash of light, as the robot had taken a picture of the footsoldier. "Good work, excellent performance!" Copyroid said, giving an okay sigh with his hand. It quickly smacked the Bugler in the back. "NOW GET BACK IN THERE!"

The camera monster laughed as the Bugler stumbled back into the fray. "Now, to paste!" He aimed his camera, a beam of light shining from it. As the light cleared, it made way for a second army of Buglers, which quickly dashed towards the fight.

"With my copy powers, these organics will never know what hit 'em!" Copyroid muttered to himself. He looked at the fight. "I only need one for right now, so who would..."

He watched as Red and Blue bumped into each other as they were fending off the Buglers. "Hey, don't get in my way!" Blue yelled at him.

"Sorry I don't have eyes on the back of my helmet, Carrots!" He said back, slicing through a monster.

"Guys, don't fight!" Silver yelled. "We're supposed to be a team!"

"Ah ha, he seems a bit untrustworthy…" The Metalroid whispered to itself. It quickly motioned towards the fox. "GET THE FOX!"

The army of Buglers turned towards Red, glaring at him with their red eyes. "Wait, what did I do?" He asked. The Buglers started to charge towards him, even ones that were in the middle of fighting the other two started for him.

"Time to start recording." Copyroid said to himself as he pointed the camera at Red. The fox started to fight through the Buglers, slashing them in half.

"Don't worry, we're coming!" Blue shouted as her and Silver headed for the crowd of minions.

Copyroid grunted as he caught the two running towards the Buglers. He pulled the camera back, and pointed it at them. "Not so fast!" It yelled. "PASTE!"

The two skid to a halt as a brick wall suddenly appeared in front of them. "What the heck!?" Blue yelled, turning to the monster.

"That must be his power!" Silver said. "He can copy and paste objects into reality!"

"Yeah, no duh!" Copyroid shouted. "Its in my name!" He thrust the camera forward again, more brick walls appearing around them.

Blue pounded on one of the walls. "Great, what are we supposed to do now?" She huffed.

"Nick'll figure something out." Silver assured.

She let out a short grunt.

Red continued to slash through the robots, unaware of Copyroid filming him. "This is perfect!" The robot chuckled. "With this much data, it'll be a perfect match!" The robot grunted again as the number of Buglers started to dwindle down again. "Alright, time for round three!" He waved his camera arm forward, summoning up another wave of Buglers.

"Oh COME ON!" Red yelled. He pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared in his paws, and he quickly spun it around, wiping out a large number of the Buglers in a single motion. "Oh, that's good!" Copyroid said, still recording the fox. "Keep doing that!"

Red slashed again, wiping out more of the Buglers, and then spun around, the blade going through more of the monsters naturally. He raised it above his head, and slammed it into the ground, destroying the last remaining Buglers.

The fox noticed the brick walls. "How did…?"

"The monster made them!" Blue yelled from the other side.

"We need help!" Silver finished.

"Alright, I'll get you guys out of-"

"ROUND FOUR!"

Red turned to see more Buglers running at him. "Where are these guys even coming from!?" He yelled, slashing through more of the Buglers.

"The monster can copy and create things!" Silver yelled. "He can keep pumping out monsters forever!"

"Oh you gotta be shitting me."

The fox let out a growl. If he wanted to get out of this, he'd have to do something drastic. He pulled out the sun shaped ZooTag, and plugged it into the Zoolizer. He readied himself for the transformation.

"TAIYO NO TSUKI GA NAI!"

"Wait, what?" He let out. Nothing had happened, and his Zoolizer was yelling at him. He pulled it out, and plugged it back in.

"TAIYO NO TSUKI GA NAI!"

"Oh come on, you can't be doing this to me!" He yelled.

"What, he can't use it!?" Copyroid yelled. He grunted, and motioned for the Buglers. "We're done here, I've got enough data on him!"

The Metalroid vanished in a burst of green data, the Buglers quickly following behind him. The fox looked around, and shrugged. He turned to the wall, and slashed at it with his blade, causing it, and the other walls, to vanish.

"What the hell was that?" He asked as his partners walked up to him. "Why didn't the power-up work?"

"Maybe it doesn't like you any more." Blue said, smugly.

"Not funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny."

Red squinted at her.

"Besides, why are you even using that on a bunch of footsoldiers?" She asked. "We don't know if overusing the power-ups will do anything to us yet, we can't use it willy-nilly."

"Sorry, but if I didn't do anything, I'd be stuck fighting an army of minions myself." He snapped back.

"Well, maybe you need something like that to whip you into shape!"

He started to growl at her, leaning in. Blue stared at him, arms crossed.

Silver came in between them, and pushed them away from each other. "Seriously, what's gotten into you two?"

"Nick doesn't seem to care about our mission any more." Blue said.

"Excuse me!?" Red replied, offended at the comment. "I'm just trying to worry about how we're supposed to live!"

"Is this just you two fighting about money?" Silver asked. "Not worth it when we have bigger problems to deal with."

Blue took a deep breath. "Silver's right, that monster wants something from you, Red." She explained. "We just need to-"

They were interrupted by a loud honk. The three turned to the road. There was a large limo parked just outside of the lot. The door slid open, a tanuki in a business suit stepping out. He pattered up to them. "Uh, hello?" Blue greeted, a bit unsure of what else to do.

"You three must be the Zoo Rangers!" He said, quickly shaking Blue's paw. "Oh, well of course you are, everyone knows about you. Just a bit of a formal greeting."

"Who are you?" Red asked.

"Kazunuki Uenoo, president and CEO of Nooko Bamdai."

"Wait, seriously!?" Silver yelled, pushing Blue and Red out of the way. "You're the president of Bamdai!?"

"I see you're a fan!" He said, a bit excitedly.

"I've bought a lot of your products." Silver said. His ears perked up. "Wait, why are you here? You're not going to sue us, are you?"

"What, why would he do that!?" Blue asked.

"Bamdai owns the Zoo Ranger brand, so…"

"No, no, no!" Kazunuki said. "We'd never do something like that. Me and the mayor just want to have a chat about something."

"The mayor?" Red said, still confused. "Okay, this definitely has to be about legal stuff, right?"

"Well, yes…"

"You're not going to make us reveal our identities, right?" Blue asked.

"Of course not!" He said. "Not now at least…" He muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Blue asked, having caught the president's muttering thanks to her hearing.

"Nothing!" He excused. "The mayor and I have been dying to talk to you, so if you would come along with me…"

Judy growled a bit, but Red nudged her in the shoulder. "Listen," he started to whisper. "This is the mayor. If we don't go we could get in trouble."

"I really want to see where this is going." Silver followed up.

"Fine." She let out. "We'll humor you for now."

"Wonderful!" Kazunuki said, clasping his paws together. "Now, just take your seats in the limo, and we'll be off!"

The three followed him into the limo, and hopped into the back. It was lined with plush seating, and a minibar at the other end. Silver hopped onto the seats, tail wagging. "This is so exciting!" He said. "Can you believe we're famous enough for a CEO of a major toy company to want to talk to us?"

"I don't like it." Blue said, hopping up onto the seat. "I think there's something fishy up."

"Of course there's something fishy, it's a corporation." Red said, leaning back into the seat. "But I think you should relax for a bit, if something comes up, we can deal with it."

She grunted as the limo started up.

Red glanced around for a moment, and reached towards the minibar. Blue slapped his wrist. "No drinking on the job."

"How did the data recovery go?"

"Fantastic!" Copyroid said. Him and his boss were standing atop a building, the place they had decided to meet up once the mission was complete. The tan cheetah stepped towards Copyroid.

"Did you get ALL of the data?" He asked.

"I wasn't able to get anything on the power-up thing." He stated. "But it isn't my fault! He tried to, but it didn't work!"

The cheetah sighed, and slipped his paws into his pockets. "Well, I guess them not being able to use it all the time is something good." He said. Enter turned back to Copyroid. "But you did get enough for the mission, right?"

"Definitely!" Copyroid assured. "We'll be able to ruin them, no problem. We just need an opening…"

Enter let out a laugh. "Leave that to me." There was a sudden burst of red particles around him, causing the robot to stumble back. When they cleared, it revealed Enter, now wearing a janitor's uniform and sunglasses.

"Excellent idea, sir!" Copyroid let out. "If you follow them, around, you'll be able to find an opening no problem!"

Enter walked over to the edge of the building, and watched a limo drive past. He gave a quick smirk. "And I think I might have found one."

"Wow, you're so cool, sir!"

"Don't flatter me."

* * *

The three rangers were seated in front of the mayor's desk, patiently waiting for Lionheart himself to show up. "So," Kazunuki started. "How are you three doing?"

"Alright." Silver said.

"Could be a bit better." Red followed.

Blue remained silent in her seat.

"Wonderful!" The CEO finished, seeming a bit fake. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go get something."

He headed out of the office, leaving the three in an awkward silence. "I don't like this." Blue finally said.

"You don't like anything." Red joked.

"I like lots of things!" She yelled. "I just don't like this current situation."

"I get it, but you need to relax." Red said. "Let me be the pessimistic one."

"It's not pessimism, its-"

The door opened, and Kazunuki came back in, carrying too silver briefcases. He put them to the side of the desk, and waited behind it.

"What are those?" Silver asked.

"What we're here to talk about." The tanuki cryptically said.

"Alright, that makes me a little bit worried." Red whispered.

The door opened again, Lionheart walking in. He sat at the desk, and looked over the three with a smile. "So, I'm assuming you have no idea why you're here, correct?" He asked.

"Absolutely no clue." Red stated.

"Excellent, so this will be a wonderful surprise!" Lionheart said, pumping his fist. Kazunuki handed one of the briefcases to the lion, which he placed on the desk. Lionheart opened it, the contents faced towards him. He looked at the three from over the briefcase. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Uhhhhhh…"

He pulled out what looked like a figurine from the suitcase, and placed it on the desk. On closer inspection, it was an action figure of ZooRed, matching his details exactly. "What in the world…?" Red said.

"That's not all!"

The lion pulled out more figures, one for ZooBlue, another for ZooSilver. Silver's ears popped up at the sight of his figure.

"What are these?" Blue asked.

"Toys, obviously." Kazunuki answered.

"I know what they are." She said, a bit insulted. "But… why?"

"We want to make a toyline based on your adventures." Lionheart explained.

There was silence for a moment, before Blue spoke up. "Why?"

"The Zoo Rangers brand has been declining in popularity recently." Kazunuki said. "But as soon as you three showed up, sales boosted!"

"That's why me and Kazunuki here decided to strike up a deal." Lionheart explained. "Since you're focused entirely in this city, we're only going to sell the line… in Zootopia! It will be a major boom for tourism, and our economy!"

"Your team is so marketable, too!" Kazunuki continued. He pulled up the second briefcase, and opened it. "We've made toys of all your equipment!"

Lionheart pulled out a rather bulky looking version of ZooRobo, alongside one of ZooKami. He pulled out exact copies of their Zoolizers, one for all three versions, alongside copies of their ZooTags.

"We never agreed to this." Blue stated, rather angry at the two, though she tried to remain composed.

"Of course you haven't!" Lionheart laughed.

"That's why we called you here." Kazunuki continued. "See, if we want to put these toys on the market, we'll need your likeness rights."

"Which mean you'll have to give us your real identities." Lionheart finished.

Before Blue could shout "NO!" at the top of her lungs, Kazunuki spoke up. "And just to be clear, this deal from this will net you around five thousand a week, according to sale predictions."

Red's ears popped up, which Blue instantly noticed.

"Of course, this is your decision." Lionheart continued. "You can say no, but you'll be missing out on a spectacular deal."

"We're going to talk about this in private." Red said.

"Seriously?" Blue said. "I'm the leader, what I say should go!"

"Red's right, we should talk about this together." Silver said. Blue grunted, and the three headed out into the lobby.

As they stepped out, they noticed how barren the lobby was. The only sounds were coming from a janitor and his bucket.

"I think we should do it." Red said, rather bluntly.

"Oh my god, seriously!?" Blue shouted. "Do you know how bad of an idea this is!?"

"It isn't a bad idea!" Red snapped back. "Five thousand a week is something most mammals wish they had, we'd be out of the red for the rest of our lives!"

"If we do this, everyone will know about our identities!" She retorted. "AkaRed specifically told us not to tell anyone who we are!"

"Like we haven't already done that twice in the past."

"Two people is nothing compared to the entire population of the planet!" She yelled. "and what, are you just suggesting we quit our jobs and live off this!?"

"No, I'm-"

"I can't believe this, I thought you were better than this."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Silver said, interrupting them before they could fight for any longer. "Why don't you let me have a say in this?"

"Silver's right, he's part of the team." Red said, arms crossed. "You probably want to do this, right? You're a toy guy, wouldn't it be great to have a toy of yourself?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Silver paused. "I think Blue's right about this, I think it's a bad idea to reveal our identities for something like this."

"HAH!" Blue laughed.

"BUT!" The wolf interrupted. "I don't think Red's in the wrong her entirely. He just wants to keep of roof over your head, Blue. You really need to stop acting like this."

She let out a grunt, and crossed her arms.

"So, it's decided?" Red asked. "We're not doing this?"

"No, we are definitely not doing this." Blue said.

"I might be a bit more inclined to do it if the toys didn't look terrible." Silver admitted. "Did you see the paint jobs on those figures. Just terrible."

The two stared at him for a moment, before they headed back in.

"So, have you all decided yet?" Lionheart asked, hopeful.

"We're not going to sign our rights over to you!" Blue said. "We have dignity, and protecting the world in secret is better than being celebrities."

"That's a very noble way of looking at it." Lionheart said, sounding genuine. He took a breath, and pulled up a chart from behind the desk. "As you can see here, these toys would boost the economy by 10%, and keep Bamdai out of the red for…"

"We're out of here."

They slammed the door behind them, the lion and raccoon dog left alone. The door opened back up, Blue popping her head in. "And by the way, it's ZOORANGERS, without a space."

There was silence as the door closed again. "Well, at least we tried." Lionheart shrugged."

As the Rangers left the building, they didn't seem to notice the janitor, a tan cheetah. He turned to look at them through his shades, and gave a grin.

"Magnifique."

"I'm really disappointed in you, Nick."

Those were the first words out of Judy's mouth when they got into the apartment.

"Seriously, this again?" He said, exasperated. "Are you seriously going to harbor a grudge against me because of money?"

"Maybe."

"Is it worth it?"

"Probably not."

"I'm amazed at how spiteful you can be." Nick said as he sat on the couch.

"I'll be over it in a day, don't worry." She assured him. "As long as you don't do anything stupid."

"If you think I'd ever do anything to actively spite you, I can tell you right now that I never would." Nick assured her. "I'd have absolutely no reason to do something like that to you."

"I know you wouldn't." She said, softly. She moved over to the window, it was starting to get late. "I'm gonna head for bed, today's been stressful."

"See you later, moon rabbit." They both laughed, and Judy headed into her room.

The fox let out a sigh, and pulled out his phone. He opened the bank account app. They only had two thousand dollars saved, and it was getting dangerously close to the end of the month. His tail started to twitch as he looked out the window, and then down to his Zoolizer.

"You wouldn't do anything to spite her…" He said to himself. "But you would do anything to help her."

* * *

"We were this close!" Kizunuki said to the lion. "The red one clearly wanted in on it, so I don't know what happened!"

"We'll just try again later!" Lionheart said. "We're bound to get them to accept eventually."

"Let's just hope it's a 'sooner than later' situation." Kizunuki continued. "We're both struggling a bit, and they're the saving grace that we really need."

"Um, sir?" Said a doe, walking up to them.

"What is it Carol?" Lionheart asked. Carol was the latest assistant mayor after Bellwether had turned out to be a criminal. If you were to ask anyone, there was a high chance they'd say that she was more sensible than her boss. "Can't you see we're in the middle of something?"

"Well, I was just thinking…" She started. "Isn't it kind of… dangerous, to be setting up a tourist trap when we're in the middle of a crisis?"

"See, that's why we need the tourism!" Lionhead explained. "With the money, we can repair things even quicker than before, and maybe even set up extra defenses!"

She sighed, and walked off, shaking her head. "Whatever you say, sir."

"So, anyway…"

"Excuse me, sir?" Carol said from the doorway.

"What IS IT, CAROL!?" Lionheart yelled, turning to the door. He recoiled in surprise at who was there.

It was ZooRed.

He walked up to the two. "How's it going?" The fox said, holding out a paw.

"Did you… change your mind?" Kizunuki asked, a bit nervous.

"Totally did." Red said. "You two ready to have your minds blown?"

Before either one could say something, Red pressed the button on his Zoolizer, causing a flash of light. The light cleared, revealing who was under the suit.

"Nick Wilde?" Lionheart said, surprised. "You're one of the super heroes?"

"Yep." He said. "The other two are Judy and, uh… Wolf-something. He's a wolf."

"Incredible, I never expected the city's super heroes to be the city's normal heroes." Lionheart paused for a second. "Though, I guess that does make some kind of sense."

"So, you're going to sign over your likeness rights now, right?" Kizunuki asked.

"Not right now." Nick said. "I actually want to tell you about a super special thing me and my team have planned."

Lionheart leaned down as the fox whispered into his ear. "Really? Carol, set up a SOCA for tomorrow, 3PM!"

"Um, alright sir, why?" She asked.

"That's not for you to ask, just have it set up!" He yelled. "Send emails to the press immediately!"

She sighed. "Alright."

"After this, you'll sign the contract, right?" Kizunuki asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Nick said, dismissively. "But if you want to talk about plans early, I can give you our address."

"That'd be wonderful!" Kizunuki said, as the fox quickly wrote it down on a notepad.

"So, we'll be seeing you guys tomorrow!" Nick said, waving bye to the two.

Carol felt a shiver as the fox walked by. She couldn't place why the entire conversation had felt off, but it certainly didn't seem to be noticed by her boss and his business partner, who were happily chatting away.

Being the assistant mayor, she had seen the fox a number of times in news articles, and even a few times in person. He seemed a bit off, something about how he stared at them with his red eyes.

She shook it off, and started writing the email.

* * *

Judy rubbed her eyes as she walked out of her room. She spotted Nick, snoring on the couch. She sighed, and walked over to him. She snapped her digits, causing the fox's ears to twitch. She snapped them again, causing him to let out a groan.

"Ugghh, I'm awake…" He grunted, turning over.

"Were you up late?" She asked.

"I'm nocturnal, of course I was up late." He retorted, sitting up.

"Yeah, you usually don't stay up late to the point you fall asleep on the couch." Judy pointed out. "Were you doing something…?"

"What? No, of course not." Nick answered. "I was just a bit stressed after yesterday, that's all."

"Uh huh, sure." She clasped her hands together. "Doesn't matter, we have bigger fish to fry." The fox gave her a look. "The monster."

"Oh yeah, that." He said.

"Don't you think its weird that we didn't get any other alerts yesterday?" She asked.

The fox nodded silently. "Yeah, we usually get like… two or three the first day." He said.

"Aside from when the bad guys are planning something." Judy continued. "That means I think there's something up."

"What harm could that piece of editing software do?" Nick laughed. "He didn't even fight us on his own, he just had his lackeys do it."

"That's why I think something's up!" Judy continued. "They want to destroy the city, so why would they make a monster that doesn't seem like it can do anything?"

Nick shrugged. "Maybe whoever made it lost a bet."

"This is serious, Nick."

"Yeah, I know." He said. "That's why I try to keep things light."

"It was one of those 'roid' monsters, which means that Enter made it." Judy continued. "He's the guy who messes with us emotionally. Something has to be up…"

There was a sudden knock at the door, causing both their ears to spring up. "who'd visit us this early?" Judy asked, confused.

"Might be Max, maybe we missed one of his calls."

The rabbit walked over to the door, and opened it. Kizunuki abruptly burst into the apartment, carrying one of the briefcases.

"What the!?" Nick shouted.

"What are…" Judy quickly corrected herself. "WHO are you!?"

"No need to play coy, I know that you're both the Zoo Rangers." Kizunuki chuckled. "I'm here to talk about the specifics in our business deal-"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW!?" Judy yelled. She glanced over at Nick.

"I didn't do anything!" He said.

"But you came and told me and Lionheart about it last night." Kizunuki said.

"WHAT!?" Both of the mammals shouted. Judy turned to glare back at Nick, piercing a hole through his heart.

"Judy, I swear, I didn't-"

"I trusted you, Nick!" She yelled. "How could you do something like this behind my back!?"

"I-"

"Now, if we're to do this toyline, I'm afraid that we're going to have to market Nick as the leader, and you as secondary." Kizunuki rudely interrupted, seeming oblivious to the current conflict.

The two glared at him.

"GET OUT!"

Before he knew it, Kizunuki was tossed out of the apartment, the door slamming behind him. He got up, and shook off his surprise. "Alright, I'll come talk about it after the surprise thing!" He yelled, not sure if either of them could hear him.

"I can't believe this." Judy said, sounding less mad and more depressed. She turned away from the fox, and started pacing.

"Judy, you have to believe me," Nick pleaded. "I didn't do this."

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted a conman." She said. The fox's heart cracked. "You're a liar, how do I know you haven't been lying about everything?!"

"I-"

"How much of it was real!?" She yelled, tears starting to run down her face. "Did you lie about your past!? Did you lie about loving me!?"

"I haven't lied to you in four years." He said. "I would never lie to you."

"I wish I could believe that."

There was a sudden loud beeping noise. The rabbit let out a growl much larger than her body should have been capable of producing, and pulled her ears over her face.

"Judy, we have-"

"Yeah, I know." She said. "Let's just get this over with."

* * *

"Why am I here again?" The crystalline monster growled.

"Because this is a team effort, monsieur Sauvage." Enter explained. "We need your skills to get this to work."

Savage grunted. "Alright, whatever. As long as I get to bodily harm someone."

"You can harm, but not kill." Enter continued. "We need all of them alive for this to work."

The monster groaned in disappointment.

Enter turned to look over at his Metalroid. Him and an army of Buglers were terrorizing the animals in the park. A location this large and this out in the open should get the Zoorangers' attention no problem.

"Alright, I'm leaving the rest of this up to you." Enter said. "Remember, just take care of the red one."

Savage grunted as the cheetah vanished from thin air. They were the embodiment of rage and murder, why were they getting reduced to grunt work? They deserved better than this.

The monster watched as Copyroid and his robot entourage continued to attack the park. Where the heck were the Zoorangers?

The crystal beast felt a number of quick pains on its back. It turned around, seeing a rather angry rabbit rushing towards them.

She leaped up into the air, screaming the entire way, and attempted to deliver a diving kick to Savage. It quickly grabbed her by the foot, and flung her towards the robots.

"Wow, that was a dumb move." Silver said as he and Red ran into the park. "What's wrong with her?"

"She thinks I revealed our identities." Red explained.

"Oh, alright." Silver said. He did a double take. "Wait, what!?"

"We can talk about this later." Red said, pulling out the Vickscannon. "Right now, we have innocent lives to save."

Blue crashed into the back of one of the Buglers, knocking it down. She got up, and watched as Red fired a number of fireballs at Savage. The monster effortlessly deflected them all with the back of his crystalline claws.

She sighed, and hopped to her feet. The Bugler tried to get back up as well, but she roundhouse kicked it in its behind, flinging it off. She quickly pulled out her blasters, and fired at the Buglers, obliterating a number of them in a few seconds.

Silver rushed at Savage with his blade, but it caught the sword in his claws. "Sorry, I'd love to fight you, glitter boy," Savage said. "But I have orders to fight the fox."

"What? Why?"

"Ask the cheetah, not me."

It grabbed the wolf with his other claw, and flung the wolf over its head. Silver hit the ground, and tumbled over to the robots.

"So, you want to fight me, huh?" Red asked. "Think you can actually take me this time?"

Savage started laughing. "Good one." It said. "I'm going to make you wish you were born without a spine."

Silver got up, and looked over at the rabbit. She was effortlessly destroying Buglers, in almost too harsh of a fashion. A few started to run over to him, attempting to strike the wolf with their claw weapons. He slashed through them, and ran over to Blue.

They fought through the Buglers together, quickly eliminating most of them.

"Savage says he's only supposed to fight Red!" The wolf told her. "We should help him!"

"Let him fight!" Blue growled. "Maybe being beaten to near death will make him more honest!"

"Okay, are you serious right now!?" Silver yelled at her. She recoiled a bit, startled at how serious Max was sounding. "You're just going to let him be killed by that thing!? I thought you were our leader!"

"He's the one who went behind our backs!" The rabbit yelled back.

"HE'S STILL GOING TO GET KILLED!"

She glanced over at Red and Savage. They were fighting. Red attempted to fire at Savage again, but the crystalline beast caught the fire in his claws, and tossed it back at the fox. It exploded, launching the fox through the air. Savage caught him in mid-air, lifting him up above its head, and quickly threw him to the ground. As Red tried to get up, the monster stepped on his back, starting to grind down on him.

"He doesn't stand a chance without our help!" Silver pleaded. "We need to go help him. He's still our teammate."

Blue sighed. "You're right, I don't know what I was thinking." She said, a bit disappointed in herself. "Let's go-"

There was sudden gunfire around them, dust shooting up. "Sorry, but I can't let you do that!"

They looked up, seeing Copyroid, accompanied alongside two Buglers. "You helping him would interfere with our plan!" It explained. "So I'm going to have to keep you busy!"

"Oh, wow, I'm so scared." Blue said, sarcastically. "We know you don't have any real powers, and we can take care of those two no problem. How are you supposed to distract us?"

"No powers, huh!?" Copyroid yelled. "Well, take a look at THIS!"

He pointed his camera at one of the Bugsters, a click coming from it. He then did the same for the second Bugler.

"Um, alright?" Silver said, a bit confused. "What was-"

"COPY AND PASTE!"

There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, a terrifying sight stood before them.

Both Sambash and Yogostein were standing there.

The biker monster raised his guns, and rapidly fired at them, Blue hopping out of the way of the bullets. She fired back at him, distracting him from shooting at Silver.

Silver recovered a bit from the bullet shots, but soon saw Yogostein rushing towards him with his spear. They clashed their weapons, Silver managing to push it back and jab at the robot multiple times. They didn't seem to affect him, and the wolf received a quick smack from the spear.

"I can copy ANYTHING!" Copyroid yelled. "These copies of Yogostein and Sambash are just as strong as the originals, so good luck!" The monster chuckled, and started talking to itself. "Hopefully they don't see through my lie for a bit…" He quickly swung his camera forward, pointing it at Silver.

"Great, so we're basically just fighting two generals right now!" Silver yelled. "This day couldn't get any better!"

Blue fired more shots at the Sambash copy, but it didn't seem to flinch. She groaned, and put the guns away, before dashing at him. As she leaped into the air to deliver a kick, she was pistol whipped across the field.

Silver attempted to strike at the Yogostein copy, but its armor seemed far too tough to pierce. He jumped back, and quickly switched the sword to Sun Mode. He fired off a few fireballs, but the copy whacked the out of the air with his spear.

Blue pulled out her daggers, and dashed back at the copy. She leaped back into the air, the copy firing at her. She deflected the bullets out of the air, and slashed down, cutting through the Sambash clone.

Silver stepped back, and switched the sword to Moon Mode. He lashed the energy whip forward, wrapping it around Yogostein's spear. He ripped it from the robot's hands, and then flung it back at him. The spear collided with the robot, sparks shooting off as it stumbled back.

"They aren't that strong." Blue said, a bit confused. "There has to be something more to this…" She glanced over to the Metalroid. It had its camera pointed at her. It seemed to notice, and quickly pulled it back.

"YOU!"

"Uh, what!?" The monster said, nervously. "I wasn't doing anything nefarious!"

"Now I know something's up!" She shouted. "You're keeping us distracted for something a lot less simple than wanting to kill Nick!"

"No, I swear, I really just want to see that fox get murdered!" All four of the other parties looked at him awkwardly. "…Not helping my case, am I?"

"I'm going to stop you before whatever you're doing happens!" Blue shouted, pulling out the moon shaped ZooTag. She quickly plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"TSUKI NO TAIYO GA NAI!"

"Oh come on!" She shouted.

"Its not working for you either!?" Silver asked. "What's going on with those things!?"

"I don't know, but we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." She sighed. She pulled out a blue ZooTag, and plugged it in.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The gloves appeared on her paws. "Alright, lets switch up who we're fighting." She said. "I should be able to break Yogostein's armor easily."

"Uh, alright." Silver said, sounding a bit disappointed.

Blue gave a nod, not seeming to notice Silver's disappointment, and rushed over to Yogostein. She leaped up, and delivered a straight punch directly to his spear, cracking it in two. Without hesitation, she followed it up with another punch, this time an uppercut.

She smacked the robot in the chin, launching him high into the air. He fell back to the ground, but before he could crash, the rabbit finished with a third punch. As it hit, the robot exploded into nothing.

Silver stepped over to Sambash, who aim his guns at him, and started to fire rapidly. He spun the sword into Eclipse Mode, time starting to slow down. He stepped out of the way of the bullets, and began rapidly jabbing at Sambash's guns.

Time returned to normal, the copy looking around confused, as the wolf had completely vanished. IT held up its guns, watching as bullets poured out of several new holes. A sword suddenly pierced through his chest, and he exploded.

The two Rangers turned to Copyroid, who stumbled back. "Alright, that's enough for today!" He said. "SAVAGE!"

The crystalline beast turned from his current activity, which was rapidly smashing the fox into the ground, and towards the robot.

"WE'RE DONE HERE, LET'S GO!" Copyroid yelled.

Savage grunted. It looked at Red, who seemed to be unconscious, but still breathing. The monster snorted, and dropped him to the ground. Savage leaped into the air, turning into a green blur, and rushed past Copyroid, both of them vanishing.

Judy untransformed and rushed over to Nick, who had untransformed as he hit the ground. "Nick!" She shouted, pushing him. He didn't respond. She rolled him over, and felt for a pulse. There was still one, causing her to sigh in relief.

"Is he alright?" Max asked.

"He just needs to rest for a bit." She said. "I'm taking him back home."

"Are you sure you can lift him?" Max asked.

"You're asking like it's the first time I've had to."

* * *

"I take it the mission was a success, yet again?" Enter asked smugly.

"How can it be a success when I didn't get to murder anyone!?" Savage roared.

"No, it was definitely a complete success!" Copyroid assured. "I got all the data I needed for the plan! Though, I still couldn't get any on the new thing."

"Yo, can you tell us what the hell's going on?"

The three turned to Sambash and Yogostein, who were sitting at the table. "Why did you have to film us and shit? Is that part of your plan?" The biker monster asked.

"Yes, it was."

Everyone turned as Long entered the room. "And if you want to ask anyone about this plan, you will ask me." He said.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Yogostein asked.

"I plan on ruining the Zoorangers for good."

There was silence.

"Is that it?" Sambash asked. "You don't have to keep it a secret to us, we are part of a team."

"Why should I tell something like that to morons who don't have any sort of success?"

"No success!?" Yogostein yelled. "Well, we've… uh…" He turned to look at Sambash, who gave a shrug.

"My point exactly." Long said. He turned back to Enter. "Everything is going to the plan, correct?"

"Oui oui!" He said. "Copyroid has collected enough data for it."

"Well, there might be a bit of a problem." Copyroid said. The two turned their gazes towards him. "I might not be strong enough to project all three at once. I could do one that's perfect, and two that can act but not talk, but three might be a bit…"

Enter laughed. "You don't think we've thought of something like that?" He pulled out a Chaos Badge, holding it between his fingers. He tossed the badge into the symbol above its head.

The badge struck, and Copyroid's body started to change. Its limbs practically exploded off of its body, while its upper, rounded torso seemed to consume its lower half. Its face detached from the body as well, flipping around to become a much larger camera lens. The lenses covering its body each gained the symbol of chaos, the v-shaped logo changing into the symbol as well.

Its limbs seemed to begin orbiting the monster's round body, but they quickly fell back into place, connected by strands of electricity. The limbs remained mostly the same, bulking up slightly to fit with the monster's new body. The monster's shoulder pads also floated slightly above the arms, now at an angle.

The monster laughed, its arms spinning around its body. "This is fantastic, I feel like I could copy a hundred things at once!"

"Well, you have to at least do three." Enter said. "We should get going anyway, there's only a few minutes left before show time."

* * *

"How you feeling?"

"Like I got trampled thirty times in row."

The fox was laying on the couch, resting up from his physical beating at the claws of Savage. And from his emotional beating at the paws of Judy. He groaned as she came over and sat down next to him.

"You wanna make me feel even worse, huh?" He said, turning over.

"No, why would I-" She paused. "Nick, I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"Oh, so you believe me now?" He asked. "Is it only because I'm injured?"

"No, I think they're planning something." She explained. "What if they're trying to force us apart?"

"Well, then I guess its working."

"I'm being genuine, Nick." Judy sighed. She placed a paw on him. "I can't just worry about you right now; the whole world is resting on our shoulders."

"So, you don't worry about me at all, huh?" He sighed.

"What? I worry about you all the time." She said. "Its just…"

Her phone started ringing, startling them both. The caller ID listed Max's number, so she answered it.

"Hey Max, I think this is a bad time to be calling." She said as the wolf appeared on the screen. "Me and Nick are trying to sort some things out."

"You can worry about sorting out your relationship later, we have a bigger problem!"

"What?"

"Turn on the news!"

Nick got up, and grabbed the TV remote, switching it on. ZNN was showing some kind of conference room, reporters moving into their seats. Creatures from around the city, and maybe even the world, had shown up. Easily over a hundred different individuals, consisting of large elephants to tiny mice. What was going on?

Then the news scrolled by.

"ZOO RANGERS TO REVEAL IDENTITIES IN HISTORIC EVENT"

"WHAT!?"

"I know, right!?" Max said from over the phone. "What the hell is going on!?"

"Guess we'll have to watch and find out." Nick said, the two watching the TV intently.

A few minutes of agonizing suspense passed by as the reporters were seated. Then, Mayor Lionheart came onto the stage, standing at a podium.

"Thank you all for coming." He started. "For the last half a year or so, our city has been saved on a weekly basis by three brave heroes! They've remained anonymous, protecting the world in secret… until today! Please welcome, the Zoo Rangers!"

"I told him there wasn't a space!" Judy huffed, crossing her arms.

"That's really not important right now, Carrots." Nick said. They both went wide eyed as doubles of themselves and Max walked up onto the stage, waving at the crowd.

The doubles were wearing exact matches of their transformed forms, down to the details. "This has to be some kind of prank." Judy said, shaking her head. "Those are just three kids dressed like us, right?"

Nick shrugged. He was speechless.

"How's it going everyone?" Judy's copy said. Even their voices sounded the same.

"We're the Zoorangers!" Said Max's copy. "But I bet all of you are wondering who we really are under these outfits."

"Well, prepare to have your minds blown!" Nick's copy finished. "Ready?"

The three of them hit the buttons on their Zoolizers, and untransformed… revealing exact matches of Nick, Judy, and Max.

"We're ZPD Officers Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps, and Max Wolford!"

The two's jaws hung open.

As they glared at the TV screen, Judy noticed something off about them. Instead of their normal eye colors, green for Nick, violet for Judy, and hazel for Max, they were all blood red. Nobody seemed to notice.

"We need to do something about this." Nick said, pulling out his phone.

Before he could dial anything, his copy began to speak again. "And we have some even more exciting news!" He said, voice turning somewhat sinister. "We're betraying you all!"

There was a thud as Nick's phone fell to the ground.

The three copies transformed again, and pulled out their weapons. "GET THEM!" The ZooBlue copy yelled, pointing towards the crowd. The doors to the room burst open, an army of Buglers marching in. The crowd let out terrified screams as the robots began attacking them.

"What are you doing!?" Lionheart yelled at the three.

"Can it, Lionheart!" The ZooRed copy said, rushing over and slashing at the mayor with his sword.

The three clones leaped into the crowd as well, the camera cutting to static as soon as they landed.

The two sat on the couch, stunned into silence at the terror they had just saw. They were silent for a few minutes, each of which felt like hours. "That's what they were doing." Judy finally mumbled. "We fell right into their trap."

"We can get out of this." Nick said, putting a paw on Judy's shoulder. "We always get out of these situations."

"Right, right…"

"Besides, it's not like anyone watches those announcements." Nick said, trying to assure her. "I'm sure this will be forgotten, and everything will go back to norm-"

There was a sudden loud pounding at the door.

"Maybe if we ignore it they'll think we're not home?"

The pounding just got louder.

The fox sighed, and got up, opening the door up a crack. Someone kicked on the door at that exact moment, launching Nick back into the couch.

There was an angry mob crowded in the hall, all of the other tenants of the apartment seemed to have gathered to yell at them.

"TRAITORS!"

"MURDERERS!"

"GET OUT OF OUR APARTMENT!"

Judy clutched her head, and pulled her ears down, trying to ignore the jeers. Nick got back to his feet, and saw something squirming through the crowd of mammals. It was Ms. Flots. She made it through the crowd, and turned to them.

"Everyone calm down, please!" She shouted. The mob seemed to calm down a bit. "I'll handle this, everyone go back to their apartments."

There was muttering as the crowd began to part. Flots closed the door behind her.

"Ms. Flots, you have to believe us, we didn't do anything!" Nick pleaded.

"I know you didn't." She sighed. "I know you would never hurt anyone innocent, but not many others know that."

"Thank you." Judy said, letting her ears spring back up. They almost instantly fell down the back of her head.

"But I'm so sorry…" She said, solemnly. "I need you two to leave."

"What!?" Nick shouted. "Why can't you let us stay if you know we didn't do it!?"

"Because this is my livelihood." She explained. "I try to make all my tenants happy, and if they think they have dangerous criminals living near them…"

"We'll leave."

Nick turned to Judy. "What are you saying, Carrots?" The fox asked. "You're just going to let us lose our home!?"

"Yes." She said, getting up off the couch. "If it helps everyone feel safe, we'll leave."

Nick sighed. "Alright, I'll go pack."

"Just clothes." Judy said. "We don't need anything but clothes and our phones."

"Come on, seriously?" He groaned. He was about to continue, but shook his head, and headed for his room.

"I'm so sorry." Ms. Flots said.

"I know." Judy said with a sigh. "But I will do anything to make this world a better place."

"I'm amazed all our clothes fit into this bag." Nick said as he dragged a duffle bag behind him.

"I mean, we usually only wear two outfits." Judy said. Nick was dressed in his usual floral print shirt and beige pants, while she was in her flannel pink top and jeans. "When was the last time you didn't wear that shirt?"

"Uh, when we go to work?"

"What are we going to do about that?" Judy asked as they walked down the street. "We're criminals now, so…"

"Yeah, we're probably not going to the station for a very long time." Nick said. Judy stopped as the fox continued forward. He stopped and looked back. "Don't worry, we'll get everything back to normal soon." He said.

"I hope so."

* * *

After more walking, they finally reached their destination. Max's house.

"Well, it's about as bad as I expected."

The house was also surrounded by an angry mob, hurling fruits and yelling expletives in the wolf's direction. The mob was much larger than the one at their apartment, mostly because there was just more room in general around the house.

"YOU CAN'T KICK ME OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Max yelled from an open window. "I LEGALLY OWN IT!"

"How are we going to get in there?" Nick asked.

The front door was obviously not an option. Judy glanced at the back of the house. "The back door!" She said. "Come on! Oh, but do it quietly, we don't want the angry mob seeing us."

Nick nodded, and hoisted the duffle bag onto his back. They quickly ran over to the back of the house, and up to the screen door. Judy tapped on it a few times, loud enough for it to echo through the house. Max came rushing to the back of the house, carrying a baseball bat. He dropped it as soon as he saw them.

"Oh hey!" He said, muffled by the glass between them. He slid it open, and the two stepped in. "Why are you guys here?" The wolf asked.

"Because we are now officially homeless." Nick said, tossing the bag to the ground.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, our landlord made us leave after the whole… thing." Judy explained. "I'm guessing that's why you have an angry mob outside, right?"

Max sighed, and nodded. "I can't believe we fell for something like that so easily."

"I kinda can." Nick said as he sat on top of the bag. "Anyway, can we stay here until this all blows over?"

Max started to laugh. "Seriously? You want to stay here?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Judy asked.

"Yeah, the angry mob that'd been outside my house all afternoon!" Max yelled.

"That is a bit of a problem, yeah."

"Its only a matter of time before it goes from 'throwing tomatoes' to 'barging into my house and kicking my ass'." Max said. "And what if the police show up? Can't do anything there!"

"He's right." Nick said. "If we want to clear our names, we need to go somewhere… below the law."

"Oh no, you don't mean…?"

Nick nodded his head, causing the rabbit to groan.

"Am I missing something here?" Max asked.

"We're going to Mr. Big's."

"Oh, alright. Wait, WHAT!?"

* * *

The three stood outside the surprisingly threatening mansion of Mr. Big. Despite its rather warm appearance, resembling an old-style cabin from the outside, it emitted an air of death befitting of its mob boss owner.

"So, how do you know Mr. Big, the most dangerous mob boss in the whole city?" Max asked. He was carrying a satchel of his clothes over his shoulder. "Just wondering."

"Oh, you know." Nick said, nonchalantly. "We're friends."

"Not any more you aren't." Judy chuckled. "Pretty sure I'm on better terms with him now."

"You're on good terms with his daughter, not him."

"I feel like I missed something." Max said.

"Oh, it wasn't that important." Nick said, walking up to the door. He reached up and slammed the knocker into the door a few times. "Alright, so Big's bodyguards aren't that friendly." Nick explained. "Just act polite and-"

He let out a shrill scream as he turned around.

"What, what is it?" Judy asked, a bit worried. The fox pointed behind them.

Judy and Max turned around, seeing two massive polar bears in track suits standing in front of them.

"Heeeeeeey…" Nick let out, stepping forward. "Raymond, Kevin, you guys still work here?" He asked. The bears let out snorts, visible in Tundra town's cold air.

One of them, Kevin or Raymond, grabbed the fox and rabbit in his paws, while the other one grabbed Max by his coat, causing him to drop the satchel.

"I'm getting a sense of déjà vu." Nick wheezed. Judy let out an angry groan.

In a few moments, the three were tossed to the ground, in front of Mr. Big's big desk. "Great plan, Nick." Max said as they got up.

"It worked last time we needed help." Nick said, dusting his shirt off.

"That's because we weren't criminals!" Judy quietly shouted.

"Actually, I was."

"Whatever!"

They heard stomping, as a third, even larger polar bear walked down the stairs. He sat at the desk, and unfurled his hands, revealing the tiny shrew that was Mr. Big.

"I thought he would be bigger." Max whispered. Nick almost instantly jabbed him in the leg.

"So, do you guys just do that dramatic entrance every time you want to kill someone?" Judy asked.

"Yes, kind of ritual." The polar bear at the desk said.

Mr. Big let out a grunt, and the polar bear pushed his tiny chair forward. He pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. He puffed a surprisingly large burst of smoke at Nick's face. "What brings three cops to my establishment today?" He asked.

"Ex-cops." Judy said.

"Mm, so I've heard." Big continued. "You attacked a bunch of innocent reporters. Why did you come here, planning on attacking me?"

"No!" Nick said. "We would never consider that. We, uh…"

"We need your help." Judy finished. "We were framed, and now we're homeless. We came to ask if we could stay here for a bit while we sort things out."

Mr. Big thought for a moment. "I am a crime boss, so even if you're lying, I would have some use for you…" The three's faces lit up for a moment. "But I also hate one of you, and I don't know who the wolf is." He finished.

"I'm Maxwell Wolford, I'm their…" He noticed the glares from Nick and Judy. "Bad time, got it."

"I know you and I have had some… bad interactions." Nick started. Big growled at him. "But I'm changed. And if you let us stay, it'll be like old times!"

Mr. Big thought for a few painstaking minutes. Nick could feel the sweat starting to build in his mouth, but he tried not to pant.

"I'll let you stay for a bit. If I killed the rabbit, my daughter would be heartbroken."

The three let out massive sighs of relief.

"But, you'll have to sleep in… the spare room." Nick grinded his teeth, and the polar bear behind big recoiled a bit.

"Actually…" Nick started. "Maybe we should…"

"A spare roof over our heads is better than no roof at all." Judy said. "We thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Big."

"Also, you don't get to eat grandmama's famous pasta recipe." Big continued. "But we'll give you necessities."

"That's… very kind of you?" She said, a bit confused.

"Show them to… the spare room." He finished. "And take me back to my dinner."

The polar bear wrapped Big up in his paws again, and headed back up the stairs. The three turned to Kevin and Raymond, who both let out snorts. "Can you please show us to our room?" Judy asked politely.

The bears looked at each other, and headed for the door opposite the staircase.

They followed them down a hallway, and down into the bowels of the mansion. "This is an awful idea." Nick whispered.

"Nick, it's a spare room." Judy said. Why was he being so rude all of the sudden? "It might be a bit cramped for all three of us, but…"

"Aren't spare rooms usually above ground level?" Max asked. "Why are we heading towards the basement?"

The bears stopped in front of an old looking wooden door. It looked like it was a part of the mansion before the rest of the mansion even existed, cracked and barely hanging to the hinges. It was roughly as large as Max, which meant it was both too small and too big for the usual residents of the building.

One of the polar bears opened it, and gestured for them to head down the dark staircase it revealed. The three mammals glanced at each other, nervously, and then headed down the stairs. What little light was coming down was snuffed out as the door slammed behind them.

They walked down the creaking steps, until they felt some solid ground. Judy felt at the wall, and found a light switch. The hanging bulb flickered on, revealing the room.

It was an absolute mess, tons of different objects littering the ground. Paintings thrown haphazardly across the ground, broken furniture, and various other pieces of junk. The room permeated with a disgusting stink, which was starting to make Max's eyes water.

"This isn't a spare room." Judy said.

"No, this is Big's spare room." Nick explained. "As in, a room he has no use for." He climbed over some of the junk, and looked around. "Despite how he seems, Big's a pretty sentimental guy, he doesn't like getting rid of stuff unless he absolutely has to."

"And this is where he throws all the stuff he doesn't need?" Max guessed.

"Yep." He sniffed at the air, and started digging through some of the trash. "Well, looky here!" He pulled up a large furred rug, colored white and black. "Skunk butt rug!"

"…Didn't Big say he buried that with his grandma?" Judy asked.

"No, he said he buried her in it." He paused. The two looked at each other, and Nick quickly tossed the rug across the room. "Let's just forget about me touching that."

"Agreed."

Judy looked over at Max. He was on his phone. He held it up, and started to walk around the room. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Trying to get a signal." He said. "Ah, there we go!" He looked around for something comfortable to sit on, the closest being an overly large couch cushion tucked in the corner. He pulled it to the ground, and sat down.

"Now's not the time to be checking social media." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"No, now is exactly the time to be checking social media." Max retorted. He scrolled through his phone. "In the time it took to get from my house to here, my Growler account got five thousand plus notifications."

"Wow, really?" Nick said, surprised.

"What do they say?" Judy asked.

"You know, standard anonymous internet things." He continued. "Kill yourself, various specist and offensive terms I won't mention. Now, let's check up on the news!"

"I doubt those copies have done anything else." Nick guessed, as he started scrounging through the garbage.

"'Zoo Rangers attack bank'."

"Why am I getting everything wrong today?" Nick said to himself.

"'Corrupted Crusaders cause traffic accident, Zoo Rangers cause power outage at hospital, Zoo Rangers cause-"

"STOP IT!" Judy yelled. "STOP READING THAT!"

They turned to look at the rabbit. She was breathing heavily, sobbing, and had curled up into a fetal position. "Judy, are you alright?" Nick asked softly.

"NO!" She shouted. "I'm having a PANIC ATTACK!"

The fox scrambled over some junk, and wrapped his arm around her. "We're criminals now." She sobbed. "We can't help anyone anymore, and we're trapped in a garbage pit!"

"Calm down, calm down." Nick said, hugging the rabbit. "Everything will be fine, we can get out of this."

"You keep saying that!" She blurted out. "How do you know we can!?"

"Because you never give up."

She stopped crying for a moment.

"You're our leader, and you're what holds us together." Nick explained. "If you give up, we have nothing."

She sniffed. "You're right." She said, getting up. "I can work this out, I can get everything back to normal. I just have to think of a way…"

"Hey, I have a completely unrelated question." Max said. The two glanced at him. "Where are our bags?"

The door suddenly opened up, and the two bags were tossed down the stairs. The duffle bag landed on top of Nick, while the satchel landed next to him.

Judy started to chuckle as the fox wormed his way out from under the bag. "That's like the third time that's happened!" He said. He glanced at Judy. "It's not that funny."

"Sorry, sorry." She cleared her throat, and pounded her paw into her palm. "Alright, if we want to be ready for tomorrow, we need to get some sleep."

"I'm sleeping on this cushion." Max said almost instantly. "Night." He flumped down onto the cushion, and curled up.

"Oookay. Well, we have to find something to sleep on." Nick said. "There's gotta be something comfortable around here…"

After a bit of rummaging, they managed to find a matching couch cushion. "Guess there were only two seats." Judy said as they moved it over to one of the few areas not covered with junk.

"Guess we're sleeping together." She said, hopping up onto the entirely too big cushion. It was around the size of her own mattress; the couch must have been designed for polar bears.

Nick let out a sigh, and climbed up onto the cushion. They curled up on the cushion together, Judy sleeping at his feet. She fell asleep almost instantly, but it took the fox a bit longer. He really didn't want her coming too close to him.

Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he felt her shake. He looked back at the rabbit, she was shivering from the cold. Her fur wasn't as thick as fox or wolf fur. He sighed, and wrapped his tail around her. She stopped shivering, and grabbed onto the tail.

He fell asleep soon after.

Judy opened her eyes. She glanced around for a moment.

She wasn't in Mr. Big's place anymore.

She didn't know where she was.

It was an entirely red room, nothing in it besides her and… there was someone behind her.

She spun around. There was something in a black cloak standing there. It was slightly taller than her, but she couldn't tell what species it was… or if it even was an animal. It held something in its hand. It dropped it by a rope, revealing it.

A spike coming from the top, two horn-like protrusions extending upwards next to it. Massive horn poked from the middle, curving up and dwarfing the horns on the top. Two smaller protrusions poked from the bottom, and curved outwards.

The symbol of chaos.

"Who are you?" She asked. "Why do you have that?"

"I am…" It spoke with a masculine voice, but it sounded weak. "A messenger."

"For who?"

The figure remained silent for a moment, and held the amulet up. "The one who created all, and the one who will destroy all."

"And that would be…?"

"The Omnipotence."

"Is that who's behind all this?" She asked. The figure nodded. Judy glanced around again. "Where is this place?"

"This is a dream." It said. "You're still asleep, but conscious in your mind. It is but one of his powers."

"What else can this… Omnipotence guy, do?"

The figure fell silent again. "I bring a warning. If you continue to fight, you will die, and your world will soon follow."

"Why would I give up?" She asked.

"All will happen as The Omnipotence plans." The figure said. "It is fate."

"Then I'll change that fate."

The figure glanced up at her.

"Nick said I don't give up, and he's right." She said to the figure. "If I give up, the same thing will happen. If I fight, I can at least help someone see the next day. I can fight against that fate, and I will fight against it until I can't. I will make this world a better place, even if just for a short while."

The figure let out a weak laugh, and flicked the amulet into its hand. "Then I bring you advice. The secret of this symbol lies in history." It started. "Search for it and you will find The Omnipotence." The figure let out a sigh. "And keep him safe. For me."

"Keep who safe?"

"A threat is coming, and without him, the world will be doomed."

"Who am I supposed to keep safe!?"

The figure turned around, a hallway suddenly appearing in front of him. "I have to go." It started to glide down the hall, the robe not seeming to blow against any air.

"Wait!" She yelled, chasing the figure down the hall. It twisted and turned and she quickly lost sight of the figure. After what only felt like a few seconds, she spotted the figure, standing at an exit. An edge into what seemed like an infinite abyss.

Judy stopped in front of it. "Tell him I'm sorry." It said, before stepping towards the ledge.

She reached out, and grabbed onto the robe. Pulling it back, whatever was inside it had vanished, or perhaps there hadn't been anything there to begin with. The rabbit started to breath heavily, and stepped towards the edge. She glanced out.

A void. Nothing, aside from what she was standing on. There was a sudden flash of light, nearly blinding her. It was red, blood red and shining directly at her. Judy squinted, trying to see what was producing the light. She couldn't make anything out.

And then blacked out.

Her eyes burst open again. She was back in the spare room… or rather, she had just woken up. Something was covering her, something soft and fluffy.

It was Nick's tail.

The rabbit sat up, and looked over at Max. One of his legs was up in the air, and kicking. Definitely having a dream.

She sighed, and smiled. "Protect him…" She repeated to herself. "Him…"

"I'll protect them both."

* * *

The fox opened his bleary eyes, seeing something moving around. He flicked his tail, Judy wasn't there any more.

"Judy?" He mumbled. "What are you doing up?"

"I'm going to go fight those copies." She said. She was in different clothes from before, more of a workout outfit. She must have been changing when he woke up.

He jutted up. "What!?" He yelled. He reached for his phone on the ground, and looked at the time. "Its seven AM!"

"Yeah, and they just attacked a bank." She said.

"You could have told me and Max you had this planned." He groaned, getting up.

"I would've if I wanted you to come along." She said with a laugh.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." It took a few seconds for him to realize what she said. "Wait, what!?"

"Yeah, I'm doing this myself." She said. "have a problem with that?"

"Uh, yes? You're going to die!"

"If it's to make the world a better place, I'll do anything." Judy started, walking up the stairs. "Even if I have to die."

"You can't be serious." He continued, following her up the stairs. "I'm coming with you at least."

"Nick, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"This."

She kicked the fox, causing him to tumble down the stairs and to the floor. He looked up, seeing that she had already run off. "Judy! JUDY!" He yelled. "COME BACK!"

He pounded his fist against the ground. "What is wrong with that rabbit!?" He asked himself.

"So, are you two always fighting?"

Nick looked over at Max, who was sitting on the cushion.

"Of course not, there's a lot of times where we don't fight." Nick answered.

"Whenever I've been with you guys, it seems like there's a fifty-fifty chance of you guys fighting." Max continued. "You two were fighting when I first showed up."

"That was because of a monster."

"Then you two started fighting because you treated me like shit. Then that happened again. Then you fought because you didn't think that monster she was friends with could be trusted."

"Well, I-"

"Then there's when you started acting cocky, and then when you really wanted to prove you were right about video games, and then when you lost your memories, and then when you-"

"Alright, I get it!" The fox shouted. "We fight a lot! That doesn't mean I don't care about her."

"I know it doesn't." Max admitted. "It's just that, right now, we can't be fighting. And that's what you two have been doing."

"So, what do you think I should do? Apologize to her?"

"Right now, I think we should go follow her." Max said, getting up. "Because if she does find those copies, she will probably die."

Nick nodded, and they quickly ran up the stairs.

* * *

Blue huddled behind a sign in front of the Coldhard Bank. She peeked out, and watched as three figures walked out of the back. She had perfect timing, their copies had just finished the attack. They weren't carrying anything as they walked out, so that's probably why they didn't call it a robbery, they hadn't stolen anything.

"So, what's the plan?"

"I'm going to follow them, and find out what the bad guys are planning." Blue said. Her ears perked up, and she turned around. Red and Silver were huddled behind the sign as well. "I told you guys not to follow me!" She whisper-shouted.

"You really think we were just going to let you do this alone?" Red asked.

"Ugh, fine." She groaned. Blue turned back to the copies, who were rounding a corner. "Alright, let's head out."

They snuck across the bank's parking lot, and to the building hosting the alleyway. The three poked their heads around the corner.

Enter, an upgraded version of Copyroid, Savage, and the three copies were standing there, talking. "So, where are we hitting next?" The Red copy asked.

"Who cares!?" Savage growled. "Why am I even here if I don't get to do anything!?"

"You're Copyroid's bodyguard." Enter explained. It sounded like this wasn't the first time he'd had to do this. "If anything happens to Copyroid, then the plan is a bust."

"Thanks for telling us!"

The villains turned to the exit of the alley, seeing the three real Zoorangers, weapons drawn. The Zoorangers didn't seem to notice a smirk grow on Enter's face.

"Looks like we've been found." He said. "Copyroid, take us somewhere a bit more… open."

"Got it boss!" The robot said. "COPY!"

Everyone suddenly disappeared.

"PASTE!"

Then everyone reappeared, this time in the middle of an open, snowy field. It was a park, though no one seemed to be around.

"This is a lot better than an alley." Red admitted. He pointed his sword at his copy. "Alright, evil double, let's duel!"

"Sam goes for you, evil me!" Blue shouted, also pointing her weapons at the double.

The two copies looked at each other, and laughed. "Gladly!" The ZooBlue copy said. They stepped forward, and pulled out two objects, one gold, one blue.

"Oh no."

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The weapons appeared in the paws of the copies. Evil red jumped forward first, slamming the blade down onto Red. He tried to block it with his normal sword, but the power of the Solar Flare Saber was too much, and it cracked down on him.

"NICK!" Blue yelled. Before she knew it, a fist had smacked her directly in the face. She flew through the air, and crashed through the snow. Her double ran up, and attempted to punch her again, though she quickly weaved through the punches.

Silver quickly ran over to Blue', but was stopped by a burst of fire hitting the ground. He turned to see his own double, who dashed at him. They clashed swords. "Face it, wolfy," the copy growled. "We're better than you."

Silver pushed the copy's sword back, and swung it forward several times, striking the double. He spun the guard around, switching his sword to Sun Mode. Silver thrust it forward rapidly, firing off multiple fireballs. The copy quickly spun its sword's guard, changing it to Moon Mode. It whipped the laser whip forward, and struck out the fireballs as they got near.

The copy didn't realize that Silver had used this as an opportunity to get in close, jabbing it through the chest.

"Who's better now?" Silver growled back.

The copy laughed, and grabbed the sword. He kicked Silver away, and pulled the blade out, tossing it to the ground. "You think something like that can beat us?" The copy said, amused. "Think again."

The Evil Red raised its massive blade, preparing to strike at Red again, but the fox quickly rolled out of the way as it was brought down. He glanced over at Blue, who was still trying to dodge the copy's punches. The thing didn't seem to run out of stamina.

"Sorry pal, but I think I'm switching it up for a bit." Red said to his double. He pulled out a yellow ZooTag, and plugged it in.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

The claws appeared on Red's paws, and he dashed at the double. Red raced circles around his clone, causing it to spin around. The weight of the Solar Flare Saber proved to be a detriment, as the dizzy double was pushed to the ground by a poke from Red's claws.

"That was almost too easy." Red said to himself, watching his double squirm under the sword's weight. He dashed over to Blue's double, and slashed at her, causing it to fly off.

"Thanks… for the help." Blue said, a bit out of breath.

"I thought you were supposed to be the active one." Red chuckled.

"I am." She panted. "But you try dodging three hundred punches in a row."

"Point taken." He said. "I suggest we switch up who we're fighting." He continued. "You know, level the playing field a bit."

"Sounds like a plan." Blue replied, pulling out a white ZooTag.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The massive axe appeared, and she slammed it into the snow. "Alright, ready to go."

The two nodded at each other. Blue ran off, while Red bared his claws at her clone as it got up. As Blue ran over to Red' double, she spotted the two Silvers, one of which was currently struggling.

"If I were to bet anything, I'd say that was Max." She said to herself. She rushed over, and leaped into the air. "HEADS UP!"

What she was hoping was the copy looked up as she brought the axe down, slicing clean through the middle of it. It was definitely the copy, as the area it was cut through started to flicker like static, before it vanished completely.

"Thanks for the save." Silver said.

"No problem." She said. "I'm just glad that wasn't you."

"I know, we looked very similar."

"Alright, I'm going to be taking on Red's clone." She started. "You go see if you can handle the monster and end this nightmare."

Silver looked over at the three other monsters. "I don't think I can handle Savage AND a general at the same time."

"You can do it!" She said, giving a thumbs-up. "I know you can!" He nodded and, rushed off towards the monsters. "I really hope I didn't send him to his death." She muttered to herself. She shook it off, Max was capable of handling himself. The rabbit dashed towards Red's clone.

"Alright, I really don't want to do this…" Red said as Blue's clone hopped towards him. "Actually, I REALLY want to do this."

They dashed at each other. The Evil Blue attempted to land a hit on the fox, but he caught the punch in the palm of the glove. Red slashed upwards, knocking the clone back. He dashed forward, and continued to slash at the copy.

"Alright, not-Nick," Blue started spinning the axe around. "I'm supposed to be protecting Nick, but I'm not supposed to be protecting you!" The copy of the fox thrust the sword over his shoulder, and growled.

The fox rushed over and swung the massive blade downwards, but she quickly blocked it with the handle of the axe. Blue knocked the sword back, and swung it through Evil Red's chest, and then performed an overhead swing. The clone quickly pulled the blade into a block.

Silver stepped up to the three monsters, and pointed his sword at them. "Alright, I'm going to end this before it goes any farther!" He shouted, confidently. "Hopefully." He noted under his breath.

Savage stepped forward, but Enter held out his paw. "I'll handle him first." The cheetah said, stepping forward.

They paused for a moment, glaring at each other.

"You going to do anything?" Enter asked.

"Oh, I was waiting for you to turn into a monster." Silver said, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess you don't have a monster form?"

"No, I don't."

Without warning, Enter dashed forward, slashing at Silver with his claws. The wolf attempted to block the furious strikes, but he couldn't seem to keep up. Quickly, Enter pierced through his defenses, and slashed at the wolf.

"See? Nowhere near my level." Enter said with a scoff. "Tell you what, I'll let you get a free hit on me."

"What?"

"Come on, hit me." Enter said. "Give it some je ne sais quoi."

Silver drew his sword, and spun it to Eclipse Mode. Time froze, and he rushed at the cheetah, rapidly slashing at him from every direction. He stepped back as time resumed.

Enter let out a pained scream as his flesh and clothing ripped. Cuts from all the slashes appeared on his body, and what seemed like blood started to drip to the ground around him.

"Master Enter!" Copyroid shouted.

"Idiot!" Savage yelled. "Why would you let him do that!?"

Enter turned to the two, and gave them a wicked grin.

"Looks like I underestimated you, ZooSilver." Enter said, turning back to the wolf. "I'll let you off this time."

Enter slumped away through the snow. Silver looked at Savage, who stepped forward. "Alright, glitter boy, just you and me now."

"I think I made a mistake."

Savage dashed at Silver, who leaped out of the way as it dug its claws into the ground. It pulled them out, alongside a chunk of ground and snow. Savage tossed the frozen ground at Silver, who quickly cut through it with his blade.

Savage's eyes glowed for a moment, before it began dashing around the field. Snow seemed to vanish as the high-speed monster moved around, transforming into a green blur. Silver glanced around as more markings appeared. He held up his sword, preparing to block against an attack.

Savage slashed through his back, knocking him to the ground.

He tried to get up, but Savage planted its foot down on him. It glanced over at the copies, who were still struggling to fight their real counterparts. "Hey, Copier." Savage said.

"It's Copyroid, thank you very much." The robot said.

"I don't give a shit." Savage said rather bluntly. "Those guys are having some trouble, can you make them stronger?"

"Well, with one clone out of the way, I can probably transfer its energy to them!" Copyroid stated. "Lemme try!"

Copyroid pointed its camera upwards, and fired out two silver beams of light. They flew towards the copies, and entered their bodies.

The clone's visors lit up, blood red. The Evil Blue started throwing punches faster than Judy herself ever could. The lack of defense on Red's claws couldn't keep up with its speed, even with the added speed the claws normally granted. The fox was rapidly punched in the face, in his body, all over the place, and launched into the snow.

"NICK!" Blue shouted. She turned back as the fox's evil copy prepared to swing down on her. She stepped out of the way, but the force of the swing caused the nearby ground to crack, causing her to fall. She scrambled back to her feet as the clone attempted to strike again, and rushed off.

She dropped to Red's body, and helped him up. "You need to get out of here." She said.

"What!? No!"

"No, you don't understand!" She shouted. "YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

"And I said 'NO'!"

"Nick, please…" She said, pleading with the fox.

"What about Max!?" He shouted. She looked over at the wolf, still pressed under Savage's foot.

"I can give him enough time to escape." She said.

"What does that-" He paused for a moment, staring at her. "No, you can't do that."

"Nick, I-"

"I'm not going to let you do anything like that." He said, placing his paws on her shoulders. "Without you, I'm… this team is nothing."

"I'm supposed to protect you both." She said, pushing him away. "I will risk myself if it means that I can make this world better."

"Stop being stupid."

She turned back to the fox. "You really think I'm just going to let you go and kill yourself?" He asked. "We're supposed to be partners, but we sure as hell haven't been acting like partners. We need to work together ourselves, we need to stop fighting. Let's just let it be you, and me, nothing getting in between us."

Judy gulped. "Alright." She said, quietly. "We'll do this… together."

There were sudden flashes of light at their hips. They both pulled out the sun and moon shaped ZooTags, which were emitting the blinding light.

"What the…?" Red said, gazing at it.

Blue's ears perked up. "I got it!" She said. "I know why they weren't working earlier! It's because we were fighting, we need to be synched up to use them!"

"A sun without a moon."

"Like a day without a night."

They plugged the tags into their Zoolizers.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their new forms, and began to pose.

"Casting a shadow over the darkened land! Master of the Sun! ZOORED SOLAR!"

"Shining a path for those in need! Goddess of the moon! ZOOBLUE LUNAR!"

"Well, this isn't good." Savage said to himself.

ZooRed leaped back over to his clone, gliding through the air and delivering a number of quick slashes with his claws. The copy attempted to block with the sword, but the force of the slashes cleaved it in two. Red landed, and pulled out his pole weapon. He struck at the copy with it rapidly, and then shot a fireball at it, launching the double across the field.

The clone got up, but the ring of the pole was now around him. "H-hey, wait!" It stumbled. "You wouldn't kill someone this handsome, right?"

Without a word or a movement, fire burst from the inside of the ring, causing the copy to burst into flames. The fire cleared, revealing the double to have been completely disintegrated.

Blue dashed at her own copy, an delivered a number of kicks to it. The clone attempted to block with her gloves, but as they connected a cracking sound echoed. The clone stumbled back, watching as Blue pulled out her khopesh.

"W-wait, don't-"

Blue rapidly slashed at the copy, and then slashed upwards, knocking it into the air. She then slashed rapidly in the clone's direction, this time the khopesh launching a flurry of laser slashes at it. The double let out one last scream as the slashes connected, destroying it.

The two then turned to Savage, who stepped off of Silver. "This is bad." It said. "Copy boy, don't you have anything copied about those!?"

"I-I wasn't able to get any info on them!" The robot said. "I don't know what to do!"

"Guess I'll have to do this myself!" Savage said, stepping forward. It bared its claws, and rushed at them.

Blue leaped into the air, and slashed at Savage rapidly. The monster managed to block them, but was knocked back by Red's extending pole attack. This allowed Blue to land a few hits on the monster, chipping off some of his crystal body.

"Hey, I just got this physical form!" Savage growled. It slashed forward, firing off green energy slashes.

Red spun the rod around, causing the slashes to harmlessly bounce off of it. He quickly swung the rod again, firing off fireballs in the monster's direction. They hit, and caused Savage to fall over.

Savage moved to all fours, and began dashing around the field again. Trails were created as it moved like a blur, only barely being able to be seen. The two Zoorangers stood there, still as Savage dashed through the snow.

Savage made his move, but the Zoorangers reacted in turn. As the monster dashed, they attacked him. Not with their weapons, but with a kick and a punch. The attacks struck Savage right in his chest, cracking its crystalline form.

The monster flew through the air, and crashed into the snow, rolling up to Copyroid. "Ugh, they're stronger than I thought…" Savage grunted. It pointed a claw at the robot. "You, printer face!"

"You're not even trying anymore."

Savage got to his feet. "You deal with them, I'm outta here!"

"But I'm a copier, not a fighter!" The Metalroid said.

Without a response, the crystal monster leaped into the air, and off into the distance. Copyroid turned to look at the two Zoorangers, as well as Silver, who had gotten up.

"Thanks for saving me again." Silver said. The two nodded. "Boy, you guys really aren't talkative in those forms, huh?"

The two combined their weapons, and aimed the bow at the monster. "Hey, wait, I haven't even done anything yet!"

"SOLAR CYCLE BLASTER!"

A massive blast of energy fired from the bow, instantly melting the snow beneath it as it headed towards Copyroid. It hit, causing the monster to let out a scream of pain and explode. Out of the explosion flew a video camera.

Red and Blue transformed back to their normal forms, both seeming out of breath. "That takes a lot out of you…" Red said.

The three watched as a red object, a Chaos Badge flew through the air and into the horizon. Chaos Copyroid reappeared in the outskirts of the city, and let out a roar. "I'LL GIVE YOU COPIES OF YOUR WILLS!"

"That guy's not good at puns." Blue said.

In a few seconds, ZooRobo and ZooKami had been formed. They stomped towards the monster, who skittered away from them.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on!" He said. "I can't fight, so let me get something you can fight!" He pointed the camera at ZooKami, and then at the ground.

In a flash of light, a black and gold version of ZooKami had appeared. "Introducing ZooKami: Legacy Edition!" The monster said.

Without saying anything, Blue plugged in the ZooSai tag.

"DAI SAI!  
GRAND SAI!  
BREAKING THE FIST  
ZOOSAI!"

"ZOOROBO, SAI MODE!"

ZooRobo raised its axe arms into the air, while ZooKami raised its blade.

"WE ALREADY DID THIS SCHTICK BEFORE!" Blue yelled.

They both brought the blades down on the copy, destroying it instantly. "I guess I'm just a bad copy of a better episode!" The monster shouted as they stepped forward.

ZooKami moved in to slash the monster, but its body suddenly raised up into the air. ZooKami's blade slashed through what look like electrical links between its legs and body. The legs tumbled to the ground as the monster floated up into the air.

"Hah hah, I'm not just a copy!" He taunted. Its arms launched off its body, connected by the electricity. The camera arm flew above them, while the normal arm moved to the mecha's level.

The camera started to fire energy blasts at ZooRobo, which it managed to block with ZooSai's heavy armoring. The hand started to punch at ZooKami, but zipped out of the way as the mech tried to attack it.

"This guy's more trouble that he's worth." Silver said, before he was hit in the back with a laser shot.

"We just need to cut those links." Red said. "The legs stopped working once Silver cut them, so if we cut the arms…"

"Then he won't be able to use anything!" Blue finished.

ZooKami gave a nod, and prepared for the fist's next strike. He caught the hand in his own, and pulled the electric link closer, before cutting it with his sword.

"AGH, I CAN'T FEEL MY ARM!" The monster shouted. ZooKami pulled back, and tossed the arm at the Metalroid. "Ow, I definitely felt that!"

ZooRobo stepped forward, and started slashing at the camera, firing off a flurry of laser slashes. One of the slashes hit the electric connection, causing the camera arm to fall to the ground.

"Well, this sucks." Copyroid said. "But if I stay up here, you won't be able to hurt me, ha ha!"

"Is this guy an idiot?" Red asked.

"I can't believe we fell for this guy's plan." Blue lamented.

They fired more laser slashes at the floating orb, all of which hit due to the monster not even bothering to move. "Ow, I thought that would woooooork!" It yelled as it crashed to the ground.

"Alright, let's finish this." Red said as they stepped up to the robot.

"HORN CRACKER!"

They rose the axes up into the air, and then brought them down on the helpless robot, cutting right through its body. It flew back up, shaking, sparking, and starting to fall apart.

"Remember!" It started. "Always save your work every half hour!"

It exploded, the two robots striking a pose.

They appeared back in the snowy field. They were shocked to find a crowd of mammals had gathered, apparently having watched the fight.

"Hey, everyone!" Judy said, untransforming. "There's been a horrible misunderstanding."

"Yeah, Nick said, also untransforming. "That monster we just beat had the power to copy things, and the Zoorangers that were attacking you were evil clones."

"You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?" Max asked. Nick nodded.

"Maybe they're right." A moose in the crowd said. "They did just defeat the monster they were claiming to be working with before."

"See?" Judy said. "It was just an evil plot to make you all hate us!"

The crowd started murmuring amongst itself. Judy sighed in relief as it seemed that things were calming down.

"Do you actually TRUST THEM!?"

The crowd let out a gasp, and began to part. Walking through them was a tan cheetah, in a longcoat.

Enter.

He was bleeding from multiple places. Max froze up at the sight of him. "These monsters attacked me out of nowhere!" He yelled. "Then they turned on the ones they betrayed you for! Are you really going to believe traitors like them!?"

The crowd started murmuring again, this time in a much more negative way.

"We didn't-!" Judy tried to yell.

"Are you denying that you attacked me?" Enter asked, shooting a devilish grin at them. "Traitors and liars, the lot of them!"

No matter what they said, they would be in the wrong. The crowd had no idea that Enter was a monster, and if they explained, they'd be calling an injured mammal a monster.

It was a no-win scenario.

The cheetah spat out some blood, and his eyes rolled to the back of his. He fell to the snow, motionless. "Oh my god!" Someone from the crowd yelled.

A snow leopard rushed over to Enter, and held his paw. "There's no pulse, he's dead!" He shouted.

"You're awful!" Someone shouted. "How could you just kill that mammal for no reason!"

"We didn't…" Judy said, ears dropping. She started to back up. "We didn't kill him…" She whispered to herself.

The crowd started to part, until no one besides the disgraced Zoorangers and the corpse remained.

"So, the city probably hates us even more now." Nick said. "But look on the bright side, Enter's dead!"

"That's not much of a bright side, Nick." Max said.

There was sudden laughing from the body of Enter. The corpse rose back to its feet in an awkward, puppet like manner. All the wounds started to heal, and the cheetah opened his eyes.

"That went even better than I thought it would." He laughed. "I wasn't too overdramatic, was I?"

"How are you alive!?" Judy yelled.

"I'm just data, amoureux." He explained. "I edited myself to be more organic, and it fooled those idiots quite well, hmm?"

"Just wait until the police get here and find there isn't a body!" Nick growled.

"Oh, but they'll probably blame you for that." He said, shaking his head. "There's still the blood." There was indeed blood on the snow. "They'll just think you tried to cover up your crime."

"You're awful!" Max said. "We'll figure out a way to solve this, just you wait."

"I think not." Enter said. "There's no way for you to get out of this. You'll be criminals for the rest of your short, short lives. Ciao!" he gave a wave, and vanished into a burst of red data.

There was silence, only the sound of the wind blowing could be heard.

Judy let out an agonizing scream, and pounded the ground.

They lost.

* * *

Savage creeped across a building in the dead of night. It had been hours since the defeat. How had those weaklings gotten so powerful? Powerful enough to crack their own skin with bare-fisted combat. It was ridiculous, they were supposed to be the strongest fight, not two pansy cops or whatever they called themselves.

The monster growled, and slashed at a fence.

"I see you're frustrated."

Savage turned around, seeing Long. He was sitting on top of a generator. "Oh, Long." It grunted. "Now I know why you died from that blast, those two are incredibly strong."

"Indeed, being able to defeat me in a single hit is quite an accomplishment." Long said, hopping down form the generator. "But we still won, so it's a good day all around."

"Won!?" Savage yelled. "How can this be considered a win when you didn't kill them!?"

"I've ruined their reputation, they're wanted by their own job, and they now have an overwhelming fear of being found." Long explained. "I'd call that a win."

The crystal monster grunted. "Do you think you can do something about my chest?" It asked. "They cracked it during the fight."

"A wound, huh? I can handle that." Long walked up to Savage, and examined the crack. "I can do something…"

"Like this."

Long jabbed his fist through the crack, it exploding out the back of Savage's body. Savage let out a howl of pain, and started to fall limb as Long raised it upwards. "Long…" It said weakly. "I thought… we were… partners…"

"I have no partners." Long said. Savage's eyes went blank, and the Infinite Dragon pulled his fist out. "I only have pawns."

He thrust Savage's body over his shoulder, and leaped off through the city night.

* * *

"I can't believe it." Leopold said, scrolling through the news on his phone. "I can't believe they turned evil."

"I told you!" Herder said. "After what they did to me, how could they not be evil."

Leopold sighed. Herder's theory on the Zoo Rangers had sounded crazy at one point, but now he seemed to have a much higher chance of being right. Leopold wasn't sure what to think, but saying anything would probably get him fired.

"So, your… friend, is supposed to bring some kind of power source tonight?" Leopold asked.

"Yes." Herder answered. "He should be here soon."

"So, what about those… candidates, that you picked out." Leopold continued. "How did you find someone like… him?"

"It was a bulk buy." Herder joked. "His condition was that his other two partners had to join the team alongside him."

"You'd think getting off death row would be enough." Leopold muttered. "Why did you even go with a psychotic, mass murderer as the leader?"

"Because there isn't anyone else better to hunt down mammals and monster than someone with no morality." Herder explained. "And if I didn't, my friend wouldn't bring an energy source."

The two heard footsteps. Loud metallic footsteps. "Is that your… friend?" Leopold asked.

Herder nodded.

The two watched as the darkened hallway to the lab started to glow. Out of it came a tall figure, dressed entirely in armor. He had a green, crystal… thing thrown over his shoulder.

"Ah, Long, nice to see you buddy." Herder said, walking up to him. Long remained silent. "So, uh, where's that power source you promised me."

He tossed the crystal thing to the ground. It appeared to be the corpse of some crystal monster, looking like a mix between an indeterminate number of different species.

"Here."

"Oh my god." Leopold said, terrified. "What the hell is that?"

"The most powerful being on the planet. A creature of my own design, made out of crystalized energy. Perfect for our project." Long explained. "Don't worry, it isn't dead. Though you should probably put it somewhere secure before it wakes up."

Long transformed into golden mist, and vanished.

Herder started to laugh, freaking out the already incredibly disturbed leopard. "Sir, what's so funny?"

"Just… that I've been waiting for this for so long." Herder sighed. "Get to work on figuring out how to use this thing's energy, I'm going to prepare a presentation for the mayor."

"Uh, okay." Leopold said as Herder started to trot off. The leopard tapped the dead creature with his foot, and felt a brief electric shock. "I really do not like this."

* * *

"Yes, I know, the hospital was attacked. Hold on." Lionheart slammed the phone down on the table, and picked up another. "No, I don't know how we'll replace all the money they destroyed. Hold on." Another phone. "They actually murdered someone!?"

The lion slammed the phone down, and started to rub his temples. "I can't believe I thought those maniacs would be good for the city." He sighed.

"Sir, you have a guest." Carol chimed from the speaker.

"Put it on hold, Carol, I'm busy." Lionheart responded.

"Actually, I think you'll enjoy what this guest has to say!" She said. "Might be able to fix our problem."

"Hm. Send them in."

The door opened, and a rather well dressed goat carrying a suitcase walked in. "Hello, Mayor Lionheart, how are you doing today?" He asked.

"Who are you?"

The goat sighed. "I'm Chief Herder, Chief of Zootopian Security." Lionheart looked at him. "I've been in the position for over a decade. You're the one who decided to keep me on."

"Not ringing a bell, sorry."

"Of course." Herder muttered to himself. "Anyway, me and the boys at the lab have come up with a way to deal with both the Zoo Rangers, and the monster problem, at the same time!"

"The same time, huh?" Lionheart said, leaning back in his chair. "How would you do that?"

"We've been developing special weapons in secret for the last couple months." Herder started. "Stunning advances in technology have been made in such a short time due to some discoveries we haven't announced to the public, but that's besides the point."

"What is the point, exactly."

"Why don't you see for yourself?"

Herder placed the suitcase on the desk. Lionheart opened it, his eyes widening at what was inside. "This is incredible!" He said, looking at the files. "And you have all of this already prepared?"

"Indeed, we do."

"What do you call it?"

"Well, considering how they'll function, we decided to take the name from a failed political stunt from a few decades back."

"Mayor Lionheart, have you ever heard of the SPD?"


	28. Enter the SPD

Long stepped into the lair, and sat down at the table. "What an exhausting week." He said to himself. "At least it was… interesting."

"Long."

He turned around to see Kyuemon, walking up to him. "Oh, Kyuemon… What do you want?"

"You haven't seen that… Savage creature around anywhere, have you?" The yokai asked. "He seems to have gone missing after that little excursion with Enter."

"Savage has been used to his full extent." Long explained. "We won't be seeing him again, trust me."

"You killed him, didn't you?"

"You can't kill a force of nature, just supress and contain it."

There was silence for a moment.

"What are you planning?" Kyuemon asked. "I know you have to be working on something."

"I'm not planning anything grand." Long said. "I'm simply having my fun before we leave this universe."

Kyuemon scoffed. "And you expect me to buy that? I know when someone's up to something behind my back, and you fit the bill."

Long chuckled. "You're just being paranoid. If anything, I shouldn't trust you."

"I just want to get home and get my revenge." Kyuemon said. "I will work towards that goal no matter what you do."

There was a rumbling throughout the mountain. The massive cylinder at the edge of the room lit up, and roared.

" **KYUEMON** "

The yokai jutted upwards, and bowed towards The Omnipotence. "Yes, master!"

" **GO CAUSE CHAOS, I DON'T CARE HOW** " It boomed. " **AND LONG** "

Long turned towards The Omnipotence, but said nothing.

" **I MUST CONGRATULATE YOU ON THE CHAOS YOU HAVE BROUGHT IN RECENTLY** " It boomed. Long gave a quick chuckle towards the frustrated Kyuemon. The ground shook again, nearly knocking him off his chair. " **BUT I WILL WARN YOU THAT FURTHER INSUBORDINATION WILL RESULT IN PUNISHMENT. I AM YOUR MASTER, AND I CHOOSE WHEN WE ATTACK** "

Long grunted, Kyuemon letting out a laugh. He stepped forward, and bowed again. "Excuse me for intruding, Master," The yokai said. "But you've been very quiet the last few weeks, what have you been doing.

" **PLANNING** "

"Planning for… what?"

A bolt of red lightning fired from The Omnipotence's cylinder, striking at Kyuemon's feet.

" **IT IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN** "

"It's just… your lack of orders is what gave Long the opportunity to go against your will." Kyuemon explained. "And I think he might be-"

"You know that I'm right here, right?" Long laughed.

"…Never mind." Kyuemon finished. "I will be off now."

A portal of dark flames appeared before Kyuemon. Before he stepped through it, he turned back to Long. 'I will figure out what you're up to, Long.' He thought as he entered the portal. 'I'll make sure whatever it is doesn't go unpunished.'

* * *

It had only been half a week since the three had moved into Mr. Big's literal spare room, and already Judy was acting strange.

For the last few days, she had set up a project for them. The project was to make the spare room much less of a mess, a task that seemed impossible. She had most likely set it up to ignore their current situation. Somehow, they had managed to make it almost a decent living space.

They had moved the couch cushions into a back corner, and managed to tidy up most of the rest of the garbage. Unfortunately, that included a few rodent bones. And a few… not rodent bones. Needless to say, they had started throwing things away.

It still wasn't clean, there was dust a fur all over the place, but the junk that had a use was piled up into neat piles around the edges of the room. The best they could handle in such a limited space. At least they could see the floor now.

Of course, with one project done, Judy had started up on another.

"Alright, so!" She started. She stood in front of a blank whiteboard. "Ready for me to start the lesson?"

"Where did you find a whiteboard?" Nick asked. Max nodded, wanting to know too. The two were seated on some throw pillows they had found.

"It was in one of the corners." She said. She pulled out a pair of red and blue sharpies. "Even had the pens!"

"I find that really hard to believe."

"Well, that's what happened." She said. "We dug it up on Friday, remember?"

"I do not remember that at all, sorry." Nick said.

"I don't either." Max followed.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Anyway, I would like to tell you both about a dream I had."

"Oh, wonderful." Nick said sarcastically.

"No, this is actually important!" She said. "I know who we're dealing with now! Kinda."

"You mean like, who our big villain is?" Nick asked. "How do you know that?"

"I learned it in my dream!" The two looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm serious about this, I got contacted by… something, last week. It told me the name of our real villain."

She popped off the cap of the red sharpie, and quickly wrote something down. "Apparently, he's called…"

"The Omnipotence!"

Judy had written the name in big, jagged letters, with a monster face next to it. Nick chuckled at how silly it looked. "It looks like something I'd put on my notebook in high school."

"This is important, Nick!" The rabbit shouted. "There was a… thing, in my dream that told me about him, and that the symbol on all the monsters means something." She continued. "Something about looking into the past to find its meaning."

"It might just be a generic evil logo." Max suggested. "Most big-time villains have something like that."

"Yeah, it could just be like, a Predacon logo." Nick followed.

"You've watched Transfurmers?" Max asked.

"I saw the first movie."

The wolf shook his head in disappointment.

"I think it does mean something!" Judy stated. "A century ago, they found hundreds of amulets shaped like it buried in Mt. Animalia, which is where the bad guys are located. It has to mean something if it's that old."

"I think you're over examining a dream." Nick stated. "Probably came from the stress of last week, mixed with your weird obsession with that logo."

"It's not an obsession, it's called examining evidence!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Max started, getting up. "You two are starting to fight again, calm down."

"Alright, alright." Nick said. "Tell us more about this dream."

Judy took a deep breath, and nodded. "The thing in my dream told me that I needed to protect someone. I kind of just assumed it was one of you two for some reason."

"So, that's why you didn't want us going with you to fight the copies?" Max asked. Judy nodded.

"After thinking about it for a bit, I might have just been jumping to assumptions." She continued. "Maybe it meant that we, as a team, need to protect someone?"

"Do we know anyone that the monsters would go after?" Max asked. "I'm pretty sure I don't."

"I mean, we don't have that large of a 'supporting cast', as it were." Nick said. "Maybe that's something we can worry about later."

"I think we should figure out who this Omnipotence guy is." Max suggested. "Did you get any idea of what he's capable of?"

"Well, we know he can revive monsters from the dead." Judy said. "The only other thing is that he invaded my dream for some reason. So, maybe like…"

She wiped off the writing with her paw, and started drawing something with both of the sharpies. "Maybe something like this?"

It was a rather crude drawing of what looked like a rabbit, dressed in a red robe and wizard hat. It was carrying a staff, lightning bolts coming out of it. She had doodled another grumpy monster face next to it.

Th two started chuckling. "Don't laugh, I'm not good at drawing under pressure." She said.

"Its not funny," Nick excused. "It's just very… you, Carrots." She stuck her tongue out at the fox. He got up, and walked over to the whiteboard. "I doubt that we're dealing with a mammal here, let alone a rabbit."

"Point, but it's all I could think of." She replied.

"Here's what I think he could look like." Nick grabbed the sharpies from her paws, and wiped the drawing off. He started doodling on his own. "See, much more accurate."

Nick's doodle was mostly blue, and was marginally more detailed than Judy's. It was what looked like a lion or other large predator in a suit and helmet. It was carrying a red sword.

"Nick, that's just Darth vader." Max said, getting up.

"Darth Vader was an evil wizard with powers, it works." He said.

"I'm picturing something a bit more monstrous." Max started, wiping the drawing off. He grabbed the sharpies, and started to draw. It took him a good few minutes to complete it. "We know its something that can mess with dimensional boundaries, and reviving the dead is pretty arcane, so…"

He backed up, revealing his drawing. It took up most of the whiteboard, depicting some kind of massive multi-eyed worm monster with a massive gaping maw lined with thousands of teeth. It had a number of tentacles coming out of it, some of which were travelling through holes in the sky. In the corner, presumably for a size comparison, was a much cruder drawing of ZooRobo, dwarfed by the monster.

"That's really good, Max." Judy complimented. "I didn't realize you were an artist."

"Oh, I'm not, I just get lucky sometimes."

"It's good, but it definitely doesn't inspire confidence." Nick said, arms crossed. "Besides, wouldn't fighting Darth Vader one on one be a lot cooler?"

"I think fighting a giant monster in a giant robot is cooler."

"I'd rather not have to fight anything." Judy said.

"Hey, what's going on down here, art class?"

The three turned to the staircase. Finnick was hopping down the steps, carrying a Buggaburger bag.

"Hey, Finn!" Nick said, walking up and fist bumping the fennec. "How's everything going, buddy?"

"Pretty mediocre." He replied. "Job isn't paying great, but I managed to get some repairs on the van."

"You got a job?" Judy asked. "Why are you at Mr. Big's if you went straight?"

Finnick chuckled. "Why would I cut ties with a mob boss? As long as I don't make it obvious I come here, I'll be fine."

"So, why are you here?" Nick asked.

"Big asked me to give you your breakfast." He said, holding up the Buggaburger bag. Nick grabbed it, and looked inside.

"Usually this just gets thrown down here." He said. "It'll be nice to not have to piece together a burger for once."

"Is there a salad?" Judy asked. The fox shook his head. "Shoot, I'm so tired of bugs!"

"Hey, so you know we're wanted fugitives now, right?" Nick asked his friend.

Finnick scoffed. "You expect me to buy that?" He said. "Bunny cop there's one of the most straight-laced mammals I've met. And I know you, Nick, you'd con someone out of money, but never hurt anyone." He glanced over to Max, who had been standing still the whole time. "Don't know about the new guy there."

"That's Max, he's a new friend." Nick said.

"Hello." Max said timidly, raising his paw up.

"He doesn't look like he could hurt a fly." Finnick said, most likely intending it as an insult. "I'm amazed that you guys ended up becoming super heroes, though."

"It was a complete coincidence, trust me." Nick assured him.

"What's with the outfits, though?" Finnick asked. "You get 'em at a circus?"

"Alright now, insulting the costumes isn't cool."

"Just messing with you, they look pretty comfortable." Finnick said, punching Nick in the side. "I wouldn't want to wear one of them, though."

The fennec started up the stairs, but paused as he climbed the first step. "Oh yeah, Mr. Big wants you guys to get out."

"What!?"

"Not 'get out forever' get out." Finnick corrected. "He just wants you to get out of this dark basement. Not healthy for you. Now, if you excuse me, I have some fette biscotate to get to! Enjoy your fast food!" The fennec ran up the stairs, laughing.

"Sometimes Finnick is a real jerk."

"His voice is so loud." Max said, covering his ears.

"You get used to it after the second time you meet." Judy said. "So, how are we supposed to go out and do things if we're wanted criminals?"

Nick placed his paw to his chin, thinking for a moment. "I wonder if he still has it?"

"Has what?" Judy asked.

"When I used to live here, I was just getting into scamming." The fox started to explain. "I went to a costume store and bought up a bunch of outfits, and I used that for hustling."

"I don't like where this is going."

"I put them all in a trunk that I called the 'Disguise Trunk'!" He continued, flaring his paws up as he said the name. "I'm going to go see if Big still has it, be back in a bit!"

He rushed up the stairs, leaving the two behind.

"So, wanna eat?" Max asked.

"Yeah." Judy replied. "You can have Nick's portion."

"Nice."

* * *

The door opened, and loud thumping came from the stairs.

"He had it!" The fox said, dragging the trunk down. With a final crash, the massive chest was on the ground. "That thing's a lot heavier than I remember…" Nick said, panting.

Judy and Max walked over, the wolf holding something behind his back. "A disguise trunk, huh?" Judy said with a chuckle. "I knew you did this kind of stuff with Finnick, but I never thought you'd be the one in the disguise."

"Carrots, I'll have you know that I am a master of disguise." Nick said. "I'll show you… after I eat, I am STARVING!"

"Um, about that…" Max said, sheepishly. He pulled out the crumpled bag from behind him.

"Oh, come on, seriously?"

"It was starting to get cold." Max lied.

"We can go somewhere for food after we get our… disguises on." Judy said, her enthusiasm seeming to drop at the last two words. "I might actually die if I don't get something healthy in my stomach."

Nick groaned. "Alright, I'll get the disguises ready."

The fox heaved the lid of the chest open, a cloud of dust bursting from it. The three of them started hacking from the cloud. "Maybe I should have opened it upstairs first…" Nick wheezed.

The dust cleared away, and Nick began to sort through the clothes. "Alright, if we want to do this, we're all going to have to take showers first." He said. "An important part of disguising yourself is disguising your scent." He raised a paw from inside the trunk. "Also, furstyling, that's important too." He came up, carrying a bundle of clothes. "You guys do that, I'm going to do laundry."

"I didn't know you were so into… personal hygiene." Judy said, surprised.

"I know, right?" He said. "Isn't this stuff great?" He quickly scampered up the stairs, leaving two very surprised mammals.

"Guess there's still a lot I don't know about him." Judy shrugged.

"What did he mean by 'furstyling'?" Max asked.

Judy shrugged again. "Guess we'll find out after the showers."

After an hour of showering (Judy took a long time trying to get the dirt and filth out of her fur), the two went back into the basement. Nick had already gotten back, and had set up a table they had found while cleaning. It was covered with different types of clothing, male and female.

"Alright, you guys go through and find some clothing you like." He said, heading for the stairs, "I'm going to shower and get some products!"

"He is really into this." Max said.

The two went over to the short table. One side of it was covered in more feminine clothes, all around Judy's size. The other half was more masculine clothes, at Wolford's size.

"Why does he have clothing in your size?" Judy asked.

"Maybe it was for a partner in crime?" Max guessed. "You know him better than me."

It took a few minutes for Wolford to pick out a costume. Instead of his normal hoodie and sweatpants combo, he wore a plain black shirt with a brown coat, jeans, and a pair of dark sunglasses. "How do I look?" He asked.

"Like you're trying too hard."

"Perfect."

Judy couldn't find anything. It was all really… girly. Yeah, she liked wearing pink, but most of the clothing here was dresses and skirts, which she didn't like wearing due to them limiting her movement. Didn't help that most of them were in colors she didn't like. Autumn colors, mostly, she was more of a winter, as seen by her current outfit of a grey shirt and sweatpants.

The rabbit sighed, and looked inside the chest, seeing if there was anything she liked in there.

She pulled out a rather generic looking black-grey hoodie. It was soft, and just baggy enough to not really hamper her. "I kinda like this." She said.

"He didn't put it on the table, so he might not want you wearing it." Max said. "You should ask him first."

Judy nodded. They waited for a few minutes, and Nick came back down, smelling remarkably clean.

"Alright, nice outfit, Wolfsbane." He complimented as he came down the stairs, giving a thumbs-up to Max. The wolf returned the gesture.

"Nick, I don't like any of the clothes you set out for me." Judy said. She held out the hoodie. "But I found this hoodie that I kind of like, and-"

"That's where you went!" He said, grabbing the hoodie. "I thought I lost this thing forever!" He quickly slipped it on. "Hmm, bit too small…" He started to take it off.

"So, can I wear it?" The rabbit asked. "It'll probably fit me."

The fox looked at the hoodie. "I dunno."

"Guess you have a pretty big attachment to that thing, huh?" Max asked.

"Yeah." Nick said, quietly.

"Why?" Judy asked, sincerely. "Is it really that important?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He said. "But if you want to wear it…" He folded it up and tossed it at Judy. "There you go. It's great at keeping things secret."

"I'm sure it is." She chuckled. She slipped the hoodie on, hanging around her waist.

"You're going to need new pants, though." He said. "Why don't you try on one of those skirts?"

"Over your dead body."

"Oh come on, I think you'd look cute in-"

Judy hopped up into the air, and kicked Nick directly in the stomach. "Alright, I deserved that." He wheezed.

"I think I'm going to stick with the pants." Judy said. "So, are we all ready?"

Nick let out a cough as he recovered from the kick. "Hold on, we're not done yet." He pulled out a spray bottle from his pocket, and sprayed it in the rabbit's face.

"Augh, what the HECK!?"

"It's scent masking spray." He explained. "If we don't want to get caught, then we'll need to hide our scents."

Max leaned down, and sniffed her. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you weren't Judy Hopps."

"See? It works!" Nick sprayed Max in the face, causing him to screech in pain. He then followed by spraying himself. The fox clutched at his face and yelled. "OH GOD I FORGOT HOW PAINFUL THIS WAS!"

Nick rubbed at his eyes. "Alright, final step for disguising yourself." He whipped out a comb, scissors, and a bottle of hair gel. "Furstyling!"

Around a half hour later, Nick had finished. Judy now had a small tuft of white fur poking out of her forehead. She tapped at it, causing it to bounce. "I don't like this."

"This is one hundred percent necessary, Carrots." The fox said. "So get used to it. It's only going to be for a few hours anyway, I can get it back to normal as soon as we get back."

She groaned.

Nick backed up, and examined her. "Oh, my god, you look like a little punk bunny." He said, smiling. "It's really… you know."

She glared at him.

"Do I get my fur styled now?" Max asked, a bit worried. "Because I've already put a lot of effort into my coat."

"Just ruffle it up a bit." Nick suggested. "Make it look a bit dirtier."

Max shook his whole body, causing all the fur visible on him to puff out a bit. "It looks stupid, I know."

"I think it looks fine." Judy admitted. "Are we ready to go now?"

"Hey, I have to get my disguise ready." He said. "I'll go change in the corner. No peeking."

"Why would we ever peek on you changing?" Judy asked.

"Just telling you I don't appreciate it."

He grabbed some clothes, and headed to the corner. After a few minutes, he came back. He was dressed in a black jacket, black pants, and a red undershirt. He also wore a pair of pointed glasses.

"Hey, isn't that…?"

"Yeah, these are the clothes that I got while I was possessed." Nick answered.

"Is that related to the time travelling train thing you guys won't tell me about?" Max asked. Judy nodded.

The fox ran a comb through his fur, creating a pointed streak running across his head and a bit down the back. "There, all ready." He paused. "Wait, no, we need one more thing."

The two groaned.

"We need fake names." He clarified. "If we say our actual names in public, we'll get caught immediately."

"Fair enough." Judy admitted. "What names do you suggest?"

"James, Bonnie, and…" He pointed at Max. "What was your dad's name?"

"Alexander."

"Alex, good."

"So, our codenames are just our parents' names?" Judy asked. "That's kind of lazy."

"Your dad was named James?" Max asked.

"Is." He corrected. "Is named James."

* * *

"Damn Long." The fox said to himself as he walked through the icy streets of Tundra Town. "I need to find out what his plan is, and counteract it."

He clutched at his jacket and shivered. This form didn't have the… appropriate attire for the weather of this part of the city. But he couldn't just transform in the middle of a busy city street. He grunted, and ran off to find a private place.

The fox skid to a halt as he passed by a diner. Sitting at the table next to the window were a fox, rabbit, and wolf. They looked familiar, but… well, he had to make sure first. "Yojustsu: Identity Reveal." He whispered, making a pose with his digits.

Images appeared on the window, showing Nick, Judy, and another wolf eating where the original three were. "Hm, clever." He said to himself.

"Wow, you're really hungry." Judy said to the fox, who was busy scarfing down a plate of fish and chips.

"I got so caught up in the…" He paused. "You know, that I forgot I hadn't eaten anything."

"Sorry about that." Max apologized.

"Not a problem." Nick said. "This place has the best fish and chips in the whole city, trust me. Better than anything Buggaburger could make."

"This salad's pretty good." Judy said. The tuft of fur fell down in her face again, so she blew it back up. "Not the best, but definitely better than eating insects."

Max looked at his pretty standard centipede sandwich. "I feel like I made a bad choice."

"I didn't mean it like that, Max." Judy assured. She paused "I mean… 'Alex'."

"Yeah, that's going to take getting used to."

"It really is, right… James?" Judy said, nudging at the fox.

"Now I kind of regret choosing that name." He said, a bit solemn.

"Oh, sorry."

"No, it's fine, it's-" There was a sudden knock on the glass window. He turned to see Kyle, who gave them a quick wave. The yellow fox nudged his head over, trying to say something to them. Nick leaned over. "I think Kyle wants to talk to us."

"Who?" Max whispered.

"We can introduce you in a minute." Judy said.

The three got up, and tried to leave their seat quietly. "HEY!" They froze in their tracks, and looked back to see the chef, a large walrus, at the counter. "You dining and dashing!?" he yelled at them.

"No, no!" Nick said. "We'll be back in a few minutes, and if we aren't, then you can ban us!"

The three quickly dashed out of the restaurant before the chef could say anything else. He grumbled, and headed back towards the kitchen.

"Hey, hold on!" Said a polar bear at the counter. "Think you can turn the TV on, the announcement's coming on soon."

"Oh yeah, forgot that was today." The walrus said. He grabbed the remote from under the counter, and flicked the hanging TV on.

The group went out into the street, Nick looking around. Kyle wasn't by the window anymore, instead he was walking down the street. The yellow fox turned to them as he approached an alley, and nudged his head towards it. The other fox then ran into it.

"He's trying to keep this subtle." Nick explained. "Just act natural."

The three headed over, and ducked into the alley as well. "Oh man, I can't believe I found you guys!" Kyle said. "Nick, Judy, and…"

"Max." The wolf said, bending down and holding out his paw. They shook paws, and Max looked at his for a moment before getting up.

"This is Kyle." Judy said, introducing Kyle to the wolf. "He's our… 'fan'."

"So, a stalker?" Max said.

"No, not a stalker." Kyle corrected. "I'm just very good at ending up in the same place as you two for some reason."

"Yeah, it's really weird." Nick said. "So, why did you want to talk to us."

"I just wanted to ask… you guys didn't really turn evil and do all that horrible stuff, right?" Kyle asked, hopeful.

"No, we didn't." Judy replied. "It was evil clones. Which sounds ridiculous, I know."

"Oh, I can believe it." Kyle said. "How have you guys been keeping yourselves hidden? I mean, aside from the costumes."

"We've been squatting in…" Nick paused for a moment. "How DID you recognize us in these costumes? We masked our scent and everything."

"I'm just… really good at picking you guys out."

Max squinted a bit at the fox.

"It's been rough." Judy admitted. "I've been trying to keep my mind off it, but it creeps back in and…" She shuddered. "I don't like feeling like this."

"I've lived like this for most of my life," Nick started. "But I agree, it feels wrong to be hated."

"I just wanted to let you guys know that I at least believe in you still." Kyle said. "You're still heroes to me, and I can bet that there are others that still believe in you, too! If you keep fighting, your names will be cleared, I just know it."

"Thanks, Kyle." Judy said.

"Also, can I just say that your new furstyle looks really nice." Kyle followed up.

"Oh, really?" She said, feeling at the tuft.

"Yeah, maybe you should consider keeping it." The yellow fox chuckled. "Sorry for interrupting you while you were eating, by the way. You probably want to head back…"

"No, it was no trouble!" Judy assured.

"It was a bit of trouble." Nick admitted. Judy jabbed him in the side.

"I have some stuff to do anyway." Kyle continued. "So, I'll let you guys get back to your food now."

"Oh, uh, alright." Judy said. "Guess well be seeing you around?"

"Not while we're stuck in that basement." Nick muttered.

"Yeah, you'll definitely be seeing me more often." Kyle assured them. "See ya!" He jogged off leaving them behind.

"You were really quiet there." Nick said to Max.

"Yeah, it was kind of rude." Judy followed.

"Oh, sorry." Max said, shaking his head. "I feel like I've seen him before, somewhere? His scent was kind of familiar."

"It's a small world, you know?" Nick replied. "Probably saw him in the street somewhere."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

The fox walked down the street at a brisk pace. He had figured out what he was going to do. Long's plan involved making the Zoorangers feel worthless and terrible. While that'd be a good thing most of the time, Long's general untrustworthiness and constant insubordination rubbed him the wrong way. There was no way this wasn't part of a scheme of some sort.

Well, that'd be something Kyuemon himself would do anyways.

Regardless or not if the yokai was projecting, he had an idea. Both an idea to get back at Long, as well as keep The Omnipotence happy.

He was going to make them feel like heroes again.

The rabbit's hair was pretty cute, though.

* * *

Back at the diner, the three had returned to their seats. "See?" Nick shouted. "Told you we'd be back!"

The walrus rolled his eyes, and headed back into the kitchen.

Nick felt at his fries, they had gotten cold. He shrugged, and continued eating them. "Seriously? Cold fries?" Judy said, disgusted.

"I just like it when they're salty." Nick joked. The rabbit retched in disgust.

"So, guys…" Max started, whispering. "What are we supposed to do about today?"

"What do you mean?" The fox asked, stuffing some more fries into his mouth.

"Oh god, yeah." Judy said, worried. "It's Monday, which means…"

"Oh. OH." Nick blurted out. He went into a whisper. "Yeah, this might be a problem. I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"I hadn't either!" Judy admitted. "I was just trying to keep my mind off our situation, I didn't even consider what would happen when another monster attack happened."

"I think we should just do it." Max whispered. "We're still protecting people, it just might end up a bit difficult."

"Max is right." Nick said. "I avoided the cops, and kept doing my job for years."

"'Job' is a bit of a strong word." Judy said. "But I get it, as long as we keep away from the police, everything should be fine, right?"

"Yeah, I mean," Nick chewed on some more fries. "It's not like we have anything to worry about besides monsters."

"Hey, the announcement's starting!" Said someone in the diner. They could hear everyone turning towards the TV.

"'Announcement'?" Judy said. The other two shrugged.

"We haven't had good connections down there, so I can't keep up with the news." Max said.

"I never keep up with the news." Nick excused.

Judy rolled her eyes, and climbed up the seat. "Excuse me?" She asked the patrons behind her, a pair of moose. "What's this announcement thing?"

"It's some kind of big announcement from the mayor and the chief of defense." The moose answered. "They say its going to be life-changing."

"Huh. Thanks." She dropped back into her seat. "This seems fishy." She whispered. "We should probably pay attention."

Nick and Max nodded, and the three started to watch the TV.

The screen showed the same conference room that their copies had attacked, looking a bit worse for ware, but still looking decent. They must have fixed any damage over the last week.

Lionheart was standing at the podium, and they watched as reporters started to flood into the room. Of notice were the security guards at the doors, presumably to stop anything like last time from happening.

"Welcome!" Lionheart announced. "All of you here, and those of you watching at home! It's been a scary time in Zootopia. Crazy monster attacks have become routine, and the only mammals who helped to stop them have turned bad. We need someone to protect us!"

"Yeah, us." Nick said, a bit cocky. Judy shushed him quickly.

"This is where our Chief of Defense comes in!" Lionheart continued. "Over the last few months, he and his team have developed stunning new technology that will protect us from these monsters and super-powered criminals! To tell you all about it, Chief Herder!"

A goat walked in from the other side of the stage, accompanied by applause. He was dressed rather smartly, and wore a pair of glasses. Lionheart stepped down from the podium, and Herder stepped onto it. He pumped a crank on the side of it, pushing him up to the microphone.

"That's the Chief of Defense?" Max asked.

"I would've expected someone taller." Nick shrugged.

"I didn't even know Zootopia had a Chief of Defense." Judy admitted.

"As Mayor Lionheart said, me and my team have created advanced weaponry capable of defeating these monsters." He flicked on a slideshow. The first slide showed three weapons, a large gun, a pistol, and a sword. "These proved highly successful in tests, but we ran into a problem; who would use these weapons?"

The room darkened, becoming pitch black. Lights began to emanate from the door Herder had come in from. Three figures walked in, shining red, green, and pink. That was all that could be made out of them, the darkness masking the rest of their bodies. What could be made out was the one with red lights was slightly shorter than the one with green lights, and the one with pink lights was shorter than either of them.

"My team broke past the barrier of current technology, and into the future!" Herder yelled. "I present to you all, the future of security and safety, the most advanced fighting team made by mammalian paws! I PRESENT, THE SPD!"

The lights turned back on, revealing the three figures.

The three Zooranger's jaws dropped.

They were three mammals, each wearing heavily armored, plated suits. They looked like mockeries of their own transformed outfits, but with far more metal. Between each plate was an undersuit that appeared to be glowing specific colors, red, green, and pink. The helmets were similarly armored, more resembling knight helmets than their motorcycle helmets. They were mostly covered in visor, each of which was colored entirely red, green or pink, matching the undersuits. They seemed to be specifically fitted for each of them.

"We've revitalized an old, failed project from the sixties." Herder continued. "The SPD, Special Police Department, are designed to handle special cases, like our current monster problems. Their armor is nigh impenetrable, and can take the force of a rocket without a scratch! Let me introduce you to them."

"SPD Officer Green is the strongest of the three, physically." Herder explained. The green officer looked like some kind of bull or buffalo, a large upper torso with horns jutting out of its helmet. Each helmet's visor was their color. He pulled out a large bazooka-like gun. "His weapon is capable of piercing through steel!"

"SPD Officer Pink is the fastest of the three, and from what she's told me, probably the cleverest." The red officer turned to look at Herder as he said this. The pink officer was definitely female, shaped like a canine. Shortest of the three as well. She twirled around twin pistols, matching the aesthetics of the cannon Officer Green carried. "Her pistols are rapid fire, and are incredibly precise. No matter the skill, they can shoot a coin twenty feet away!"

"And finally, SPD Officer Red. Balanced, perfectly designed to be the leader of this group." Herder said. "Hopefully." He muttered quickly.

The red officer was odd. It looked feline shaped, but that wasn't the odd part. While Green and Pink stood like actual officers, he stood looser, more carefree. He lolled his head around, letting an odd ring not present on the others take notice. The red officer also held a sword, matching the other two weapons. "His blade can clean cut anything in two!" Herder finished.

"As records have shown that monster attacks seem to happen every Monday, they will be active immediately!" Herder explained. "In fact, they'll be heading out right this moment to patrol!"

Officers Green and Pink nodded, but Officer Red just glanced back at Herder. The goat started to get a bit nervous. Without a word, the three went out the same way they came in. Herder cleared his throat. "Um, yes, I will be taking questions now."

The three turned back to each other, jaws still hanging open. "I can't believe this." Nick said, starting to sound angry.

Judy quickly shushed him before he could say anything else. "We're going to have to talk about this somewhere less… public."

"Yeah, if anyone catches us, we're done for." Max whispered. The three nodded, and got up, leaving the diner.

"You see how that red one was acting?" The polar bear asked the chef. "Looked kinda…"

"Looked like he didn't care." The walrus replied. "I can tell you, I have about as much faith in those three as I do the Zoo Ranger guys."

* * *

"So, you hear about the new 'SPD' guys?" The white fox asked.

"I don't really care, as long as they do their jobs." The stoat answered. He opened the cash register, and took out some money. "Here's your change."

The fox grabbed the change, and his bags of milk, and headed out of the store. The stoat placed his paw to his chin, and waited for the next customer to come in. He couldn't wait for this shift to be over.

A bell rung, and someone walked up to the counter. Baggy black pants are all he could see as they walked up to the counter. The stoat cranked his seat upwards, to the counter above the lower counter. "How can I-"

He let out a yelp as he saw the "customer". It was a monster, dressed in yellow, purple, and black clothing, with a fox mask for a face. "Excuse me, do you have a… swiss army knife?"

"A… a whuh…" The stoat stammered.

"A tool consisting of multiple metal objects, tucked into a small plastic shell." The monster said, exasperated. "Do you have one?"

The stoat pointed over to an aisle. The monster bowed, and walked over into the aisle. It grabbed a swiss army knife off the shelf, and then pulled out a ninja star. He jabbed it into the knife, causing it to start glowing.

It burst into purple flame, which flew out of the fox monster's hand, and into the floor. It exploded in a pulse of energy, revealing a new monster.

It was mostly orange, its main body appearing to be made out of a shell. Its stomach and chest had green plating that also seemed shell-like, and it had a tail as well. However, its arms and legs looked more artificial, silver streaks running down their middle. The arms ended in pincer like claws, made from blades. Out of the shoulders poked several other different kinds of knives, and each arm had strange writing on it.

Its legs matched its arms, the only real difference being the blades sticking out of its knees and heels. Its feet were also made out of blades as well. Like the arms, there was writing on the sides of the legs. Its head had a s silver, beak-like mouth, lined with sharp teeth. More blades jutted out from the back of the monster's head, resembling slicked back hair, and more of the writing was on the monster's head, just behind its beady yellow eyes.

"Amikiri, nice to see you again." The fox monster said.

"Oh, yo, Master Kyuemon!" It said. "You want me to do some business?"

"Yes, I require someone of your unremarkable talents." Kyuemon said.

"Rad!" The monster said. Kyuemon shook his head, waiting for the monster to respond. "Hey, wait a second…"

"Idiot." Kyuemon muttered. "Let's go." He waved his arms, causing a burst of dark energy around them. In a second they were gone.

The stoat blinked, and then shook his head. "HEY!" He yelled into the empty store.

"YOU GOTTA PAY FOR THAT!"

* * *

The three had returned to Mr. Big's place in order to talk about the new officers… or more accurately, get incredibly angry about it. At least, Nick was. They had changed back into their normal clothes… though Judy still had that tuft of fur on her forehead.

"It took them A WEEK to replace us!" he shouted as he paced angrily around the room. "After all we've done!"

"Nick, they think we're criminals." Judy explained. "Of course the city would try to come up with some way of stopping the monsters themselves."

"We weren't ever hired for this, it just kind of happened." Max shrugged. "Maybe these guys can take care of things themselves?"

"They don't have the experience we have!" Nick stated. "We've fought, like…" He started to count on his paws. "Twenty-seven different monsters! These guys are greenhorns compared to us!"

"Nick, you're overreacting." Judy said, calmly. The fox crossed his arms in a huff.

"Maybe we can… talk to them?" Max suggested. "Maybe they'll understand the misunderstanding and we can team up."

"I think it's too early for something like that." Judy replied. "I think we should… We should lay low for a bit."

"Carrots, you cannot be serious." Nick said.

"If we go out there, we're just going to be causing more problems." She explained. "The SPD look like they've been trained to handle monsters, so… maybe we can just let them handle it."

"Oh my god, seriously!?"

"I think she's right, Nick." Max followed up. "Us fighting monsters will just cause trouble, and we'd probably have to fight the SPD themselves, too."

"We don't KNOW if they can handle the monsters!" Nick yelled. "If we let them do this, they might get killed! I know you don't want something like that to happen, Judy."

"I mean, I…" She paused.

"And if they die, more innocents will die." He interrupted. "Do you want to be responsible for that?" The rabbit's ears started to droop down.

"Dude, stop guilting her." Max said, getting up.

"I'm not guilting her, I'm just saying the truth!"

"We have no idea if that will even happen!"

A sudden loud beeping came from their Zoolizers. "Wonderful timing." Judy said, sarcastically.

"It is wonderful timing, Fluff." Nick said. "I'm going to show this whole city they don't need those SPD weirdos."

He quickly dashed up the stairs, before either could do anything. "So, are we going to go with him?" max asked.

"Considering he'll probably die, yeah."

* * *

Red stomped into the street, seeing the strange orange monster causing trouble. "Snip snip, time to cut it out!" The monster said, unaware of the fox behind him. He started to snip his claws rapidly, pointing them towards a nearby building. In an instant, the building started to collapse into several chunks.

The monster laughed, and turned around. It recoiled in shock for a moment at seeing the fox, but regained its cool. "So, are you one of the guys Master Kyuemon wants me to fight?"

"Probably." Red said, confidently. "I'm one of the few guys that you monsters seem to care about!"

"Don't just go running off like that!"

Red turned around, seeing Blue and Silver run up to him. "Seriously, you can't just go fight a monster on your own!" Blue reprimanded.

"You don't think I know that?" He said. "Why do you think I ran off like that?"

"Oh, so you tricked us." Silver said, crossing his arms. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Augh, shut up!" The monster yelled. "You're going to have to deal with the mighty Amikiri now!"

"We've handled tougher monsters than you." Blue snapped. "So stay quiet for a minute."

"You can't talk like that to me!" The monster growled. He pulled back his claws, and slashed them forward, firing two energy slashes towards them.

Before they could start arguing, the Zoorangers saw slashes approaching, and leaped out of the way as they hit the ground and exploded. "Alright, no arguing!" Blue said. "We just got to take this guy down!"

They drew their weapons, and rushed at the monster. Amikiri splayed its arms out. "Jukkarage, rise!" The stone monsters started forming from the ground, and rushed at the Zoorangers.

Red jumped up, slashing at one of the Jukkarage with his claws, causing it to shatter. He then swung his blade around as he hit the ground, slashing through more of them. Blue slid under a few of the Jukkarage's legs, slashing at their ankles as she did. They began to collapse behind her, and she followed by leaping into the air and kicking another. Silver spun his sword into Moon mode, and lashed it around, wiping out a number of the Jukkarage. He then spun it to Sun mode, and launched fireballs into the sky, which quickly rained down.

In a few minutes, the Jukkarage had been completely demolished.

"Wow, that didn't go like how I expected!" The monster admitted. "Guess it's time to take you guys on myself!"

He rushed at the three, but Red quickly pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it. The single blast launched Amikiri across the road, rolling as he landed.

"Wow, Kyuemon picked a real winner this time, didn't he?" Silver joked.

"Shut up!" the monster yelled as it got up. "I'll cut you all down to size soon enough!"

He rushed back, and leaped into the air, bringing down one of its claws. The Zoorangers stepped out of the way as it hit the ground, but Amikiri quickly turned into a spinning kick, launching them all back.

"Yikes, that guy's sharp." Blue said, as she clutched at a cut.

"Maybe sharp physically, but definitely not mentally." Red joked.

"Alright, time to cut to the-"

The monster was interrupted as the sound of tires screeching was heard down the road. All four of them turned towards it.

There was a massive vehicle heading towards them. It was bulky, and colored a dull grey. It was massive, like a tank, and appeared to have a large cockpit in the front. It skid to a halt in front of them, letting them get a closer look. The cockpit was glass, but they couldn't see through them. It also had large guns on its sides, and odd sections separating it.

Three doors on it opened. The first was the cockpit, followed by two doors on the sides, which were connected to the guns. From the doors on the side stepped Officers Green and Pink, holding their weapons. Pink twirled her pistols, and cocked her hips, while Green stood almost deathly still and proper.

Out of the cockpit stood Officer red, who placed his foot on the edge, sword on his shoulder. "Hey, hey, lookee here." He said in a slimy, cocksure voice, before hopping out. "If it isn't our prey."

"I was wondering when you guys would show up." Red said, stepping forward. "Are you ready to see how real heroes handle monsters?"

"Hell no." The officer said. He pointed one of his paws forward. "Henry, shoot him."

"Henry?"

The green officer aimed his cannon at the fox, and fired. The blast hit, launching Red into the wall of a nearby building.

"Hey, we're not supposed to use real names!" Pink yelled at their leader.

"You'd think I'd try to hide this from him!?" The other Red yelled. "Why do you think I took this goddamn job!?" Pink backed off immediately.

Blue and Silver ran up to their Red, checking if he was okay. "You alright?" Blue asked as she helped him up.

"Ugh, yah." He grunted. The fox tried to step forward, but almost instantly crumpled. "No, wait, I'm not."

"Hey, what's going on!?" Amikiri yelled, confused. "I thought there was only supposed to be three of you guys!"

"You guys take on the monster, I'm going to handle Nick." The red officer said.

Without a word, the two other officers ran up to Amikiri. Pink aimed her pistols, and fired rapidly. The blasts hit, leaving scorching black marks on the monster. "Owtch!" It yelled. "That stuff really hurts!"

"Good." Green said, aiming his cannon. He fired, launching the monster back.

"I DON'T LIKE BEING SHOT!"

Green and Pink rushed up to the monster. It attempted to slash at the large armored bull, but its claws bounced off his armor. Pink quickly pistol whipped the monster in the back of the head. Amikiri slashed at her, but it still didn't seem to scratch her armor.

"Please, crabcakes." Pink mocked. "You're gonna need to be a lot tougher than that to beat us."

Silently, Green aimed his cannon, and fired at the monster again. The force of the blast knocked it back towards Pink, who fired at him with her pistols. At this point, the monster was charred and scarred by the attacks.

"Guess I'll have to use my super cut!" The monster yelled. It started pinching its claws in Green's direction. "Snip snip snip snip snip snip snip!"

The officer smacked Amikiri over the head with the massive cannon, knocking it to the ground.

Officer Red walked up to the three. "Please!" Blue shouted. She was clutching the heavily weakened fox in her arms. "You need to get him to a hospital!"

The SPD member scoffed. "Why would I do that?"

"Because he's hurt!" Silver shouted. "Aren't you a police officer!?"

Officer Red thought for a moment. "No, don't recall calling myself that."

At the exact moment he finished his sentence, he kicked Blue, launching her much smaller body across the road. "What the hell!?" Silver shouted.

Without a word, Officer Red swung his sword into Silver's chest, making a cut right through it. The wolf stumbled back, and fell to the ground.

"Who…" The fox started, barely able to hold himself up. "Who are you?"

"Oh, come ON, Nicky!" He bent down, and grabbed the fox's muzzle, holding Nick's face up to his. "You know who it is."

He slammed the fox's skull into the ground. "You made a bad choice leaving me, Nicky." He continued. "I've been waiting for this moment for years."

"You were in JAIL!" Red yelled, trying to get himself up. "Why are you here!?"

"They promised to get me off death row if I did this job." Officer Red explained. "And when I heard that you were one of the targets… well, how could I refuse? You and I are connected, Nicky."

"Don't call me that." He sputtered.

"Well, it is-" Before Officer Red could finish, Blue leaped through the air, and delivered a kick to the SPD member's head, knocking him back. "SON OF A BITCH!" He yelled.

"You're not an officer!" Blue shouted, drawing her daggers. "You're… you're…"

"A psychopathic murderer!" Red shouted. "That's what he is!"

"What!?"

"Henry, Emily, get your asses over here!" Officer Red shouted.

The two turned back from fighting the monster. "But we're-"

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!" He yelled.

They looked at each other, and rushed over to the rabbit.

Amikiri looked around, the SPD were distracted. "There's no way I can handle these guys, so I guess its time to cut it on out of here!" He leaped into the air, and started to fly off.

"The monster's getting away!" Blue shouted as the SPD Officers approached them.

"Yeah, we should probably go after it." Green said, turning to the red officer. "It is our-"

Officer Red quickly punched him in the face. "I'M YOUR BOSS!" He shouted. "WHAT I SAY GOES!" He bent down, and looked at Blue. "So, you're Nicky's girlfriend, huh?"

"How do you know Nick!?" She asked, pointing a dagger in his face.

He laughed, and patted the rabbit on her head. "I'd love to tell you." He said, before getting up. "But I'd rather kill you." He snapped his digits, and pointed at her. "Kill her."

The two other officers looked at each other, and aimed their guns at her. They were backed into a corner, with nowhere to go. She braced herself as they fired.

She felt a sting.

She opened her eyes, and looked at herself. "Was that supposed to do something?"

"What the fuck?" Officer Red said. He smacked Green in the face. "You missed her on purpose, didn't you!?"

"No, we hit her!" Pink said. "She's at point blank range, there's no way we could've missed!"

Blue drew her daggers, and prepared to strike, but a sudden thought hit her. These weren't monsters. Even if their armor was good, she'd still be hurting them. She froze up, and the SPD officers stopped arguing.

"I'll kill her myself." Officer Red said. He turned to the still wounded fox. "You watching this, Nicky?" He drew his sword, and prepared to strike at Blue. She drew her daggers as the blade came down, blocking it. "Stubborn."

"Always was!" She said, pushing the sword back. "Sometimes its not a bad thing!"

"Hey, assholes!"

They all turned to see Silver, who was unsteadily standing. "You just gonna forget about me!?

"I thought you died." Officer Red said.

"I'm not going to die that easily!" Silver said, drawing his sword. He rushed at the red officer, clashing their swords. Silver rapidly slammed his thin blade into the SPD officer's much thicker sword.

Blue took this chance, and leaped into Pink's stomach, tackling her to the ground. They rolled across the street, before Pink kicked her off and into a nearby building. "What the hell's your deal!?" Pink yelled as she got up.

"You're trying to hurt my friends, I'm just defending them!" Blue shouted.

"Listen rabbit, we're not going to kill anyone!" Pink retorted. "At least, I hope we aren't."

"Then what do you call that!?" She shouted, pointing over to the beat-up fox. "He's half dead already!"

The officer went silent for a moment. "We're just going to take you in, we're not executioners." She drew her pistols, and aimed them. "So back down, or I won't miss this time."

"Come at me."

She started to fire at the rabbit, who continued to dodge the blasts. Blue leaped back and forth, and jumped up to deliver another kick to her head. The kick impacted, but Pink only stumbled back a bit. She fired her pistols as Blue landed, but the blasts seemed to barely affect her.

"Oh come ON, what is with these things!?" Pink shouted, smacking the pistols together.

"Hey, guess what?" Blue said, pulling out her blasters. "Mine work!" She fired the blasters at Pink's wrists, causing her to drop the pistols.

"Clever rabbit, huh?" She growled. "Just stand down, and we'll-"

"'Stand down' is something actual police officers say." Blue snapped. "And you're not an actual police officer."

Red looked up as the massive green officer towered above him. "Why are you doing this?" The fox asked as he tried to climb to his feet. "You said you changed… that you turned on him…"

Green remained silent.

Officer Red and Silver clashed their blades. After a few moments, the officer grabbed onto Silver sword. He ripped it from his paws, and flung it to the ground, before rapidly slashing at the wolf in a chaotic manner. Silver stumbled back, and fell to the ground. Who the hell was this guy, and why was his weapon so powerful? He hadn't even been hurt like this by a general!

Officer red walked up to the downed wolf, and kicked him over. "Out of my way, I have business to attend to."

The officer walked up to Green, and pushed him out of the way. "Alright, Nicky, time to end this." He drew his blade, and prepared to strike.

"NO!" Blue shouted.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Pink followed.

Just as Officer Red brought down the sword, the ring around his neck started to beep. He let out a horrific shriek of pain as electricity started to course through him, making him drop the sword to the ground.

A voice sounded through the helmets of all three officers.

"Return to base."

Officer Red stumbled back, and let out a growl. He scooped the sword off the ground, and stomped towards the vehicle. Green headed to the car without a word, while Pink gave a quick growl before heading off.

"You got off lucky, Nicky!" Officer Red shouted as he hopped into the vehicle's cockpit. "Don't think you'll get this chance twice!" The cockpit closed, and the vehicle spun around before driving off in the direction it came.

Judy rushed over to Silver. "Oh god, Max are you alright?" She asked, shaking him.

"I'll be fine." He said, untransforming and getting to his feet. "I've handled worse than that."

"I'm pretty sure you haven't."

They both ran over to Red. "Hold on, Nick, we'll get you back home soon." Judy assured him. The fox didn't respond. "Nick?"

He had passed out.

* * *

Kyuemon stood atop the mountain, looking over the city. He was hoping that Amikiri had already gotten into a fight, the energy built up from it would allow him to be upgraded, which would in turn lead to more damage, and the Zoorangers saving the day.

It wasn't a brilliant plan, but it was definitely a way to stop Long in his tracks.

"MAAASTER KYUEMOOOON!"

Kyuemon looked up, and watched as the orange yokai flew through the air, and crashed into the mountain. He was badly damage, covered in wounds and burnt flesh.

"What in the world happened to you?" Kyuemon asked. "Those don't look like wounds from the Zoorangers' weapons."

"They weren't!" The monster said as it got up. "There were these three other guys, they just came up and started to attack me!"

"Three… others?" Kyuemon said, intrigued and concerned. "Were they working with the Zoorangers?"

"No, it seemed like they had a beef with them too!" Amikiri explained. "It was awful, I could barely even scratch them!"

Kyuemon grunted. What was going on? "I need you to gather info on these new… fighters." He said.

"You expect me to go back out there!?" Amikiri shouted in disbelief. "I'll be slaughtered if I fight those guys again!"

"Don't worry, you'll be strong enough." Kyuemon pulled out a Chaos Badge, and tossed it into the monster's chest.

He started to convulse, and change. Its skin became blue, rather than orange, its chest turning purple, aside from a red symbol of chaos carved into it. The writing on its sides turned red, making it stand out more. The blades on the back of its head grew longer, and splayed out. Its claws started to grow, turning into massive scissor like appendages.

"CHAOS AMIKIRI!" it shouted as it stomped forward. "Wow, I feel like the sharpest knife in the drawer now!"

Kyuemon groaned. "Just go figure out who these new nuisances are." He commanded.

The monster gave a salute, and jumped into the air, flying off.

* * *

The massive armored vehicle pulled into the garage of the laboratory. The three SPD Officers hopped out of the car, and headed into the building. Their armor started to fold in, turning into belts around the three's waists.

Green was a large bull, dressed in black jacket and a green shirt. He was large, like most bulls, but seemed to exude a somewhat gentle, if stoic, aura. Pink's armor revealed a hyena, wearing a pink tank top and smaller jacket. She crossed her arms as they walked in.

Officer Red's armor revealed a rather skinny lion, who's mane seemed to have been shaved off at one point… or was never there to begin with. It was definitely a male lion, however. The ring was still around his neck, which he tugged at as they walked. He wore a similar outfit to the other two, red undershirt and black jacket.

"Ah, welcome back." A smartly dressed goat said as he walked up to them. "I see your first mission went… utterly terrible."

"Blame el estúpido." The hyena said. "He's the one who tried to murder Ni-"

"Oh, you're blaming me for that!?" The lion said. "I had him right where I wanted him, and then you had to go and shock me!"

"Quiet!" Herder shouted. He walked up to the lion, and laughed. "Mr. Clawbick, you're working for law enforcement now. If you don't follow the laws yourself, you're setting a bad example."

"I never said I was a law enforcer." Clawbick growled as he bent down to look at the goat. "I could cleave through your flesh in an instant if you dare-"

Herder quickly pulled out a controller, and pressed a button on it. Clawbick let out another scream of pain as he was shocked.

"That's why I had the tame collar installed." Herder explained. "because you're completely untrustworthy with this kind of job. Too bad you were the only one willing to take it."

Clawbick growled as he crawled back to his feet.

"So, other than Clawbick's insubordination, Hornsby and Hyerez did stunningly!" The goat complimented. "Especially for their first time."

"I'm flattered." Hyerez said, sarcastically.

"Can you just call us Henry and Emily?" Hornsby asked. "I'd like this to be a little more casual."

"The doctor can call you by your first names." Herder said. "Speaking of, he wants to see you all, follow me."

The three followed Herder into a room filled with monitors. The monitors were currently off, but they had been told this is how they were monitored on missions. Leopold was sitting at a computer. He jolted up as Herder started to speak.

"Dr. Leopold, what did you want to talk to the officers about?"

The leopard quickly regained himself, and cleared his throat. "I noticed some… odd things going on with your weapons while you were fighting." He explained.

"Oh, you mean like our guns just not working sometimes?" Emily answered. "That was pretty odd!"

"I have no idea what was going on with that!" Leopold said. "In every test they worked, I don't-"

"I thought you said these weapons vaporized things?" Clawbick growled. "I didn't see anything get vaporized, even when I tried to slice that wolf's heart out."

"Well, yes, um…" Leopold started. "Well, you see, when we originally designed the weapon, the energy in the medal we used seemed to be connected to a different universe, as it were. They were able to vaporize anything on hit, but once we started using the new medals, they just became incredibly powerful in a standard way."

"I only got half of that." Clawbick stated. "But I was told there would be vaporization."

"It's better this way, think of it as an added safety precaution!"

Clawbick glared at the leopard.

"Um, yes. No vaporization, sorry about that."

The lion scoffed, and stormed out of the room. "He scares me." Leopold admitted.

"You're not the only one." Emily followed.

Clawbick walked down the hallway. He had gotten so close to getting Wilde. He continued to think about it. What would he do when the fox showed up again if he couldn't kill him? Maybe after the legal system dealt with them, he'd be able to strangle the fox on his own. Or maybe he'd be allowed more than that and get to carve Wilde like a tree. Maybe he'd be able to mount Wilde's head on his wall, and turn the fur into a carpet.

He laughed at the wonderful ideas he had for getting rid of that fox. He glanced around. In all his thinking, he had wandered somewhere deep into the laboratory. A dark hallway stood before him… but something started to flash from behind a door. Green lights flickered on and off rapidly.

Seemed interesting.

He opened door, and stepped in. It was pitch black, he couldn't see anything. Then it lit up. He caught a glimpse of a complex machine, a tube placed on top of it. The light came from something inside the tube. It was…

It was some kind of monster, definitely. A horrific crystal monster than resembled many different animals at once. With each flash, he saw something new on it. Every time it lit up, the tube seemed to be full of electricity.

It didn't seem to be having fun, silently wailing each time it was shocked. The monster seemed to notice him, and glared at him.

Then, the lights flipped on.

"I see you've found it." Herder said as he walked up to the lion.

"What the hell is 'it'?"

"Its our power source." Herder explained. "That monster powers your armor. Ask Leopold more about it, I'm not sure about this science stuff most of the time."

"It looks like its in pain." Clawbick said.

"Oh, it definitely is." Herder laughed. "That's ten thousand watts going through its system every couple of seconds, its bound to be painful for a long time! Come along, we have to prepare you all for the next monster attack."

Herder left the room, but Clawbick stayed to stare at the creature.

"I don't know if you can hear me," The lion started as he walked up to the machine. "But I feel a kind of kinship in you, you know?"

The monster stared back at him, seeming to resist the electricity for a moment. It placed one of its massive claws on the glass tube, and Clawbick responded by placing his own paw on the glass as well. He felt a sudden surge of energy flow through him, instantly activating his armor.

"Neat." He said, before the armor folded back in. "You certainly are powerful. Hey, how about you and I make a deal…"

* * *

They had returned to Mr. Big's spare room, but not before Judy had managed to grab some bandages and disinfectant. She quickly placed the unconscious fox on one of the cushions, and got to helping max with his wounds.

"Those guys were something, huh?" She said as she applied the disinfectant to Max's chest wound. She had to do it while standing on his lap, due to size differences. He seethed as the cotton swab patted against the open gash.

"Yeah, definitely." Max replied, eyes starting to water. "I haven't taken damage like that in… ever."

"Stop squirming." The rabbit said. "If you keep twitching every time I do this, I'll fall off!"

"Sorry."

She pulled out a roll of bandages, and quickly dashed around the wolf, covering the wound with them. "There, all done." She said, hopping down. "Just stay still for a bit, you need to relax."

"I didn't realize you knew how to treat wounds like this." Max said, leaning back in his chair.

"I lived on a farm for most of my life, lots of accidents can happen." She explained. "I only really know bandage treatment, though."

"Its good enough for right now." Max shrugged. He looked over at Nick, who was starting to move around again. "Do you think Nick will be better soon?"

"Hopefully." She said, looking over at the fox as well. "I hope he can tell us what's going on with those SPD guys."

"What do you mean?"

"I think he knows who they are." Judy said, shrugging. "The red one definitely seemed to know him."

"Oh, I know them."

They glanced back over at Nick, who had sat up. "Nick, you're alright!" Judy said, running up and hugging the fox. He didn't return the hug, instead, pushing her off. "Can you tell us who those guys are?"

"I can."

There was silence for a moment.

"And they are…?"

"I said 'I can'." He responded. "Not that I will." The fox seemed sombre, even more antisocial than he normally was.

"I get it." Judy said, understanding. "You don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"Can you at least give us names?" Max asked.

"Max, seriously?" Judy snapped at him.

"Oh, sorry."

"I'll give you their names." Nick said. "David Clawbick, Henry Hornsby, and Emily Hyerez."

"Alright, so we have names now." Judy sighed. "Glad you could at least speak up about that."

"I'm not saying anything else." He said. "Going back to that time is…"

"Nick, it's alright." Judy said. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. It's probably not important anyway."

"I feel like knowing why someone has a grudge against you is important." Max said. Judy clutched her fist in annoyance.

She took a deep breath. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Like I got shot by a ton of bricks." Nick responded.

"Did their weapons really hurt that bad?" Judy asked. "I didn't feel anything when I got hit by them."

"Judy, you just patched up a gaping wound in my chest." Max stated. "Of course they actually hurt."

"How come I wasn't affected then?" The two other mammals shrugged in response. It was a question without an answer, at the moment.

"The monster got away." Nick said. "So, we're probably going to have to fight it again."

"Which means we'll probably run into the SPD again." Max finished. The two fell silent for a moment.

"And this time we'll be ready for them." Judy said, pounding her fist into her paw. "This time, we'll kick their butts and handle the monster by ourselves!"

The two looked at each other nervously.

* * *

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" The monster shouted as it walked through the open plaza. "What do I gotta do to get those knits out to fight me!? Maybe I should…" He pointed his scissors towards a building, and clipped them. The building was suddenly sliced in half, and started to collapse, sliding down slowly. The Amikiri started to laugh, until something rang through the air.

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

A massive robotic gorilla jumped through the air, and pushed the building back up with its fists. The yokai turned to see the Zoorangers running up to him. "Oh, it's just you losers." The monster said, clearly uninterested in them.

"That's not a nice way to greet the guys who are gonna kick your ass!" Red shouted.

"Call me when those other guys show up!" Amikiri scoffed.

"Great, now even the monsters are more interested in the SPD." Silver muttered.

"We just gotta beat it before they show up!" Blue stated. "And if they do show up, we know how to handle them!"

There was then the sound of tires screeching, and the four watched as the SPD's massive six-wheeled tank rolled into the plaza. The officers stepped out of the vehicle, weapons drawn. "Well, looks like the whole gang's here!" Clawbick said, slamming the sword into his other armored paw. "Hen-Green, Pink, deal with the other three freaks, I'm going to take on the fox."

The other two nodded, and all three ran up to the Zoorangers and Chaos Amikiri.

"There you are!" The yokai said. "I was waiting for you guys for hours!"

Pink quickly whipped out her blasters, and pointed them at the monster. She fired a duo of shots, but in a split second, the monster's scissor hands flipped into its arm, and then came back out, this time looking like a large knife. He deflected the blasts, and laughed.

"Check out the new power!" He said. He flipped his other scissor hand around, turning it into a large screw. "I can take you guys on, no problem!"

Officer Red stepped up to the monster. "So, you wanna take me on first?" It asked, shining its blade at him.

"Get out of my way."

Clawbick smacked the monster to the ground with the back of his sword, and continued walking. Directly towards Red.

He pointed his sword at the fox. The edges of the sword started to glow with a green energy. "Ready to die tonight?" He asked.

Blue and Silver stepped in front of the fox, their weapons drawn. "No, out of the way." Red said, pushing them out of the way. He drew his own blade, and pointed it back at Clawbick. "Deal with the monster while I finish this."

"If you say so, Nick." Blue sighed. The two ran off towards Amikiri.

"You've certainly gotten a lot more willful since we last met." Clawbick chuckled.

"Yeah, I have." Red replied. "Because, unlike you, I've actually changed."

Clawbick swung at the fox, who quickly blocked the sword with his own. The two started to swing their blades rapidly, Nick having to leap into the air to gain an advantage over the much taller lion.

Meanwhile, Blue and Silver ran up to the Amikiri, who looked back and forth at them and the SPD officers. "So, you guys going to fight each other, or are you going to fight me?" It asked.

The four looked at each other. "You want to call a truce, maybe?" Blue asked.

Pink shrugged. "Sure, why the hell not."

"Well, wasn't expecting that."

Pink and Blue spun their pistols, and fired at the monster, which it attempted to block with its blade arm. Silver quickly rushed up from the side and slashed it, letting the blasts hit. The monster stumbled back, before Green ran up and slammed the cannon into the monster's chest.

The yokai raised his screw arm, which started to spin around, he thrust it down at the rabbit, who jumped out of the way as it lodged into the ground. The monster then slashed at Officer Green with his blade, but the bull stepped out of the way. The screw started to spin around again, causing the yokai to spin around himself, kicking the Zoorangers and SPD officers away with both his feet.

The screw quickly dislodged, throwing the monster into the air, where it landed on its feet. "Hah, not one of you can handle my skills!"

"Yeah, sorry." Green said, pulling up the cannon. He fired, the blast launching the yokai across the plaza. "But you're really lame."

The monster grunted as it got back up, only to be met with a kick to the face from Blue, and a series of quick slashes from Silver. Pink ran up, and clonked the monster on both sides of the head with her pistols. She then kicked him away, making way for Green to blast him again.

"Alright, this is going the exact opposite of how I wanted it to!" Amikiri whined. His hands flipped back around, turning back into scissors. "I'm heading out now, hope you guys fight each other!" With a laugh, the monster leaped into the air, and flew off through the night sky.

The rangers and the officers looked at each other. "So, we're supposed to fight now, huh?" Silver asked.

"I mean, I guess." Pink said.

"We're just doing our job." Green said, before pointing the cannon at the both of them. He fired at Silver, but Blue leaped through the air and took the blast. The force knocked her into the wolf, which knocked them both to the ground.

"Blue, you alright?" Silver asked. "You just took a bullet for me."

"Hitting you hurt more than the shot did." She said, quickly hopping to her feet. "Trust me on that one." Silver quickly got back to his feet as well. "So, who do you feel like taking on?" The rabbit asked.

"I'm taking you on, conejo!" Pink said, stepping forward and blasting at the rabbit with her pistols. Blue jumped up to avoid the shots, and kicked Pink in the face.

"Your shots don't work on me!" She declared as she landed. She struck a fighting pose. "Why don't we handle this paw to paw?"

Pink growled, and holstered her pistols on the sides of her armor. She punched her paw into her palm, and ran up to the rabbit. She took a swing at Blue, but she jumped up and landed on her arm, delivering a quick kick. The hyena stumbled back, and then went onto all fours for a moment, she then splayed her legs out, keeping herself low to the ground.

"You don't think I know how to deal with small, annoying pests, huh?" She growled. She dashed at the rabbit on all fours, slashing at her with claws.

'Might've made a bad choice, Judy!' The rabbit thought to herself.

Silver and the bull stared at each other. The wolf tightened his grip around his sword. "So, you and me, fight?"

"I'd rather you gave up peacefully." Green said.

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen." He said. Silver lowered his sword for a moment. "But, if you don't want to fight, why should we?"

"I suppose there wouldn't beany harm in talking." Green said. He looked over, at the two Reds fighting each other, and Pink fighting Blue.

"Why does that Clawbick guy hate Nick so much?" Silver asked, taking this opportunity to get some info out. "Seems like they have a bit of a past."

"They do." Green stated. "It's a long and complicated story."

There was silence from both of them for a moment. "Aren't you going to tell me?" Silver asked.

"You should ask him yourself." Green said. "If he lives."

"Lives?" Silver spun around, looking over to ZooRed. The fox was engaged with Clawbick, but the lion's size advantage seemed to be catching up to him. Red was quickly struck by a swipe of the sword, knocking him away. Silver stepped forward, and prepped his blade. "Don't worry, Nick, I'm-"

Silver was knocked to the ground by something, something incredibly painful. "Damn it, I thought…"

The bull's hoof placed itself on his back. "Job's a job, sorry."

Pink rapidly slashed at the rabbit, knocking her back. Unlike the blaster shots, the hyena's claws hurt like hell. She was quick on her feet, clearly an expert on street brawling with many different sized mammals. Who were these mammals?

The hyena spun her body around, kicking the rabbit away. She crashed next to Red. "So, how's it going?" He asked, out of breath. "I'm doing pretty good."

"Nick, there's no way we can take these guys on right now." She said.

"Wanna go super?" he asked, pulling out the Sun ZooTag. She quickly slapped it out of his paw.

"Those forms are strong enough to kill Long!" Judy said. "Imagine what they'd do to a normal mammal!"

"A normal mammal in super armor."

"They're not monsters, Nick!"

"I'd argue that."

She slapped him across the muzzle. "We are NOT killing anyone!" She said. "We're getting out of here."

"Alright, alright!" He said. He glanced over at Silver, still under the hoof of Officer Green. "We need to save Silver first."

She nodded. The two ran, leaving Clawbick and Emily behind. "HEY!" Clawbick roared. "WE'RE NOT DONE FIGHTING!"

"Yes, we are!" Red shouted back.

Blue leaped into the air, striking Green in the face, as Red tackled into him, the combined forces knocking the bull over. Silver climbed back up. "That guy is really heavy." He grunted.

"C'mon, Max, we're getting out of here." Blue said.

"What, seriously!?" Silver said. "I thought you said we could take these guys!"

"Well, sometimes I'm wrong!" She said. "NOW LET'S GO!"

The three quickly dashed off into the city night. Clawbick let out a horrible growl as they ran off. "I'LL KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH NEXT TIME!" He said.

"We should head back to base, now that we have nothing left to do here." Henry stated.

"Yeah, I think our weapons are running low on power, too." Emily continued. Clawbick growled, and stomped on the ground, with enough force to crack some of the pavement. The three headed back to the vehicle, and drove off back to base.

* * *

The three had been sitting in the spare room in silence for a good half hour. Nothing was really going well, considering how strong the SPD seemed to be. Judy had spent the entire time trying to think of something.

"I really don't know what to do." Judy finally said. "It's just a lot easier when you don't have to deal with… killing someone."

"We aren't going to be killing anyone, Judy." Max said.

"I'm trying to avoid that too!" She said, frustrated. "But… they aren't monsters, there's not really any way for us to fight against them without hurting them."

"Maybe we shouldn't be worrying about them." Nick muttered. "Might be better if one of them got offed."

"Oh my god, Nick." Judy said, stomping over to him. "We're officers, officers don't kill."

"We're not really officers right now." He replied. "We're criminals."

"Okay, Nick." Max started. "You need to tell us what the hell is going on with you and this Clawbick guy."

"There isn't anything."

"You mean, aside from him really wanting to specifically kill you, and you having some sort of grudge against him?" Judy said, sarcastically. "Yeah, nothing."

"That bull told me that you guys have a history." Max said. "We need you to tell us, it's important."

The fox fell back onto the cushion, silent. "It's okay, Nick." Judy sighed. "I know that, whatever happened, you don't want to talk about it. Your feelings are more important."

"It happened when I was around sixteen." Nick started, to the shock of the rabbit and wolf. "I had gotten into a fight with my mom, and ran out on her." He sat back up. "I was homeless for a bit, living on the street with nowhere to go. That's when Clawbick showed up."

"He took me into his gang, which was just Emily and Henry. It was like having a home for once, a place where I was… accepted. They were like a family, and we all helped each other out. Emily was like a big sister, and Henry was always there to give me advice. Then there was Clawbick."

"Back then, he was one of those… rebel gangster types, wanted to 'stick it to the man', as it were." He continued. "It started out innocently, vandalizing, pranks, really childish things that we did to the police."

"I'm not sure what happened, but then things started to escalate. They started assaulting others, and just destroying property for no reason. I started to get weary at that point, but… things only got worse." The fox started to sob a bit as he remembered. "He started abusing us."

"Oh my god…"

"We all wanted to leave, but he threatened to kill us if we tried to do anything. Then he…" The fox started to cry in full. Judy moved in to comfort him. "The last time I saw him, he had set up a plan to attack a hospital. I don't know why. That was all I could take, so I snuck away and called the police. By the time they made it there, it was too late."

"Oh god." Judy muttered.

"I think I remember that." Max said. "Twenty mammals dead, right?" Nick nodded.

"A bit after, I was taken in by Mr. Big, and he helped me become a non-violent criminal." He finished, wiping away some tears. "It was one of the worst things that's ever happened to me."

"I'm so sorry, Nick." Judy said, hugging him. "I didn't realize… You didn't have to say anything."

"Yes, I did." He said. "I needed to get that baggage off my chest."

"So, we know this Clawbick guy is a horrible psychopath." Max said. "What about the other two?"

"Henry and Emily aren't bad." Nick stated. "I saw them recently, actually. Emily was working at the Carrot Day Festival in Bunnyburrow, and Henry was a janitor at the museum. They seemed like they turned over a new leaf, even said they helped get Clawbick into jail for good. I don't know why they're still working with him."

"Maybe out of fear?" Judy suggested, stepping away from the fox. "Clawbick seems incredibly dangerous, I wouldn't be surprised if they're scared of him themselves."

"That's probably it." Nick said. "That's what it was like when they were a gang, too."

"So, am I the only one concerned that they got a psychopath and his lackeys to be proxy police officers?" Max asked. "Seems kind of…"

"Like the worst possible choices?" Judy finished. She started tapping her foot against the ground. "I feel like there's something going on here. Them being from Nick's past can't be a coincidence."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Nick said, shrugging. He let out a heavy sigh. "I… I don't know if I can do this, Judy."

"We have to." She said. "We might not legally be police anymore, but we are heroes. We have a criminal with a ridiculous amount of power running around, there's no way that won't go wrong."

"I've read enough comics to know that is exactly what will happen." Max stated.

The fox chuckled, and stood up. He returned to his more relaxed posture. "There's a bright side to this." He said, running his paw through his fur. "I'll get to beat him up eventually."

"I… guess that's a positive outlook?" Judy said.

"Alrighty!" Max started. "We just have to wait for that monster to attack again, and we can get rid of them in one swoop!"

"If we want to do that, we'll need a plan." Nick followed. "Got anything, Carrots?"

She placed her paw to her chin, and started to pace around. "If we want to make a plan, we need to find out some kind of weakness." She said. "I think its more important to focus on the bigger threat, the monster."

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like Clawbick and his gang'll cause any trouble when there isn't a monster around." Max followed.

"So, we just watch them?" Nick asked. "Seems kind of boring."

"Wait, you know them!" Judy started, having realized something. "That means you know how they fight, right?"

"Fluff, it's been years." He said. He looked at the rabbit's lavender eyes, and sighed. "Henry's a brute fighter, not really skilled in combat, but strong. He usually only hurts others when he has a reason to."

"And right now, we're on his 'priority list'." Max finished. "From what I could tell, he's just a bruiser with a big gun."

"Yeah, 'just'." Nick scoffed. "You're the one who got hit by the gun!"

"Oh, right."

Nick shook his head. "Emily is way more violent than Henry, but that's mostly because of anger issues. She was homeless most of her life, so she had to fight a lot."

"That explains a lot." Judy said.

"Clawbick's just violent." Nick said. "I think he just enjoys hurting others."

"That is what a psychopathic murderer usually is." Max said, Judy nodding along.

"You got info, any ideas?" The fox asked.

"We fight the monster, but keep an eye on the SPD." Judy explained. "We need to be thorough before we deal with them."

Nick nodded in approval. "Could take a while, though."

"How long is 'a while'?" Max asked. "Because I really do not want to be living here for the next year."

"Probably just a few weeks." Judy explained. "We're here to protect the city, not make them hate us even more."

"So, all we have to do is wait, right?" Nick asked.

* * *

"I've waited LONG ENOUGH!" the monster shouted as it stepped into the park. "You rangers better come out soon!" The Amikiri quickly snapped one of its scissors through a nearby tree, cutting it with barely any effort.

There was the sound of tires grinding through the dirt. The dirt flung through the air and hit the monster in the face, causing him to stumble back. He looked up, seeing the large armored vehicle. The SPD Officers quickly climbed out of the vehicle, and prepared their weapons.

"Not even two hours!" Emily yelled. "I didn't even get a chance to recharge!"

"That's why the doc gave you that pack." Henry said, motioning towards a small, rectangular object hanging from the hyena's waist.

"Yeah, but I'd like to go into a fight with full ammo."

"Can you two just shut it!?" Clawbick growled, the two quieting up immediately.

"You guys really like to fight, huh?" The monster said with a chuckle, but sounding a bit disappointed. "Where are the other guys?"

"How should we know that?" Emily said. Clawbick promptly smacked her with his sword.

"No talking, just killing." He growled. The armored hyena quickly shut up.

"Doesn't matter, dealing with you guys seems a bit more important!" The monster chuckled, before rushing forward. He swung his scissors at Henry, who took the blow, stumbling back a bit.

The bull aimed his cannon at the monster, and fired, launching it off through the field. Pink ran up as the monster climbed to its feet, and started smacking it with her pistols. Amikiri took a few hits, but knocked her back. He grunted as his scissors spun around, now turning into a pair of blades.

The yokai slashed at Pink a few times, and then knocked her away. Green ran up, and attempted to smack the monster with his cannon. Amikiri quickly responded by slashing at him, and knocking him away as well. "Hey, you!" The monster said, stepping towards Clawbick. "You gonna do anything, or are you just gonna stand there?"

"Oh, I'll do plenty." Clawbick said. He held out his sword, and tilted it, causing green energy to emit from the blade.

"Not likely!"

A blade whipped through the air, directly above the sword. It seemed to be connected to a black cord. The blade wrapped itself around the blade in a second, and tugged at the lion, turning him to see the three Zoorangers.

"If you want to do anything, you gotta go through us!" Red said, pointing at himself.

"Oh, there you three are!" Amikiri said, sounding a bit more cheerful. He started to laugh to himself. "Now I can start my plan…"

"We know what you've done, Clawbick!" Blue shouted, stepping forward. "When all this is sorted out, you're going right back to prison!"

Clawbick didn't respond to the rabbit, instead pulling his sword back. This caused the fox to fly through the air, towards the lion. As he approached, Clawbick unleashed a punch, knocking the fox into the ground.

"I don't think he was listening." Silver said.

"Probably not." Blue responded, shaking her head.

"Hey!" They both turned to look at Amikiri. "Aren't you two going to stop me from causing trouble?"

The two looked at each other, confused, before shrugging and rushing to fight the monster. Blue leaped up as Silver dashed forward, blade ready. The rabbit drew her daggers, and struck rapidly at the monster, who blocked with one of his blades. Silver attempted to strike the monster as well, but it also blocked.

He quickly flipped his blade hands back in, replacing one with the corkscrew, and the other with an oddly shaped hook. He swung the hook into the rabbit as she started to land, and then thrust the corkscrew into the wolf.

"Hah, looks like I'm beating you!" The monster proclaimed, rather loudly. "Hope there's no one else that wants you dead, or else they'd be in trouble!"

"Back it up, langosta!" Pink shouted. She rushed over, and kicked the monster in the back, and then pointed one of her pistols at it. "That's out job."

"Oh my god, seriously?" Blue shouted. "He's trying to egg you on!"

"Yeah, and he's right." Green said, also stepping up. "If you three get killed, we're in trouble." He aimed the cannon at the wolf.

"Shouldn't we be worrying about the monster?" Silver asked. "He's going to hurt more mammals than we are!"

Pink knocked the monster to the side, and stepped forward. "If we don't we're getting sent back to prison with Clawbick, and there' no way in hell that's happening!" She pointed her blasters at the two, and started to fire.

Amikiri chuckled to itself. "Now I just gotta wait for them to kill each other, and then I can deal without whoever's left!" It said to itself as it snuck away from the fight.

Blue leaped at the hyena before she could fire, knocking her away. Silver ducked away as Officer Green fired the can at him, leaving a massive hole in the ground.

Meanwhile, Red and Clawbick were starting to duke it out. The fox leaped into the air, and struck at his sword, a burst of green energy flying out as they hit. Clawbick flicked his sword up, launching the fox into the air. He prepared to strike at Red as he fell down, but the fox quickly pulled out the Vickscannon.

He fired several rounds at the lion, causing explosions all around him. Red landed on his feet. "I'm not as weak as I was back then, Scratch."

"Oh, pulling out that nickname, huh?" Clawbick said as he stumbled from the smoky field. "I thought you left me behind, Nicky."

"I have." Red replied. He prepared to strike at the lion. "And I'm ready to get you out of my mind for good."

"You can't do it!" Clawbick laughed. "Your girlfriend wouldn't let you."

Nick growled, and clenched his paw. He quickly dashed forward, and leaped up, attempting to strike at the lion once again.

Silver's blade clashed against the side of the bull's cannon, rather ineffective against it. Green pushed the sword away, and blasted at the wolf, flinging him away. "Are you an idiot?" The bull asked as he walked over to the grounded wolf. "You already know this thing hurts bad."

Silver climbed to his feet, out of breath. "I have to fight." He said. "Even if its stupid, I still have to try. I have to protect my friends."

Green fell silent for a moment. "You're quite a spirited soul." He said. "I admire that. If the circumstances were different, we could be friends."

Silver looked up. "You mean that?"

"One hundred percent." Green said, with a nod. "We're a lot alike. Unfortunately…"

"You have to bring me in, right?" Silver finished for him. He sighed, and prepared his blade. He thrust forward, the blade piercing into the bull's large body, but not seeming to cause any harm to him.

Green smacked Silver over the head with his cannon, causing him to fall back to the ground. As he hit the ground, Silver quickly kicked at the bull's legs, and rolled out of the way as he collapsed into the ground. The wolf staggered to his feet, and quickly prepped his sword, watching as Green rolled to his side and fired off some blasts from the cannon.

Silver spun the guard around, switching it to Eclipse Mode. Time slowed time for a moment, and he leaped out of the way, and attempted to strike at the bull. Time restarted before he could, and Green quickly thrust his head upward, knocking the wolf back with his horns.

"Why are you following him?" Blue asked. Her and Pink were locked in a stand-off, blasters locked on each other. "He's abusive, you don't really want someone like that to be your leader, right!?"

"Of course I don't!" Pink shouted back. "But if he knows I abandoned him, he'll do what he's doing to Nick!"

Blue glanced back at the fox. He was still locked in combat with Clawbick, but he seemed to be-

Her ears twitched as she heard gunfire going off. She looked back at the hyena. While she was distracted, Pink had fired shots at her. She braced herself for impact, but once again felt nothing.

"HIJO DE PUTA!" She yelled. "Why don't these things work on you!?"

Blue shrugged, she was just as confused as the SPD officer was. "Maybe it's just my positive attitude?" She joked.

Pink stood in thought for a moment. "I haven't recharged these things all day, maybe I should…" She holstered one of her pistols, and grabbed the rectangular object. She plugged it on the top of the other gun, the sound of metal clinking coming from it.

She pulled the object off the first gun, and holstered it. She tossed the object into her other paw, and plugged it into the other blaster. Before it could finish doing whatever it was doing, Blue fired one of her blasters at it, causing it to fly off the gun, and shatter into pieces.

"Oh, wonderful!" Pink growled. She holstered her gun, and got to all fours. "You're gonna pay for that, conejo."

She rushed forward, and swept her leg at Blue, who leaped over it, and landed on the hyena's back, Knocking her to the ground. Pink quickly recovered, and dashed over to the rabbit on all fours. Her claws poked through the suit as she started to scratch at Blue again.

Blue blocked the swipes with her daggers, and waited for an opening. As Pink tried to perform a double pawed thrust at her, she stuck her daggers between them, and pried them apart. The rabbit then flipped, kicking the hyena in her jaw and knocking her away.

The hyena flipped through the air from the force of the kick. Blue was surprised she could even muster up that kind of strength. Pink crashed into the ground on her back, clearly in pain. "That'll teach you." Blue said.

Her attention was caught by something shimmering on the ground. It was surrounded by the shards of the object she had destroyed. It was silver, round, familiar…

Her heart started to beat.

She swiped the object off the ground, and stomped over to the hyena. She placed a foot on her stomach, and shined the object in her face. "WHERE DID YOU GET THIS!?" She demanded "TELL ME!"

"How should I know?!" Pink responded, swatting the rabbit off and getting up. "The doc gave them to me, he doesn't even know where they came from."

Blue clutched the object, but was quickly distracted by spotting something else. It was the monster, just kind of standing around in the middle of the field.

Oh yeah, they were supposed to be fighting a monster!

"I can't believe this!" She shouted, hitting herself in the head.

"What?"

"I can't believe I got distracted fighting you guys, when I should have been focusing on the monster!" Blue explained.

Pink's own, armor covered ears perked up. "Right, that's what we're supposed to be dealing with!" She placed her paw to the side of her helmet. "Hey doc, why didn't you…" She paused for a moment and sighed. "Are you really a scientist? Just… give Clawbick a shock and tell him to stop fighting the fox."

There was a sudden ear piercing screech of pain. Everyone looked over to Clawbick, who had smoke coming from his armor. He fell to his knees, letting Red step away from their fight.

"Right, got it." Green said. He lifted his foot from the wolf's chest, and lowered a hoof. "Hey, wanna work together for a bit?"

"Uh…" Silver paused, and considered his actions. "Sure." The bull helped him up to his feet.

Red glanced at Clawbick, and quickly ran off to join Blue, Silver and Green following him. The lion slowly rose to he feet. He let out a growl, and shuffled over to the others.

He glared down at the fox. "As soon as this is done, I'm going to slaughter you."

"I doubt that." Red replied.

"Hey, what the heck's going on!?" The Amikiri shouted, stepping more into the battlefield. "Don't you guys want to kill each other!?"

"Yeah." Pink said, stepping forward. "But we'd rather not have you kill anyone first!"

"Oh no, I misjudged their stupidity!" The monster yelled. "I better stop cutting corners and get my head in the game." He spun his hands around again, the left hand becoming a blade that curved inwards, while his right became a spiked ring on a chain.

He started to swing the chain above his head, and flung it at the group. They all dodged out of the way. Blue tucked into a roll, and fired at the monster causing it to stumble back. Officer Green followed with a shot from his cannon, sending it launching. Pink fired rapid blasts at the yokai, keeping it suspended in the air for a moment.

The Amikiri crashed into the ground, rolling across the ground. As it got up, it was suddenly met face to face with Red, Silver, and Clawbick, each of them slashing at it with their swords. The combined slash caused an explosion on the monster's chest, causing it to stumble back again.

The yokai grunted, and shined its odd blade at them. Red leaped up to slash at the monster again, only for it to swung the blade arm at him. The curved blade caught the fox's own, letting the monster spin him around and fling him into Silver, knocking them both down.

"You guys are worthless." Clawbick scoffed.

The other three ran up as Red and Silver got to their feet. They quickly surrounded the monster, but it spun the chain around again, knocking most of them away. However, it seemed to get stuck on something.

"What the!?" The monster let out, looking over at Clawbick. The chain had gotten wrapped around his sword.

"Oh, I have been wanting to do this for a long while." The lion chuckled. He grabbed onto the chain, and pulled his blade out from the tangle. It started to glow green, before he quickly swiped it down, cutting through the metal.

"My… my hand!" Amikiri yelled out. "How did you…!?"

"That's not the only thing I'm going to cut."

He started to calmly walk towards the monster, the sword still glowing. "What the hell are you doing!?" Red shouted as he got up. "You can't destroy a monster on your own!"

"Try me, Nicky."

He raised the blade, which started to spark with an intense green force, and slashed directly through the monster. Sparks flew from where the sword had struck, and the yokai started to spark and smoke.

"NO!" It shouted. "It wasn't supposed to end like this! I was supposed to get a better cut!"

The monster let out a final scream, before exploding. Blue watched on as the explosion cleared, leaving behind only a red object which fell to the ground. Something seemed to be missing, but she couldn't seem to figure out what…

"Well, that's that dealt with." Clawbick chuckled, thrusting the blade over his shoulder. He quickly turned back to Red. "Ready to finish this?"

"Wait, do you not know what happens next?" Red asked.

"What?"

There was a sudden pulse of energy from the red object. They all turned to it as it flew off into the horizon, reforming into Chaos Amikiri.

"YOU'RE NOT GONNA CUT ME OUT OF THIS THAT EASILY!" The monster roared as it loomed over the horizon.

"Holy shit." The lion let out, looking at the monster. "How are we supposed to deal with something like that?"

Pink placed her paw to her helmet again. "Seriously?" She said to whoever was on the intercom. "The answer is we don't, Clawbick, we let them," She nodded her head towards the Zoorangers. "Take care of the giants."

Clawbick growled, and started off. "Next time, we're going to get you!" He said, almost certainly towards Nick. The other officers followed him back to their vehicle.

"Guess they don't have a giant robot, huh?" Blue said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Man, I've been waiting to go one on one with this guy all day." Red said, stretching out. "Beating up these monsters can be a really good stress reliever."

"Has it really been that stressful for you?" Silver asked.

"This has been the absolute most stressful day of my life, honestly."

In a flash, the mecha had appeared, and then combined into ZooRobo Oh Kami. "Just wait 'til I cut your little robot into pieces!" The Amikiri yelled, snipping its claws. It rushed towards the robot, which quickly brought both of its blades down onto him.

The lobster-like creature flew through the air, and crashed into the dirt. Just as it got up, ZooRobo started to slash through the monster rapidly, barely giving it any room to attack. With a final double sword slash, the yokai stumbled back again.

"Ack, this isn't fair!" The monster yelled. "Master Kyuemon, help meeeee!"

The shadowy figure of Kyuemon appeared in the sky. "Hmm…" It seemed to be in thought, leaving the robot and monster to wait in anticipation. "No, I'd rather not help you. Bye." With that, the shadowy cloud disappeared, leaving the monster stunned.

"What!?"

"Looks like your boss abandoned you!" Silver shouted from the robot. "That's pretty unlucky!"

"It's time to cut you out of the picture, lobster hands!" Red taunted.

"They're scissors, not lobsters!" The monster shouted back. "Have you never seen a lobster before, I mean-"

"Oh, just shut up!" Blue yelled, slashing at the monster again.

"SOLAR ECLIPSE DESTROYER!"

The mecha raised its swords above its head, and then slashed down, firing off two energy slashes. They flew forward, slicing through the monster's body.

"LOOKS LIKE ITS BACK TO THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR!" The monster shouted as it fell over and exploded.

ZooRobo turned around and posed as the explosion erupted behind it.

"Zootastic!" Red yelled. "Haven't gotten to use that one in a while!"

* * *

"That was a day, huh?" Nick said as the three walked back down the stairs to the spare room.

"Yeah, a really painful day." Max replied.

Nick and Max settled in, the fox going to lay down on a cushion, and the wolf quickly fell onto a nearby chair. Judy, however, started pacing around the room.

"You're pacing." Nick said to the rabbit. "That means something's up, right?"

"I've just been thinking." She replied, still pacing around the room.

"Obviously." Max said with a chuckle. "You've been quiet ever since we beat that monster. What have you been thinking about?"

"I think we might have more problems than we thought."

The two suddenly became a lot more alert, listening as the rabbit continued to talk.

"When Clawbick destroyed that monster, there was something… wrong." She said. "Did you guys notice anything weird?"

"Not really." Nick said. "Aside from him destroying the monster in one hit."

"Now that you mention it, there was something… missing, wasn't there?" Max followed.

"Exactly. Whenever we destroyed a monster the first time, an object would fly out of it, right?" She continued. "A chainsaw, a magnet, sometimes even a mammal."

"And?"

"There wasn't one." Judy said. "Nothing flew out of the monster when Clawbick killed it."

"Maybe it wasn't made from anything?" Nick guessed.

"I doubt that." The rabbit said. "I doubt they'd find a way to make monsters without objects in less than a week."

"So, what exactly are you suggesting?"

"I think that, when a monster is destroyed by an SPD weapon…" Judy paused for a moment. "Whatever created it is destroyed too."

"Doesn't seem like that big a deal." Max said. "They're just objects."

"Except sometimes they aren't." Judy continued. "Sometimes they're living creatures. What would happen if the SPD destroyed a monster that was made from a mammal?"

"The mammal would die along with it." Nick answered, realizing what she was getting at. Judy nodded.

"We can't let them destroy any more monsters." Judy said. "Just in case one of them has an innocent trapped inside."

"Sounds like a plan." Nick said. "A dumb plan, but a plan nonetheless."

"Why do you think that happens?" Max asked. "Got any theories on that?"

"Why would I?" She said. "I'm not an expert in their tech. We'd have to ask whoever this 'Doc' is that they keep talking about. And speaking of…"

She reached into her pocket, and pulled out an object. "Look at what he gave them."

It was a Cell Medal.

"Oh my god." Nick said, exasperated. "More of those medals? That explains why they're so powerful."

Judy nodded. "And I think I solved another mystery." She continued, a smirk on her face. "When was the last time we saw a Cell Medal, let alone a whole bunch of them?"

"When Long stole a bunch of them from that hand guy." Max said. His ears perked up. "You don't mean…"

"Long helped create the SPD?" Nick said, bewildered. "Why would he help make a group that destroys monsters?"

"A cover for them trying to kill us." Judy explained. "That's why he framed us, to make it less noticeable, and why he picked criminals from Nick's past!"

"He's just trying to mess with us, huh?" Nick said, crossing his arms.

"We can't give in." Judy continued. "If we do, mammals will be hurt, we can't let Clawbick and Long do what they please."

The other two nodded. Judy let out a massive sigh. "But right now, I am pooped. I'm going to go take a nap."

"Same." The other two replied.

* * *

He refused to believe what had happened.

He knew Wilde and Hopps, they would never do something like that. But the evidence seemed to point towards them, as well as Wolford for some reason. He hadn't even realized Wolford was working with them.

The buffalo placed a hoof to his head in frustration as he went over the files for the thirtieth time. It just didn't make any sense.

Clawhauser suddenly rang in. "Chief, you have some guests!"

"Tell them I'm busy." Bogo replied.

"Chief, it's the mayor."

The buffalo sighed. "Let him in."

A moment later, the lion walked into the room, followed by a goat. "Hello there, Chief Bogo." The goat said. "I suppose you know me?"

"No, I don't."

"This is the chief of security." Lionheart said. "Mr. Herbert."

"Herder." The goat corrected. "I created the Special Police Department."

Bogo's eyes widened. He let out a large snort, and glared directly at the goat. "You're the one who made those ridiculous things?"

"Indeed I am." Herder said. "And the mayor and I have come here to discuss something with you."

"From now on, the SPD will be directly working with the ZPD." Lionheart explained.

"What makes you think I'd ever let that happen?" Bogo asked.

Lionheart chuckled. "Because I'm the mayor, and if you don't, I'll have you fired on the spot."

Bogo grunted.

"There's no need to worry." Herder assured. "It will only be for one day a week. Or more if the monster isn't killed."

The buffalo still remained silent.

"So, are you going to accept?" Lionheart asked, placing a paw down on the desk,

"You're not exactly giving me any options." Bogo replied.

"Great, we'll start integrating them in as soon as possible." Herder said, interrupting the two. "Now if you excuse me, I have business to attend to."

The goat quickly left leaving the two alone. "This is for the greater good, Bogo." Lionheart said. "We need to protect the city, and they're the best chances we've got."

"We already have heroes." Bogo said.

"No, we don't." Lionheart replied. "I don't know why you're denying this."

The lion quietly left, leaving Bogo alone in his office. He started to look over the files again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone can tell me how i got 100 hits in 4 days id appreciate it kthnks


	29. Bad Moon Rising

September 3rd, 2019

"Leave me alone!"

The female wolf backed away into the alley as the shady-looking caribou in shabby clothing stomped towards her, knife in hoof.

"Oh, I'll leave ya alone," He started with a laugh. "If you give me your purse."

"I don't have any money, please!" She yelled.

"Liar."

She hit the back of the alley, the caribou and his knife only inches away from her. He raised the knife, and prepared to bring it down. Then, there was a sudden noise behind him, a thump.

The caribou turned around, and glanced at a figure that had appeared behind him. It was small, but not incredibly small. Maybe around a few feet in height. It was covered in a black cloak, any parts the cloak hadn't covered up shrouded in darkness.

"Who the hell are you?" The caribou asked, a bit surprised by the sudden appearance of the mammal.

"Your worst nightmare." It said, in a surprisingly low, threatening voice.

The caribou stared at it for a moment, confused.

"I am the one who cleans up the scum like you from the streets." It continued, stepping forward. "Prepare to be snuffed out."

The caribou started to laugh. "Oh, I'm so scared." He said. "Whatcha gonna do to me, small fry?"

Without a word, the cloaked mammal leaped up, and knocked the knife out of the caribou's hoof. The force of the kick caused the knife to fly into the side of a building, embedding itself in the brick.

The mugger let out a scream, and clutched at his hoof. The kick had also caused it break, all of his digits shattering.

"What the hell are you!?" He shouted.

"Like I said, your worst nightmare." It approached the crouching caribou, silver eyes suddenly shining from under its hood. "Goodnight."

Before the caribou could respond, the cloaked mammal leaped up, and slammed itself down on the mugger's head, knocking him out.

The wolf was out of breath, absolutely stunned by what she had seen. "You can go now ma'am." The figure said. "I need to take this criminal to the ZPD."

She started to walk off, but turned around before she could exit the alley. Before the figure disappeared, she asked it a question.

"Who are you?"

"My name…" The mammal paused for a moment. "Is Shadow Moon."

"Well… thank you, Shadow Moon." She said. "You saved my life."

"That's what being a hero is about."

* * *

September 9th, 2019

"Ugggh, I'm sooooo boooored…"

The Org leaned back in his chair, before leaning forward and bringing it back to the ground. Everyone was angry at the creation of those SPD losers, and the fact that Long had helped create them. Yabaiba didn't really care either way, its not like he couldn't take them.

Well, he probably couldn't but whatever.

There just wasn't any fun going around, it was all in-fighting and yelling at each other. There wasn't really anything to do.

He planted the side of his face onto the table, and glanced over to the massive cylinder in the room. It was a Monday, so, maybe he could…

He sat back up, and shuffled over to the cylinder, slowly. "Hey, boss?" He asked, quietly. No response. "Think I can go out and do something today?" Still no response. "Well, I'll take your incredible apathy towards me as a yes."

The Org clapped his hands and skipped off towards the exit. He paused for a moment. "Wait, I don't actually know what to do…" He glanced over at the hanging cage. "Oh, I know!"

He walked over to the cage, and clapped his hands again, startling the sheep inside. She let out a yelp, and hopped into the air. "Why are you the only one here who talks to me!?" She yelled at the jester.

"Because I'm not as smart as the others, duh." Yabaiba explained. He quickly gripped onto the cage's bars, shaking it a bit. "So, give me an idea for some trouble I can cause."

"Uh, well…" Bellwether thought for a moment. "Why don't you, I dunno, rob some mammals?"

"Rob people?" Yabaiba said, confused. "We don't need money."

"Well, you asked how to cause trouble." She replied.

Yabaiba thought for a second. He didn't have any other ideas. "Alright then, where should I steal from?"

"Well, it's almost the end of summer, which means that a lot of mammals from out of the city are in their summer homes." She explained. "Tundra Town's the main place, that's its main source of income. See, if you steal from them before they go, then they won't be able to recover any of their money!"

"Oh, that's devious!" Yabaiba complimented. "Didn't think you could come up with a scheme like that."

"I was a politician, of course I think dirty." She said. The sheep then quickly clutched at the bars. "Now, you have to get me some food."

"I'll get you some grass after I get back, ciao!" He gave a quick wave, and dashed off through the exit.

Bellwether let out a yell of frustration, and slammed her head into the bars.

* * *

It was early morning for the framed heroes, each of them had gotten their basic Buggaburger takeout that had been thrown down to them every day. Max was eating his burger it at a small desk, while a rather bleary eyed Judy was eating it as she went through some notes on her notepad.

Nick, however, was eating it on his cushion. He scrolled through the news on his phone as he scarfed down a bugburger. "You hear about this vigilante running around?" He asked, turning to Max and Judy.

"Yeah that something moon guy, right?" Max responded, putting down his burger. "I read about him… yesterday, I think. Apparently, he's been fighting crime for the last week, just became notable recently."

"Who do you think it is?" Nick asked. "Maybe its Bruce Wyng."

"He's a comic book character, Nick." Max said.

"Joke, man. It's a joke." Nick said, a bit disappointed. He looked back at his phone. "What about you, Carrots? Got any ideas?"

There was no response from her, but instead a low hum. They both glanced over at Judy. She was asleep, burger and notepad still in her paws. "Not again." The fox sighed. Nick slid his phone into his pocket as he got up and walked over to the rabbit.

He shook her, but she was still asleep. The fox backed up, and cleared his throat.

"WAKE UP!"

The rabbit leaped up into the air, startled by the fox's yell. The burger and notepad fell to the ground, while Judy fell back into her chair.

She groaned, and clutched at her head. "What's going on, Fluff?" Nick asked, placing a paw on her shoulder.

"I dunno, I've just…" She nudged the fox's paw off of her. "Been really tired recently."

"That's not really normal." Nick said. "Me and Max being tired max sense, we're both nocturnal."

"I also have an awful sleeping pattern." Max added.

"That too. But you're… well… you." Nick said. "You're the most straight laced, routine focused mammal I know."

"I know!" She yelled, frustrated. "I've been going to bed at the same time every night, but I keep waking up tired!"

"Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep?" Max asked.

"Yes! I go to bed at ten, and I wake up at six." She explained. "That's eight hours of sleep, it's what I've been running off of for years!" She pulled her ears over her face and groaned.

Nick started to message her neck. "Relax, relax." He said, trying to get the rabbit to calm down.

She took a deep breath, and sighed. "Thanks, Nick."

"Might be stress." He suggested as he removed his paws. "We've been through a lot recently, it could be affecting your sleep."

"Possible."

"You guys see how many people this vigilante guy got arrested?" Max asked, scrolling through his phone.

"Vigilante?" Judy said, a bit confused.

"We were just talking about him." Nick said. "We wanted to know if you had any idea who it might be."

"I didn't even know about this guy." Judy said, shrugging. "I'd say we should arrest him, but…" She quickly changed her thought. "How many crooks has he put away."

"About…" Max paused for a moment. "Fifty?"

"Fifty? In a week?" Nick said, shocked. "Guy must really be into the crime fighting schtick."

"I don't even think we saw that kind of activity in a week." Judy said.

"Guess people are using the monster panic stuff to their advantage." Max suggested. "Terrible mammals love to take advantages of crisis. At least, that's what comic books tell me."

"Comic books are nothing like real life." Judy said with a huff.

"You gotta admit, with all the weird things going on," Nick started with a shrug. "They aren't the worst reference point."

The room fell silent for a moment, as Max scrolled through his phone some more. "Uh oh…" He eventually let out.

"That's not a good sign." Nick said.

"So, you know those psychos that tried to kill us last week?" Max asked, turning to them. They both nodded. "Well, they just announced that they're officially partnering up with the ZPD."

"There's no way Bogo would allow that!" Judy said. "He'd know they're criminals, he wouldn't let them anywhere in the station!"

"He's probably being forced to." Nick said. "They were endorsed by the mayor after all." She cringed at the situation.

"Apparently, they're just going to help in monster related cases." Max continued, reading from an article. "Which, you know, makes it perfect for them to try and kill us."

"And that means we're going to be running into them in a matter of hours." Nick said.

Suddenly, a loud buzz came from their Zoolizers.

"Or, minutes." Nick continued. "Not that big a difference."

Judy sighed, and smacked at her face a few times. "Alright, let's get going."

The three headed up the stairs, the rabbit trailing behind a bit. This was the first time Nick had seen her so tired and slow, so he decided to keep pace with her as they headed down the hall.

"So, got any idea of who this vigilante is?" He asked, trying to spark a conversation.

"I dunno, Bruce Wyng?"

* * *

"Why are we up here?" Red asked.

They were standing on top of a large house, looking down on a house of equal size. There didn't seem to be anything unusual about it, and there was very clearly not an evil monster causing any trouble.

"We're surveying the area." Blue said. "We're wanted we can't just run around in broad daylight, we're doing this so we don't get seen."

"Oh yeah, no one's going to see the guys dressed in neon red, blue, and silver."

"Shut it."

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Silver asked. "I mean, I know its telepathic, but there's not really anything happening."

"Yeah, that's weird." Blue said. "The Zoolizers haven't been wrong, so something must have happened here, right?"

The Zooranger's ears started to twitch as sirens began to sound through the air. They scrambled over the roof, hiding behind one of its slants. They peeked around as a police cruiser drove up to the building. Two officer stepped out of the car, Grizzoli and Delgato.

"Oh no, Rich?" Silver started, a bit upset. His ears drooped. "They already assigned him to a new partner…"

They watched as the officers knocked on the door. It opened, but the angle meant that they couldn't see who it was. As the owner spoke, they could tell it was female, at least.

"You called and said there was a robbery here?" Grizzoli asked. "Do you have any details?"

"I didn't see who it was." The owner said. "All I saw was a… a tentacle or something, stretch out from under my door! It moved around the room, and started knocking things over, and it… it stole my wallet, and a lot of other valuables!"

"You hear that?" Blue whispered.

"Yeah, tentacles." Red responded. "Definitely not a normal robbery."

"We'll look around and see if we can find anything." Delgato said. "Can we come in?"

The three waited until they heard a door close. "Think we should do some investigating?" Red asked. "Probably has something to do with the monster, after all."

"But there's officers, what if-"

"We can take them!"

"That's… that's not what I meant, Nick." Blue finished. "The ZPD are working with Clawbick's gang, remember?"

"Right, they could just dial them up." Red said, crossing his arms. "We'll play it safe. You go, Carrots?"

"Seriously?"

"You're the smallest, and you have the best hearing." Red explained. "If anyone's bound to get any info, it's you."

"Fine." She groaned. She quickly hopped down from the building, landing in the snow with a thud.

Red looked over at Silver, who was being rather quiet. He was huddled up a bit, seeming to be lost in thought. "Hey, Wolfsbane," Red started. "You alright?" No response. Red quickly snapped his claws.

The wolf was shocked out of his thought. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm… I'm fine." He said, though his tone and body language did not suggest that.

Blue ducked down, and snuck over to the side of the building. She hopped up and grabbed onto one of the windowsills, bending her ears down to make herself less conspicuous. She looked into the living room, the officers and the house's occupant looking around as well.

The owner of the building was a lioness, and she seemed to be somewhat wealthy judging by her fancy dress. The house looked like it was also fairly ornate, but that was before the attack. Furniture was smashed to pieces, after it looked like they had been ransacked. The drawers of a shelf on the other side of the living room had been ripped out, while the shelf itself had been snapped at its midsection.

There were massive, thin dents in the carpet, like something metal had been dragged across it. The two officers looked around, before Grizzoli started to turn towards the window. Blue dropped down, before he could see her.

She heard the window open, and remained absolutely quiet. "Huh, thought I heard…" He paused for a moment. "Miss, who are your neighbours?"

"They left a while ago." The lioness said. "Why do you ask?"

"There's a trail of footprints heading to your house."

Blue smacked her face as she looked over at the footprints. In a few seconds, they would be out there and see her. She took a deep breath, before rearing up. She leaped out on all fours, and used the momentum to leap all the way back to the top of the house next door.

"Alright, we have a problem." She said.

"You got spotted, huh?" Red said. "No wonder you're a police officer, you'd never be a good criminal."

"Now isn't the time, Red." Blue said.

"Relax, we can stay hidden back here, watch." The fox said, before motioning for the three to shuffle farther along the side of the roof.

They could still see the side of the house, but only barely. Grizzoli and Delgato came running out, and began to inspect the footprint.

"What mammal do you think it is?" Grizzoli asked.

"Obviously it's a rhino." Delgato responded, a bit sarcastically. There was no response from the bear. "It's… it's pretty clearly a rabbit's." He followed, nervously.

"See, can't see us." Red said. "So, you get any info?"

"Yeah, it's basically what they said." Blue answered. "It's a robbery, but its definitely being caused by a monster. A strong one at that."

"Why would a monster be robbing people?" Silver asked. "It's like, I dunno, a robot stealing food, they just don't need it!"

"There's probably something else going on, then." Blue guessed. "Maybe it's-"

Their Zoolizers started to beep and buzz, causing confusion from the officers on the ground. They quickly ran to the back of the house, and spotted the three on the roof. Delgato looked up, disappointment coming across him.

"I knew you three had something to do with this!" Grizzoli yelled.

"We didn't do anything, Bearclaw!" Red shouted down. "We're trying to figure out what's going on just as much as you are!"

"You expect me to buy that!?"

"We have more important things to deal with!" Blue shouted. "Monster alert, we need to get their before anything happens!"

"Right." Red said with a nod. "See you two at work!" He gave a quick wave to the officers, and the two dashed off.

Silver followed behind them, and quickly glanced back, looking at his former partner. The tiger shook his head, upset, before he and the bear headed off. Silver turned back, and kept following his teammates.

* * *

This was the one hundredth time Bogo had gone over the notes for the Zoo Ranger case, and he still couldn't believe it. It seemed like madness that three of his officers had gone rogue, but all evidence pointed towards it.

Wolford was always a rather nice mammal, even when he had messed up. Wilde could be a bit arrogant and hotheaded most of the time, but he still followed orders usually, and worked well with Hopps. Hopps herself was a model officer, that's why he was going to-

Bogo's train of thought had been interrupted by the door slamming open. Clawhauser ran in as fast as he could. "Chief, we've got a major, serious problem!"

"That's what you said when Fangmeyer forgot to bring in donuts." Bogo said.

"This is almost as bad as that!" The cheetah continued. Bogo rolled his eyes and snorted. "We've gotten a ton of reports in the last few hours of robberies at the summer district of Tundra Town."

"How many is 'a ton', Clawhauser?" Bogo asked. He was assuming that it was a bit of an overexaggeration, something Benjamin did every now and again.

"Let's see…" He started to count on his paws. "Probably about fifteen in the last two hours."

Bogo's eyes widened. That was a remarkable amount of robberies in such a short amount of time. "What are the details?" He asked.

"Every report's the same, tentacles coming into the house, stealing objects, and then breaking everything!" Clawhauser explained.

"Any suspects?" Bogo asked. He glanced down at a device on his desk. He was given it a while ago. A simple remote with a large, red button on it. It had a small speaker, and was marked with the SPD logo. His hoof started to hover over it.

"Well, we don't have any real proof so far, but…" The cheetah paused, visibly becoming upset. "Grizzoli said he saw the Zoo Rangers just after the attacks."

The buffalo let out a snort. "Alright, I'll get someone on it." He said. Clawhauser quickly left.

Bogo sighed, and pressed the button. "Hello?" Said a nervous voice from the speaker.

"Is this Doctor Leopold?" Bogo asked.

"O-oh, Chief Bogo!" Leopold said. "Yes, it is. You have a monster case for the team?"

"That or a case relating to the Zoo Rangers." He said. "I'm hoping it's one of those monsters. It's around the summer house district of Tundra Town."

"Right, I'll send them out right away." Leopold said. "Oh, before you go, Chief."

"What?"

"I was really surprised that Herder got you to do this." Leopold said. "It's a big help, anyway."

"I'm only doing this for the protection of the city." Bogo said, sternly. "Not to help those criminals you call officers."

"Oh. Uh…"

"Good bye."

Bogo lifted his digit from the button, and quickly slammed his fist on his desk. He wasn't just doing this to protect the city. He was doing this because he had no choice.

* * *

"Ugh, this is the what, twentieth time!?"

Red paced back and forth on the roof. They had been running across the summer district for hours, chasing a signal that, invariably, led to nothing. One ruined house after the other, the ZPD always behind them. After the first case, more cruisers had shown up.

After they had arrived, a similar scene would play out, ending with them getting spotted. It was like some kind of time loop, no one was getting any new info. It was nightmarish.

"I'm sure we'll hit something soon enough." Silver said. He turned to the rabbit, who was sitting on one of the roof panels. "Right, Blue?" No response. "…Blue?"

"Oh come, right now!?" Red shouted. He slid down a bit from the top of the roof, and tapped her on her head, waking her.

"Oh no, did I fall asleep again?" She groaned. "I'm really sorry, guys."

Red sighed. "It's fine, we've been running around a lot, we're all tired."

Silver perked up for a moment. He ran up the roof, and looked around. "Hey get down!" Blue whisper yelled. "The cops are going to see you!"

"There aren't any!" He said.

Blue and Red looked at each other, and then ran up to Silver's side, looking down at the streets. For the past few houses, a number of cruisers had been trailing them, but now, there was nothing.

"Think they gave up?" Red asked.

"Maybe?" Blue said, shrugging. "They were at as much of a dead end as we were."

"Hey, I have an idea!" Silver started. "If the ZPD aren't here, maybe we can check the house ourselves!"

"Don't think whatever rich mammal lives there will be happy if a bunch of criminals broke into her house." Red said.

"Well, them not being here at least gives us some room to move around." Blue followed. "We can at least look through the windows, maybe we'll get something better this time."

The three hopped down into the front yard of the house. As soon as they hit the ground, something came driving down the street.

"Oh, come on."

The ZPD's massive armored vehicle drove down the icy street, coming to a screeching halt directly in front of them. The doors and cockpit swung open, the three officers hopping out as well.

"Hey hey, looks like the chief nit was right." Clawbick said, stepping towards them. "Didn't realize you got into the robbery biz, Nicky."

"We aren't, Clawbick." Red said, trying to restrain himself. "We're trying to figure out who's doing this."

"We're on the same side." Silver started. "Why don't we work together again?"

"Sorry, hombre, chief doesn't want us collaborate with you anymore." Pink said, drawing her pistols. "Nothing against you guys though, just business."

"Oh, I have something against one of them…" Clawbick growled, stepping towards Red. The fox backed through the snow as the lion closed in. "Ready to finish this for real, Nicky?"

Before Red could say anything, Blue spoke up. "You're a coward."

Clawbick laughed, and turned to the rabbit. "'Scuse me?"

"You're only after him because you know he's scared of you." Blue said, stepping forward. "Why don't you take on someone who isn't afraid of you?"

"Rabbit, you just made a huge mistake." The lion said. He swung his sword down, into the snow, it seemingly instantly melting under the blade. "You two, take care of that wolf and Nicky. His girlfriend wants to take me on."

"Got it, 'boss'." Officer Green said, Clawbick not catching the sarcasm.

The lion let out a growl, and rushed at the rabbit, bringing his blade down on her, Blue quickly brought out her daggers, blocking the strike. She struggled for a bit as Clawbick pushed down on her, but she pushed back, knocking the blade back.

Blue leaped up into the air, and kicked him in the face. Clawbick flew through the air, and rolled through the snow as he passed between two of the buildings. Blue quickly ran after him, the two starting to fight in the crossroads of four of the houses.

Red and Silver locked eyes with the two other SPD officers.

"Think you can take the bull?" Silver asked Red.

"What? Why?"

"Because he keeps kicking my ass and I'd like that to not happen."

Red shook his head. "Fine."

The fox quickly pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it at the bull. The surprising speed of the attack shocked him, and knocked Green onto his back. Silver quickly dashed at the hyena, and slashed at her with his sword, which she blocked with one of her pistols.

Red quickly pulled out his sword as well, and waited for Green to rise. He leaped into the air, and brought the blade down, only for the officer to block it with his cannon. He pushed back, sending the fox flying back into the snow.

The bull stomped over, leaving deep imprints in the white ground. "You know you can't take me, Nick." He said.

"Yeah, but I can try." Red followed.

"You'd have more luck with Clawbick." Officer Green continued. "Trust me."

"Well, the rabbit over there is our leader, what she says goes." Red replied. "Besides, she's probably the best of us."

"You think pretty highly of your girlfriend." Henry said with an almost kindhearted chuckle. He aimed his cannon at the fox. He fired, but Red dodged out of the way. The blast hit the snow, instantly vaporizing a large chunk of it and revealing the grass underneath.

Red dashed forward, and struck at the bull with his blade. Green stumbled back as the fox landed back on the ground. "She means more to me that you think."

Silver continued to try and attack Pink, but it was turning up rather fruitless. She would either effortlessly block or just dodge out of the way of each strike, usually retaliating with a quick smack from one of her pistols. It was starting to hurt.

"You know you're using that thing completely wrong, right?" She said as he missed another swipe.

"What?" Silver said, surprised. "It's a sword, how can you use a sword wrong?"

"That's a rapier, bud." She said. "You don't swing those things around wildly."

He glanced at his sword. The hyena was right, rapiers are meant to be precise. He was just waving it around like an idiot. He learned how to use it in his training, how had he just forgotten about all of this?

No, the wolf knew exactly why.

Silver quickly turned back to Pink, and jabbed his rapier forward. She had barely managed to dodge the blow, but the wolf pulled it back in an instant and delivered a second jab to her stomach. She stumbled back, and started to laugh.

"There you go!" She said. "That's how you do it! Come on, hit me as hard as you can!"

The rabbit and the lion locked their eyes. They began to circle around, Blue with her daggers drawn, and Clawbick with his eerily glowing blade. They dashed at each other, Blue leaping into the air. Their blades clashed, the force knocking them both back.

As Blue hit the ground, she pulled out her blasters, and started to fire at the criminal. Clawbick spun his sword around, knocking the blasts away and into the nearby buildings. "Hey, that's property damage!" Blue yelled.

"Why do you keep thinking I care about shit like that!?" Clawbick yelled. He swung his blade forward, shooting off a beam of green energy. She leaped over it as it carved into the ground, and hit the ground running. She hopped into a slide, slashing at the sides of the lion's legs as she went under them.

"God damn stupid rabbit!" He yelled. The lion quickly spun around, shooting another beam of energy at her. Blue braced herself as she slid directly into it, launching her into the air.

She twisted around in the air, and used her momentum to deliver another kick to Clawbick. The lion caught her foot in his armored paw, and slammed her back into the ground, leaving a rabbit shaped mark in the snow. "You know how stupid you are?" He growled, kicking her away. "You think you can beat me!?"

She was starting to feel fatigue. Lack of sleep and running around, when combined with physical fighting, weren't good for her. But she had to keep going. She crawled to her feet, and stood strong.

"It's my job to make the world a better place!" She yelled. "And I'm going to beat you, no matter what!"

"Big words for a little animal."

Red leaped into the air, and slashed at Green with his claws. He rapidly slashed at the bull, but he couldn't seem to pierce his armor. The officer smacked him down with his free hoof, and then kneed the fox in the stomach, before swatting him away again.

"Yep, definitely as tough as you were last time we sparred." Red laughed as he got up, obviously in a lot of pain. "Guess you've been working out?"

"Elkatraz has good gyms, what can I say?" The bull quickly fired his cannon at the fox. Red had no time to react, and was launched back into the side of a house, leaving a large dent.

"You know, even if you get me," Red weakly let out. "You're definitely going to need to help out your partner."

"What?"

He quickly turned to look at Silver and Pink, fighting in the middle of the street. Silver was rapidly jabbing his rapier forward in a very angry, but precise, manner. Pink was managing to block and dodge most of them, but the wolf's speed didn't leave many openings. In the few seconds that Henry had watched, and both had managed to strike several blows at each other.

"Em, watch out!" The bull yelled, before he fired his cannon.

The hyena caught notice, and quickly stepped back as the blast hit Silver, knocking him across the street. Without hesitation, he got back to his feet, and glanced at the hyena.

"Alright, lobo, playtime's over." She said, firing her pistols at him. The shots hit the wolf, causing sparks to shoot off as he was knocked back.

Silver attempting to shrug it off, though still obviously in a lot of pain. He started to run forward, placing his paw on the guard of his rapier, and spinning it around.

"HOT SHINE ECLIPSE"

Time froze for a moment, and the wolf began to rapidly jab his blade into the hyena. He did this as many times as he possibly could, though none of the strikes seemed to actually break through her armor. Time started back up.

"The heck was-" Before Emily could finish speaking, a series of small explosions erupted from her body. Smoke started to cloud around her as she yelled in pain. The smoke cleared, and she fell to the ground, out of breath. "Looks like you do know how to use that thing."

Back with Blue, her and Clawbick were still fighting, though the rabbit's fatigue was starting to become more and more obvious. "I thought rabbits had a lot of stamina." Clawbick said, stepping towards the her. "Looks like you've spent it all."

Blue stumbled back a bit, out of breath. She felt like she was about to pass out again. Clawbick quickly kicked her, knocking her to the ground. He raised his blade up, preparing to strike.

"STOP!" Red yelled, trying to rush over to help Blue. Silver spotted the commotion as well, and started to run over too.

"Prepare to watch your girlfriend be killed, Nicky!" Clawbick shouted at him. He swung the blade down, directly between the rabbit's ears.

"NO!"

There was a dull clunk as the blade anticlimactically smacked her on the top of her head. "What!?" Clawbick yelled. "But it should've…"

Clawbick, distracted by what had happened, couldn't react as both Red and Silver attacked him at the same time. Red delivered a scratching slash to his face, while Silver sliced at his side. The lion was flung back into the wall of a house.

"Alright, we're getting out of here!" Red shouted. "See you guys later!"

"I'll handle the sleepy bunny." Silver said, before picking Blue up and hoisting her over his shoulder. The two then leaped off into the horizon, leaving the three officers behind.

"Clawbick, get up." Green said sternly. The lion slowly got to his feet, and stumbled off towards the vehicle.

"I don't get it. It should have worked." He mumbled to himself.

"What's wrong with him?" Pink asked.

"What isn't?"

* * *

"I thought I was the tired one." Judy chuckled. Her and Nick looked at Max, who was curled up on his cushion.

"I think I got too worked up back there." He mumbled. "I'm just going to rest for a bit…" With that, the wolf had passed out.

There was silence for a moment, as Judy began to pace back and forth. "You trying to figure something out, Fluff?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, why the monster is robbing rich people." Judy said.

"Because they deserve it?"

The rabbit glared at him. "Well, they do." He responded. She shook her head at the fox.

"Like Silver said, the monsters don't really have a reason for getting any money." Judy continued. "Usually they just destroy things and make trouble. There's got to be something more to this."

"Or, they could just be robbing mammals for fun." Nick suggested. "Robbery is still causing trouble, after all."

"Maybe I am just overthinking it." She sighed. "My brain tends to get more active when I'm tired."

"Well, if you want to not be tired, you need to keep to your routine." Nick said. "Got anything you want to do for the next ten hours?"

"Ooh, we can reorganize the room!" She said, cheerfully.

Nick groaned. "We've done that, what, six times by now?"

"Eight times." She corrected.

"That makes it so much better." He said, sarcastically.

"Hey, look on the bright side!" She said, walking over and punching him in the side. "By the end of this, you'll probably be as tired as me!"

"Oh, wonderful."

* * *

The antelope walked into his bedroom, dressed in his pajamas. He had been at his summer home for a few months, with this being his last night. He had also heard of the odd robberies recently, of which his house was one of the few that hadn't been hit.

Hopefully it wouldn't happen tonight, he had places to be after all.

He went over to the window by his bed, and opened it up. He always enjoyed a nice, cold breeze while he slept. He climbed into his bed, wrapped in blankets.

There was a quick thump in his room, snapping his eyes open. Footsteps followed. The antelope threw his blankets off, and practically jumped out of bed.

"Who the hell are you!?" He shouted, looking down at a small, robed figure.

"Shadow Moon." It said, in a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm here to protect you."

"I wouldn't call breaking into my house protecting me!" The antelope yelled.

"You're the one who left your window open."

Before the antelope could respond, the small vigilante raised an arm, clad entirely in black cloth. "Did you hear that?" Shadow Moon asked.

"What?"

"Of course you don't."

The figure dashed through the bedroom door, and down the stairs. The antelope quickly followed him down into the living room. Writhing on the ground was some kind of tentacle, silver in color and covered in sharp barbs. It unnaturally bent upwards, and moved towards the couch in the room.

"What is that!?" The antelope yelled.

"A robber." Shadow Moon answered. "One I intend to stop."

He leaped forwards, pulling out a knife, jabbing it into the top of the tentacle. The vigilante held on tight as the tentacle started to writhe around in pain. The tentacle quickly pulled back, smashing through the door and dragging Shadow Moon along with him.

The antelope could only stand and watch. After letting out a long sigh, he went back upstairs to bed.

* * *

A loud noise buzzed through the dark room, causing the mammals within to wake up abruptly.

Nick leaped off of the cushion in surprise, while Max scrambled onto the floor on all fours before getting up. "Really, this late at night?" The fox said, a bit angry.

"Well, robberies usually do happen at night." Max said.

"Well, yeah, but…" He let out a grunt. "I don't have a retort to that." He quickly turned to Judy's cushion. "Alright, Carrots, I know you've been tired but it's time to-"

She wasn't there.

"Fluff?" He said, looking around the room. "JUDY!?"

"Relax, relax!" Max said. "She seemed pretty frustrated by all of this, so she might have gone ahead to scope things out."

"She could have at least told us…" The fox mumbled. He let out a sigh. "Alright, let's go… fight that monster."

Max nodded, and the two quickly ran up the stairs.

* * *

"Ha ha, look at all the loot we've gotten!" Yabaiba shouted, holding up a very fancy glass cup. "Bet this will go for a lot on the black market!"

The Duke Org had set up a base in an empty warehouse in Tundra Town. Over the past day, they had robbed tons of items from the rich fannies in the summer district. He let out another laugh, and placed the cup back down.

"EEEYOUCH!"

The yell rang through the empty warehouse, the Duke Org was distracted from his massive pile of valuable objects for a moment.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Yabaiba asked his latest monster.

Wire Org, a large grey humanoid covered in barbed wire. The Org's head was a large lump with a glowing red eye planted in it, though it was shrouded by the barbed wire. Two horns, also covered in barbed wire, also protruded from the lump. A length of barbed wire extended from its wrist, and out of a nearby door.

"Somethin' stabbed me!" Wire Org said. "I'm abortin' the attack!"

"What!? It can't be that bad!" Yabaiba said, attempting to hit Wire Org on the shoulder. He recoiled in pain as his hand hit one of the barbs.

The wire continued to pull back into Wire Org's wrist. In a few seconds, the wire's end appeared through the door, along with a creature.

The creature pulled a knife out of the wire, and flew through the air. It zipped past the wire monster, slashing through it. Wire Org yelled out, and stumbled back.

"What the heck!?" Yabaiba yelled, looking back at the thing. "Who the hell are you!?"

"I am the light in the darkness that paves the way for justice." It said. "I am Shadow Moon."

The barbed wire monster stumbled back around. "What are you, a super hero?" Wire Org asked.

"What do you think?"

"Great, we have ANOTHER problem to deal with!" Yabaiba said, crossing his arms. "How did you even find us?"

"I traced the area you have been attacking, measured out what houses you hadn't robbed, and then figured out which weren't occupied. Then, I narrowed it down to the house with the richest owner. Then I skulked on the roof until an opportunity to go inside came up, and considering how calm the owner was, I guessed that you hadn't attacked."

The two stood there for a moment, baffled at the vigilante's… dedication.

"So, what are you gonna do, turn us in to the cops?" Wire Org mockingly asked.

"No, I'm going to destroy both of you." Shadow Moon replied.

They both started to laugh. "The only people in this world that can do that are the Zoorangers," Yabaiba started. "How do you expect to do that?"

"Like this."

Shadow Moon leaped forward, brandishing two plain, but sharp looking knives. He flew between the two, causing sparks to fire off as he slashed the monsters. They both stumbled back, Yabaiba tumbling into the pile of loot.

Wire Org growled as it steadied itself. "You're gonna pay for that!" It yelled. The monster thrust its arms forward, several tentacles of barbed wire emerging from its back. "Prepare for the barbed wire match of your life!"

The tentacles thrust forward, rapidly jabbing towards the cloaked vigilante. Shadow Moon quickly ducked and weaved through each strike, closing in on the monster. He leaped up as soon as he got up close, and swiped upwards across the Org's body with his knives.

The force of the attack launched the monster off, crashing into a nearby wall. The vigilante stepped towards the Org, until a coin hit her in the head. He glanced over at the pile of stolen goods, Yabaiba standing amongst them.

"Ooh, bet you think you're really strong, huh?" The jester asked, pulling out one of his knives and tossing it up into the air. "You mammals are gonna learn the hard way how not a joke I am!" He caught the knife, and rushed at Shadow Moon.

The vigilante leaped up, and clashed blades with the clown monster, but Yabaiba seemed to have underestimated Shadow Moon's strength. He quickly knocked back both of the Duke Org's arms after a few strikes, and delivered a quick, powerful kick to Yabaiba's face, knocking him back down.

"Augh, I didn't realize normal animals could be that strong!" He cried, before rolling over and getting up. "You're not gonna get your hands on this treasure, though!" The jester said, pointing his knife at the vigilante.

Wire Org quickly got up as well, and plodded over. "It's still two to one, buddy!" He said.

"Hold it!"

The three turned to the entrance. ZooRed and ZooSilver ran in, brandishing their weapons. "Now its three to two!" Red shouted. He glanced around, spotting the cloaked figure. "Or maybe its four to two! If Judy ever decides to show up…"

"She'll be here soon enough." Silver assured. "Let's just focus on getting rid of these monsters."

"I was wondering when you would show up." The vigilante said. "Shame your third couldn't make it."

"Oh, are you that vigilante guy?" Silver asked. The figure didn't respond.

"A lot shorter than I expected." Red said. "Need some help fighting off these monsters?"

"I don't need help from criminals." The vigilante said. He quickly jumped at them, kicking Silver in the face, and then slashing down at Red with his knives.

The two stumbled back, as the monsters looked on, confused. "Wait, is he on our side?" Wire Org asked. Yabaiba shrugged in response.

"You follow those monster attacks everywhere." Shadow Moon started. "So, I thought I could take out four birds with one stone and trap you all here so I can finish you off."

"Great, even the criminals think we're criminals!" Red said in disbelief. He quickly pulled out a ZooTag and plugged it in.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

The weapons appeared on his paws, and he quickly bared them. "You can take this, right?" The fox asked the vigilante. "Because I really don't want to kill you."

"I can take anything you throw at me."

"Silver, try to handle that monster!" Red ordered. The wolf nodded, drew his blade, and the dashed at the wire monster. The fox turned back to the cloaked vigilante.

They dashed at each other, Red slashing the claws down. Shadow Moon deftly stepped out of the way of the swipes and let him pass by. He then kicked the fox in the back, knocking him away. As Red readjusted himself, he noticed something.

It felt like a rabbit's foot.

He quickly turned back, and started to examine the vigilante.

Silver dashed at the monster, striking it with his blade. The monster quickly grabbed it with one of its hands, preventing the strike. Wires started to creep from the monster's hand, and began moving down the sword's blade.

Silver quickly spun the guard of the blade, setting it to Sun Mode. Before the monster could do anything, a fireball shot directly into its face, causing it to let go and stumble back in pain. The wires from its hands still hung in the air aimlessly, letting Silver cut them down with a quick chop

"OUCH!" The monster yelled. "You know those are part of my body, don't you!?"

"Why… why would I care?"

Red quickly slashed at the vigilante with his claws, shooting out several energy blasts towards him. Shadow Moon leaped out of the way of each of them, before performing another leap towards Red and slashing him with the knives.

"Yikes, you really are like The Bat." Red said to himself. "Probably just as crazy, too."

"Crime is a disease that needs to be purged." Shadow Moon retorted in his deep voice.

Red leaped forward again, this time attempting to grab at the vigilante with his claws. He stepped back as the fox whiffed, before being greeted by another kick from a rabbit-like foot. Clearly this approach wasn't working out that well.

Red pulled the ZooTag out (Very carefully, considering his glove's massive blade claws), causing the weapons to disappear. "Alright, let's handle this mammal-a-mammal." He said, pulling out his own sword.

He flung it forward, causing the blade to extend on its wire. The vigilante was surprised, and even more surprised when the wire quickly wrapped around him. Shadow Moon struggled a bit as Red moved in. He reached for the vigilante's hood, but the cloaked mammal kicked him once again, right in his stomach.

The kick made the fox let go of the sword's hilt, causing the blade to retract in an instant. "Oof, that didn't go well." He groaned.

Silver struck at the monster once again, but was quickly knocked back. As he steadied himself, the Duke Org rushed forward with his own daggers, and struck the wolf. He stumbled back, watching as the org approached.

"Hah, you really think you can take on two bad guys at the same time?" Yabaiba mocked. "You're not good enough for that!"

Silver grunted, and prepared to strike.

Unfortunately, someone else showed up.

"This is the police!" Yelled an officer from outside the building. "Whoever is causing that commotion, come out with your paws up!"

"Uh oh." Red let out.

"Looks like I'll have to deal with you crooks later." Shadow Moon said, swooshing his cloak. He leaped up onto a walkway, and then out a window, glass showering down on the fox.

"We're skedaddling too!" Yabaiba let out. "C'mon, Wires!"

The Org thrust its arms forward, causing a mass of wire tentacles to burst from its back. They surrounded the stolen goods, collecting them into a sphere of the wires. Yabaiba gave a quick wave, before hopping into Wire Org's arms. Two more tentacles burst from the monsters back, lifting them through the roof.

"Huh." Red let out, the two Zoorangers now left completely alone in the building.

There was a loud slam, and the two quickly raised their paws up. The police officer, recognizable as Fangmeyer, stepped into the room, taser ready to fire. His ears perked up as he saw the two. "What the heck…?"

"Hey, Fangs!" Red said to the husky, not lowering his paws. "Think you might, uh, be willing to let us go?"

"Yeah, we have monsters to fight." Silver followed. "Kind of, y'know, urgent?"

"Why would I let you two go?" Fangmeyer said, still aiming his taser at them. "You guys are criminals too!"

"Well, guess we'll just have to RUN!" The two instantly burst into a sprint, dashing around the husky.

Fangmeyer quickly followed them out of the building, but they had vanished. "HEY!" He shouted to nobody. "GET BACK HERE!"

* * *

The two quickly clambered down the stairs to the dark and dusty room they had been reluctantly calling home. The fox finished panting, and fell back onto his cushion.

"That was a close one." He said, out of breath.

"I hate to think about what would happen if we actually did end up getting arrested." Max said. "I doubt that Shadow Moon vigilante guy could handle them on his own."

"I'm not sure about that." Nick said.

"What do you mean?"

He glanced over at the fox, who pointed towards the still empty cushion next to him. "Wait, do you think…?" Max asked, getting at what Nick was saying.

"I'm just guessing at this point, but…" He shrugged and sighed. "There's enough evidence pointing towards it. I mean, come on, 'Shadow Moon'? How more obvious could she be?"

"Why's she doing it, though?" Max asked. "I mean, she's already a superhero, why be a second one? Why did she attack us?"

"We'll ask her when she gets back." Nick said, rolling over. "You know, if she gets back."

"Hopefully she will."

* * *

The fox's eyes burst open. He had a good sleep, but could not wait to wake up. It felt like it was the earliest he had gotten up in his life. Probably because he was incredibly nervous. He took a deep breath, and rolled over towards Judy's bed.

Thankfully, she was there, fast asleep. She was snoring, which mostly came out as cute little hums. He sighed in relief, and sat up. Nick quickly glanced over to Max's cushion, he was still asleep as well. What time was it, even?

He picked up his phone, five AM. The fox let out a sigh, way too early for any of them to be up. He was just incredibly worried about what was going on with Judy. Should he just wake her up now and ask, or should he let her sleep for a bit longer? She usually got up in around an hour, anyway.

He quickly gave the rabbit a quick pat on her side, causing her to groan and roll over again. He held up one of her ears, and snapped his claws. The sound of it shocked her awake.

"NICK, I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP!" She yelled, rubbing her eyes. "Why do you keep waking me up like that!?"

"This is important, Judy." He said, sternly, as he got up. "What's going on with you?"

"What?"

"Why are you running around playing vigilante?" He asked, turning to her. "Why did you attack us last night?"

"What are you talking about?"

He ran his paw against his muzzle. "Did you even realize there was a monster alert last night?" He asked.

"There was?" She sounded genuinely confused. "Why didn't either of you wake me up?"

"Because you weren't here!" He yelled.

"You aren't making any sense, Nick!" She retorted. "I was here all night, I can tell you that! You probably just had a bad dream."

The fox let out a very angry groan. "Forget I said anything!" He yelled, before falling back onto his cushion. He glanced over as the rabbit rolled over to face away from him. In a few seconds, he could tell she was asleep.

Now Nick couldn't go to sleep. Either she wasn't the vigilante, or something weird was going on. All things considered, he was pointing towards the latter. He'd keep an eye on her over the rest of the day, but most importantly, when she was sleeping.

* * *

Nothing came up for the rest of the day, but Nick and Max managed to fill Judy in on what was going on… minus the stuff involving Shadow Moon. That would have to wait until later.

Nick had been wondering all day what the deal was with this vigilante alter ego. Everything was pointed towards Judy being Shadow Moon, but… something was off. It wasn't like her, and she seemed to have no idea about what happened. Not even a slight amount of nervousness when questioned. She wasn't good at lying, so something had to be up. It was starting to get late, and time to get his plan started.

"So, figured anything out yet, Fluff?" Nick asked. Judy had spent the whole day trying to figure out where the monsters could have gone, but it didn't seem like she was coming up with anything. She had been looking at a map of the city, trying to pinpoint possible locations, for easily twelve hours. Max was already asleep.

"There's two possibilities." She started. "The first is that they took it back to the mountain… or they have a second hideout somewhere else."

"Very specific."

"Well, I don't think there's any use to stealing fancy cups and not doing anything with them." She responded, leaning back in her seat and thumping her foot. "Even Yabaiba doesn't seem stupid enough to just steal things 'because'."

"So, what do you think the plan is?" The fox asked, leaning over to look at the map.

"Probably just going to sell them." She said, shrugging. "I don't know why, but that's what everything's pointing too."

"That's a disappointing plan." Nick said, a bit disappointed. "But it makes you feel a bit like a normal officer again, huh?"

"Kinda does." Judy said, melancholic, before going into a chuckle. "When we were officers, we could have done this in our house."

"True." He said. "I think it's getting a bit late. I know you're invested in your investigation, but maybe you should get some rest."

"What, why?"

"Because you've been sleeping terribly." He said. "If something happens tomorrow, then you'll need to be rested."

"Right, right." She said. The rabbit turned to look at him. "Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?"

"I'm nocturnal, I'll be fine for a bit." He excused. "I'll try to piece anything you've found together."

He was lying, of course. Not something he liked to do, but definitely a necessity. He sat down at her seat, and waited for her to fall asleep. As soon as she did, he turned in his chair and watched her. He would take his eyes off the rabbit until something happened.

He could feel his eyes getting a bit heavy. Maybe he should have gotten some coffee.

In a few minutes, his eyes were shut. He shocked himself awake, and smacked himself in the face. Had to stay awake, had to watch her…

She was gone.

He hopped to his feet, and looked around. His ears picked up steps from outside the room. Maybe he wasn't late to catch the rabbit after all. He rushed up the stairs, and slammed open the door. He looked down the hall, briefly catching a glimpse of a black cloak heading around a corner.

"Gotcha."

He rushed down the hall, and into the rather ornate lobby of the mansion. Standing near the door was Shadow Moon, who stopped to look at him.

"What are you doing here?" It asked.

"We live here, remember?" Nick said. "You don't have to hide this from us Judy!"

"Who?"

"Seriously, I know it's you!" He said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Shadow Moon said. He couldn't have been wrong, how else did this vigilante get into Mr. Big's place? It made no sense.

If talking didn't work, then the only thing left to do was unmasking the vigilante himself.

He rushed forward, but the cloaked figure stepped out of the way. As he rushed past, the presumed rabbit let out a kick, knocking him away from him. Nick was flung to the ground in extreme pain. He knew that Judy had strong legs, but they never really hurt like that did.

"If you're going to attack me, then I have no choice but to retaliate." Shadow Moon said.

"Well, I'm not gonna hold back either!" The fox said, putting up his dukes. He dashed forward again, attempting to land a punch, but the vigilante returned it with his own punch, right to Nick's gut. He stumbled back from the blow. It felt like a rib was broken.

"You're really not worth fighting like that." Shadow Moon said, stepping back towards the door. "Now if you excuse me, I have some criminals to catch."

The cloaked mammal rushed out the door, leaving the fox behind, and a cold wind to drift into the lobby. Nick pounded at his chest, coughing up a bit of blood. He quickly ran back down the hall, and down into the spare room.

"MAX, GET UP!"

The wolf quickly got up. "What, what, is there a fire!?"

"We have a crazed rabbit to catch!" Nick explained. "We don't have a lot of time!"

"Alright, got it!"

The two quickly sprinted out of the room, and out of the building. "Look." Nick said, bending down. There were large tracks on the ground, fitting rabbit's feet. "Tracks, we can follow her."

Max sniffed at the air. "I think I can get her scent, too." He said. "Better get going before she manages to get into trouble."

The two transformed. Red summoned up the Kitsunider, and hopped on it. He looked back at the wolf, who stood there for a moment, before shrugging. "Alright, get on."

* * *

After a few near crashes, the two had managed to catch up to the vigilante. He was standing in the middle of an alley, almost like he was waiting for them. Red stopped the motorcycle, which wobbled a bit due to the unbalance of the drivers. They quickly hopped off, and confronted the cloaked rabbit.

"Why are you two following me?" Shadow Moon asked. "I's almost like you want to go to jail."

"We want to figure out what's going on with you." Red said.

"Yeah, you're acting crazy, Judy." Silver continued. "We're worried."

Shadow Moon shook his head. "I still have no idea who this 'Judy' is." He said. "But I won't let you criminals stop me from doing my job."

The vigilante quickly dashed forwards with his daggers, leaping up into the air and attempting to slash at the two with the knives as he hit the ground. The movement was fast enough for neither of them to react in time, causing them to stumble back.

"Listen, we don't want to hurt you!" Red yelled as the vigilante approached him. "We're a team, you-" Shadow Moon quickly tossed one of his knives at the fox, embedding it in a wall. "Ohhh, yikes."

As the vigilante was distracted, however, Silver quickly ran up and locked him into a chokehold. Shadow Moon started to struggle, delivering several quick kicks to the wolf's stomach. After a few hits, Silver dropped him, but he was still dazed. This opened Shadow Moon up into a punch, which Red quickly delivered.

The punch hit his stomach, and knocked the vigilante back. Red drew out his blade, and pointed it at the cloaked mammal, who was still steadying himself. "You'll pay for that attack." Shadow Moon growled. He then rushed forward, Red preparing to strike with his sword. Unprecedently, the rabbit leaped over him, grabbing his knife from the wall, and then running up the side of it for a moment.

He pushed himself off the wall, launching towards the unprepared wolf. He quickly drew his own sword, and managed to block the attempted knife slash, but the force knocked both of them to the ground.

"You idiots don't know what's going on, do you?" Shadow Moon said, getting up from the ground. "I was going to go stop that monster!"

"What?" Red said, confused. "We have monster detectors, on our wrists!" He yelled, shoving the Zoolizer in Shadow Moon's covered face. "A monster only attacks when one of these goes off-"

There was a sudden loud buzzing coming from both of their Zoolizers.

"Huh, well whaddya know."

"Where do you think it is?" Silver asked. There was sudden screaming from outside the alley. The three ran out of the alley, watching as a stampede of arctic mammals ran past, obviously scared of something.

Red looked down the street, the direction the animals were running from. There were more mammals running away from a building. "I'd guess somewhere down there." He said.

Without a word, Shadow Moon rushed off down the street. The two Zoorangers quickly followed him to a bank. The vigilante ran into the bank without a second thought, but Red and Silver paused for a short breather.

"Guess that this is a logical step forward." Silver said.

The two ran into the bank, watching as Shadow Moon was already locked in combat with the Org.

"Augh, how do you keep finding me!?" The barbed wire monster yelled as it smacked Shadow Moon into a bank machine.

"You're not exactly good at hiding yourself!" Red said.

The vigilante quickly ran out of the way as the bank machine sparked, and then exploded, dollar bills of all varieties filling the room. "OH! THOSE ARE MINE!" The monster yelled, tentacles shooting from his back. They quickly scooped the money up, and pulled them into his body. "If you wanna get this money back…" It started, turning to the Zoorangers and smacking its stomach. "You'll have to break through my impenetrable defenses!"

Without a word, Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it. The monster was knocked across the room by the blast, money flying from it as it crashed into a receptionist's desk.

"Don't worry, we're very capable of penetrating you." Red said, pulling the cannon back.

The monster got up, and shot the wire tentacles from its back. They bent unnaturally through the air, and directly towards the fox. He attempted to shoot the tentacles out of the air, but they seemed to bend around the fireballs as they approached.

A few of the tentacles branched off, heading towards Silver. He switched his blade to Moon Mode, and lashed the laser whip forward, attempting to strike at the tentacles. Instead of whacking them away. One of the tentacles wrapped itself around the whip, and pulled the blade out of the wolf's paws.

"Oh, that's not good."

The tentacles whipped towards him, and wrapped around, squeezing him tight. Silver screamed in pain as the barbs pierced into him.

"MAX!" Red had lost his concentration, and turned to the wolf.

Red looked back, one of the tentacles knocking the Vickscannon out of his paws. The wires prepared to wrap around him as well, but the fox was quickly saved as Shadow Moon jumped in and slashed a few of them.

Wire Org let out a scream as the tentacles retracted, letting go of Silver in the process. "Come back to you senses, Fluff?" Red asked.

"I was protecting you so I can turn you in to the police." Shadow Moon said. "And if you call me 'Fluff' again, I'll turn you in to the hospital."

"Alright, got it broody." Red said, shaking his head.

Shadow Moon dashed towards the still reeling monster, leaping up and slashing at him. A few of the wires covering his body were cut, causing the Org even more pain. Roaring in anger, the monster quickly smacked the rabbit back, knocking him into another wall. This time it was hard enough to crack the concrete.

The vigilante had been knocked unconscious.

"JUDY!" Red yelled. "We need to beat this guy, quick!"

"I think I know how to get the money out of him, at least." Silver said, picking up his rapier. "Ready to see some supreme sword skills?"

"Just do your best, Wolfsbane."

He ran towards the monster, pulling the sword back as he did. "Ready to get the POINT!?" He yelled, as he thrust the rapier at the Org. The tip of the blade went in between two of the wires on its chest, piercing the monster's grey flesh.

"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENIN'!?" The monster yelled in pain. Silver pulled the rapier out of the monster, leaving a small hole. "No, my insides!" The monster yelled, trying to clutch at its chest.

Air started to rush out of the hole, much like how a ball deflates. Only, instead of the monster deflating, the money that was inside it started to spurt out. "Ahh, the money!" It said, trying to grab at the flying dollar bills. "Boss is gonna be upset at me!"

It tried to step forward, presumably to attack Silver, who bared his own sword in defense, but the Org quickly stumbled back. "Ooooh, this hurts real bad!" It whined. "I'm outta here, see ya!" Tentacles burst from his back, and pushed the monster through the roof.

This was, however, a multi-story building, and as such a lot of crashing and yells of pain were heard before the monster had fully escaped.

The two stared at the hole in the ceiling for a moment, before Red dashed to Shadow Moon's unconscious body. It was still covered in the hood, but he pulled it back. Judy's ears popped up as he moved it back, revealing the rabbit in her ZooBlue armor.

"No wonder she was so strong." Red said. He quickly hoisted her over his back. "Let's get you back home, Carrots."

The two quickly ran out of the bank before any other trouble could show up.

* * *

Nick threw the unconscious rabbit onto her cushion bed. He knelt down, and started to check for vital signs. Still a pulse, still breathing. He sighed in relief, at least she was alive.

"You know, she had me going for a bit there." Max said.

"What?"

"I honestly thought that she might not have been Shadow Moon." Max explained, sitting down. "Wouldn't have made sense, but…"

"I still don't get what's happening." Nick said, sitting down next to the rabbit. "Why is she acting like this? It's not like her…"

Max shrugged. "Maybe we can ask when she gets up."

The rabbit instantly jolted up, and looked around. "Judy!" Nick said. "Are you al-"

The fox was dealt a swift kick, knocking him across the room. The cloaked rabbit hopped to its feet, and started to back away. "Where am I!?" It shouted, stepping back. "Where have you taken me!?"

Nick groaned as he sat up. "Was really hoping she'd go back to normal." He grunted, rubbing his head. "Max! Make sure she doesn't escape!"

"Got it!" He responded, giving a thumbs-up. He quickly leaped into the air, and pinned the rabbit underneath him. "Got you, Judy!"

The vigilante kicked the wolf, sending him crashing into the roof. He fell back to the ground with a very dull thud, as the rabbit got up.

"What are you criminals planning on doing!?" Shadow Moon yelled. "Are you going to kill me!?"

"What? No!" Nick shouted. "Judy, we're your friends, why are you acting like this!?"

"I don't have friends!" Shadow Moon yelled. He started for the stairs, Nick trailing behind him. The fox quickly grabbed onto one of his feet. The vigilante rabbit growled, shaking his foot and knocking the fox loose. He tumbled to the bottom of the stairs.

"No, don't go!" Nick yelled, desperate. "JUDY!"

The rabbit paused for a moment, going dead still. She untransformed, the cloak going along with her suit. Had his cry managed to snap her out of it? Was she back to normal?

Judy started to tip backwards. Nick scrambled to his feet, and leaped up the stairs as she fell, catching her on his back. She slid down his back a bit, but he caught the rabbit's head on his tail.

She was snoring.

He sighed in relief, climbing back down the steps carefully, and then crawling over to the cushion. He shook her off onto it, and he could see her getting comfortable.

He sighed as he sat up, and grabbed onto her paw.

* * *

Her eyes opened up to see the fox. "Nick?" She asked. "What are you doing?"

He didn't respond, his eyes were closed and he was letting out a small snore. She noticed he was grabbing onto her paw, and quickly shook it off. The rabbit sat up, Nick quickly falling down onto the cushion as she did.

"Max, what's going on?" She asked. The wolf was seated, and had an ice pack up to his head.

"Oh, hey, you're awake!" He said, removing the ice. "Nick was really worried about you."

"What? Why?"

"Because you were trying to kill us?" He answered, a bit confused. "Do you remember that?"

"Why would I be trying to kill you?" She asked, befuddled. "I would never do something like that!"

Max thought for a moment. "Well, you kind of did." He replied. "We'll explain it when Nick gets up."

She glanced back at the fox, and then reached for her phone. She turned it on, it said the time was nine AM, really late for her to be getting up, and for Nick to still be sleeping.

"He was sitting next to you for a few hours." Max said. "He seemed really worried. Didn't fall asleep until about an hour ago."

She wanted to ask why, but the answer would probably be something confusing. "What happened to you?" She decided to ask instead.

"You kicked me into the ceiling." Not exactly a helpful answer, but she glanced at the roof, seeing a crack.

A few hours passed. Max had explained about the bank robbery, which was something she got at the very least. But another monster attack she wasn't aware of, that was something that was bothering her.

They heard some sputtering, and then some incoherent mumbling. They looked back at Nick, who was clutching at the cushion in what seemed like a nightmare.

Judy got up, and rushed over to him, grabbing his paws and helping him calm down. "Nick, wake up!" She said. "It's alright, everything's alright!"

The fox's eyes burst open. As soon as he saw her, he broke into a hug. "Oh god, I had a terrible dream…" He muttered. "I'm so glad you're alright…"

"It was just a dream, Nick, everything's fine." She said, patting him on the back. They embraced for a few more moments, before Nick broke it off.

"Okay, alright." He said. He turned to Judy. "You probably want to know what happened, right?"

"Definitely, I have been nothing but confused for the last two days."

"Well, from what I can gather, you somehow developed a split personality that manifested as a vigilante named Shadow Moon, which tried to kill Max and I because we're criminals." Nick explained. "It sounds ridiculous, but I have a witness!"

He pointed over at the wolf, who gave a quick wave.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." She said, backing off a bit. "None of that makes sense. I've never had a split personality before, and you can't just… develop one in two weeks!"

"Yeah, that's why we're trying to figure out what the hell's going on." Nick said.

"I've had a few hours to think about it." Max said. "I think I might have come up with a theory."

"Lay it on us, Wolfsbane."

"So, you guys have that Qi stuff in you, right?" He started. "I was thinking that maybe the split personality might have developed from that."

"That doesn't make any sense." Nick said, bluntly.

"Hear me out!" Max said. "Qi seems to be emotion based, so what if it reacted to something Judy was thinking subconsciously?"

Nick glanced at the rabbit, who had her paw to her chin. "Well, there is this thing…" She said with a sigh. "I have been feeling really upset about not being able to help anyone recently…"

"Boom." Max said, pointing his paw like a gun. "There it is, our smoking gun. This Shadow Moon persona must have come from you just wanting to help the city, but not being able to."

"'Shadow Moon'?" Judy said with a chuckle. "Seriously? That sounds like a bad guy's name. Thought I had a better imagination than that."

"Yeah, same." Nick followed. "So, if the Shadow Moon personality thought the Zoorangers were criminals," He turned to Judy. "Then does that mean that you think that?"

"Well, I…" She sighed. "If we aren't criminals, then what are we?"

They feel silent for a moment. "Well," Nick said speaking up. "I guess we are all vigilantes at this point." He continued. "We might be breaking the law, but it doesn't mean we aren't helping others. Even if not in a direct way."

"I guess that's true." Judy said. "At least we aren't like the SPD…"

"Yeah, I doubt anyone on that team would be as selfless as you, Judy." Max said.

Nick's ears popped up. "I think I just figured something else out!" He shouted.

"What? What did you figure out?" Judy asked, confused and a bit worried by the fox's sudden enthusiasm.

"I know why the SPD's weapons can't hurt you!" He said. "It's really simple, I can't believe we didn't figure it out sooner!" He glanced around. "Where's the medal?"

"The what?" Judy said, confused. Her ears perked up. "Oh, the medal!" She sprinted over to the desk Max was sitting at, and jumped on top of it. She opened the drawer, pulling out the Cell Medal she had found last week. She tossed it over the fox, who caught it.

"This is what we've been overlooking!" He said, holding the medal up between two of his digits. "These things are supposed to run on greed and selfishness, right? Well,w hat happens when they interact with someone who is completely selfless?" He glanced at Judy.

"What!?" She said, crossing her arms. "I'm selfish sometimes!"

"Name the last time you did something entirely for yourself."

"Well, there was the time I got a slice of carrot cake for myself." She said. "But that was like a month ago."

"That's not really a selfish desire, Carrots." Nick explained. "Max, you have something selfish you think about, right?"

"What? No, of course I don't!" He said, nervously. The fox glared at him, raising an eyebrow. "Alright, alright." The wolf finally spat out. "I've been trying to better myself more recently, because I kind of think I'm… uh, useless."

"You're not useless!" Judy told him. "You told me that you saved the day during the monster attack, how is that useless!?"

"Can we not talk about this right now?" Max asked. "I don't think I'm up to it."

"Yeah, this isn't what's important right now." Nick said. "Though it is definitely important, and we'll need to talk about it at some point, alright?"

The wolf nodded.

"Anyway, Max was able to be hurt by the SPD's weapons because he has that kind of want entirely for himself." Nick explained. "There isn't anything wrong with want ting to improve yourself, by the way, it is just kind of selfish."

"You know you're not making this better, right?"

"If Max gets hurt because of that, then why do you get hurt?" Judy asked the fox.

"I'm not saying." Nick said, crossing his arms.

"If I have to tell, then you have to tell too." Max responded.

Nick sighed. "Uh, well, you see…" He paused, nervously. "My… selfish desire is… you, Judy."

Her ears popped up. Max started to laugh. "Oh my god, I can't believe that's what got you to admit it!"

"Not like that!" He retorted. "I need you emotionally, Judy." He continued. "Without you, I'm nothing."

"Nick, that's not true-"

"YES, it IS!" He yelled, starting to get angry. "What was I before you showed up? I was a conmammal who lived under a bridge, how many years, days do you think I had before I met you?"

"I-"

"You have no idea how close it came a few times." He admitted, melancholic. "I worry about you a lot, because if something happened to you, I wouldn't have any reasons left. Even though I worry about you, it all comes back to myself in the end. It's selfish."

The two were stunned into silence.

"But you, Judy." Nick started. "You only worry about others. You are the most selfless mammal I've met in my life."

"Just to note, that's probably not healthy either." Max said.

"Well, it's nice to know we're all a bit screwed up." Judy said, shrugging.

"Carrots, everyone's a bit screwed up."

* * *

"Whaddya MEAN you lost all the money!?"

"I couldn't help it, boss!" Wire Org said as Yabaiba started to pace angrily around their new abandoned warehouse base. "One of those Zoorangers poked a hole in me!"

"You know what?" Yabaiba started, abruptly turning to the Org. "It's fine! I got enough money pawning off all that junk we stole!"

"What? How'd that happen?" Wire Org asked.

"It was thanks to my 'charming personality'." Yabaiba said, placing his thumb and index finger to his chin.

"You're amazing, boss!"

The Duke Org started to rub his hands together. "Alright, since we have enough money, that means we can get to destroying the city!"

"Wait, why didn't we do that in the first place?"

"Because it wouldn't have killed two days of my time."

Yabaiba quickly pulled out a Chaos Badge, and tossed it directly into Wire Org's eye. "AUGH, WHY DOES THE PAIN FOLLOW ME!?" It screeched as it stumbled back.

Wires began to form around the monster's entire body, until none of its grey skin, or its eye, could be seen. The monster started to grow much larger as the wires expanded and continued to wrap around it. Wire Org had easily grown to many times his normal size, nearly touching the ceiling, and gained a much more hunched over gait, as well as much thicker arms and claws.

Its horns curved a bit more than usual as well, and sudden angled slits appeared where its eye once was. The slits opened like a fanged mouth, revealing the glowing, red eye. The eye now had what looked like a pupil now, only it was in the shape of the Chaos Emblem.

Chaos Wire Org let out a massive roar, and slammed its massive hands onto the ground. Yabaiba wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye, and gave a fake sniffle. "They grow up so fast!"

The Duke Org quickly clapped his hands. "Alright, Chaos Wire Org, get to wrecking this city!" He commanded.

The monster roared, and jabbed its fingers into the ground. There were brief tremors, nearly knocking Yabaiba off of his feet. "The heck was that?" He asked himself. He looked up to the monster. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm sending my tentacles throughout the city!" The monster explained. "It'll be easier to destroy it like that!"

"Oh, that's a really good idea!" Yabaiba said. "Glad I thought of it."

* * *

"So what, are you saying I'm some kind of 'secret weapon' against the SPD?" Judy asked.

"I mean, kind of!" Nick replied. "You can't be hurt by them, meanwhile, we'll probably both die if we get hit by two shots in a row."

"I don't like being compared to a tool."

"Just think of it as a super power." Nick said. "Something only you have."

She grunted in response.

Before anyone could say anything else, a loud buzzing went off. "Oh, really, already?" Nick groaned. "Wonder what he's trying to rob this time."

"Says he's on Drift Street." Max started. A look of concern and confusion grew. "Wait, no, Frosty Road? I think he's at both places at the same time."

"Well, that's new." Nick said.

"It's probably doing something like the robberies from earlier." Judy guessed. "Sending out tentacles to steal things."

Nick nodded. "So we need to figure out a way to deal with all of them at the same time, right?"

"Splitting up is probably the best way to do that." Judy said.

"Uh uh, no way." Max said, arms crossed. "You know how bad splitting up the team can be? Answer, we're all going to be killed."

"We won't be killed." She assured. "At least, probably not. You two head for the different attack locations, I'll try to find the source."

"And where would that be, exactly?" Nick asked.

She walked over to the map she had laid out. "Drift Street and Frosty Road, hmm? There has to be a meeting point between the two, so that's where I'll go."

"Sounds like a plan, I guess." Max said with a shrug. "Let's head out before anything really terrible happens."

The three quickly rushed out of the room.

* * *

The Kitsunider zipped through the snowy roads of Tundra Town. He had been heading directly towards Drift Street, for the last few minutes, and what came into view as he finally made it shook the fox pretty bad.

Dozens of wire tentacles, bursting from the ground, and from buildings, like a horrible weed infestation. Only the weeds made out of metal, spikes, and really wanted to destroy thing. They whipped around through the air, smacking at anything nearby.

Cars had been upturned, a traffic light horrible wreck and mangled, and glass littered the ground from the wrecked buildings.

"Guess it's time to do some gardening." Red said to himself, pulling out his sword and tossing it into the air. He caught it, and rushed towards the forest of barbed wire.

A laser blast fired at his feet before he could make it.

He turned around, the SPD and their large vehicle had suddenly appeared behind him. They must have gotten there a few seconds ago.

"Do we really have to do this right now?" Red asked, stepping forward. "There are innocents in danger right now, isn't it your job to protect them?"

Clawbick stepped forward. "Our job is to beat monsters." He said. "I couldn't give a damn over what happens to the mindless masses."

Red shook his head. "Guess I just have to fight you."

"Fight us." Officer Green said, stepping forward.

"That's right, zorro." Officer Pink followed, twirling one of her pistols. "You gotta deal with all three of us."

Oh man did he wish the others were here right now.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Silver stood on top of a building shadowing Frosty Road. He saw a similar disaster that Red did, wires bursting from the ground and buildings, and wrapping around things.

He leaped down from the roof, and started to the bushes of barbed wire, preparing to chop it down.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there!"

The wolf sighed, and turned around. Yabaiba and an army of Orgettes were standing there. "Great, what do you want?" Silver asked, dismissively.

"Uh, to prevent you from foiling my plan?" He said. "Seems pretty obvious."

"I mean, yeah, I assumed that." Silver followed, rubbing the back of his head. "Did you just assume there would be more than one guy here, or…?"

The Duke Org looked back at his army. "Uh, yeah, I kinda did." He admitted. "But that just means it'll be easier to take you out!"

Oh, wonderful. He really wished the other were here right now.

Meanwhile, again, with Blue. She had pinpointed an area on here phone where the two streets had met. Low and behold, she was standing outside of an abandoned warehouse. Seemed like bad guys loved to use these places as bases.

She could here something inside. Obviously a bad idea to take a more direct approach in, so she sneaked around the back of the warehouse. She found a small backdoor, and opened it. She tried not to gasp at the massive monster that was inside.

It seemed to be asleep. At least, that's what its breathing pattern suggested. She crept in quietly, trying not to wake the gigantic barbed wire Org. She noticed its hands, jabbed into the ground. That's probably how it was attacking the other two locations. It did seem to be asleep, judging by what looked like its eye being closed shut.

She readied her blasters, and took aim. Maybe she could at least weaken the thing before it decided to attack her. The rabbit fired at the monster's face, the shots simply bouncing off. The barbed wire monstrosity seemed to shudder a bit from the hit, but didn't wake up.

She sighed in relief for a moment. Then, the monster shuddered some more, its eye bursting open. "WHAT!?" It yelled. "How'd this rabbit get in here!?"

Aw cheese and crackers.

Dozens of wire tentacles burst from the monster's back, bending unnaturally in the air. They started to creak towards the rabbit at surprising speeds.

Boy, was she glad the others weren't here.

* * *

Red was between a rock and a hard place at this point, trapped between three deadly foes, and a brush of painful metal wires. Wasn't exactly the best way this mission could be going, but it was one he was going to have to put up with.

He had an idea, though. To deal with both these problems. Or, well, at least one problem. He pulled out a ZooTag, and plugged it in.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The massive blade appeared, the fox quickly grabbing its handle. "Overcompensating for something, Nicky?" Clawbick laughed.

"Oh, shut the fuck up."

He swung the blade around in a circle, shooting a slash at the SPD officers and cutting through a handful of wires behind him. The wires seemed to react to some being cut, writhing in pain for a moment.

The slash flew towards the three officers, Clawbick holding his blade in front of it to block it, but it managed to break through and send the three flying. They crashed into their vehicle, nearly causing it to tip over.

"Seriously guys," Red started. "I don't need this kind of shit right now."

Clawbick quickly got up, and let out a quick growl. He ran at the fox, blade prepped. He swung it down, Red not being able to maneuver the Solar Flare Saber to block with it. He was knocked to the ground by the strike.

It seemed to hurt more than the blaster fire did. Like a pain on top of what it was normally. Green and Pink quickly ran over as Red reoriented himself. They pointed their weapons at him.

Red firmly gripped onto his blade, and swung it upwards, knocking Officer Green's cannon out of his hooves. It smacked the ground, firing off a blast towards some of the wires, vaporizing them. It then proceeded to spark. "Oh great, doc's gonna be pissed about that." He mumbled.

Red started to step back, the Solar Flare Saber disappearing. He then pulled out the Vickscannon, and aimed it at them. "Listen, I'd love to play with you guys some more, but I have some much more important things to deal with now."

He quickly spun around, firing at the wires rapidly, completely ignoring the SPD officers. In a few seconds, most of the wires had been completely destroyed, minus a few. He sighed in relief, and then glanced back at the three officers.

He opened his mouth to say something, but there was a sudden voice in his helmet. "Hey, Nick!" Judy said, sounding faux-cheerful. "I need you to come to the warehouse in Snowy Hills!"

"Having some trouble, Carrots?" He replied. There was a crashing sound.

"YES!"

"I'll be there in a moment." He looked up at the three officers again. "So, it's been fun, but I have some things to go do, ciao!"

He leaped over the three, and summoned up the Kitsunider, driving off. Pink attempted to run after him, but Clawbick placed a paw on her shoulder. "Hold it." He said. "I have a plan."

"A plan?" Emily scoffed. "That's a new one."

"Trust me, this one is wonderful." He paused for a moment. "Yeah, is this Chief Bogo? We managed to find out where the Zoorangers are, and are requesting back-up ASAP."

* * *

Silver prepped his blade, watching as the group of Orgettes bounded towards him, patting their slimy heads and mumbling as they did. He quickly jabbed into one of them, goo spurting out onto his suit. He wiped it off, and then slashed at another.

The wolf quickly put up a block as one of the Orgetes jumped him, attempting to slam its club on his head. He pushed it back, and then jabbed right through the slimy monster.

Yabaiba was standing idly by, watching as he soldiers got carved up one by one.

"You're just trying to waste my time, right?" Silver said to the Duke Org as he slashed through another Orgette. "You know you can't take me by yourself!"

"I mean I am just wasting your time, but…" Yabaiba mumbled to himself. He jolted his head towards the wolf. "Hey, I can totally take you on myself!" He stomped towards the Orgettes, pushing some of them out of the way to make it to Silver.

He drew his knives, and attempted to slash at Silver. The wolf stepped out of the way, causing the Org to stumble forward instead. "Hey, stay still!" He whined.

Silver leaned over on his rapier. "I didn't move, your aim's just really bad."

"But… I saw you move."

"No you didn't."

"Guys, did you see him move!?" Yabaiba shouted at the Orgettes. They continued to mumble, seemingly oblivious to the situation. "Oh, never mind you guy-"

As Yabaiba turned around, Silver delivered a series of slashes to him, knocking the jester to the ground. "Hey, you tricked me!"

"Yeah, I did." He said. "Helps that you're kind of an idiot."

Yabaiba got up, mumbling to himself. "Oh yeah!? Well try this on for size!" He quickly flicked his knives, summoning a handful more of them in his hands. He quickly tossed them at the wolf, who leaped out of the way. They jabbed into the Orgettes behind him, causing them to explode into slime. "Oops."

Silver quickly slashed through some more of the Orgettes, opening a path towards the brush of wires. "Hey, wanna try that again?" He shouted over to Yabaiba. "I'll stand perfectly still this time, promise!"

"Alright, but you better keep your promise!" Silver rolled his eyes at how stupid this supposed main villain was acting.

Yabaiba threw the knives, and Silver leaped out of the way. Except, he didn't. The jester had feinted, and then tossed the knives at the area the wolf landed. The knives exploded, launching the wolf into the wires.

"Hah, had you going there, didn't I?" The Duke Org taunted. "Did you really think I'm that much of an idiot?"

"Kinda, yeah." Silver grunted in pain. The barbed wires started to wrap around him. Before they could completely incapacitate him, the wolf swung his blade around like crazy, trying to slice them up. The wires fell, and so did Silver, who was still covered in, now lifeless, wires.

"Hey, don't do that!" Yabaiba shouted. "Those are connected to Wire Org's body, it hurts!"

"Oh, really?" Silver responded, gritting his teeth through the pain. "So, he wouldn't like it if I did…"

Yabaiba watched as the wolf spun his blade's guard around. "HOT SHINE ECLIPSE" It shouted. The Org blinked, and in that moment, most of the wires had been cut, and the wolf was standing next to him.

"…Something like that?" Silver finished, out of breath.

"What the heck!?" Yabaiba pushed him away. "Ah, screw it, I'll let Wire Org finish you off for good, I have some business to deal with!" With a wave, the Org melted into green goo, which soon evaporated.

"Hey, Silver!" Blue shouted through his commlink. "Think you can come and help me not die? Snowy Hills, warehouse with lots of noise coming from it."

"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec." He said, a bit weakly. He started to pull off the barbed wire, which clawed through his skin. He tossed some of it to the ground, and headed off.

* * *

The Kitsunider pulled up to the warehouse. There was a lot of noise coming from it, smashing, yelling, that kind of stuff. Probably the one.

He hopped off the bike, and looked over. Silver was trudging through the snowy road. He looked a bit weak. "Hey, Silver, what's wrong?" The fox asked.

"Oh, you know." The wolf replied. "Got stabbed by a lot of barbed wire again."

"Oh. Yikes." Red said, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine."

The two quickly ran towards the warehouse, Silver kicking open the door. Inside, they saw the massive wire monster, tentacles whipping about the room. It turned towards them, and roared. The two were stunned for a second, before Red caught a glimpse of Blue on the other side of the room.

"HEY, CARROTS!" He shouted, waving his paws in the air. "WE'RE OVER HERE!"

"I CAN SEE YOU!" She shouted back. "JUST COME OVER HERE AND HELP ME!"

Red and Silver quickly rushed over, dodging out of the way as wires attempted to strike down on them. They made it over quickly, and the three drew their weapons.

"Hey, brace face!" Red shouted up, pointing his sword at the monster. "We already foiled your plan, we cut down all your wires!"

"You did?" The monster said. "That explains the sudden excruciating pain I experienced a few minutes! But I gotta thank you for that anyway, 'cuz…"

The monster ripped its massive claws from the ground, wires visibly zipping back into its body as it raised them. "Now I'm a helluva lot nimbler!"

"Oh, great going." Blue said, smacking the fox in the arm.

"How was I supposed to know!?"

The monster raised its barbed fist, and then started to slam it down. The three quickly dodged out of the way. Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and started firing rapidly at it. Blue and Silver proceeded to try a similar strategy, Blue firing her blasters at him, while Silver switched to Sun Mode and began to fling fire balls.

None of the attacks seemed to be effective, however. Tentacles burst from the beast's back, and started jabbing towards the heroes, causing them to scatter. Blue scampered over to an empty crate behind the monster. She motioned for the other two, and they quickly ran over, ducking behind the boxes before the monster could notice.

"So, anyone got a plan?" Red whispered as they huddled against the crates.

"Nope."

"Nuh uh."

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?" He sarcastically groaned. "You gotta have something, Carrots, just think for a moment!"

"I couldn't really get a read on anything!" She said. "I was starting to figure something out, but then you told him he could start walking around!"

"I hate to bring it up, but that Shadow Moon guy was pretty good at dealing with these wires." Silver said. "Maybe we should try and bring him out?"

"Sorry if I don't want to force my crazy alter ego to come out." Blue said.

"How do you even know if that lunatic would know anything?" Red asked.

"I dunno, I'm just trying to come up with ideas!" Silver retorted. "It's not like we've got anything better!"

"That's a good point." Blue said with a sigh. "How does Shadow Moon show up?"

"From what I can tell, he only came out when you were sleeping." Red said.

"Right, then I have the perfect plan." She said, before rushing out.

"Wait, what?"

The rabbit stood in front of the monster. "HEY, BARBY!" She yelled up at it, catching its attention. "HIT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT!"

The Org shrugged, and raised its arm up, readying a punch. Blue braced herself as the monster's massive fist swung into her, knocking her back into the wall.

"That was a terrible plan!" Red shouted as he rushed over to her. He lifted her up, and brought her back behind the crates. He felt at her pulse, still alive, but definitely knocked out. "Really hope this works, Fluff."

White eyes flashed on her visor, as she kicked the fox out of the way. The rabbit sat up, and spoke in a deep voice. "Don't call me 'Fluff' ever again."

"Well hey, if it isn't the brooding bunny." Red joked. "Think you can help us with this massive monster problem?"

The rabbit quickly glanced at the monster from the corner of the crates, and then turned back to them. "It's obvious." He stated.

"Not to us it isn't." Silver said.

"First, we need to blind it, and then wrap it up in its own wires." Shadow Moon explained. "That will make it vulnerable to your finisher."

"So, how do you expect us to do that?" Red asked.

"You have swords, it has a giant glowing eye. Seems obvious to me."

"True enough." Red followed. "Alright, I'll go handle the eye bit."

Red quickly ran out from the crates, and yelled at the monster. "Hey, one eyed freak!" The monster glared down at him with its eye. It seemed to assume that Red was looking for the same thing Blue had tried to do. As the monster raised its fist, Red quickly pulled out his sword, and tossed it at the monster's eye.

The blade jabbed in, causing the Org to let out a scream of pain "OWIE OW OWWW!" Not a very threatening scream of pain, anyway.

The fox gave a quick thumbs-up to the others, signalling for them to enact the second part of their vague plan. Shadow Moon and Silver ran out, watching as tentacles burst from the monster's back. The rabbit made a few quick motions, which Silver seemed to understand.

"How come he knows paw signals?" Red mumbled to himself.

The wolf, standing on the right of the monster, shot a fireball at the tentacles that were coming from the left. Shadow Moon, however, did the opposite, shooting at the tentacles on the right. The quickly circled the monster, the tentacles chasing after them.

After a few circles around the monster, the wires had wrapped completely around his legs. "Enough of this!" The monster shouted, clawing at its eye. It pulled the sword out, and tossed it to the ground. "I'll squish all of you!" It roared.

It tried to step forward, but quickly tripped over its own feet, crashing to the ground and right through the front of the warehouse. It seemed like it had gone completely unconscious.

"Alright, let's end this nightmare for good." Red said, pulling out his weapons. He glanced over at the rabbit, who seemd to be unresponsive. "Hey, Moony?" He dropped his weapons, and snapped his claws a few times.

"Ah, what, did the plan work?" Blue said, back to her normal voice. She glanced over at the fallen monster. "Guess that answers that."

"Where'd Shadow Moon go?" Silver asked.

She shrugged. "Maybe he just doesn't want to do anything right now."

The three threw their weapons into the air, which combined into the Zookaiser. They aimed it at the monster, and fired off a blast of energy, tearing through the monster's body. There was a massive explosion, destroying even more of the warehouse, and letting the midday sun fully shine in.

Out of the explosion flew a strip of barbed wire, as well as a red object. It hovered above the ground, and then flew off into the distance. There was a flash, and Chaos Wire Org had reappeared on the horizon.

"TIME TO WRAP THIS UP!" It roared.

The Zoorangers quickly formed into their mechs. ZooRobo and ZooKami stomped towards the monster, which created massive tendrils of barbed wire from its arms. It whipped them forward, causing the mechs to stumble back.

"Looks like we need some wire clippers!" Silver said. The two mechs pulled out their blades, and slashed at the tendrils as the monster whipped them forward again. The blades bounced off, with no clear effect on the wires.

"They're too thick." Blue said. "We need something heavier to cut through them."

"Hey, we have a thicker blade!" Red said. Blue nodded as she pulled out a white ZooTag.

"DAI SAI!  
GRAND SAI!  
BREAKING THE FIST  
ZOOSAI!"

The robotic rhino appeared, and then fused with ZooRobo. The mech stomped forward as Chaos Wire Org attempted to whip at it with the thick tendrils. ZooRobo swung its axes through the two tendrils, cutting them in half. The Org screeched in pain, ZooKami marching forward and jabbing his own sword directly through the monster's chest.

"Alright, let's finish this guy off." Red said.

"Hold on."

He glanced over, Blue had gained the white eyes on her visor again. Shadow Moon was back in control. "I feel I am no longer needed." He said. "I will use all of my energy to finish the monster off."

"What?" Red said, baffled. "Why would you do that?"

"Because Judy doesn't need me any more." He admitted. "You managed to have her realize that she is a hero, Nick. I was created to enact what she thought was a fantasy. My presences from this point on would just be a detriment, and it admittedly already has. So, farewell."

The rabbit placed both of his paws on the command console, blue energy flowing down them and into the console. The console started to glow, and Blue regained consciousness. "What the, what's-"

"Hit the button!" Red yelled.

In a bit of a panic, she did, slamming her paw down on the rabbit nose shaped button. ZooRobo suddenly started to move on its own, walking towards the monster. It quickly performed a cross-slash on the Org, causing it to stumble back.

The mech then jabbed its sword into the ground, and leaped into the air. Its feet started to glow blue, and kicked the monster in the face with both of its feet. Wire Org tumbled back to the ground, ad exploded.

"The hell was that?" Silver asked, not having caught any of it.

"Blue was just getting some frustration off her chest." Red answered.

The three reappeared back in the destroyed warehouse, only now they weren't the only ones there. Standing outside of the hole was what looked like the entire ZPD, alongside the three members of the SPD.

"How's it going, Nicky?" Clawbick said with a laugh.

"Great, did you guys follow me here?" Red asked. "Because that's something you guys would do."

"We might have." The lion responded. "And we brought an old friend of yours."

Chief Bogo walked through the crowd of officers, and stepped up to the three. Almost instinctively, the three went to attention.

"Don't do that." Bogo said, and the three relaxed.

"So, chief," Blue started, nervous. "Are you going to arrest us?"

"Why should I?" The buffalo said. "From what I can tell, you three haven't done anything illegal at all today."

"Wait, seriously!?" Both Red and Clawbick shouted at the same time.

"About the worst offense you did was running into an abandoned warehouse that nobody owns." Bogo continued. "And even then, you had a perfectly good reason to. So, get out of here."

There was chatter from the officers behind him, the Zoorangers, and SPD members were stunned into silence, however.

Blue shook her head, snapping her out of the stupor. "Um, thank you, sir." She said. "Come on, let's go before anything happens."

The other two nodded, and they quickly leaped away from the scene. Bogo turned back to the officers. "The hell was that!?" Clawbick yelled. "They're criminals, you should have-"

"Right now, I am your chief." Bogo said sternly, shutting the lion up instantly. "What I say goes. If any of you go against my word, I will report you to Herder and the mayor."

He quickly stormed away. "That asshole just wanted to make a point, didn't he?" Clawbick said, dumbfounded, armor folding back.

"I think he did." Emily said. "That old guy's pretty rad."

"If he thinks he can show up ME, then he's got another thing coming." Calwbick growled. A smirk grew on his snout. "We'll see who goes against who's orders, 'chief'."

The Zoorangers stood on top of a building, looking at the sun. "So, do you think that Shadow Moon guy will ever be back?" Silver asked.

"I don't think so." Red said. "He said he didn't need to be around anymore."

"Hm. Maybe that's why I feel like a weight's been lifted." Blue said.

The three hopped off, back to their home.

* * *

"Okay, so the plan could have gone a lot better," Yabaiba said. "As in, I could have actually had more of a plan, but check this out!" He threw a massive sack over his shoulder, which hit the ground and opened up, revealing tons of dollar bills and coins.

"Holy shit!" Sambash said, leaning down and rummaging through the money. "How'd you even get this much cash?"

"You know, pawning things I stole off, threatening people with physical violence, standard stuff."

Kyuemon stepped towards the Org as Sambash started to count the money. "I have to give it to you, we were having a bit of a supply issue." He said. "This is definitely going to make up for that."

"Wait, so did I do a good?"

"A good?" Sambash started, standing up. "Yabaiba, you just netted us five thousand bucks! That's master criminal levels of thievery!"

"Really?" Yabaiba said, genuinely surprised. "I just thought it was fun."

"I have to admit, maybe you aren't AS much of a screw-up as we thought." Kyuemon said. "Don't let that go to your head, you're still a screw-up."

"Thanks anyway!" The Org said, giving a thumbs-up to the yokai. He skipped off towards the hanging cage. "Hey, so, thanks for the idea."

"Uh, your welcome?" Bellwether said. "Are you going to give me some food now?"

Yabaiba reached for something, and pulled out an open box of gummy candy. "Here's some candy I bought." He said, placing it in the cage.

She shook the box around, it was half open. The sheep gave a sigh, and popped one of the gummy candies into her hoof, and ate it. It was better than grass.

* * *

The door to Bogo's office slammed open. He glanced up, the unannounced visitor was the mayor. "Mayor Lionheart, what brings you-"

Lionheart slammed both of his paws on the table. "What do you think you're doing, Bogo!?" He shouted, loud enough for the desk to shudder. "We set the SPD up with you so you could CATCH those criminals!"

"What criminals?"

The Zoo Rangers!" He continued. "You had them cornered, and you LET THEM GET AWAY!"

"Didn't seem like criminals to me." Bogo said, staring directly at the lion. "In fact, they haven't done anything illegal since the day of the attack."

"That doesn't mean they aren't criminals!" Lionheart said. He started to glare at the buffalo. "You're protecting them, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?"

"Then you're protecting wanted mammals! You're an assistant to their criminal activity!"

Bogo sighed. "They aren't criminals, I know those three."

There was a deafening silence for a moment. "You knew, didn't you? You knew who they were the whole time."

There was more silence as the two locked eyes.

"Chief Bogo, you're fired."

"You can't fire me!" Bogo shouted back. "There's no good replacements!"

"I can think of one." The lion said. "Pack up your things, and get out of this office."

Bogo really wanted to punch Lionheart right now, but that would just get him into worse trouble. He sighed, and got up from his seat.

The former chief slowly walked out of the ZPD station.


	30. Chief No More

"I take it you have another… brilliant plan for today?" Kyuemon asked, scoffing as Long walked by.

"Why, yes, I do." He said. "I suppose you haven't heard the good news that my plan has brought about." Kyuemon glanced at him.

"I doubt that your plan could have any good come of it." Kyuemon answered.

"I managed to get the police chief fired." Long said. "As it turns out, he has some connections to the Zoorangers."

"You're planning on messing with them some more, aren't you?" The yokai asked. "You get a lot of entertainment from that, don't you?"

"You know I do." Long said with a laugh. "Its managed to keep the boredom away for a surprisingly long time." He paused for a second. "Don't you think this world is fascinating?"

"What?"

"It's so different from our world." Long continued. "There are similarities, but the differences make it more… fun, don't you think?"

"No." Kyuemon answered. "I would rather be back home, getting my revenge."

"I suppose a mortal wouldn't understand." Long sighed. "I'm leaving now, try not to get in the way of my plans this time."

"What?" Kyuemon turned back to look at Long, but he had vanished. "How did he know I was…?" He grunted, and headed off for some meditation.

* * *

Judy paced around. It was a rather dreary day, and there wasn't much to do, especially considering they had basically cleaned up the spare room as much as they possibly could. The only thing she could do was think about things.

"How do you think everyone else is doing?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, looking up from his phone. "We didn't really have anyone besides ourselves in our lives."

"You guys don't even know my friends." Max said. "You know, if I had any."

"I mean like, Bogo and Ben." She said. "We haven't seen them in a long while."

"It was always nice to wake up and see Spots' smiling, chubby face every morning." Nick said, reminiscing. "Now we just wake up to the spell of food we can't eat."

"We've been here for weeks; how have we not been upgraded to getting breakfast yet?" Max complained. "Sorry, just getting really tired of Buggaburger."

"No, I get it." Nick said. "Their coffee is terrible."

"What do you think Bogo's been up to?" The rabbit asked.

"Being stern and complaining about things?" Nick joked.

"That's not funny, Nick." Judy responded. "With everything that's going on, he must be stressed out of his mind!"

"Yeah, I imagine being in charge of those SPD lunatics isn't easy." Max continued for her. "And there's also one of his most trusted officer duos being framed as criminals, that might be stressful."

Judy scoffed. "There's no way we're his favorite team."

"Yeah, I'm on it, he hates my guts." Nick said. "I'd say that Grizzoli and Trunkaby are the best officers there."

"You should see how disappointed he looks when you guys don't show up." Max said, with a laugh. "Seriously, he definitely respects both of you a lot."

"Really doesn't come off like that when he yells at us." The fox said, going back to his phone.

There was a sudden, loud knock at the door. It opened up, Judy only being able to see the lower half of one of the polar bears. He quickly tossed down a white object, which clunked down the stairs. It was an envelope, and it landed directly at the rabbit's feet.

"Oh hey, looks like we're getting mail service now." Nick said, getting up. Max got up as well, both to look at the letter.

Judy looked it over, there was nothing on it besides "TO JUDY + NICK", written in big, bold letters. There was no return address, no other names. It was like a birthday card.

"Think it's anthrax?" Nick jokingly asked.

"Don't even suggest it, Wilde." Judy said, sternly. The fox's ears drooped down.

She grabbed onto the fox's paw, squeezing a digit so a claw poked out. She dragged the claw across the envelope's top, opening it.

"You could have asked me to do it." Nick said, pulling his paw away. Judy stuck her tongue out at him.

She pulled a letter out, and dropped the garbage to the ground. It was a simple, folded piece of paper, like it had been printed out. Judging by the text, it probably was printed out.

The text was typed, in a generic font, most likely to hide whoever had sent it. The text itself only took up the very top of the paper, barely even a paragraph in length. It read:

"To Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. Meet me at the Tundra Town subway at 9:00 PM. I need to talk to you about something. Yes, I know where you live. It wasn't hard to figure out."

"Who do you think it's from?" Nick asked.

"I can't tell, they covered their tracks pretty well." She answered. "Could be anyone who knows us well."

"By that, you mean it could be a trap." Max said. "Could be the SPD, or even one of the monsters."

Judy nodded, and folded up the paper. "It could be, but I feel like there's a better chance of it actually being a request to see us." She said. "If a monster knew where we lived, they could just attack us in our sleep, doesn't make sense to send a letter."

"That's a decent point, but I think we should play it safe." Nick said. He turned to the wolf. "Max, you need to stay here in case anything goes wrong."

"What? Why?"

"Because the letter says its for us, specifically, for one." The fox continued.

"Aaand if we get into any trouble, we can contact you." Judy finished for him. "If it is a trap, and we all get caught, the only thing that could save use would be, I dunno, a bad plot device."

"Yeah, and bad plot devices never happen in real life!" Nick chimed in, cheerfully.

"I feel very left out." Max said, crossing his arms.

* * *

The two had gotten dressed in their disguises before they left for the subway station. Judy in her hoodie, and Nick in his rather punk looking getup. They walked up to the subway entrance, which currently had a series of bars down in an attempt to deter intruders.

"Breaking into a subway station at night." Nick said with a sigh. "Reminds me of my teens."

"How did you even get to be a cop?" Judy asked, before quickly hopping up and over the bars.

"Luck, I guess." He said with a grunt as he started to climb up the bars. He climbed over to the other side, and hit the ground, wiping off some snow on his jacket. "They say rabbit's feet are lucky, after all!"

She sighed, and they headed down the stairs and into the darkened subway. "Ugh, I can't see anything." The rabbit whispered.

"I can." Nick said. She glared at him, and quickly turned her phone on, shining it around.

It wasn't as bad as she was expecting, it was a very clean, well kept subway platform. She had honestly hoped that it would be a bit dingier, to add to any atmosphere. Oh well, she couldn't be that picky.

"So, there's supposed to be someone here, right?" Nick said, glancing around. "HELLO!?" He yelled out, an echo ringing down the tunnel.

"Maybe we got pranked." Judy said, shrugging. "Let' head-"

They heard footsteps behind them. Heavy footsteps heading down the stairs. The two froze up, and gulped. The footsteps got closer and closer, before stopping right behind them. They slowly turned around, shining the light.

For a split-second they saw a red eyed demon, Nick letting out a shrill scream.

"I'm not that scary, am I?" The figure said, in a familiar voice.

"Wait, Chief Bogo?" Judy said. "Are you-"

He nodded, and watched as the fox recovered himself. "Alright, I'm better, sorry about that." He said, catching his breath. "Didn't realize how sneaky you were, Chief."

"What did you want to talk about?" Judy asked.

"I was fired." He said, bluntly. They both stared at him in confusion for a moment.

Then, they started to laugh. "Good one, chief." Nick said, still a bit out of breath.

"I didn't realize you could put this much effort into a joke!" Judy followed.

"Maybe you aren't as much of a stick in the mud as we-"

"This isn't a joke, Wilde." Bogo said, sternly.

The two stopped, both their ears drooping down. "Wait, you can't be serious." Judy said. "How did that even happen?"

"The mayor found out that I saved you." He said. "I sacrificed my job, my life, for you two. So, you better prove to me that I made the right choice."

"You did, Chief." Judy assured. "We'll figure out a way to get everything back to normal, don't worry."

"Yeah, living in that basement's a nightmare." Nick said. "Speaking of, how did you know where we went to hide?"

"There's a lot of things you don't know I know, Wilde." Bogo said. "For example, I knew you two were those super heroes since the start."

The rabbit and the fox looked at each other, surprised, and then back at Bogo. "A fox and a rabbit duo, who seemed to only show up when you two were doing something else." He explained. "Your writing isn't nearly as convincing as your verbal lies, Wilde."

Nick gave off a nervous chuckle as Judy glared at him.

"As for where your hideout is… I have your records, Wilde." The buffalo continued. "You lived at Mr. Big's for a good few years. I was a detective at one point, you know, this kind of thing is easy."

"Well, that clears up a lot of things." Judy said. "Like why you were so lenient on us for missing so many days."

"Just to be clear, once all this gets sorted out, you're going to be working extra hours."

The fox pumped his fist. "Wonderful!" He said, sarcastically. "Can't wait for that!"

"Do you know who's replacing you as chief?" Judy asked. "I can't really think of anyone as dedicated as you."

"That's what has me a bit worried." Bogo said. "I wasn't planning on retiring for a few more years, until my replacement was ready."

"So, your protégé is going to be the replacement!" Nick guessed. "Doesn't seem like that much of a problem."

"Unfortunately, the officer I was planning on having replace me doesn't work at the station right now." Bogo explained.

"Obviously not a very good officer if he got fired." Judy said, a bit smug. "Who was it, anyway?"

Bogo looked down at he for a moment. It took a moment for it to hit.

"Wait, SERIOUSLY!?"

Bogo nodded. "You're an exceptional officer, Hopps, you just need more experience." He explained. "You'd be an excellent replacement after you become a detective."

"Uh, um, t-thank you…" She muttered, nervously.

"You're blushing, Carrots."

"I can't help it!"

"The point of this talk is that I need you to keep an eye on whoever they do get to replace me." Bogo said. "It could be a disaster if someone underqualified is picked."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure nothing bad happens!" Judy assured him. She then muttered to herself. "Don't want to risk my chance for a promotion, either…"

The two waved goodbye, and started off towards the subway's exit. "Oh, before you two go!" Bogo said, speaking up as they started to climb the stairs. "Why are you two dressed like that?"

"Disguises!" Nick said, waving his paws in front of his face as he headed up the stairs.

Bogo sighed, and shook his head.

* * *

The buffalo unlocked the door to his apartment, and walked inside, scraping his hooves on the mat. He didn't bother to turn the lights on, and headed directly towards his living room. He sat down on his couch, and let out a sigh, rubbing his hooves on his face.

He looked over at a wall. It was nearly barren, minus a wooden frame. It was full of newspaper clippings, all crimes that he had solved. Thirty years worth of it, covering basic robberies to foiling a few conspiracies.

And all of it had been for nothing, really.

There was a quick spark, lighting up the room. "Having a bit of an off day, Bogo?" Said a voice from the hall.

"Who are you?" Bogo replied, cautiously. The figure walked into the living room, lightning it up intensely. It was an armored creature, with lizard like patterns on its armor. To the buffalo, it looked like one of those monsters. "WHAT are you?" He followed.

"Just a good Samaritan who wants to help you with your problem." The monster said, though it was obviously a lie. "I might not be able to help you get your job back, but I can give you… revenge."

"No thanks."

The creature's light grew brighter for a moment. "What?"

Bogo got up from his couch, and walked over to the monster, who he was slightly taller than. "I don't have any reason to trust you, since you broke into my house." Bogo explained. "I can also tell that you're one of the monsters that's been running around due to your… disturbing proportions. Also, I've spent thirty of my years defending the peace, I have no desire to get revenge anyway."

The monster glanced away for a moment, and backed off. It was seemingly frustrated. "Very well." It said with a sigh. "It's too bad, really."

Bogo let out a snort as the monster turned around. It was holding a small statue in its armored hand now. "We could have been pretty great allies, you know. Now I have to force this."

The monster attempted to jab Bogo in the chest with the statue, but the buffalo quickly grabbed him by the wrist.

"Nice try." Bogo snorted.

The monster laughed. "You really don't know what you're dealing with, do you?"

It quickly jabbed its other fist forward, directly into Bogo's chest. The force of the punch was surprising, causing Bogo to let go, and fly across the room, crashing into a wall. The monster walked towards him as he started to black out.

It knelt down, and held up the statue. "Never mess with a god, Bogo."

He jabbed the statue into him, and Bogo blacked out.

* * *

"Ugh, this jacket's starting to get… uncomfortable." Nick whispered as they moved deeper into the crowd.

"Well, maybe you should have gotten the snow out before we came." Judy replied.

Earlier in the morning, the three had gotten the news of a public announcement, centering around the new police chief. It was being held at Central Park, meaning a lot of mammals had come to see. At the front of the crowd was reporters, and everything behind that was civilians of various luck.

The Zoorangers, who had arrived in their disguises, had bad luck, for example, and were near the back. Considering the size of two of them, they couldn't see anything. Max could see, but he had to stand on his tippy-toes to get a look.

"Who do you think the new chief's gonna be?" Max asked, leaning down to talk to Judy and Nick in private.

"Not going to be me…" Judy grumbled.

"Don't let it get you down, Carrots." Nick said, rubbing his paw on top of her head. "You'll get your chance next time." The rabbit quickly swatted the paw away.

"Stay away from my fur!" She said, fluffing up her tuft again.

"Really attached to that thing, huh?" Nick chuckled.

"It's a vital part of our identities."

"I think they're starting." Max said, trying to look over a yak in front of him.

There was some audio feedback throughout the park, speakers trying to orient themselves. Animals with better hearing, including Judy, reacted very negatively to it.

"This is why we need a TV!" She yelled over the feedback, covering her ears.

The two could hear Lionheart's voice coming from a series of speakers near the stage. "Welcome, everyone!" He greeted. "I suppose most of you have heard the… unfortunate news about our previous ZPD police chief." He was putting on a sympathetic sounding voice, even though the Zoorangers could tell it was very, very fake.

"Chief Bogo had a horrible accident the other day, preventing him from his duties." The mayor lied.

"Holy cheese and crackers, is he being serious right now!?" Judy said, dumbfounded. She was quieted a bit by the talking of the crowd.

"He's trying to cover it up!" Nick whisper yelled. "I can't believe this!"

"He's a politician, guys, lying is what they're best at." Max replied.

"So, that's why we have decided on a TEMPORARY replacement for the chief!" Lionheart continued. "He's every bit as qualified… sort of… but it will only be until we find a more suitable chief. Introducing…"

There was audible surprise and confusion from the crowd, including from Max himself. Unfortunately, Nick and Judy were left in the dust.

"Who is it?" Judy asked, trying to hop up to catch a glimpse.

"Did they pick Ben?" Nick asked.

"No, that would actually make any kind of sense." Max said.

"Yes, hello." Said a voice over the speakers. It sounded familiar, but not familiar enough for them to actually place a name. "You can call me Chief Herder. Previously, I was Chief of Defense, but now I'm the Chief of Police. I guess that makes me a master chief."

The crowd was silent.

"Anyway, I might not be as qualified as Chief Bogo, but I have something that will keep the city safe!" Herder continued. "From this day on, the SPD, who have been doing their best to defend the city from the monster attacks, will be active full time!"

There was some more murmuring from the crowd, most of it unsure. "I can't believe this!" Judy shouted, frustrated. "They're just trying to push the SPD more!"

"Judy, it's worse than that." Nick said. "If the SPD are going to be on the job the whole time, that means we have even less room to move around now."

"They're trying to corner us, figure out where we live." Max whispered.

"Great, how could this get worse?" Judy muttered to herself.

"Not only will the SPD be on the job full time, but they're starting at this very minute!" Herder said over the microphone. "And they're here to greet anyone who wants to meet them!"

"Oh, of course." She followed.

"Maybe that foot isn't as lucky as I thought." Nick said to her.

"It's alright, we can just move out with the crowd." Max said. "No one will notice us, it'll all be fine."

"Hey, who's that?" Said a voice from the crowd.

"Oh god, it's a monster!"

There was sudden yelling and screaming as the crowd began to run off. The disguised heroes attempted to move along with the crowd, which was very hard to do when it was the equivalent of being trapped in the middle of a stampede.

"By the time these guys stop running…" Nick started, quickly stumbling forward as a hippo behind him kicked him forward. "We'll already be back in Tundra Town!"

"Then let's find someplace to transform secretly!" Max suggested. "I think there's some bushes over there!"

The three quickly veered through the panicking crowd, coming out in front of a small circle of bushes. Before anyone could notice, they leaped into the middle of it. There was a flash, and the three Zoorangers jumped out.

"Alright, time to go deal with that monster!" Blue said.

They looked over at where the stage was, they could make out the SPD officers attempting to fight off something. Big and black, with a flash of red and gold on it. Probably a monster.

They rushed in closer to get a better look, getting a better look at it. The monster had a very skull-like design on its head, which seemed to match with its shoulder guards and some designs on the side of its legs. Most of its skin was a bluish-black, lots of golden rings covering parts of it. Coming out of the sides of its skull head were two large, bull-like horns, which were also covered in rings.

This tied in with the large bison-like head on its chest, a clear signifier that it was one of the Beast men monsters. The monster's shoulders seemed to branch out into more buffalo-like horns, which mostly seemed to act as a base for the red cape that flowed behind it. The monster's waist seemed to have a stylized belt design, two flattened horns curving down, with a gold ring that hung from the bison-head's nose between them.

"You think you can stop me, moo!?" It shouted, pounding at its chest. "I am the mighty Buffalo-Fist User, Gyuuya!"

"We don't care who you are, freak!" Officer Pink shouted. "We're just here to make sure you don't let anyone else know!"

"I'LL YELL MY GLORY TO THE HEAVENS!" Gyuuya shouted. "YOU LOSERS BETTER MOOOO-VE ON OUT OF HERE!"

"I find this very offensive." Officer Green said, stepping forward and firing off a blast at the monster. The blast seemed to knock it backwards, but surprisingly seemed ineffective.

"What's going on!?" Herder shouted, cowering behind the podium on the stage. "Those weapons are supposed to be powerful."

"I've trained my body and soul to be the toughest they can be!" Gyuuya shouted. He turned towards the podium. "And thanks for revealing yourself, mooo-ron!"

"We should just let him get squished." Red said, the three watching from a distance.

"I don't disagree, but we're supposed to be heroes!" Blue responded. "It's our job to save him!"

"You always have such a way with words, Carrots."

The three rushed in, drawing their weapons out. Blue and Red leaped in first, firing at the monster's backside with their ranged weapons. It stumbled forward, and quickly turned to them, flipping its cape. It was greeted by Silver jabbing his blade directly into its chest, knocking it into the stage.

Gyuuya got back up, seeming to have shook the blow off in a moment. "Great, even mooooo-re of you losers!" The monster said, looking around.

"No, those three are the only losers." Clawbick said, as he walked over. He stood next to Silver for a moment, looking down at him through his blood red visor. The wolf froze for a moment, before Clawbick swung his sword, launching him off.

"You're tough!" Gyuuya said, glaring at Clawbick. "I HATE people like that!"

The monster swung its horns at the SPD officer, who quickly blocked one with his sword. He pushed the buffalo beast back, much to its surprise, and unleashed a quick upward slash. This seemed to actually hurt the monster.

Gyuuya seemed to stumble a bit, surprised at the attack. "Gah, you'll pay for that, punk!" It shouted. "WILD BUFFALO KICK!" He quickly spun around, unleashing kick. Clawbick attempted to block with his sword, but it launched him off instead.

Red and Blue quickly dashed back into the monster's range, leaping up to try and strike the beast man with their bladed weapons. Blue rapidly slashed at one side of the monster, while Red performed a heavy downward swing.

Neither of the attacks seemed to bother it that much, as Gyuuya quickly smacked both of them to the ground with his horns. He lifted a foot, preparing to step down on the rabbit. She braced herself, but before he could, several laser blasts fired at the beast man, knocking it off balance.

The buffalo beast quickly looked over at Officer Pink, who was stepping forward. "Kay, toro, time to mess with a real matador!"

"I'm a buffalo, not a bull!" The monster said, sounding offended. "Can't you tell!?"

"Not really, you're not good at keeping a theme."

The monster snorted, and started to rush at her. The hyena quickly stepped out of the way just before the buffalo-bison-bull monster could hit her… Only, it quickly stopped in front of her, using its momentum to swing its horns into the officer's chest.

"I told you, not a bull!" The monster said. It quickly crossed its arms and looked around. Green was moving in, and the three Zoorangers had gotten to their feet. "You idiots still think you can take me!?"

"Won't find out unless we try!" Red said. He and Blue pulled out their ZooTags.

"If our normal weapons don't do anything, we just need to hit harder!" Blue followed, before they plugged in the Tags.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The two large weapons appeared in their paws. Silver ran up behind them. "I'll keep him wrapped up!" He said, quickly switching his sword to Moon Mode. He lashed it forward, firing a laser whip which struck Gyuuya a few times. It seemed to simply sting the monster, but Silver quickly wrapped it with the whip.

The monster struggled as Blue and Red ran in, leaping up into the air. They brought the weapons down at the same time, slicing the whip and sending sparks flying as the blades dragged across its skin.

The monster grunted and stumbled backwards, the more powerful weapons seemed to work well against him, like they had guessed. Gyuuya grunted, and reoriented himself. Then, there was another shot from behind the monster, hitting it in the back and knocking it to the ground.

"That was a cheap moo-ve!" The monster yelled as it tried to get back up.

"That's what you get for being specist." Henry said, before unloading several rounds of fire on the monster.

The monster struggled as the fire kept pelting down on it. Blue's ears popped up as she watched. "STOP!" She yelled, running up to the bull. "DON'T KILL IT!"

"What?" The officer responded, stopping the fire.

"Henry, right?" She said. "Do you and your team know how these monsters are actually made? They're made by infusing an object or a living creature with some kind of evil energy!"

"And your point is?" Emily said with a grunt, getting up. "If we kill it, they get freed, no problemo."

"That's only what happen when we do it!" Blue continued.

"Yeah, when Clawbick destroyed that monster on his own, nothing popped out of it." Red said. "He could have killed someone that time, and we have no idea!"

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Henry asked. "I don't know about you, rabbit, but Wilde is a habitual liar."

"I was taking therapy to get over that." Red said to himself.

Silver stepped up as well. "We've been around a lot longer than you guys, and nothing coming out of that one monster was an anomaly." He said. "We're the ones who need to defeat it!"

"Also, I am an awful liar!" Blue said. "You can trust whatever I say, and I need you to not kill this monster until we find out who it is."

"This just sounds like you're wanting to kill-steal." Emily growled. "Sounds like you just want to keep pretending you are heroes."

Before any of them could respond, Gyuuya rose with surprising force, swinging his horns and launching them all off. Blue sat up, watching the monster as it thrashed around at nothing.

"Nnng, words!" It grunted. "Stop with the words!" It quickly ran towards the group as they tried to get back up, barrelling through them.

The dust settled, leaving the five conscious mammals in the park. "Guess we don't have a reason to fight now, huh?" Red said, getting up. Blue and Silver got up as well, and started to back away alongside the fox. "I think we'll take our leave now."

The three quickly dashed off, leaving the SPD officers behind. Henry's armor folded in as he got up. He walked over to Clawbick's still unconscious body, and kicked him.

The lion jolted up, his armor folding in as well. "Did you get the monster? Or Nick?" He asked as he got up. "Because if you killed Nick I will have your heads."

"No, they all got away." Henry said.

"What was that nonsense about letting them kill the monster?" Herder said, hopping down from the stage. "Total gibberish, they were obviously lying."

"They don't want us to kill it?" Clawbick said, an idea racking through his brain. He let out a laugh. "That just makes me want to kill it more."

* * *

"That was rough." Nick said as the three settled back into their cramped living space. "That guy might be the toughest monster we've fought, and he's not even upgraded yet."

"That was definitely… disconcerting." Judy said, scrolling through her phone. "Maybe I'm in the wrong, but I'm more worried about this Herder guy."

"A guy heavily connected to the SPD running the station seems pretty bad." Max said. "Does he even have any experience with police work?"

"I'm looking him up right now." Judy said. "Chief of defense, father of one, divorced. He doesn't seem to have a lot of experience in anything relating to his job, he seems more like a businessmammal."

"A suit running the ZPD." Nick started. "What's he gonna do, market the police?"

"If he is more like a suit, then you'd think he'd be trying to sell all that fancy tech." Max said. "I feel like something's off."

"Same, there's more to this than just trying to protect the city." Judy followed. The fox started to laugh in his seat. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry, I'm just imagining how terrible this is going to go." He said. "Even if its temporary, having someone like that running the ZPD will not go over well."

"I don't really see how it could go that wrong." Judy admitted.

Nick got up, and walked over to the rabbit. "See, Carrots, this guy definitely has an ego, and is far more obsessed with his SPD guys than any actual police work."

"He might end up giving the SPD more focus than the actual officers." Silver suggested.

Judy scoffed. "That's ridiculous. Only an idiot would come up with something like that." She went back into thought for a moment. "So, did you guys notice how the monster was acting kind of… weird, back there?"

"Yeah, what exactly was that?" Nick asked. "Something about… voices?"

"It could be the host trying to fight back." Silver suggested. "But they'd need to be really strong to do that."

"Yeah, even we couldn't fight back against it when we turned into monsters." Judy said. "At least, not without a lot of stress."

"Who'd have the willpower to do something like that?" Nick asked.

* * *

The door to the station opened up, three figures walking in. They caught Clawhauser's eye, a maneless lion, a hyena, and a bull, all dressed in matching black jackets. They seemed to have business at the station, judging by how they were walking to his desk.

"How can I help you three?" The cheetah greeted. "You have a case you want to report, or maybe-"

"Point us to the bullpen, chubby." The lion growled. He clearly did not want to talk to the receptionist.

"Uh, sorry, sir, but we don't let civilians in there." Clawhauser said. "Of course, right now we can't let anyone but the new chief in, since its been a bit of a crazy day, y'know? We had to postpone the meeting until now since-"

"Wow, I really don't care." The hyena said. "Clearly you don't know who we are."

"We're the new big shots around here." The lion continued for her. "Heard of the SPD?"

"Oh, are you three those new super hero guys?" The cheetah said, cheerfully. He quickly pulled a notepad. "Can I get your autographs? I never really get to see any celebrities because of the job, so-"

"If you don't stop flapping your flabby, disgusting mouth, I will close it permanently." The lion growled, pounding his paw on the desk. "Point us to the bullpen right now, and I won't sell your carcass to a butcher."

"It's uh, over there."

The three headed towards the bullpen, leaving the cheetah behind. "That guy is scary." He whispered to himself.

The SPD officers entered the bullpen, all of the officers of the precinct were there, but the new chief seemed to be absent. There was muttering from the officers, mostly wondering about Herder. The SPD officers stood at the back, making a few mammals seated there very nervous.

"When's he going to show up?" Emily muttered. "We're here on time, so he should be too."

As she finished, the door at the other end of the room opened, the goat walking in. He stepped onto the podium's stand, and pressed a button on a remote. The stand slowly started to rise, until he was level with it.

"Alright, as most of you know, I am your temporary chief, Herder." He started. "And I have important matters to get to, so let's make this quick."

He cleared his throat. "The SPD officers will be searching for the newest monster."

There was silence for a moment. Someone spoke up from the crowd.

"What do we get to do?"

"Uh, just drive around until something comes up." He said, nonchalantly. He clearly did not care about the rest of the officers. "Isn't that what you officers do?"

"Me and Grizzoli were in the middle of a big case!" Trunkaby shouted. "You can't just put us on patrol!"

"Yes I can." Herder said. "I'm the Chief, you do what I say, and I say you patrol."

There were very angry noises from the crowd, shouting and complaining. Herder didn't really care, as long as the city was safe from those monsters. Which, of course, is only something his SPD officers could do. These normal cops were useless for anything more than a robbery. They couldn't deal with the real threats.

"Alright, alright!" Clawbick shouted, moving between the tables. "You idiots will end up a lot more than just fired if you get on the boss' bad side."

"Right!" Herder said, slamming his hoof into the podium. "The SPD are completely loyal to me, and if I wanted I could have any of you hospitalized."

"What!?" Fangmeyer shouted, standing up. "That's illegal, you can't get away with that."

"Guess what?" Herder continued. "I have complete sanctioning from the mayor, I'm completely immune to laws! Now get to work or else I will fire you all!"

The room quickly emptied, angry shouting leaving alongside the mammals. In a few seconds, only Herder and the SPD were left.

"That was, uh, a bit harsh, Chief." Emily said.

The goat started lowering the stand to the ground. "I wouldn't actually do anything like that, they don't deserve it." He clarified, hopping off the stand. "I just needed to assert my dominance. Wouldn't fire them either, a city like this needs cops around to keep it in line."

"So, we're just here to be threats?" Henry asked, a bit concerned.

"No, of course not!" Herder said. "With the facilities here, we can figure out these monsters a lot easier." He chuckled for a moment. "Also, getting those Zooranger freaks will be a snap."

The goat headed out of the room, but paused at the door. "I'll be back at the lab." He said, turning to the SPD officers. "This place is just… too bright. Oh, and Leopold suggests searching the attack site for anything."

"Alright, we'll get right on it boss." Clawbick said, without turning back to the goat. Herder quickly trotted off.

"You're being oddly… complacent." Emily said to the lion. "You're not planning anything, are you?"

The lion started to laugh. "You know I am." He said. "But all you need to know right now is that electric shocks hurt like hell, and I really want to make Wilde miserable."

"You have more in store, don't you?" Henry guessed. "Remember, we aren't supposed to kill."

"We'll see how long that lasts."

* * *

The buffalo rubbed his eyes as he got up from the floor. It was bright out. Hadn't it just been night? Why was he even on the ground in the first place? He tried to shake it off, but it felt like a bad hangover, which was saying something.

He headed into his kitchen, and got a glass of tap water. Maybe he had gone out on a depression binge and forgotten about it. Wouldn't be the first time, but it would have been the first time in a while.

He should have at least remembered heading out, anyway.

The best thing to do was to fall asleep somewhere that wasn't a rugged floor. He gulped the water down, and prepared to head to bed, but he heard something vibrating. Someone was calling him.

Without looking at the ID, he answered.

"Who is this?"

"Oh, chief, it's awful!" It was Clawhauser, and he sounded very distressed.

"Clawhauser? Why are you calling me? How did you even get this number?"

"Oh, I looked up your file, wasn't hard." Clawhauser answered, going back to his cheerful tone. He then quickly went back to the worried tone. "Chief, please, the new chief is terrible!"

"Who is he, and what is he doing?" Bogo asked. He had been out for hours, entirely missing the announcement.

"It's this guy named Herder, he's the chief of security." Clawhauser explained. Bogo wished he hadn't asked who it was. "He's not giving anyone assignments, is threatening officers with violence, and he isn't letting donuts be brought in!"

"You've got to be joking, how is he getting away with that!?"

"He told the officers to not bring in donuts."

Bogo sighed. "I mean the threats, that's not legal."

"He says he has full backing from the mayor." The cheetah explained. "He's above the law!"

Bogo was absolutely furious at this. He clutched his free hoof together, and really want to hit something with it. He took a deep breath, and calmly talked to Clawhauser. "I can't do anything, Benjamin." He said. "I don't have the authority anymore."

"Oh, right, don't you have a broken leg?" Ben asked. "I forgot, I'm so-"

"Why would I have a broken leg?" He asked back. "Where'd you hear nonsense like that?"

"It was at the announcement, they said you had an injury."

The buffalo felt his muscles tighten. He was going to have an ulcer. "Clawhauser, they're covering it up."

"What?"

"They fired me because I was trying to protect Judy and Nick." He explained. "They need support, Clawhauser. If you see them again, try to help out in some way."

"Got it, chief! Won't let you down!"

"I'm not the chief-" Clawhauser hung up, Bogo letting out a sigh. He placed the phone on the kitchen counter, and headed up to bed.

* * *

"You sure coming back here was a good idea?" Max asked. The three had arrived back in the park, in their disguises. The place was still a wreck it was clear nobody had been there for… well, since the attack, probably.

"We need to figure out who the monster is." Judy said as they headed into the middle of the field. "They're strong, obviously, and it might be helpful if we knew who."

"Yeah, imagine if we had someone who was able to fight monsters INSIDE them." Nick said. "They'd be a good ally."

"Alright, alright, I get it." Max said. The three started to look around the wrecked stage, searching for hints.

Judy knelt down, examining some tracks that the monster had made. There was a small strand of black fur in it. "Guys, I found something!"

Nick and Max rushed over to the footprint. They watched her carefully pluck the strand from the dirt. "Hey, better luck than I was having." Nick said. "There was nothing on the stage."

"I wasn't picking up anything." Max said, kneeling down to get a better look at the fur. "Can I see that fur for a second?"

"Sure," She said, dropping it into the wolf's paw. "Why do you need it?"

"I might be able to get a scent from it."

"Good thinking, Wolfsbane." Nick said, nudging him. "That sniffer should at least be able to pick up a trail."

"What I'm wondering is how the monster even dropped fur." Judy said. "It didn't seem to have any, it just looked like, you know, a costume."

"Maybe something happened when it started freaking out?" The fox suggested. "Just guessing, I don't have a real answer."

"That seems the most likely." The rabbit replied. "…Or it's someone else's fur."

Max quickly sniffed at the strand of fur, holding it as close to his nose as he could without inhaling it. His ears popped up, and his eyes widened. "I know this smell…"

"Who is it?" Judy asked, getting excited.

"I… I can't remember." Max admitted. "It's like when you smell something for a second, and you can recognize it, but your brain just can't process what it IS."

"So, what we know is that it's someone you know." Nick followed.

"Which means it's someone from the station." Max quickly interrupted. "Who do we know that has this fur color?"

Judy went into thought for a moment. Her ears quickly popped up as a grin grew across her face. "I know who it is, it's-"

Before she could finish, there was a peppering of laser fire from behind them. Smoke plumed from the ground, and the Zoorangers leaped from it, having transformed. The SPD officers were the culprits, Pink and Green being to ones who fired.

"What the hell are you three doing here?" Clawbick asked as he walked towards them. "I didn't realize you idiots would bother heading out in public after all this."

"We're not afraid of you, Clawbick." Red said. "We've got a secret weapon!"

The officers stepped back in surprise. "A secret weapon?" The lion started to laugh. "Yeah right, you guys don't have any idea what you're doing."

"Wanna try us?"

There was a stand-off. Both of the teams stood still, waiting for the other to act. The Zoorangers waited for the SPD to attack, while the SPD waited for the Zoorangers to use their secret weapon. Neither one could act without the other.

"So, are we just going to stand here all day, or are we going to fight?" Red asked. "Because I'd like to fight."

"Alright, let's fight!"

The two teams rushed at each other, weapons prepared to strike.

They both paused, the Zoolizers letting out loud beeps, and the SPD officers getting a call. "Oh great, that's anti-climactic." Red grumbled.

"We have a monster to fight and lives to save." Blue followed. "And it's at the… oh no, we have to get going!"

The three quickly jumped off, leaving the SPD officers behind. "You heard what the doc said." Clawbick started. "We have a chief to protect."

* * *

The buffalo monster let out a bellowing roar as it approached the police station. It was standing outside the building, directly on the parking lot pavement. A number of officers has gathered outside, prepared to protect the station from it.

"Stand down, or we will open fire!" Shouted Fangmeyer, pointing the Taser at the monster.

The monster laughed. "Please, you think a toy gun can stop me!?" It shouted. "Bullets can't even pierce my skin, just try it!"

All the officers fired their Tasers at the monster. The wires flew through the air towards it, but the beast quickly grabbed them all in its hands. The electric shocks coursed through it, but seemed to cause no damage, just like he had said.

Gyuuya tugged at the wires, attempting to pull the officers towards him. A few officers let go of the tasers, some of the larger mammals attempting to hold on. The smallest officer, Fangmeyer, was pulled towards it, tumbling down the staircase to the monster's feet.

"Little rodents, I'll crush you beneath my boots!"

The buffalo beast stepped forward, preparing to step down on Fangmeyer. Before it could, blasts struck it in the back. "Oh, looks like the real fight's arrived!" The monster chuckled as it turned around.

The Zoorangers had arrived, their firearms drawn. "You think it's a good idea to be at the police station? Red whispered to Blue. "It's kind of like stepping into a hornet's nest."

"More like a bee's nest." Silver replied. "Most of these guys were our friends, if we don't bother them, we shouldn't have to worry about anything."

"Just focus on actually protecting them, alright?" Blue said. "Lord knows we don't want any officers to get hurt."

Red stepped forward, and fired the Vickscannon again, striking the monster in the chest. It stumbled back a bit, smoke rising from the blast, only barely fazed by the attack. "You're already tried that, idiots!" It yelled. "I'm too strong for you!"

The monster glanced around as the smoke cleared, they had vanished. "What the-!?"

Multiple strikes came at once from behind him. Even with his strong body, the multiple attacks really did hurt, and launched it across the parking lot. Gyuuya landed next to a police cruiser, and used it to get up.

"Guess you can't handle a surprise attack, big guy!" Blue said. Fangmeyer quickly scrambled up the steps, and back to his acquaintances. She turned around for a moment, spotting the rest of the officers helping Fangmeyer back up. He glanced back at her as well, and gave a nod.

The buffalo beastman let out a roar, and jabbed its hands into the hood. The Zoorangers and the officers watched as the monster lifted the car above his head. "I DOUBT YOU LITTLE RUNTS CAN SURVIVE THIS!"

He flung it towards them. The heroes were stunned as the massive black and white automobile flew towards them. Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Silver attempted to activate Eclipse Mode, but before he could, a laser blast hit it.

The cruiser burst into flame, clearing before it hit them. Everyone, the police officers, the Zoorangers, and the monster, turned to see where the blast had come from.

"Sorry we're late." Clawbick said, as the SPD stepped into the parking lot. Green's cannon was smoking. "We got a bit caught up in traffic."

"Also our car is a piece of shit." Pink chimed in, Green nodding along with her.

"You guys take the Zoorangers, I'll take on the monster." Clawbick ordered. He glanced over at the Zoorangers, Blue clutching her fists. "Now that's a reaction I was waiting for." The lion whispered to himself.

He rushed up to the buffalo beast, leaping up and slashing at it. The sword let out a quick burst of green energy before it struck, resulting in the monster definitely being injured. Pink and Green quickly moved in on the Zoorangers.

"You can't let him do this!" Blue said, stepping forward. "HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"Yeah, killing monsters is our job." Pink snidely replied. "And we still don't believe what you told us before."

"You need to believe her if you don't want to make a terrible mistake!" Red snapped back. "There is someone in there, and he will die if your crazed lunatic of a leader keeps at him like that!"

"If you want to stop him, you'll have to get through us." Green said, stomping towards them.

"Easy."

Blue made a few pawmotions, signalling something to the other two rangers. She quickly dashed ahead of them, sliding through the gap between the officers. They turned around to fire at her, but were quickly struck by the other two.

"If you wanna get to her, you gotta go through us!" Silver said, beating his chest. He turned to Red. "Get it? Because…"

"Less explaining jokes, more fighting!"

Red leaped up, attempted to bring his blade down on the bull, who proceeded to block it with his own cannon. Silver tried to slash the hyena as well, but she blocked the sword with her guns as well.

Blue dashed at Clawbick, who was locked blade to horn with the monster. She leaped into the air, delivering a kick to the lion's head. As Clawbick was knocked away, she drew her daggers and spun like a ballerina in mid-air, slashing at the monster a few times before landing.

"Dumbass rabbit!" Clawbick shouted as he steadied himself. "Why do you keep getting in my way!?"

"Because you're a dangerous psycho with too much power!" She yelled back, quickly pulling out her blasters. "Its what superheroes do!"

"I'M the REAL threat here!"

She spun around as the monster slammed her away with its massive horns, sending her crashing into another parked cruiser.

"JUDY!" Red yelled out, before he was slammed in the face by the bull's massive cannon. He skidded across the pavement. He shook his head, readjusting his helmet. He jumped to his feet, and flung the blade forward, coming off at the hilt.

The blade and its wire wrapped around Green's cannon, and the fox attempted to tug it out of his hooves. Unfortunately, Red was not as strong as the bull, who pulled his cannon back, whipping the fox through the air. He started to spin him around, before slamming him back into the ground, leaving a large crack.

"That was a bad idea…" He sputtered.

Silver didn't fair much better. "What happened to those fencing skills, lobo?" Pink asked, rapidly firing at the wolf. He continued to block each shot with his blade, but couldn't keep up forever. "C'mon, try to hit me with something!"

He smacked one shot off, and dashed at her, prepped to jab at her. In anticipation, the hyena pistol whipped Silver, causing him to stumble back. She pointed the other pistol at his face, and fired before he could even realize what was happening. He fell to the ground, half conscious.

Blue stumbled from the cruiser. Her eyes had blurred, and had cleared just in time for her to dodge out of the way of a sword jabbing towards her. She quickly rushed over to the monster, pulling out her daggers. She leaped up as the beastman prepared to strike her with its horns, and jumped on top of them.

The momentum and leverage launched her into the air, where she tossed the daggers at Clawbick. One of them hit his armor, causing it to spark, but his reflexes proved fast enough to block the other dagger mere moments after the previous had struck.

"Nice try, cottontail!" He shouted. His sword began to glow green again, before he slashed at her and Gyuuya in rapid succession. Both slashes fired off blasts of green energy, which travelled at incredible speeds.

Before Blue could even react, the blast had hit. She dropped to the ground, half conscious. Gyuuya, however, took the blast, but was knocked down. "Stay down." Clawbick said to the rabbit. He glanced down at her as he passed.

He prepared to finish off the monster, but was quickly stopped.

"Why are you doing this!?"

The SPD officers looked at the crowd of regular officers. A few officers, Delgato, Fangmeyer, and Trunkaby had stepped forward. "These guys saved our lives!" Fangmeyer shouted. "You guys are supposed to protect the city, right? Then you should be working together!"

"Sorry, but we have orders." Henry said. "I like this as much as you guys do."

"I enjoy it a whole of a hell lot more." Emily followed.

"I think you all need to learn when to shut your muzzles!" Clawbick shouted, audibly getting angry. "Do all you police officers never shut up!? If nobody does in the next five seconds, I'll find out how to make a harp from your vocal cords!"

Before anyone else could react, Clawbick was knocked to the ground by the suddenly raging Gyuuya. The force of the blow flung him into the car Blue had previously bee thrown into.

The three Zoorangers had recovered, and watched as the buffalo monster stomped over to the lion, leaving cracks behind it. The monster leaned over him, eyes shining. "Stay… away…" It grunted. The voice was nearly inaudible to anyone besides Clawbick and Judy. Its voice sounded different, but familiar, to the rabbit.

The monster let out a grunt as it jolted back, before letting out a monstrous roar. The beastman suddenly vanished in a burst of purple energy.

"Well, that's a new one." Red said. He felt a sudden vibration in his pants. He pulled out his phone. Apparently, he had gotten a new message… from Clawhauser? He glanced back at the police station, spotting the cheetah looking out from one of the windows. He gave two thumbs-up.

"I think Clawbick's out." Blue said to the other over her commlink. "We need to head out before he wakes up."

"Gotcha." Red responded. He stretched out, and let out a yawn as he stepped out of the crack he had made. "Alright, I guess we'll be seeing everyone later." He continued, walking past both of the other SPD officers and over to a still dazed Silver. "Alright, sleeping beauty, let's get out of here."

"Oh, right, yeah." Silver said as he got up, still dazed. As the fox and the rabbit ran off, the wolf looked back for a single moment. He spotted his former partner, Delgato. He looked back, and ran off.

"See you, Rich…"

* * *

"Whew, that was… really close." Nick said as they entered the room. "On a LOT of different fronts, mind you."

Nick flumped down onto his cushion, and Max sat down on his own, silent. Judy, however, started to pace around. "Oh no, I don't like this." Nick mumbled.

"I actually think that went pretty well." Judy said, chipper. "Except for the part where we almost died, but I think my suspicion's correct. And…" She stopped for a moment, and fell silent. Max raised his head, and Nick turned around on his cushion, both to look at the robot.

"I'm glad we found that someone believes in us."

"I guess we did get stuck up for." Nick admitted. "It feels nice, yeah."

"Maybe we can turn things around sooner than we thought." Judy continued. "But right now, we should focus on who the monster is, and I think I have good idea of who it is."

"And it would be…?"

"I just need to check it out if I'm one hundred percent right, first." She continued. The rabbit rushed over to the large chest in the corner, and quickly got into her disguise outfit. "I'll be back in a few hours!"

"Whoa, hold on there, jack rabbit!" Nick said, grabbing onto her hood. "The SPD saw our disguises, we'll need new ones!"

"They only got a glimpse of us from a yard away, we'll be fine." Judy said, breaking from Nick's grip. "I will see you later, promise!" With that she dashed up the stairs, leaving behind a frustrated fox.

Nick let out a groan, and turned to look at Max. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I've just been thinking about some things." He said. "I'd like to not be bothered for a bit."

* * *

There was a knock at the door, knocking the buffalo from his sleep. As he headed downstairs, he realized he still felt tired, even after a few extra hours of sleep. He opened the door.

"CHIEF!" It was Judy, dressed in that hoodie outfit from earlier, who sprung into his house quickly. "How are you feeling, having any problems recently?"

"Slow down." Bogo said, clutching his head. "I've had a… rough day."

"That's what I'm hear about, chief." She continued. "I need to ask you something important. Have you had anything, you know, weird going on recently?"

"Over the last day I've been having random blackouts." He stated, matter-of-factly. "Is this related to any of your superhero-ing?"

"Oh, yes, it definitely is! Maybe!" She said, pulling out a notepad from the hoodie's pocket. "Did the blackouts happen around 7 AM and 2 PM?"

"I woke up from the first one at around… 10 AM." Bogo started. "Then I hap a nap at 1 and woke up at 5, which is right now."

"You either have a really awful sleeping pattern, or you're currently possessed by a monster."

Bogo raised an eyebrow at her.

"All the monsters we fight are evil energies possessing an object or a creature." Judy explained.

"I know that, that's why we arrested that news caster." He snorted. "So, you think I have a monster possessing me?"

"Yeah, it would make some sense." She said, looking at her notepad. "The monster only attacked places relating to the new chief, which must be a stressful thing to you."

"Before I had a nap, Clawhauser called me about Herder's… awful business practises." Bogo continued. "I fell asleep angry, so maybe it worked through that anger to take over and attack."

"That's probably it." She said, before pausing. "You need to stay here, Bogo."

"So the monster doesn't attack anymore, I know."

"No, it's also because…" She gulped. "The SPD officers. If they manage to catch you when we're too late, they'll kill you."

"I'd say I didn't believe you if I didn't know about how Herder is handling things. I'll stay here, Hopps, but I can't guarantee anything."

"Thank you." She headed out soon after.

* * *

"Alright, I'm back!" Judy said, hopping down the steps to the spare room.

"Were your suspicions correct?" Nick asked, looking up from his phone.

"Most likely, yeah." She said as she hit the floor. "The monster is probably Bogo."

"Whoa, whoa, seriously?" The fox said, shocked. "You couldn't have told us before?"

"Well, I had to make sure all the evidence was right." She said. "I can't just unreasonably claim someone is a monster!"

"We've probably done that before." Max said.

"I guess it makes… sense?" Nick continued. "I don't know anyone with a will as strong as Bogo's."

"So, we've got all that settled, and have even more of a reason to prevent the SPD from killing him." Judy said. "I told Bogo to try and stay home, but I can't guarantee that will work."

"Oh, speaking of the police station," Nick started, pulling up his phone. "Look at the text I got while we were there."

She grabbed the phone, and looked at the messenger app. There was a text from Clawhauser, of all mammals. It read "Call me after work", followed by a series of emojis that probably meant something that she didn't know.

"What does he want?" She asked, handing the fox back his phone.

"I dunno, but it's 'after work', so we should probably call him back."

"Maybe he just wants to help?" Max suggested, finally getting up from his cushion. "It would be nice to have some support right now."

"Not to be rude, but I don't really know how he can help." Judy stated. "But not calling would be rude."

She quickly dialed up Clawhauser's cell number on her phone. She put the cheetah on speakerphone. "Hey Judy! You saw my text?"

"Yeah, we all did." She said, placing it on the desk. "Why did you want to talk to us, Ben?"

"Well, things aren't going well at the station." He said. "The new chief and the officers he brought are really mean and scary."

"Nobody knows that better than us." Nick said.

"Bogo was always kind of bossy, but he cared. This guy really does not care." Ben continued. "So, I decided to not put up with it anymore."

"You quit?" Judy asked, surprised.

"Oh no, I would never quit!" He said with a laugh. "I love my job, but if I stay, then Herder won't figure out what we're doing!"

"And what exactly ARE we doing?" Judy asked.

"I was going to help you guys out!" He said, excitedly. "I could get you more information about the monsters!"

Judy cringed for a moment. She really didn't want to hurt Clawhauser's feelings, but this wasn't a game, this was important. "Thanks, but we already have a way of detecting monsters." She said. "It lets us know when they attack."

"Alright, but do they tell you where monsters are before they attack?"

"And you can do that how, Ben?" Max asked. "Do you have precognition?"

"No, of course I don't!" He said with a laugh. "If I did, I'd tell whoever brings in donuts not to forget!"

"You do that already, Ben." Nick said, chuckling.

"Yeah, but they'd pay more attention then!" Clawhauser said. "Anyway, there's this feed on Growler called Monster Watch, and they search up any monster sightings from across the site!"

"Wait, really?" Judy said, surprised. She hadn't heard anything about that. "I guess monsters would leave a pretty big impression…"

"Yeah, it was set up after the first few attacks to help evacuate areas before they attacked." Ben explained. "Using their method, I can track where monsters go before they attack. Hold on a sec…"

There was a brief moment of silence, as Clawhauser did… something on the other side of the line.

"Alright, there we go, I just found a growl saying that they spotted the bull monster heading down Oak Road!" The cheetah declared. "Bet your devices couldn't detect that!"

"Oak Road?" Judy said to herself. "I told him to stay home, but I guess that wasn't enough…"

"Hold on a sec, Spots," Nick started. "How did you check Growler and be on the telephone at the same time? Do you have two phones?"

"Uh, yeah, of course I do." He said, surprisingly nonchalantly. "You don't?"

"Never mind." Judy said, picking the phone back up. "Listen, Ben, thank you for letting us know. Text me if you get anything else, alright? We have something important to go handle."

"Alright, see you guys! Hope everything goes well!"

She hung up. "Alright, we have to go stop Bogo… or whatever the monster is called, before he can do any damage." The here nodded at each other, and headed out.

* * *

"So, you saw them in disguises?"

"Yeah, rabbit was wearing a hood, wolf was in a jacket, and Nick was in…" Clawbick looked back in their vehicle, turning towards Emily. "Would you call that a punk getup?"

"An incredibly tacky punk getup, yeah." She answered.

"We don't have much else on it, chief." Clawbick said. "Didn't get a scent, or a look to see if they changed anything. Basing it around the clothes probably isn't a good idea."

"Right, I'll still put some officers on looking for anyone like that." Herder said over the ship's intercom. "You three keep patrolling until that monster shows up again."

"Do we really HAVE to?" Emily moaned. "We've been driving around aimlessly for hours; can't we just go back to base until something comes up?"

"And leave me unprotected!?" Herder shouted. "That thing's tried to kill me twice now, and I'm not letting it happen again!"

"Fine." Emily grunted, crossing her arms.

"Calm down, Em." Henry started. "We'll be done by the end of the day, it'll all be fine."

"Yeah, after this we get a long break." Clawbick said. "Until we find out where Nick and his cronies are hiding out."

There was a sudden bump from the vehicle's backside, pushing it forward. Emily and Henry were knocked down, while Clawbick's head slammed into the dashboard. "God damnit!" The lion shouted. "Dumbass drivers, don't they know who we are?"

"Don't think that's a driver, Dave." Henry said. He walked over to the back of the armored car. Two massive dents had been punched into it.

"Stop this thing now, Dave!" Emily yelled.

He stepped on the breaks, causing the truck to skid to a halt. As soon as it stopped, two large horns punctured the back of the truck, nearly stabbing the bull. The horns pulled out.

"Shit, we're under attack." Clawbick said. "Armor up, guys."

The armored crawled over the three mammals, and the entrances popped open. They all hopped up, and stepped around to the back of the truck. The monster was there, and it let out a massive roar. "Great, maybe we can get this over with a lot quicker." Emily said, aiming her pistols at the monster.

"HOLD IT!"

The Zoorangers leaped down from a building, standing between the SPD and Gyuuya. "we're not going to let you kill him!" Blue shouted, stepping forward.

"I wish you three would stop getting in our way." Clawbick growled. He quickly turned it into a laugh. "Actually, I'm glad you do, because every time you do I get closer to killing you, Nick."

"Yeah, whatever." The fox said. "We have a monster to talk sense into."

"What?"

The three Zoorangers spun around to face Gyuuya. "Bogo, you need to listen to us!" Blue shouted. "Snap out of it, or you'll do something you'll really regret!"

"The hell are you talking about!?" The beastman shouted back. "I'm going to crush the lot of you!"

"Good going, Carrots." Red sarcastically said to her.

Gyuuya raised his foot, and smashed it into the ground, creating a small quake that nearly knocked the Zoorangers and SPD off their feet. The monster then rushed forward, before any of them could get up. He piled through the six, knocking them away with his horns.

Clawbick grunted as he got up from the monster's attack. "Did that rabbit just say that's supposed to be the old chief." He asked himself, before letting out a chuckle. "That just makes me want to kill him even more."

"BOGO, PLEASE!" Blue continued to shout as she got up. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! YOU NEED TO FIGHT IT!"

Gyuuya turned to her, and prepared to strike, but suddenly paused. The monster let out a scream, and clutched at it's head. It then leaped off, landing on top of a building and causing all of the windows to shatter, before leaping off again.

"The hell was that?" Officer Pink asked. "Thought we'd have an actual fight there!"

"We can still have a fight." Clawbick growled. The three SPD officers approached the Zoorangers.

"Heeeeeey," Red started, the three starting to back away. "See, we have… things… to go do now. See ya!"

They bolted off down the street. Clawbick snapped his claws, and pointed towards the three. "Henry, gettem."

The bull stepped forward, and fired his cannon at an upwards angle. The blast flew forward in an arch, and crashed in front of them. The Zoorangers stopped as smoke instantly plumed from the ground, they were completely blinded.

"We were trying to avoid this!" Silver shouted, pulling out his sword. "But you asses keep getting in our way!"

A figure rushed through the smoke, and clashed with Silver's sword. "Yeah, it's fun to mess with you." It was Clawbick, who's smug grin seemed to creep out from his helmet. He pulled back the sword, which started to glow green, and slammed it into the wolf.

The force of the strike launched Silver out of the cloud of dust, and into a nearby building. The wall cracked as he hit it. The wolf opened his eyes almost instantly after, and saw the lion leaping through the air, preparing to strike at him.

Before he could, Silver pulled out his own sword, blocking Clawbick's own as he crashed into the clash. "I feel really sorry for you." The lion growled as he pushed down on the wolf's blade. "You know Wilde's just using you, right?"

"Nick wouldn't use me!" Silver yelled back. "He's my friend!"

"I was his 'friend' once, and his 'friendship' cost me my freedom." The lion growled. "That'll happen to you too!"

"Why should I even believe you!?" Silver growled back. He kicked the lion off of him, and got up. "You're a psychopathic murderer! Your opinions are wrong by default!"

"You'll find out when it happens!" Clawbick shouted as he got up as well. "I gave that fox everything, and he gave me nothing in return! That's why I want to kill him and all of his friends!"

"YOU GAVE ME NOTHING!"

A blade burst out of the smoke cloud, flying directly towards Clawbick. The lion caught it in his armored grip. "Hah! nice try, Nicky-"

Before he could finish, the fox, carrying Blue alongside him, zipped through the air as the cord pulled him back to the sword. He flung the rabbit forward, who delivered a kick to Clawbick's head. The lion let go o fthe blade, but Red flew right into it, reforming it into the full sword.

Red spun around, smacking the lion back with his tail, and then turned it into a spinning sword slash. The force of the strike knocked Clawbick to the ground, unconscious.

"Alright, let's get out of here before they can cause any more trouble." Blue said. Both Red and Blue summoned up their bikes, Silver hopping on the back of the Kitsunaider, and drove off, leaving the SPD behind.

"Think we maybe should have helped him back there?" Emily asked, armor folding back in.

"No, I think he deserved that." Henry replied, armor also vanishing. "Let's get him back to base so he can rest, and we can charge up."

* * *

The buffalo burst up from the ground, screaming. He stopped for a moment, and analyzed his surroundings. His house, in the living room, and it was nighttime. He had another blackout. Bogo pounded at the ground, frustrated. He wasn't able to control it, and who knows what had happened between then and now.

"Don't worry, friend."

Bogo paused, and climbed to his feet. He turned around. His memory triggered as he saw the figure. It was the monster from the previous night, the one who most likely caused the monster to take over.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bogo snorted.

"I'm here to find out something important." The monster stated. "See, the only time someone is supposed to have control over a monster, is when they agree to. And you didn't, which makes your constant changing something fascinating."

"Maybe I'm just stronger than you thought." Bogo said, stepping forward. He towered above the glowing monster, but its calm never faltered.

"You would need to have a will stronger than steel to have any control." The monster continued, starting to circle around the buffalo. "And I have a way to fix this… grievous error." He circled around to the buffalo's back, and stopped.

"What?"

In a quick motion, the monster jabbed its fist into Bogo's back. He let out a hellish scream as he fell to the ground. The single punch had felt like a torch burning into his skin, and he could feel the burn marks on his back.

He glanced up from the pain, and the armored creature was standing in front of him.

"I plan on making you obedient, like the animal you are."

With that, the monster, alongside Bogo, transformed into golden mist, and vanished into the night.

* * *

"Another close one, barely avoided it." Max said as the three headed back down into the spare room. "We need to do something about those guys, are something bad WILL eventually happen."

"There isn't exactly much we CAN do." Nick said. "When you're on the other side of the law, there's no way for, well, anyone in the political space to trust you."

"Except for Fangmeyer, Trunkaby, and Delgato." Judy followed. "They trust in us, and that's better than nothing."

"They still can't do anything, though." Max sighed. "This Herder guy has immunity; the law can't shut him down. We need to do something."

"We. Are going. To wait." Judy said, sternly. "If we rush to defeat them, it will end badly for everyone. We're taking this slow until an opportunity presents itself."

"Who knows when that'll happen." Nick followed. "Clawbick's crazy, but he isn't an idiot. Guy killed a lot of mammals without being caught."

"Alright, alright." Max said, sounding a bit defeated. "I just… don't know how long I can put up with this anymore."

"We're all in a rough patch." Judy said as she walked over to Max. "We just need to keep going, and everything will be alright."

"Yeah." He said, trying to sound better. The wolf glanced over at Nick.

"Anyway, we have something important to get to!" The rabbit declared. She quickly pulled out her phone, and started dialing someone up. "We need to find out if Bogo's okay."

They waited for someone to answer, but nothing happened. "That's not a very good sign." She said, starting to sound worried.

"Did you just try to call Bogo?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, and there was no answer." She followed. She started dialing another number. "He might be sleeping, so I'll try phoning someone who might be able to get to him!"

"Heeeeello?" Clawhauser sounded over the phone.

"Hey, Ben, you're actually awake!" Judy greeted.

"Of course I am, it's only nine!" He said with a laugh. "You need some info?"

"Kind of." She said.

"We need you to check on Bogo." Nick said. "You live near him, right?"

"Yeah, it's only a block away." Ben said. "But you know how hard it is for me to do that, right?"

"You need the exercise, we need info, it's good for both of us." Nick finished.

Ben sighed. "Alriiiight, I'll go over there and check it out. See you guys in an hour!"

An hour passed, just like Ben had said, before Judy's cell phone rang. She answered it faster than any other call in her life. She opened immediately with an important question.

"Is Bogo alright!?"

"Whoa, slow down!" Ben said. He sounded a bit panicky. "Um, I don't know."

"You don't know!?"

"Well, I went into his house-"

"Didn't know you were the breaking and entering type, Spots." Nick chuckled.

"I'm not, the door was unlocked." He said. "Not a good sign, but a worse sign is him not being anywhere in the house."

"Alright, time to be a cop, Ben!" Judy said. "Are there any clues, anything that would suggest a break in, or a break out, anything!"

There was silence for a moment, before Clawhauser spoke up again. "The living room smells like…" He sniffed at the air. "A barbeque that went wrong, smokey."

"Alright, anything else?"

"There's burn marks on the ground." He said. "They kind of look like boots."

"Burning smell, scorch marks…" The rabbit's ears popped up, and her nose started to twitch. "Alright, thanks for the help, Ben, it means a lot!"

"Alright, I guess I'll see you three later!"

She hung up as soon as he finished. "We need to go."

"What, what did you figure out?" Max asked.

"Long."

* * *

"You have the spirit of one of my most physically powerful monsters inside of you." Long said, as he stepped towards Bogo.

The buffalo had been chained to a girder in a nearby construction site. For the past few hours, Bogo had been tortured by the monster, burns inflicted over his body. He was nearly ready to pass out, but he continued to stand strong. If he didn't, then this monster would win.

"Your torture plan doesn't seem to be working out that well." He mocked. "How exactly do you plan on getting this monster out of me?"

Long chuckled, before grabbing onto Bogo's snout. He let out a scream as the Infinite Dragon's armor burned his skin. "Eventually, you will break, then I can get my plans back into action." He let go, and stepped away.

"Burning me will stop working eventually, you know." Bogo choked out. "It's only a matter of time before somebody realizes I'm missing."

"Hmm, they I better make this quick."

Long delivered a quick punch to the buffalo's face, and then another to his stomach. The former police chief coughed up blood, which evaporated before it could hit the ground. The armored monster continued to beat on Bogo, hitting him in the face repeatedly.

Eventually, he was knocked unconscious.

"That took too long." Long said to himself.

There was a burst of dark Qi around the buffalo's body, before he transformed back into Gyuuya. "What is this!?" The beastman shouted as it struggled behind the chains. "I can't moooo-ve!" He struggled for a moment, before breaking the chains.

"There you are, Gyuuya, I was worried you might have been lost in a much smarter brain." Long said, though the insult seemed to pass over the buffalo monster's head.

"Master Long, I've had a lot of trouble today!" Gyuuya started. "I can't seem to get anything done!"

"I'll settle that in just a second." Long pulled out a Chaos Badge, and stepped towards Gyuuya. He quickly jabbed it into the monster's stomach.

The beastman struggled as his body began to transform. The buffalo head on its chest fused back into it's body, transforming it into a set of abs, the monster's ribs appeared through its skin, clutching around his entire body. The monster's spine burst from it's back as well, creating a fully visible bone structure poking through its skin. The belt design on the stomach became more prominent, as it gained the Chaos Symbol in its middle.

The skull like shoulder pads extended out, becoming sharper, as the monster's muscles bulged. The golden rings around his arms grew spikes. Gyuuya's cape quickly moved over to his right arm, though it shrank a bit, now more resembling a mantle. The beastman's legs bulked out more, gaining boots with hoof shape at the tip of it.

Finally, Gyuuya's head started to transform. It started to distend outwards, as the monster's neck also started to lengthen upwards. At the end of the transformation, its head now resembled an entire buffalo's skull, with two massive tipped horns poking out of its sides, and Gyuuya's beady yellow eyes staring through the regular eyeholes of the skull. To cap it off, a mohawk of matted, red fur appeared down the back of the skull.

The monster let out another roar, and stomped forward. "CHAOS GYUUUUYA!" It shouted. "Ready to cause some moooo-sive damage, boss!?"

"Hah, of course I am." Long said. "I have the perfect idea of where to start…"

* * *

"We're getting nowhere." Silver growled. "Where is he!?"

They had been searching for a handful of hours for wherever Bogo had been taken. The sun was starting to rise, and all of them were getting fairly tired. As of right then, they were standing on top of a building in Savannah Central "Relax, Silv." Red started, fairly calmly. "We'll find him soon, no need to lose your temper."

"I'm just worried." The wolf said with a sigh. "I don't want the chief – the REAL chief – to be in any trouble."

"Well, he will be in trouble if we don't look for him." Blue quickly followed. "Long's the most dangerous monster we've faced, he could kill anyone if he wanted to."

"Which, won't happen, because we're good at finding things." Red followed. "We just tend to fall into any monster plots."

The three quickly moved on, and hopped over to another building, and then off to a different street. They landed and looked around, still no signs of anything.

"Nick, can I ask you a question?" Silver started as he turned to Red, surprising the fox.

"Sure, hit me."

"Are you telling the truth about everything?"

The fox, as well as the rabbit, were left a bit speechless by the comment. Their jaws would be agape if the helmets weren't on.

"I was just thinking, because of what Clawbick said earlier." He explained. "You betrayed him, right?"

"Yeah, a betrayal that backfired." Red said. "He was supposed to go to jail during that attack, but it took years for him to actually get sent there." He sighed, and walked up to Silver. "I'm the reason he killed so many innocents, I regret that entire thing."

"You aren't the reason he killed them, Nick." Blue said, comforting the fox. "You did your best to stop him."

"No, he killed them because I betrayed him." Red sighed. "He told me."

"And like I said, he's a psychopathic murderer." Silver added. "There's no reason to believe him."

"Right, but-"

There was sudden beeping from their Zoolizers. "Oh, there we go!" Red started up, instantly shifting from his previously moody tone to an excited one. "You two up for saving Bogo's life?"

"Oh, definitely." Blue started. "Especially if it means we can get out of this conversation."

"Sorry." Silver replied, meekly.

"So, where are they attacking?" Red asked. "I wasn't paying attention."

"They're attacking…" Blue let out a gasp as her ears popped up. "Oh god, we need to hurry."

* * *

"Holy hell."

The three looked down at the police station. It was nearly in ruins, burning and with multiple holes punched through the walls and windows. Glass littered the front and the ground around it. There were no signs of any officers, even though it was nearly time for attendance. All of the cruisers parked outside had been utterly wrecked as well, it was clear no one would be patrolling for a while… if they were alive.

"Well, this is bad." Red said, before they hopped down to street level.

"Be careful." Blue warned as they approached the building. "The monster and Long could be around here anywhere."

They walked through the shattered doorway. As soon as they entered, they noticed bodies, hopefully unconscious, littering the building. Grizzoli was leaning over some railing on the second floor, Fangmeyer had been punched through the receptionist's desk, and Trunkaby was pushed partly through a wall.

"Yikes." Red said as they looked around the carnage. "I don't think Long is that physically strong, so buffalo butt must have done this."

"Likely, he was already pretty powerful." Silver followed. He headed over to Fangmeyer's unconscious body, and placed a paw on his chest. "I think he'll be alright, I'm feeling a decent pulse."

"Good." Blue followed. "We need to find Gyuuya before-"

There was a loud crash, as Delgato's body flew through the door to the chief's office. He crashed into the ground. "RICH!" Silver yelled, stumbling over as he ran over to the tiger. He knelt down and gripped onto him. "Rich, are you alright!?"

The tiger grunted as he opened his eyes a bit. "M-Max? That you…?"

"Yeah, partner, it's me."

"You… need to stop that monster." He sputtered. "It came in looking for Herder, but he hadn't shown up yet. He didn't take it well. Tried to stop him, but… yeah."

"Question before you pass out." Red started. "Where's Ben?"

"Clawhauser called in sick, something about his legs aching."

"Of course he did."

There was a loud noise from above them. It sounded like a loud moo, but deeper. They looked up, and watched as Chaos Gyuuya stomped down the stairs.

"You, chumps!" It shouted, pointing towards the Zoorangers. "Where's that shrimp chief guy at!? I came all the way here to crack his skull!"

"As much as we would love to tell you, and have that guy out of our lives," Red started. The three quickly drew their weapons, ready to strike. "I'm afraid we can't let you do that."

"Augh, you punks keep messing things up every time I try to mooooo anything fun!" Chaos Gyuuya grunted, clearly annoyed by the three. "But you won't be able to do that… brain thing, anymore!"

"What?" Blue said, lowering her defenses in shock.

"Master Long helped me get rid of that little problem!" You're gonna have to beat me fairsy and squaresy!"

"Clearly didn't improve his IQ." Red snarked. "Hey bull patty, you sure you're not just seeing red?"

"I'M SEEING RED ALRIGHT!" The monster shouted as it stomped down the stairs some more. "I'M SEEING YOU, FOX!" His pace started to speed up. "AND FOR SOME REASON, I WANT TO CRUSH YOU UNDER MY HOOF!"

"That's the Bogo in him talking." Nick whispered.

Gyuuya let out a loud moo, and started to rush towards them. The Zoorangers braced themselves for the attack, but before he could hit, the buffalo leaped into the air. The watched as he prepared to perform an elbow drop on them. The three scattered, Silver quickly pulling Delgato's body out of the way.

Chaos Gyuuya crashed into the ground, driving a massive hole into the tiled floor. The three looked on in awe as he got back up. "Yeh, you bozos are gonna learn what its like to be completely broken!" The monster taunted, flicking his cape.

Blue pulled out her daggers, and dashed at the buffalo beastman. She leaped up into the air, but he responded by punching her in her entire body, the force sending her flying across the room. The rabbit crashed into the wall, leaving a very visible mark.

Red quickly pulled out the Vickscannon, and started to unload fireballs at the monster rapidly. The blasts seemed to not cause any damage, or even cause Gyuuya to flinch. He started to casually walk towards the fox.

Silver, thinking quickly, pulled out his blade, and rushed up behind the buffalo beast before he could notice. He slashed at the monster, but the blade simply clanged off his back. This, unfortunately, caught his attention. Gyuuya spun around, hitting Silver in the face with his arm. He flew off as well.

"Hey, Carrots!" Red shouted, looking back at the rabbit as she got back up. "I'm not sure we can actually do anything to this guy!"

"NICK, WATCH OUT!"

He glanced back at the monster, who was now rushing towards him. Gyuuya quickly scooped the fox up by his neck, and jumped into the air. He pulled Red into a painful hug, and twisted around, angling the fox down towards the ground.

He let out a small cry, seconds before he hit the ground.

As Gyuuya body slammed the fox into the floor, it cracked, leaving a much larger imprint than the elbow drop had. Blue let out an incoherent scream as Gyuuya rose back up, the fox's crumbled body buried under it. He twitched a bit, but other than that didn't seem to be aware.

"STOP IT!" She cried, trying not to cry. "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!"

Something seemed to flash through Gyuuya at that moment. He clutched at his skull head, and stumbled back. "What was I-?" He quickly shook it off. "Why should I listen to you, bunny? Or should I say, paste?"

Blue's horrible fear seemed to subside as she saw the monster's reaction. She grinned, not visible to the monster under her helmet. "What you should be saying, is…" She took a deep breath, and didn't seem to notice as the bodies of the other officers started to stir.

Grizzoli rose from the railing, and looked down. Fangmeyer shook his head, and unsteadily got to his feet. Trunkaby pushed her self out of the hole, and rose to her feet as well. Silver clawed up the wall he had been slammed into.

"OFFICER JUDY HOPPS!" She yelled at him. "VALEDICTORIAN AT THE POLICE ACADEMY, ONE O FYOUR BEST OFFICERS, AND THE ONE YOU CHOSE TO MAKE THE NEXT CHIEF!"

There was stunned silence as the rest of the officers, and Silver, watched on. Blue quickly glanced around. "Oops, did I just say that out loud?"

"The hell are you talking about, rabbit? I ain't got-" He paused, and seemed to jerk around. At this moment, Red seemed to shake off his heavy injuries and start to get up. Gyuuya then let out another scream, purple energy expelling itself from his body.

"What's happening!?" The monster shouted as the purple energy flew from its body. "Master Long said this wouldn't happen!"

"Hey, Bogo!" Red shouted, though it was a bit weak. "Remember how you said I couldn't pass the entrance exam? Look at me now!"

The purple energy continued to flow from the monster as it struggled. "Max, Fangmeyer, Grizzoli, Trunkaby!" Blue shouted, looking at each of them. "Shout your memories about Bogo at the monster, we'll beat it that way!"

"Alright!" Silver said, getting fully to his feet. "Bogo, remember when you put me on records for spilling coffee on you? I know you were just having a bad day, and that was fine!"

"Remember when you put me and Rhinowitz on the same team to make us get along better?" Fangmeyer shouted. "It didn't work, but you tried!"

"Chief, remember the time you injured your back, but still came into work?" Grizzoli shouted down. "You should have told us, we would have taken it easier on you!"

"And remember when you got so mad at us in the bullpen you nearly snapped a table in two?" Trunkaby added in.

With each of the memories, Gyuuya started to struggle more and more. Finally, he exploded into a burst of purple energy. It cleared quickly, leaving the monster's unconscious body behind.

"You know, I was expecting a big explosion, like when we usually defeat a monster." Red said. "What do we do when he wakes up?"

"Welcome him with open arms."

Silver, Red, and the other officers stared at her. "Carrots, have you lost it?"

"No, I haven't." She said, sternly. "When he wakes up, it will be Bogo's mind, even if he's trapped in that monster's body. We'll tell him what happened, and then destroy the monster body on his own terms."

"That's very courteous of you, Fluff." Red said, crossing his arms.

Silver quickly stumbled over, the still unconscious Delgato hanging off his back. "I think we should get the other out of here first." He said. "In case something happens."

"Hey, uh, speaking of us…"

The three turned to look, the other three officers had gathered together. "Listen," Fangmeyer started. "We really appreciate you saving us twice."

"In just over twelve hours, I might add." Trunkaby added.

"I just wanted to say that… well, I think all of us here want to say that we're sorry for the last while." Fangmeyer continued. "We should've known you weren't really criminals."

"Hey, took you long enough to figure it out." Red said with a chuckle.

"It was pretty suspicious that the guys who were supposed to stop the criminals acted more like criminals." Grizzoli added.

Before anyone could continue, there was grunting from behind them. The Zoorangers turned to look at the monster's body, and prepared themselves as it started to rise.

"Ugh, where am I?" The beastman asked, looking around. Its voice sounded familiar, it sounded more like Bogo's now. He started to look at himself. "What happened to me?"

"Oh, chief, you're alright!" Blue said, hopping over to him. "Listen, before you freak out, we can explain everything."

"Not needed, Hopps." Bogo said, getting to his feet. "That… armored monster, told me everything. Guess I'm trapped in this ridiculous monster body for a bit, hmm?"

"Yeah, kind of." Red said. "But, and I know this is going to sound completely awful, if we take you out back and shoot you, we can get you back to normal."

Everyone stared at the fox for a moment.

"What? I said it would sound awful."

"What Nick's trying to say is that we need to go outside and destroy the monster body." Silver explained. "Once that's done, we'll probably have to fight a giant monster."

Bogo nodded. "Alright, let's go get this over with."

The four walked out of the police station and into the parking lot. "Just to warn you, this might hurt." Blue said as she guided Bogo over to a spot a few feet away from the other two. "Okay, it'll hurt a lot."

"Hold it."

There was a sudden burst of flame from between the four. The fire quickly dispersed, revealing Long. "Hm, guess you were even stronger than I thought." He said, turning to look at Bogo. "But it doesn't matter, I'll put an end to all this right now."

He snapped his fingers, causing bursts of purple Qi to spring from the ground. Several large holes opened up, Rinshi crawling out from them. In only a few seconds, an army of the monsters had appeared, and the holes closed behind them.

The Rinshi started to spread out, hopping towards the four. "hah, seriously?" Red said, pulling out his sword. "You think we can't take a handful of these guys?"

Long remained silent, standing in the middle of all this.

Red leaped forward, Silver quickly following behind. Silver jabbed his blade through one of the Rinshi, the fox landing on the sword. He leaped back in the air, and started to spin the blade around, before swinging the blade downward.

The blade detached, and flew towards the ground. The blade sliced through one of the zombie monsters, and the wire started to pull in. Red flew forwards, and pulled the blade out just before it disconnected, spinning it around in midair to wipe out more of the monsters. With each one he destroyed, purple Qi flew out.

Silver followed this up by switching to Sun mode, and flinging fireballs up into the air. They crashed down, more of the Rinshin being obliterated by the flames. He then quickly switched to Moon Mode, and lashed his blade forward, slicing through more of the Rinshi with his whip. More purple Qi flew out of them.

Blue quickly rushed forward, leaping up and tossing one of her daggers into a Rinshi's chest. The monster stumbled back in pain, tumbling back onto more of the grunts. Still in midair, Blue rapidly kicked at another one, using the final one to push herself farther into the air. The rabbit pulled out her blaster, and fired at the monsters, more purple Qi flying out.

As she landed, she looked over, noticing something. Long had vanished. Did he run away, or was he planning something? Definitely a problem to worry about, but not something to worry about at the moment. She continued to slash through the Rinshi.

Bogo watched as they fought against the seemingly endless hoard of the monsters. "I should help them…" He whispered to himself. "But what can I do in this ridiculous body?"

He glanced up, just in time to see a number of the zombie monsters hopping towards him. One of them pulled out a staff, and attempted to jab at him. The buffalo braced himself, but only felt a slight poke.

The Rinshi had started to shake in place, like the staff had hit something made of steel. Bogo let out a small laugh, and performed an uppercut, launching the still shaking Rinshi into the air, where it exploded into purple Qi.

The other Rinshis watched in awe, and then looked back to Bogo. He punched his fists together, and then quickly punched on in the face, causing it to be destroyed instantly. He rapidly punched through the rest of the monsters, before finishing off the last one with a headbutt.

"Hey, check out Bogo!" Red said as he sliced through another Rinshi. Blue and Silver quickly turned from their own fights to watch as Bogo rushed into the fight himself.

He started to punch and kick through each of the monsters, destroying most of them in a few seconds. The last remaining Rinshi stood around him, shaking in their boots, but still trying to stand strong. Bogo quickly spun around, annihilating the rest of them.

"Hah, maybe this isn't as bad as I thought." He said to himself.

"That was amazing, chief!" Blue said, running up and punching him in the arm. She quickly seethed as she hit the ground, clutching her paw. "Okay, that was a mistake."

"Alright, can we get to getting me out of this thing?" He said, stepping forward. "I'm starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable."

"No prob, Chief, just stand over there, and-" Before Red could finish, there was a laugh from behind him.

They all looked to see Long, simply standing there and laughing. "This is going to be more trouble than you expected, Zoorangers." He said. The Infinite Dragon held up his hand, and purple energy began to swirl around it. "Destroying all those Rinshi unleashed their Bestial Qi, which means… Well…"

The Qi combined into a massive purple orb above his hand. He quickly flung it at Bogo, the Zoorangers leaping out of the way. The buffalo, however, was less lucky.

The orb seemed to be absorbed into his body, causing him to scream in pain and crackled with dark electricity. "That should reinforce his hold." Long said. "Good luck dealing with him again." Long quickly vanished into golden mist.

The monster let out a roar, shooting out a pulse of energy that almost knocked the three Zoorangers over. "I'M BACK, AND READY TO DEAL SOME MOOOOOOO-SIVE DAMAGE!"

"Oh great, I thought this was going to be easy." Red said.

"I've had enough of this!" Blue said. "Red, we're going to do the thing!"

He nodded, and the both pulled out the Sun and Moon ZooTags, and quickly plugged them both in.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

Their super armor appeared, and the two quickly went into their poses and introduction.

"Casting a light over the darkened land! Master of the Sun! ZOORED SOLAR!"

"Shining a path for those in need! Goddess of the Moon! ZOOBLUE LUNAR!"

Their weapons appeared in their paws, ready to attack the monster. "I'm just gonna let you guys handle this." Silver said, stepping back.

"You couldn't stop me before!" Chaos Gyuuya shouted, flicking his cape and pounding on his chest. "How's some shiny samurai armor supposed to help you defeat me!?"

The two walked towards Gyuuya, silently. Their weapons appeared in their paws, and they rushed forward. Red jabbed his staff forward, Gyuuya not even moving as he did. Much to the beastman's shock, the staff actually hurt, causing a small explosion on its chest that caused it to stumble back.

"What… the hell's goin' on!?" It shouted, completely baffled by the feeling of pain. "I'm supposed to be invincible!"

Blue leaped into the air, and started rapidly slashing her blades, flinging energy slashes at the monster. Each of them hit, sparks shooting off from all over the monster's body. She started to fall, slashing directly through the monster and landing behind it.

"You're messing with two warriors who have more power than you and your boss combined!" Silver shouted at the monster. "You have no way of winning!"

"Well, I better mooooo-ve on outta here then!" The monster shouted, before attempting to run off.

Red and Blue met up, and combined their weapons together. They aimed the massive crossbow at the running monster, and proceeded to fire a massive bolt of energy. It pierced through the beastman's back, leaving him stunned as sparks burst off of him. He tipped over, and exploded.

From the explosion flew Bogo, as well as a Chaos Badge. The buffalo flew across the parking lot and crashed into the ground, unconscious.

The super armor vanished, putting Red and Blue back into their normal forms. "Ugh, I feel like this' taken too long." Red grunted, rotating his arm. The three watched as the Chaos Badge flew into the air, and then zoomed off to the outskirts of the city, reforming into Gyuuya.

"I'M GONNA BRING THE MOOOOOOOOO-HEM!" It roared, stomping towards the city.

"Guy's not really good with his puns, is he?" Blue said, as the three pulled out their ZooTags.

"Maybe it's a verbal tic." Silver said with a shrug.

In a flash, ZooRobo and ZooKami appeared, prepared to attack the monster. "I doubt you can hurt me with those puny weapons!" Gyuuya taunted. "I'm iron strong, nothing can-"

ZooKami stepped forward, and slashed at the monster with its sword. Sparks shot out from the monster's body as it was flung back. "Hey, look at that." Silver started, slashing at the monster again. "We can totally hurt you. Isn't that fun?"

The monster grunted, and quickly began to punch ZooKami. The punches seemed to stun the mech, with a final punch launching him. ZooKami crashed into ZooRobo, and then fell to the ground. ZooRobo stumbled backwards a bit, edging far too close to the city.

"Oh yeah, he's probably the strongest monster we've faced." Red said. "Probably not good to head up close for this one."

"Right, so that means we'll need…" She pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it inot the console. "THIS!"

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

ZooBison appeared, and the two combined together. ZooRobo stepped forward, aiming its guns at the monster. "Oh, so you're trying to play cowboy, huh?" Gyuuya chuckled. "Well, when you mess with the bull, you get the horns!"

"YOU'RE NOT EVEN A BULL!" Blue shouted as they opened fire on the monster, pelting it with fire for a good few moments. It stumbled back, clearly in pain.

ZooRobo placed the guns together, energy building up between them. They fired a blast of energy, shaped like a bison's head, at the buffalo monster, causing a massive explosion. The monster stumbled and sparked as it began to fall over.

"I MADE A BIG MOOOOOOO-STAKE!" It cried, before exploding.

ZooRobo spun its guns around, and turned around. "Nature, protected!"

The three landed back in the police station parking lot. All of the other officers, Fangmeyer, Grizzoli, Trunkaby, Rhinowitz, and Delgato, were helping Bogo up to his feet.

They untransformed, and hurried to help their former boss as well. They steadily moved him over to one of the steps. "How you feeling, chief?" Judy asked.

"Fine, just a headache." He said. "It's been… a rough day."

"No kidding." Nick said. "You know, we were really worried about you."

"Liar."

"No, he's serious." Max added. "We were scared that you'd end up dead. It could've very well happened, too."

"Yeah, if those SPD creeps had gotten to you first…" Judy continued. "You wouldn't be here right now."

"We were worried about you too, chief." Delgato said. "Mostly about your broken leg."

"I don't have a broken leg, Delgato." Bogo said. "The reason I'm not the police chief is because they fired me."

"Yeah, the broken leg thing was a lame cover-up." Nick said. "That Herder guy is incredibly shady."

"Don't have to tell us that." Fangmeyer added. "He's been threatening us with physical violence, he's obviously not fit to be a police chief.

"Probably not even fit to be chief of defense!" Nick joked. The rest of them laughed, giving Nick a chance to pull Judy over a bit from the rest of them.

"What the heck are-"

"Shh! I need to talk to you about something in secret!" He whispered. "Do you think Bogo is our fourth member?"

"What? Why would you think that?" She asked, baffled at the fox's suggestion.

"You saw how he took care of those bad guys!" He said. "And he managed to fight against a monster's control, maybe he's stronger than we think."

"Nick, he was in a monster's body, it was probably a lot more fit than he is." She said. "Our last member has to be someone younger, that's just what I think."

"Alright, whatever, Carrots." He said. "But if I'm right, I get to say, 'I told you so'." Before Judy could respond, they were distracted by someone shouting.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"

They turned to see Herder, walking towards them. "Why is the police station in ruins!? Why is Bogo here!?" He finally spotted the Zoorangers. "WHY ARE THESE CRIMINALS HERE!? ARREST THEM!"

"Sorry, but we're not arresting anyone, Herder." Grizzoli said, standing tall.

"I think you said 'chief' wrong." Herder growled. "I think you said a LOT of words in that sentence wrong."

"He didn't say anything wrong." Delgato followed. "You're the one who's been lying to us about everything."

"I have never lied!" Herder shouted.

"So that means that you never claimed that Bogo's leg was broken." Nick said.

"Well, I-"

"And guess what, it isn't, so he can go back to being the chief now." Judy said in a threatening tone.

"Excuse me!?" Herder shouted back. "You're the criminals, you should be locked up in prison for everything you've done!"

"They haven't done anything wrong!" Fangmeyer shouted at him. "You have no idea how to run the police, and you have no idea about who Nick, Judy, and Max are!" The husky pulled out his badge, and threw it to the ground. "As long as you're working here, I'm not!"

There was a sudden spurring of the other officers all of them audibly agreeing. One by one, they pulled out their badge, and flung it to the ground. The three heroes, Bogo, and Herder, were stunned by this action, and were left silent as they walked off.

"FINE!" Herder finally yelled out. "This city doesn't NEED you! We already have BETTER officers!"

The goat quickly stormed off, leaving the four other former officers behind.

"What just happened?" Judy asked.

"I think we just caused a strike."

* * *

"Looks like your latest mind game was a bit of a failure, hoss." Sambash said, leaning back in his chair. "How'd you even expect that to go?"

"To let you know, while I did expect… better." Long started as he sat down at the table. "There was, in fact, a positive outcome for us."

"Trying to spin a win out of a definitely loss, huh?" Yogostein chuckled as he stepped up behind Long. "Sounds like something someone as arrogant as you would do!"

"The police station has completely disbanded." Long declared. "I watched most of the officers declare a strike. The city is cop free, we can do whatever we want."

"Yo, wait, seriously?" Sambash said, startled. He leaned onto the table. "We can just, like, go out there without being reported on?" Long nodded his head.

"When have the police ever been a problem for us?" Yogostein asked.

"Don't you get it, wingnut?" Sambash said, standing up. "This means we can just patrol around and come up with plans without havin' to sneak around!"

"Hm, guess you're right!" He replied. "I suppose that's somewhat of a victory."

Long fell silent as the two started to talk. He toned them out with his own thoughts. He came very close to being caught by his business "partner", too close. It would only be a matter of time before they figured it out, and he'd have to use his last resort.

Hopefully he could squeeze some more fun out of it.


	31. Night on the Town

"So, you wanted to talk to me about something?" Yogostein asked the biker monster. He was sitting at the table in the middle of the room.

"Yeah," Sambash started, motioning for Yogostein to sit down. "I've got something great planned out."

The robot sat down next to him, and looked at the object in front of him. It was a map of the city, with several different locales marked. "And this is…?"

"It's a map." Sambash replied.

"Well, yes, but what's the purpose?"

"For the last week, I've been scouting out the best places to party in this entire city." He explained. "I thought we could celebrate, considering how well we've been doing."

"I've been in a bit of a slump." Yogostein admitted. "I got chosen by the prez today, but I can't come up with anything, so maybe I need something to loosen up my bolts. So, where are we headed?"

"They're a bit to tame for me, really." Sambash admitted. "I was hoping the city had at least one hot and sexy club, but the place is disgustingly T rated."

"What?" Yogostein blurted out, confused. "They don't have any factories?"

Sambash shot a confused glare at the robot.

"There isn't anything as sexy as watching cars get made!" Yogostein said, like this was a common thing for people to be into. Despite Sambash's glare, he continued. "Gets even better when they get out there and start polluting!"

"You know, I was thinking something in the opposite direction."

"Like a junkyard?"

Sambash shook his head, and continued. He pointed at one of the circled areas. "Best I could find was a nightclub, seems pretty popular, and has a nice drink selection." He slid his hand over to another location. "This karaoke bar is pretty fun, and there's a restaurant I've heard good thinsg about, could be fun to mess it up."

"Sounds like a plan to me!"

The two looked behind them, Yabaiba was standing there. "How long have you been there?" Yogostein asked.

"Long enough to think this sounds fun!" He said, moving in to lean on both their shoulders. "Think I could come along?"

"No, absolutely not." Yogostein said, rather bluntly. "You'd be a third wheel. You know what a third wheel makes you?"

"Uh, a tricycle?"

The two looked at each other in mutual disdain.

"But seriously, what if something happens when you guys are drunk?" Yabaiba asked. "I could be, like, a designated driver or something."

"That's incredibly stupid-" Yogostein quickly received a punch from Sambash.

"I think he's got a point, actually." The biker monster admitted. He leaned in a bit closer to whisper something to Yogostein. "He's got all the cash we need, so he has to come along.."

"Ohhh, I get it." Yogostein quickly stood up. "Alright, Yabaiba, you can come with us."

"Yay!" He cheered, jumping up and clapping. "So, when do you think we can head out?"

"Not until tonight, obviously." Sambash said. They call them 'nightclubs' for a reason."

"Oh, alright." The Org sounded fairly upset about this.

"Well, it gives me ample time to prepare." Yogostein said, heading off for his lair.

"What the heck do you need to prepare for?" Sambash asked.

Yogostein let out a quick laugh. "You know, I need to be ready in case some meddlesome pests show up."

* * *

"You know, I'm glad you finally invited us up here for breakfast." Nick said. The three were sitting at an incredibly long table, in a fancily furnished dining room. At the very end of the table sat Mr. Big, who was seated at his own miniature table. A large polar bear in a suit hovered over them, presumably as a guard.

Judy nibbled at her fette bicotatte, which looked like a really hard piece of bread. Despite that, it tasted more like a cookie. She quickly swallowed a bite. "Yeah, this stuff is really good." She said.

"It's grandmama's recipe." The shrew said.

"Your grandmama must have been a really good cook." Max said, before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, trust me, she was." Nick said.

"You know, for a bunch of wanted criminals, I had expected you three to be more… unruly." Mr. Big admitted. "But you have been incredibly respectful. You even cleaned up my spare room, an impossible feat."

"You really don't have to be surprised." Judy said. "We aren't actually criminals, you know. We're all very nice."

She turned to look at Nick, who had a bit of an… uncertain look on his face. She glanced over at Mr. Big, who, despite his eyebrows covering his eyes, had a very clear look of dislike pointed at the fox.

"I know you and Nick don't have a great history, but he's gotten better." She continued. "He's not the same fox he was before."

"It doesn't matter if someone is a changed mammal," Mr. Big started. "Experiences never change."

There was silence for a moment.

"Well, that soured the mood." Nick said, hopping down from his chair. "Come on, we have work to do."

"Can't we at least finish our breakfast before we have to go and fight crime?" Max asked.

"He's just trying to avoid any more awkwardness." Judy said. "Go ahead, Nick, we'll be ready to go in a few minutes."

"What exactly have you three been doing for the last week?" Mr. Big asked. "You've been running in and out of here even more than normal."

"Well, we accidentally caused a police strike." Judy said. "And it doesn't look like it's getting anywhere soon. There's been an excess in criminal activity because of it, and we feel responsible."

"You mean that you feel responsible." Nick followed. She shot him a glare. Despite the joke, she knew that Nick felt bad about the strike. He'd be a lot less willing to fight crime if he didn't.

"We've been trying to stop as much as we can." Max continued for her. "We haven't had a break in a while."

The shrew looked them over. They seemed exhausted, and clearly hadn't had enough sleep. "Consider this," He started. "From what you've told me, you three have more responsibility than just protecting the city. This is something bigger than that. If you want to get things back to normal, you'll need to fight for it. Take a break, just for a day."

"But we can't just-"

"He's right." Nick said, interrupting the bunny. "We need a break, especially today."

"Oh, right." Judy said. "Today's a monster attack."

"If we don't rest up, something bad will happen." The fox continued. "I'm sure the city can handle itself for a day."

"So, does that mean I can finish my cookie?" Max asked.

"Yes, you can finish it." Judy said. "I want to finish mine, too." She looked at Nick's plate, his wasn't finished, and his coffee was half full. "Are you going to finish it with us?" She asked.

"No, I'm gonna go back to sleep." He said. He glanced over at Mr. Big, and then walked away.

* * *

"Man, I am SO excited for this!" Yabaiba said as they approached the nightclub.

The building was planted in the middle of the Rainforest District, and in the middle of the night the place was ridiculously dark. The building in front of them not only lit the night up, but made the shadowy, muddy area of the city a lot brighter as well.

The building itself was shaped like a large, artificial tree, and was covered in multi-colored neon lights. The tree's branches seemed to be made of them. There was a large sign hanging above a double-door entrance. It read, in bright glowing neon, "THE STUMPER".

Yogostein let out a grunt as they headed towards the entrance. "Do we really have to be around all this… nature?" He asked, trying to shake the mud from his massive metallic feet.

"Yeah, this place is one of the best nightclubs in the city." Sambash assured him. "Least, that's what the reviews said."

"It looks super fun!" Yabaiba said. "Let's get in there and mess it up!"

The three villains headed to the front door. Unfortunately, a large, burly elephant bouncer stood in front of them. He stared at them through sunglasses, and let out a sigh. "Sorry, weirdos, but we're all out of room. Make a reservation and maybe we can pencil you in."

"Oh, so sad, guess we'll have to come back later." Sambash said, sarcastically. He quickly pulled out his pistol, and pointed it at the elephant's face.

"Nice toy." The elephant said, deadpan.

Sambash quickly aimed the gun upwards, and fired it at the sign above them. The force of the blast caused the sign to begin to tilt. The elephant was clearly frightened, but tried to appear calm.

"If I fire a second shot, that thing is gonna fall on your fat head." Sambash said. "Let us in, or I'll do it."

"Wait, I thought we were coming back later?" Yabaiba said, confused.

"He was being sarcastic, idiot." Yogostein replied, smacking the Org on the back if his head.

"So, what'll it be, fatass?" Sambash asked. "You gonna let us in?"

The elephant stepped aside, making enough space for them to enter. Sambash twirled his gun, and holstered it. "I think you made the right choice."

Yabaiba quickly skipped forward, and went in. Sambash followed at a fairly mild pace. Finally, Yogostein stomped his way towards the entrance, but paused next to the elephant.

"Maybe you should call the cops!" He laughed. "Oh wait! Hahahahaha!" He quickly kicked the door off its hinges and stepped in.

The interior of the nightclub was as bright as the outside. Lights seemed to line the walls, tables, and anything else that was nailed to the ground. There was a staircase swirling up to the next floor, making room for the place's multiple floors. Trance music was echoing throughout the place.

"Wow, it's a lot brighter than I was expecting." Sambash admitted.

They glanced around, aside form the music, the entire floor was silent. Around forty to fifty different animals stared at them.

"Suppose we should make this showy." Sambash said. He pointed his gun up in the air, and fired it. "Yo, party goers and rich alcoholics! Name's Sambash, this is Yogostein, and that's Yabaiba." He pointed at both of them with his gun. "We're here to have the run of the place for the next few hours, got it?"

There was a sudden amount of incoherent yelling from the terrified crowd. Sambash fired another warning shot before anyone could make a significant move.

"And don't even think of leaving!" Yogostein yelled. He pulled out a handful of nuts and bolts, and tossed them behind himself. A crowd of Ugutz appeared, blocking the entrance. "If you want to get out, you'll have to find out if you're strong enough to punch through solid steel!"

"Besides, what's a party without a bunch of strangers?" Yabaiba followed.

"Let's find somewhere to sit." Sambash ordered, the three heading down into the middle part of the club. Most of the seats were there, the bar overlooking it. The seats were red, and looked incredibly comfortable. They walked up to an antelope couple seated in a booth.

"Please don't hurt us." The male one whimpered.

"Move out of the way and I'll consider it." Sambash said.

"We paid a lot of money to get in here!" Shouted the other antelope's presumed date. "We have the right to stay here!"

The three monsters fell silent for a moment, before Sambash pulled out his gun. "You know, this gun doesn't run out of bullets." He said, aiming it at the male. "I could shoot you once, or I could keep going until your DNA registers as mashed potatoes."

"I think you're being too kind." Yogostein said. "I could take one of you back to my lab and perform painful experiments! Don't worry, you'd be alive to feel all of it."

"Or I could-" Yabaiba tried to speak up, but Sambash quickly pistol whipped him.

"Shut it, you're gonna ruin our threats." He turned back to the antelopes. "So, you gonna move, or be tortured?"

The antelopes quickly got up, and moved away from the seats. "Wise choice."

"Maybe you can find a seat at the bar!" Yabaiba yelled as the couple walked away, arguing.

The three villains slipped into the booth, Yabaiba and Sambash being forced to sit next to each other due to Yogostein taking up most of the other seat. Sambash was, quite understandably, uncomfortable sitting next to the jester.

"Man, isn't this great?" Yabaiba chirped. "Do you think I could get a milkshake here?"

"It's a bar, idiot." Sambash said. "They serve alcohol."

"Oh, I don't drink."

"Then why did you even-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

The three glanced to their side, a panther in a suit had suddenly appeared next to them. He looked furious. "Who are you?" Yogostein asked.

"I'm the owner." The panther growled. "Get out of my club, and take your robot friends with you."

Sambash sighed, and pulled out his gun. "I wasn't expecting to pull this thing out so often." He grumbled, loosely pointing it at the panther. "You know, it's our day off, and we just want some down time."

"I don't care." The panther growled. "You're scaring away all the other patrons."

"Yabaiba, you got the money?"

"Got it, Sammy!" The Org quickly raised his thumb to his chin, and pushed it down, revealing the inky blackness of his mouth. He tilted forward a bit, dollar bills starting to flow from his maw like an ATM. A few seconds after the bizarre site, several clean piles of money were on the table.

"This right here is around fifteen hundred dollars." Sambash explained, sliding the money across the table. The owner stared at the money, jaw hanging. "If you give us the run of the place, then you get all this cash."

"If you don't we'll kill you." Yogostein continued for him. "Either way, win-win."

The panther thought about it for a moment. He could take the money, and then call the police… But all the officers were on strike. He also didn't want to die, so he had only one choice.

He grabbed stacks of cash, and quickly ran back up to the next floor.

"So, you guys ready to have some fun?" Sambash asked.

"I've been ready for it since 2008!" Yogostein shouted. He tried to stand up, bending the table at the pole. Sambash and Yabaiba were trapped in place by the table, crushing against their legs. "Whoops."

Sambash let out a sigh. "This is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

* * *

It was nice to relax for a while, but Judy wasn't entirely the laid-back type. She enjoyed doing things, even if it was incredibly menial and unimportant. Every time she had tried to do that today, Nick and Max would talk her down, saying she needed to relax.

It was really hard to when she was getting constant reports on crimes. It just made her feel more anxious. She had mostly just been pacing around the spare room, trying to ignore looking at her phone.

"You guys think it's weird that the monsters haven't attacked yet?" She asked, somewhat out of nowhere.

"Oh yeah, it is Monday, huh?" Nick said, not looking up from his phone. "Maybe they're taking a break too."

"Monsters don't take a break." Judy said.

"I could argue, but they don't tend to take breaks in the shows either." Max followed. "Maybe they're planning something?"

"We should be alert." Judy said, sounding like a leader. "We need to pay attention to the news, and figure out if anything's happened."

"Fluff, please." Nick said, sitting up. "You have to take things less seriously sometimes."

"I'll take things less seriously when we're not dealing with world-ending crisis!" She yelled.

The two looked at her, and she started to take deep breaths. "Sorry, I'm just feeling really worked up."

"See, that's why you need to relaaaax." Nick said. He walked behind her, and started to give her a massage. "Yikes, you got a lot of knots back here."

She quickly swiped at his paws. "Don't, I can deal with my stress myself." She said. "I'm just worried that, while we're here doing NOTHING, someone like Long, or Enter is doing something nefarious that we don't know about!"

"Or it could be one of the idiot ones." Max followed.

"I'd still be concerned if it was them!"

Judy's phone started to buzz. She quickly rushed over to the desk it was on, and looked at the caller ID. She smiled, it was Clawhauser.

"Hey, Ben!" She greeted, chipperly. "Got anything for us?"

"Oh no…" Nick muttered.

"Oh my gosh, I found some big news!" He said. "There have been a bunch of reports coming in from the Stumper nightclub n the Rainforest District, and guess what? There's THREE monsters!"

Her smile turned to a bit of a cringe. "Oh, wonderful!"

"I'll email you a picture right now." He said.

Her phone dinged a second later. Two phones. "Have there been any reports about attacks, because our Zoolizers should have been able to pick up something."

"Nope, no reported attacks, they just kinda showed up and took over the place! Nobody's allowed out of there until it's over, apparently." He said. "You should probably check it out before anything really bad happens."

"We'll get on it." She said, giving a quick nod. "See ya, Ben."

"Byeeee!

She hung up, and quickly opened the email app. The picture Ben had sent wasn't a particularly great one, heavily blurred and hard to make anything out, most likely due to the bright lights. She could make out three figures very clearly, however.

Sambash, Yogostein, and Yabaiba, the three… least intense of their villains. They were gathered, alongside some of their minions, in the middle of the seating area. Some of the minions were suddenly dressed in waiter outfits as well.

The three generals seemed to not be doing anything incredibly wrong. Sambash was seated by himself, drinking from a bottle of something probably very strong. Yogostein was seated with some of his mechanical troops, holding up a cocktail. Yabaiba was seated with some normal mammals… who were blocked in thanks to his Orgettes. Oddly enough, he was the only one who didn't seem to be drinking any alcohol, only having a glass of water.

"Huh." She let out, before shutting off the phone.

"This sounds like an odd one." Max said. "What do you think we should do?"

"Well, we can't just rush in." Judy rationalized. "There's three generals, we don't even know if our super forms are able to handle that many."

"I think I should take lead here." Nick said. "We need to get the jump on them, and I know how to get into nightclubs discretely."

"You've done it before?" Max asked, a bit surprised.

"Of course I have!" He chuckled. "Not an incredible success rate, mind you, but We should be able to get in no problem with those dorks there."

"They're still a problem, Nick." Judy said, tapping her foot.

"Yes, but they're drunk." He continued. "And the only one that won't be drunk is an idiot."

"He has a good point."

"Fine." She said. "What're we going to do?"

* * *

"I was expecting something worse." Judy admitted. The plan was incredibly simple: They just had to go in disguise.

The three, in their disguised outfits, watched the Stumper's entrance from behind a nearby perennial. "This kind of stuff is child's play, Carrots." Nick replied. "You just gotta act cool. This only works once, though, so be careful."

Judy and Max nodded. "Max, think you can get a good look at the bouncer?" Nick asked. Him and Judy were too short to peek over the plant, but the wolf was definitely tall enough.

He stood up a bit, and looked at the entrance. "Oh, this is going to be easy."

"What is it?" Judy asked.

"Its one of those robots, and one of the pirates." He said, leaning back down. "The super weak ones."

"Those things don't have half a brain between them," Nick started. "We should be able to get in easily!"

The three nodded, and quickly jumped out from the bush. They went into a more casual stride, leaving footprints in the mud as they got closer. The fox quickly shook some of the mud off his feet. "Ugh, I hate this place."

"Didn't you live here before you moved in with me?" Judy asked.

"It was cheap."

They walked up to the two minions, who quickly stepped in the way of the broken door. The robot beeped at them a few times, while the pirate waved its sword around and grunted incoherently.

"Calm down, boys." Nick said. "We just came because we heard there was a sweet party here, think your bosses have room for us?"

The two minions looked at each other, and then shook their heads, making random noises as they did so.

"Well, your bosses came here for a party, and to have a party you need guests." Judy started. "Wouldn't it be better if there were MORE guests?"

The monsters stared at each other again, but Max quickly piped in. "I bet your bosses will be super angry about it once they find you kicked us out!"

"Yeah, imagine one of those guys angry." Nick followed.

It took a moment, but the monsters quickly stepped out of the way of the door, letting the three in. "Thank you for being reasonable!" Nick shouted as they entered.

As soon as they entered, Judy had a bit of an inner panic attack. The multi-color, sometimes flashing lights were bad enough, but the MUSIC… It was some kind of hard rock, industrial soundtrack that grated on her sensitive eardrums. A quick glance told her that everyone that wasn't a monster found it grating as well.

Max, meanwhile, was having a different problem. Being a bar, the place exuded the aroma of many different kinds of alcohol, none of which were pleasant due. That wasn't even the worst of it, as there was also the smell of gasoline and oil for some reason. This horrid combination hit him as he entered, and nearly wretched.

Nick, however, didn't seem to have any problems.

"Oh, you guys are such first-timers." He joked. "Can't handle the club scene?"

"We can handle it." Judy said, pulling her ears down and putting her hood up.

"I need a bathroom." Max wheezed. He clutched his stomach, and quickly ran off.

"We'll find a seat!" Judy tried to yell over the music, but she could tell it didn't make it to him. The wolf quickly ducked into a small alcove, presumably where the bathrooms were. Hopefully that's where they were.

Judy and Nick tried to head down into the seating area, but one of the gooey Orgette monsters blocked their path. "Are we seriously going to have to do this a second time?" Nick whispered to the rabbit, who shook her head in response.

Surprisingly, as they approached the monster, it stepped out of the way and let them in. Both shrugged, but went along with it. They headed down the steps, Judy eyeing the monsters around them. They didn't seem to notice, or care, that anyone was coming.

As they took a seat at a round table, nearly the right size for them, she picked up someone yelling over the noise. "Are those two crazy?" She looked up, spotting a bear talking to a cheetah, they were looking down at them over the railing.

"Maybe they have a death wish." The cheetah said back. "Why else would they go near those things?"

She turned back to the fox. "Alright, you got us in, I'll handle everything from here on out." She said, leaning forwards a bit.

"What's the plan, Wonder Bunny?"

She tried not to scoff at the name. "We are going to wait here until we can figure something out." She explained. "If we don't have any idea what they're doing, we can't figure out a plan."

Nick nodded.

"Alright, I'm back!"

The two were startled as Max suddenly showed up next to their table. He looked down at them. "You could've at least picked a table I could sit at."

"Just sit over there." Nick said, pointing towards a table near Yogostein.

"Seriously?"

"We're trying to get information." Judy said. "We can hear Sambash and Yabaiba from over here, so we need you to keep an ear out for Yogostein. Text me if you hear anything."

The wolf rolled his eyes, but then nodded. He quickly sat over at the table, and pulled out his phone. A few seconds later, Judy's phone dinged.

"this is just like the last time I went to a bar" The text read.

"Well, now I feel bad." She muttered. She replied with a quick "sorry".

Half an hour passed, neither Nick nor Judy managing to get anything interesting from the monsters. Sambash had been silent most of the time, the only time he spoke up was when he asked a Yartot to get him another drink. Yabaiba, however, wouldn't shut up. Unfortunately, everything he was saying was useless, going on about anecdotes about bowling, karaoke, and becoming a chef. It was clear the mammals in his captivity were just as bored by it.

Judy slammed her head against the table, and then pulled out her phone. She quickly texted to see if Max had found anything.

"he's just talking about those 2 we met during tht weird au thing"

"I don't think we're getting anywhere." Judy admitted.

"What makes you think that?" Nick asked sarcastically. "What's Plan B?"

"Well, they haven't seemed to notice us yet, so…" She nodded a bit. Nick nodded back, clearly not getting it.

"What is that."

"We're gonna transform and beat them up!" She said. "I'll tell Max." She quickly started texting him the plan.

They watched as he scrambled up, from the table, and quickly transformed into ZooSilver. "Oh no, we were supposed to do that together!" Judy yelled, quickly getting up from the seat and transforming herself.

Nick shrugged, and quickly followed.

"Alright, you monsters, get ready to…" Blue paused, and looked around, none of the villains had noticed them yet. "Oh, come on, seriously!?" She shouted, still not breaking through the music.

"Let me try something." Silver cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. He then let out a loud howl, which did manage to pierce the music.

"What the hell!?" Yogostein yelled, pushing some of the Ugutz out of the way.

Yabaiba quickly pushed some of the mammals next to him out of the way, and hopped over their bodies to see what was happening. Sambash slammed his bottle in the table, and rose up.

Yogostein stomped forward. "When did-"

The robot was quickly interrupted by more howls from other wolves in the nightclub. Everyone stood around for a moment, waiting for it to finish. Red rolled his eyes, and quickly kicked Silver in the back of the leg. "Alright, Wolfsbane, that's enough."

Silver let out a quick cough. "Sorry."

"As I was saying," Yogostein continued. "When did you three get here!?"

"We've been here for like, forty minutes." Blue answered.

"Seriously?" The robot said, genuinely surprised.

"Guess we were having too much fun!" Yabaiba suggested.

"You do have the contingency plan with you, right Yogo?" Sambash asked.

"Indeed I have!" He let out a laugh, pulling out two objects. A large gear, and a brown power drill. "You see, ZooFools, we anticipated your arrival-"

"I didn't!" Yabaiba interrupted. "I didn't expect it at all!"

"That's because you're an idiot!" Yogostein shouted. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, we knew you would come, so I decided to bring something to keep you busy while we have fun!" He held up the drill. "Using this, I'll be able to summon Drill Banki, one of my most powerful creations, and he will FINALLY destroy y-"

Blue quickly pulled out her pistols while the robot was speaking, and fired them at the gear in his hand. The blast hit, causing Yogostein to uncontrollably fling the gear out of his grasp. It flew up the stairs to the bar, and stopped on its edge, before falling over.

Everyone on the floor stared at the gear for a moment.

"GET IT!" Yogostein ordered to his Ugutz. They quickly jolted from whatever they were doing and started to slowly walk towards the gear.

"You guys handle the robots, I'll get the gear!" Blue ordered. She stepped forward, but quickly spun around on her foot. "We're indoors, so no guns, alright?"

"Got it Commander Carrot." Red joked. Him and Max quickly split up, leaping up with their blades to take on the groups of Ugutz heading towards the gear.

Blue dashed up the stairs, and scooped the gear up in her paw. "Can't make a monster if they don't have this thing." She said. "Just gotta figure out a way to-"

There were sudden gunshots at her feet, causing the gear to slip out of her hands as well. It flew over to the stairs, and landed perfectly on its side. Blue glanced down, Sambash was the one who had shot at her.

He glanced over to the staircase as well, and the over to Yabaiba. "Go get that thing!" He shouted.

"Yes, cap'n!" Yabaiba let out, giving a salute. Sambash shook his head as the Org ran as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, this wasn't as fast as a rabbit. She had to cover more distance, however, and they both met right at the gear. They glared at each other, and pulled out their daggers, prepared to fight.

However, a Ugutz flew through the air, it's head hitting the gear as it landed. The force of the tap somehow caused the gear to boost all the way up the stairs and to the next floor.

"Sorry!" Red shouted as he continued to fight the Ugutz.

The rabbit and Org glanced at each other again, and then up at the stairs. "Uh, you wanna go first?" Yabaiba asked.

"What? Why would I want to go first?" She asked. "You're just gonna backstab me!"

"Alright then," He said, crossing his arms. "I'LL go up first!"

He confidently strode up the stairs. Halfway up, Blue pulled out her blasters, and fired at his back. He flipped onto his back, and fell all the way down the stairs. "Seriously?" She said as she hopped past him.

The Duke Org quickly sat up. "Wow, she got me good!" He chuckled. He quickly pointed up the stairs. "Orgettes, make sure she doesn't get that gear!"

Blue looked around the room. It was full of both monster minions AND different mammals… and all of them seemed to be having a good time. It seemed like this was the dance floor, another bar set up on the other side of it.

She stood there in awe for a moment, watching as the two completely different groups of creatures seemed to be having fun in each other presence. Maybe they just hadn't noticed each other yet.

It was weird that anyone could even dance to this music, though.

Her trance was broken by sounds from downstairs. She looked down the stairwell, a horde of Orgettes climbing up it.

"Guess this peace is gonna be broken in a second." She muttered. She quickly looked around the room, looking for the gear. The Orgettes were getting closer, so she dashed into the crowd. She dashed between and around the legs of the dancers, looking for the gear.

"It has to be around here somewhere." She said to herself. She could hardly make out anything through the multicolored lights and moving feet, it was starting to make her nauseous.

Suddenly, there was a yell, and the crowd parted. She looked back, the horde of Orgettes, now accompanied by Yartots and Ugutz, had managed to break through the crowd, and were heading towards her.

She drew her daggers, and stepped back. She was starting to get a bit unsteady, the entire club atmosphere finally starting to get to her. The rabbit looked over at the DJ table, which was being controlled by an Ugutz, of course. She should've expected a malfunctioning robot to like music like this.

"HEY! DJ!" She shouted. This seemed to catch its attention. "I think the crowd wants something a bit more epic!"

The Ugutz looked over at a pile of discs. It quickly combed through them, and picked one out. The robot smashed the record that was currently playing, and haphazardly stuck the new one on.

The group of monsters, alongside Blue, waited patiently for it to finish.

The monster started spinning the disc, taking a few seconds before the music started to play. It was a fast-paced techno beat, something that Blue enjoyed… well, a little more than the scratchy metal.

She shrugged. "Could've been worse."

She readied her daggers once again, and dashed forward, the music helping her keep up the pace as she sliced through them one by one.

Back on the first floor, Red and Silver were nearly done with the monsters there. Red caught notice of the music change. "Aw, I liked that track." He muttered, before slicing the last Ugutz in half.

The two of them turned towards the two generals, who were still standing in the middle of the seating area. "Okay, we've taken care of your minions!" Silver shouted. "Now you have to tell us your plans!"

"We don't have a plan, dumbass!" Sambash shouted back. "We're trying to take a break from that shit!"

"You really expect us to believe that?" Red retorted. "It's Monday, you guys always do something terrible on Monday!"

"Not today, we aren't!" Yogostein replied. "We might have caused some property damage, threatened violence, and illegally took over a public establishment, but worse things happen every day in El Salvador!"

"Yeah, we haven't even touched a hair on any of these animal's hides." Sambash continued. "You have no right to attack us!"

"Being a Sentai hero means fighting against you weirdos!" Silver replied. "Even if you're not hurting anyone NOW, you've still hurt others in the past and are going to keep doing so in the future."

"Well, you got us there, kid." Sambash said, with a bit of a laugh. He quickly pulled out his pistol, placing his other hand over the hammer. He rapidly slammed it down, while shooting the gun, creating a flurry of bullets impossible for any kind of normal gun.

The two leaped out of the way, leading the bullets to fire into the bar behind them. One by one, the glasses shattered, spilling alcohol all over the place. The bartender, who had been replaced with a Yartot, looked around confused. One last shot hit him, causing the pirate to explode into orange sand.

"Oh, whoops." Sambash said, stopping. "Guess my aim's a bit off."

Yabaiba watched as the four continued to fight. He was getting a bit bored. Maybe he should've gone up himself to deal with that rabbit. Nah, his Orgettes could handle it.

Just then, one of his Orgettes came tumbling down the stairs. As soon as it hit the floor, it exploded into a pile of goop.

"Well, guess I was wrong!"

He quickly went up the stairs, peeking up from the entrance to get a quick glimpse. The rabbit had nearly cleaned out the entire floor of monsters, making sure each of the mammals there was safe. Well, clean was an inaccurate way of describing it, considering the room was covered in green slime, orange sand, and motor oil.

"That was a lot of work." She said, holding the gear loosely in her paw. "Maybe I should get a drink here, could help."

"I'll give you a drink!" Yabaiba shouted, walking towards her. Blue rolled her head and let out a sigh. "It's called…" He paused for a second. "Uh…"

"Fruit punch?" She finished for him, exasperated.

"Yeah, droot paunch!"

There were collective, aggravated groans from everyone that wasn't Yabaiba.

"What?"

Blue shook her head, placed the gear at her side, and started to run forward. "Alright, let's get this-"

She slipped on some of the goo.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. She crashed into Yabaiba, the two rolling down the stairs. They continued to roll as they hit the floor, quickly rolling over Red. They continued to roll over the spilled liquids at the bar, and then over Silver. The four then rolled down the stairs, crashing into Yogostein and Sambash.

They all went flying, crashing into the tables and wrecking nearly all of them. During the crash, the gear had managed to slip from Blue's suit, and was flung up into the air. The six were still conscious, and watched as the gear flew onto the one table that wasn't destroyed.

The one with Sambash's beer bottle on it.

The gear landed on it, tooth precariously balancing on the open hole.

There was a collective sigh as nothing happened. "I have no idea what just happened," Yogostein said, getting up from the remnants of a table. "But nothing horrible came out of it, so I'll be taking that gear back now!"

He stomped forward.

The force of the stomp caused the gear to shake a bit. It twisted around by a few millimeters, and dipped into the bottle. It started to glow.

"Gulp."

The bottle started to shake, before it exploded into a cloud of smoke. The smoke quickly cleared, revealing a new monster standing on the table.

Its main body resembled the brown bottle it was created from, only with a silver face and an odd protruding nose. The monster's mouth appeared to be a bottle open, and another addition was a large cork plugged into the top of its head. The rest of its body appeared to be made out of bottles as well, most notably his forearms, which were shaped like a red bottle and a blue bottle, its hands coming out from underneath the tubes.

The legs started matching the brown bottle, but its lower legs matched the red and blue bottles. A skirt of bottle openers covered its waist. Covering both its arms and legs were several different bottlecaps, each a different color, though its kneepads were bottlecaps covered in bottlecaps. In addition to the bottles on its arms, its shoulders displayed odd, curved cap removers that were covered orange, a silver one also adorning its right arm. An older fashioned cork remover, complete with screw, was placed atop the other arm.

The monster laughed, and stepped forward. "Hello! I am-"

It quickly slipped, cracking the table beneath him. The monster climbed back up, and brushed itself off. "I am Bottle Banki, the most dangerous Banki Beast!"

Everyone else got up, and stared at the strange creature. Yogostein, however, let out a laugh, and patted Bottle Banki on the back. "Really now?" He started. "What can you do?"

"Just watch!" Bottle Banki said, before awkwardly running off. Yogostein turned back to Sambash, who gave a half-hearted shrug.

A moment later, Bottle Banki returned, carrying a recycling bin and a trash can. "Watch, as my deviousness comes to fruition!" He reached into the garbage can, and pulled out a wrapper. Cackling maniacally, he then pulled out a water bottle from the recycling bin. He then quickly dropped the bottle into the garbage, and the wrapper into the recycling.

"Oh my god." Blue let out.

"Yeah, I know." Red followed. "This is the lamest-"

"This might be the evillest monster we've ever faced." Blue finished, completely serious.

Red and Silver exchanged quizzical stares, while the monsters themselves were incredibly confused at what had just happened.

"Ooooooooh kaaaaay…" Yogostein let out. "But what can you actually, you know… DO?"

"Oh, that's what you meant!" The monster said, kicking the garbage can out of the way. "I can shoot incredibly hot water out of my arms!" He said as he walked up to the still very confused Zoorangers, and aimed his red arm at them. "HOT WATER COMMERCIAL!"

A stream of water fired out of the bottle, drenching Blue in it. She let out a groaning scream. "Oh my god, Blue, are you alright?" Silver asked.

"It's… it's lukewarm."

The monster placed both of its hands to its face, and let out a scream. The bottle monster then quickly ran up the stairs behind him, like he was in fast forward, though he tripped over the last one.

"I'm kind of scared right now." Red admitted, confused by the bizarre antics. The other two nodded in agreement.

"You get used to your every waking moment being a bizarre dream-like hellscape." Yabaiba said. "Happened a ton to me!"

"Hah, you don't even know the meaning of the words 'bizarre', 'dream-like', and 'hellscape'!" Yogostein finished. "I should tell you about the time we saved the world from a giant tuba monster by forming a band!"

"…The hell were your lives like?" Sambash asked.

The Zoorangers quickly drew their weapons, preparing for a fight.

"Whoa, whoa, hold it!" Yogostein yelled. "You three have caused enough trouble for us as it is!"

"Yeah, and this club wasn't as fun as I was expecting." Sambash admitted. "So, we're heading out for now. Ciao."

Yogostein let out a burst of smoke, covering the villains, and Bottle Banki. The smoke cleared, and the three had disappeared. The Zoorangers quickly untransformed.

"Great, we're not even done with these guys yet." Nick groaned.

"We should keep an eye open for them." Max suggested. "They're probably going to cause more trouble."

"Or, we could keep an EAR out!" Judy followed. She quickly pulled out her phone as the others looked at her, confused. "Hey, Ben!" She greeted, the cheetah's voice coming over the phone.

"Oh, hey guys, how'd the monster hunting go?" He asked.

"About the opposite of well." She answered. "Listen, the monsters escaped, and they might end up causing more trouble. We need you to keep a look out for them, alright?"

"Sure!" He said. "Good thing this happened when I decided to start marathoning shows on Petflix, I'm gonna be up all night anyway!"

"That isn't healthy, but alright!" She responded. "Just let us know!"

"Got it, Judy!"

She quickly hung up, and let out a sigh. "Let's get out of here before they can-"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED DOWN HERE!?"

The three turned to look at the base of the stairs, a panther in a suit stood there, fuming. "DID YOU THREE RUIN MY CLUB!?"

"This is the point where the sneaking into a club plan breaks apart." Nick whispered. "We should make a run for it."

Judy and Max nodded, and they quickly scampered out of the building before the panther could do anything.

"Hope you didn't want to go there ever again!" Nick yelled as they continued to run.

* * *

"What the hell are we supposed to do with this guy?" Sambash asked. The four monsters were stood on a rooftop, Bottle Banki over in the corner while the three generals discussed what to do next.

"I don't think he'll be that much of a problem." Yogostein said. "We didn't even get to see if he can actually fight yet, it might be best to let him hang around."

"I think he's funny." Was all Yabaiba had to add.

"Well, to me he seems like a major screw-up." Sambash continued. "We still have two stops left, and I don't want a fourth wheel to tag along."

"But wouldn't a fourth wheel balance it out?" Yabaiba asked.

"He's right, mechanically speaking, vehicles with four wheels tend to be more steady and stable than even two wheeled vehicles." Yogostein added.

Sambash paused for a moment. "Shit, you're right. Next stop might be fun with more people anyway, tell him he can come along."

Yogostein nodded, and walked over to the Banki Beast. "What were you talking about over there, Master Yogostein?" Bottle Banki asked.

"Bottle Banki, you are to accompany us on a… very important mission." Yogostein started. "Are you sure you can handle this?"

"Yes sir!" He said, giving a salute. "I can handle anything you throw at me, I'm the great Bottle Banki. Except, don't throw balls at me. Or rings. Or anything that could shatter me."

"Uh, alright." He said, turning back and giving a confused look to the others. Sambash did nothing, while Yabaiba gave a double thumbs-up… for some reason.

"Ah hem, anyway." Yogostein continued. "I just have one thing to ask you before we head out on this daring mission."

"What is it, Master Yogostein?"

"How well can you sing?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the Zoorangers were also standing on top of a building, waiting around for something to happen. What a coincidence.

"Can I ask you something, Carrots?" Nick asked the rabbit, who was pacing about.

"What?"

"Were you actually being serious about calling that goof the 'evilest monster we've ever faced'?" He continued. "Because you aren't good at sarcasm, I know that."

"I was being entirely serious." She replied. "If that monster was more efficient, it could ruin the environment in no time."

"Riiiight."

"Also, it really bothers me when things aren't sorted correctly, I don't know why." She continued.

"Same." Max followed. "You've seen my collections, Nick, did you see how organized they were?"

"Uh, sorry, I wasn't really paying attention back then."

Before any more awkwardness could ensue, Judy's cellphone rang. She answered it in a heartbeat. "Hey, Ben, feels like we just talked five minutes ago!"

"I know right, but it's been an hour!" He laughed. "I got some news, I think I know where the monsters went, and you WILL NOT believe it!"

"I mean, after what just happened I'll believe anything." She replied.

"They're at the Note Pole Karaoke Bar in Tundra Town!"

"Didn't expect that one, huh, Fluff?"

"Why… what are they doing at a karaoke bar?" She asked, confused.

"Get this… they're singing karaoke!" Ben answered. "What else would you do at a karaoke bar?"

"I mean, I guess, but…" She rubbed her head. "Thanks for the help, Ben, talk to you later, alright?"

"See ya later, Judy!"

She hung up, and quickly turned to Nick. "Did you get anything out of them while we were at the club?" She asked. "Any kind of plan, any details, anything?"

"They said they were just trying to have fun." Max said with a shrug. "Maybe they're trying to keep something secret from us?"

"They have to be." Nick said. "I refuse to believe are universe is threatened by a monstrous fraternity."

"Let's just go to the bar, and try to figure something out, alright?" Judy suggested. "We'll see if we can figure out anything once we actually start fighting them."

"Okay, can I ask something before we go?" Max chimed in.

"Uh, sure?"

"Can either of you sing?"

"I have the voice of an angel, I'll have you know." Nick said.

"Does that really matter?" Judy asked. "I feel like we have more important things to handle than asking about vocal talents."

"She's just upset because she can't sing." Nick said, elbowing her.

"I CAN sing!" She let out, pushing him away. "I just don't think this is important. Why are you asking, anyway?"

"Well, I was thinking, maybe if we can defeat the monster while we're there… we could use the karaoke machine?" He admitted, bashfully.

Judy sighed. "IF that happens, we'll ask." She said. "But we don't have any money, so no drinks."

"Oh, I don't drink." Max said.

"I might need one after this." Judy mumbled to herself.

* * *

The three arrived outside the karaoke bar. There really wasn't much special at first glance, it mostly looked like a hole in the wall. The only thing that really made it stand out was a neon sign reading "NOTE POLE", but the "e" in "note" had gone out.

"So, should we rush in and take them by surprise, or try the subterfuge thing that went so well last time?" Nick jokingly asked.

Judy looked around the area. There didn't seem to be… well, any sign of danger. IT was strangely quiet, the only sound being that of the night itself.

"I think we should just head in." She said.

"Okay, I was joking, but we're seriously just going to go in to the monster's den?" Nick asked.

"Yep."

"Brilliant."

The three quickly walked into the karaoke bar. The first room was a pretty bare lobby, it looked like a dentist's office. Bare yellow walls, not much decorating them. They apparently also had soundproofing, as they couldn't hear anything from behind a lone door. Sitting at a desk was an arctic fox, presumably a waiter.

"I was expecting a bit more." Max admitted, sounding a bit disappointed.

"That's what they all say." Said the arctic fox. "And I'm sorry to say, but we're all completely booked out for tonight."

"Was it by a biker, a robot, and a clown?" Nick asked.

"Yes." The other fox responded. "Along with their… friends. We only have three seats left, and they're reserved."

The three Zoorangers looked at each other for a second. "Who are they reserved for?" Judy asked.

He pulled out a clipboard, and flipped through a few pages. "Yartot number eighty five, not there, Ugutz number thirty two, nope, Orgette number two hundred and fifty, getting closer…"

After a minute, the fox finally found what he was looking for. "Front table, reserved for Misters Wilde, Wolford and a Miss Hopps."

Judy's ears popped up in surprise. "Hey, that's-"

Nick quickly pulled her back. "Don't tell him, Judy!" He whispered.

"What? Why?"

"We're going to have to show ID, which means there'll be witnesses, which means that the SPD are going to find us."

"Oh, poop, you're right, but how are we-"

"Yeah, I'm Maxwell Wolford." Max started, kneeling down at the small counter. He pulled out his driver's license and placed it on the counter as well. "And those are Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde."

Nick and Judy's jaws hung open.

"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" The arctic fox chimed. "I'll let you in right away."

There was a click, sounding that the door had been unlocked.

"Why the heck'd you do that?" Judy said, sounding both angry and confused.

"Because I want to sing karaoke." Max replied, absolutely honest. "Besides, the bad guys are in there, so…"

She sighed. "If this backfires in some way, I'm blaming you."

"No one else to blame!"

They opened the door, and the mood of the building instantly changed. The bar part of the karaoke bar was colored in wintery colors, around twelve or so tables littered the white carpeted floor, and were shined on by light blue and green mood lights. A stage was present, so intoxicated mammals could go up there and embarrass themselves in front of an audience.

Despite the rather calming atmosphere the room itself presented, the things going on were far from. Several waiters, each of different species, were rushing around, trying to get drinks to tables. Most of the tables seated different minions, hooting and hollering. On the stage was a Ugutz, beeping along to a song that none of them could make out.

"Okay, this is what I was expecting." Nick said as they headed towards the front.

They spotted a table, occupied by Sambash, Yogostein, Yabaiba, and Bottle Banki. They were lined up, with another three seats opposite them.

These were the only unoccupied seats.

"Think they want us to sit there?" Max asked.

Judy shrugged. "One way to find out."

They walked over to the seats, and sat down on them. Well, Max sat down on his, Nick and Judy climbed up theirs. They had to stand on them, Judy's head barely passing the table.

"I was expecting this to look a bit less… lame." Sambash admitted.

"Shut it." Judy snapped. "What do you want?"

"To see if you guys know how to PAR-TAY!" Yabaiba shouted.

"…More accurately, we wanted to challenge you to a small contest." Yogostein continued, trying to make them sound somewhat dignified.

"A karaoke contest?" Max asked, tail starting to wag.

"No, a KARAOKE- Wait, how did you know?" Yogostein asked, surprised.

"Maybe it's because we're in a karaoke bar?" Bottle Banki suggested. Yogostein glanced around for a moment.

"Alright, that's a fair guess." He admitted.

"Really?" Nick said with a chuckle. "You're going to fight us… with karaoke?"

"Yeah, you guys have had some really dumb plans, but this is the dumbest." Judy said.

"This isn't a plan, bunny." Sambash said, reaching over and flicking her in the forehead. "If this was a plan, we would have made a karaoke monster."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Yabaiba muttered.

"Yeah, we just want to have some fun today." Yogostein continued. "But that doesn't mean that there aren't stakes to this contest."

"Three on three!" Yabaiba shouted. "Best outta three wins! You guys win, we leave, we win, you guys gotta leave us alone for the night!"

"Wait, three on three?" Bottle Banki said, sounding a bit disappointed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You can, uh… announce?" Yogostein suggested, though he sounded a bit unsure.

"Sounds good to me!"

"So, you want a singing contest, huh?" Judy said, stretching her arms out. "You challenged the wrong bunny. I've kept up with the top one hundred for the last ten years of my life, and listened to every number one hit more times than I can count! Just try me."

The monsters fell silent, before they started to laugh. "You really expect us to play by your world's rules?" Sambash said.

"Wait 'til you get a load of OUR OWN karaoke machine!" Yogostein said, motioning over to the stage.

Spotlights suddenly shone on a large machine, larger than a karaoke machine probably should be. It was black in color, and had large horns coming from it. Two screens appeared to form menacing red eyes, while the menu itself was closed in via a sharp teeth pattern, completing a monstrous face. The speaker was fairly normal looking, though it was marked with the odd symbol found on most of Yogostein's monsters.

"Behold, the Kaijuoke Machine!" He declared. "It only plays the greatest hits from OUR universe!"

"Yeah, and those songs are coded into our DNA!" Yabaiba followed. "Literally, we don't even know where they came from!"

"Always expect the bad guys to play a bit shifty, huh?" Nick said.

"Even if we don't know the songs, I bet we can still school you at singing!" Judy shouted. "So, we accept."

"Yes!" Max shouted, bursting up from his seat. "Karaoke!"

"I have never seen anyone this excited about karaoke before." Nick admitted. "You know you're probably just going to embarrass yourself in front of a live audience, right?"

"Oh, I doubt it."

Nick and Judy looked at each other, both a bit confused. "Aaaaanyway." The bunny segued "How about we get this started?"

"Right!" Bottle Banki said, standing up. He quickly moved up to the stage, and spun around, a microphone suddenly appearing in his hand. The feed buzzed for a moment, causing any previous altercations to come to a halt. "Alright folks, whether you be organic or not, we're in for the very first Kaijuoke Battle Royale!"

There was applause from the audience, the waiters moving on and continuing to serve drinks.

"For our first match, we have Judy Hopps, ZooBlue, versus Duke Org Yabaiba!" Bottle Banki continued, much to the shock of the patrons at the front table.

Sambash quickly marched up on stage, and smacked the microphone out of the Banki Beast's hand. "Who the held said you could choose the match-ups?" He growled.

"Uh, I dunno, I just thought I could?"

Sambash shook his head. "Fine, whatever, they'll go first." He stomped back to the table, and sat down, arms crossed. "I wanted to go first…"

Yabaiba quickly got up, and skipped onto the stage. Jud followed, leaping up onto it. "Alright you two, to decide who goes first, you're gonna have to play RO-SHAM-BO!" Bottle Banki declared.

Yabaiba leaned down to the rabbit's level, and they exchanged cold stares. They held out their fists, and shook them up and down.

"RO-SHAM-BO!"

Judy quickly formed paper, while Yabaiba played rock. He let out a quick "Doh!" and stood up, arms crossed.

"Hah, the rock trick never works!" Judy said, before hopping over to the large machine.

She glared up at it, it was a massive and intimidating piece of metal, maybe five or six times her own height. The microphone, which looked to be too large for her paws, was also up too high to reach. "Uh, can I get some help?" She asked, looking down at the table.

Sambash got up, though he let out a sigh. "Guess we gotta play at least somewhat fair, huh?"

He reached out, and grabbed the snow leopard waiter by the shoulder, reeling him in. "You got any smaller microphones?" He asked, menacingly.

"Uh, y-yes." The snow leopard stammered.

"Then go get one."

He let go of the leopard, who quickly rushed off. A few moments later, he returned carrying a much smaller mic.

He plodded up onto the stage, clearly exhausted by all the running around, and swapped the microphones out, before handing it to Judy.

"Thank you." She said.

"You sure you can reach up to the menu, Fluff?" Nick yelled from the table.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I can!" She said, before leaping up. She did this a few times, each time looking through the song selection.

After the first few menu rows, she came to the sudden realization that none of these songs were in English. They were written in English, but the titles seemed to be complete gibberish. Still, she had to pick one.

She looked for one that, at the least, had words she could recognize in it. It took a bit, but she found one called "Blue Is The SKY". Seemed perfect for her, considering her color designation.

She jumped up again, and tapped the name with her paw. Backing up a bit, music started to play. It was a rock song, not her preferred genre, but it reminded her of songs from the early 2000s. She prepared to sing the lyrics.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the LYRICS were in a different language as well. She hesitated as the first line came up.

"Come on, rabbit!" Sambash yelled. "You gonna give us a show, or are we gonna win by default?"

She glared at him, and then turned back to the lyrics, she had already missed some, so she needed to make up for it.

She started.

" _Kokoro no oku ni himeta passion!_  
 _go on, go on!_  
 _Nemurenai yoru all night long night,_  
 _Kowaku wa nai sa all right so fight!_  
 _Togisumashite 'ku sonna power_  
 _Perfect, yeah!_ "

She was amazed at a few things. First, the fact she could even sing to that weird language, and secondly, the fact she was getting really into it.

" _Donna mondai, oshiyosetatte,_  
 _Aseru hitsuyou, doko ni mo nai._  
 _Subete joukyou, keisan-zumi sa,_  
 _never… nigeya shinai._ "

"Huh, didn't expect her to be a good singer." Sambash admitted.

"THAT'S what you're amazed by?" Nick questioned. "I'm more amazed she can sing to that gibberish."

"What?" Sambash said, sounding confused. "You three have been speaking Japanese ever since we got here."

"What?"

" _Kotae nante doko ni mo nai_  
 _Nani mo kimatcha inai daro,_  
 _Mirai wa jibun de tsukamu n' da._  
 _yes sky blue, is my blue!_  
 _Doko made mo aoi sora wo,_  
 _Sono mune ni kizande yuke._  
 _Kimi wo matte 'ru hito ga iru._  
 _yes sky blue, is my blue!_  
 _Puraido tsuranuite!_  
 _Tatakau n' da kyou wo!_ "

There was cheering as the song finished. She glanced around, amazed she had actually managed to do that. Bottle Banki quickly came back on the stage. "That was an excellent performance!" He declared. "But I have bad opinions, so let's see what the Kaijuoke Machine says!"

The eyes of the machine started to spin around, the first eye starting on a zero. They waited in suspense as the other eye continued to spin around.

It stopped on an eight.

Judy sighed in relief.

"Looks like the machine says it's an excellent performance too, but you got just a few bits wrong!" Bottle Banki said. "Let's see if Master Yabaiba can do any better than that!"

The Org came over from the other side of the stage, and looked down at the rabbit. "Scoot along, bunny, the real performer has to act!"

Judy shook her head, and dropped the mic. She then hopped down from the stage, and quickly bolted over to the table.

"So, how'd I do?" She asked.

"I'd give it two thumbs up." Nick said.

"You have a very pretty voice, Judy." Max said, a bit awkwardly.

"Weird, but I appreciate the honesty."

"Sorry." Max quickly muttered.

They looked back up at the stage, a Ugutz had run stepped down from it, carrying the smaller microphone. The larger sized one had been plugged back in.

Yabaiba quickly walked over to the large karaoke machine, which stood slightly taller than him, and stared at the menu.

It took a few minutes, but he finally picked something, and grabbed the microphone from the side of the machine. He started to back up, and peppy techno music began to play. It became apparent to the rabbit that even from several feet away, at a lower altitude, the words on the machine's screen could still be read.

However, it didn't seem like Yabaiba could read them, as he remained silent for a few moments.

"Uh, I think we have a problem." He said into the microphone.

Yogostein sighed, and quickly went up onto the stage. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"I can't read the lyrics." The Duke Org admitted.

"You've got to be kidding me." He muttered. "Aren't you a thousand years old?"

"Yeah, one thousand years ago was BL, Before Language." Yabaiba responded.

"And you haven't learned to read yet?"

"Oh, I did, I just can't read that stuff."

"I swear, if we weren't on the same team, I would have killed you by now." Yogostein admitted. He looked over at the machine. "What song did you even pick!?"

"I dunno, I just picked one at random!"

"I don't even think this song is in the playlist!" Yogostein said. "How did you pick a song that doesn't exist in the machine's data!?"

Yabaiba simply shrugged in response.

"This is THE dumbest thing you have ever done." Yogostein scolded. "And you have done an incredible number of dumb things!"

The music stopped, and the two turned their attention to the karaoke machine. The eyes started to pin around again, this time stopping on a "YOU" and a "SUCK".

Yogostein quickly grabbed Yabaiba by his horn, and started to drag him off the stage. Bottle Banki quickly came back into view.

"Well, that was something." He said, flatly. "Aaaaanyway, the winner of that round was Ms. Hopps, unsurprisingly!"

"Looks like you guys've lost already." Judy boasted.

"Still two rounds left, fleaball." Sambash taunted. "It isn't over until it's over."

"I doubt you can win." Nick said. "Right, Max?"

He glanced over at the wolf, who seemed to be lost in thought. "Max?"

"Uh, huh, what?" He blurted out. "Right, whatever you said, totally right."

Nick and Judy glanced at each other, a bit confused.

"Next round!" Bottle Banki shouted. "This time, it's Nick Wilde vs my wonderful Lord and Master, Land Pollution Minister Yogostein!"

"Oh." Nick said, a bit of a fake smile creeping across his face. "Was kinda hoping I'd be the last one to go."

"Hah!" Yogostein laughed as he stepped up to the table, Yabaiba's horn still in his grasp. He quickly tossed the Org away, causing him to crash onto the ground. "Scared to go up against me, fox?" The robot taunted. "Bet you can't even sing that great!"

"I am a wonderful singer." Nick replied. "I just wanted to, uh, wow the audience in the last round."

"Good luck with that!" Yogostein taunted.

The two quickly made it up to the stage, both of them going up the stairs. "Alright, you two ready to roshambo?" Bottle Banki asked.

"Actually, I'll be generous." Yogostein said. "Since there's no way you can win, I'll let you embarrass yourself first!"

"Oh, come ON." Nick muttered to himself as he headed to the Kaijuoke Machine. He glanced up at the screen, which was still too high for him to reach. He climbed up onto the emblem in the middle of the speaker, and started to work through the menu.

Like Judy, he noticed that none of the song titles here made any kind of sense. He squinted, looking for anything that made any kind of sense. It took him a while, but he finally found something.

The song was called "Utsukishiki Dreamer", and despite him not understanding the first word of the song, something about it spoke to him. Before he could select it, an Ugutz walked up, and switched the microphones around. The robot gave him a nod, which he awkwardly returned.

He quickly selected the song, grabbed the microphone from the side, and hopped down. The song started up, with a guitar. Something about it screamed… eighties, to him. Which was definitely not a bad thing.

At least he'd probably like the song that was going to ruin his life.

He took a deep breath, and started.

" _Sarigenaku, ikiru yori mo._  
 _Kin no hibana wo, chirashitai no sa._  
 _Kanashimi ni, fusagarete mo_  
 _Yume no tokimeki, akirame wa shinai_  
 _Iro toridori no, kokoro no iro_  
 _Inochi wo mamoru yuuki ni kaete!_ "

Nick's singing was a bit on the awkward side, but not worse than any recent songs that Judy listened to. It might have come down to his nerves.

"He's not as bad as I was expecting." Judy admitted. "He's just, kinda alright."

"Not gonna deny that." Max replied. "A bit of vocal training, and he could bump it up to 'pretty decent'."

" _Utsukushiki dreamer! Ai no kagiri ni!_  
 _Kaze wo tsukinuke-nagara, hashiru yo_  
 _Utsukushiki doriimaa! Negai wo komete!_  
 _Afureru omoi subete, kanau hi made,_  
 _FAR AWAY... Utsukushiki dreamer!_ "

The song ended, and Nick let out a hefty amount of air. He glanced over at the machine, and watched its eyes spin around. The end result ended at a six. He sighed in relief, and headed down to the table.

"Was I really that not awful?" He asked as he climbed back onto the stage. "Literally every time I've done this it's been terrible."

"Maybe it's because you weren't drunk." Judy suggested.

"Entirely possible."

"I just gotta say, Nick," Max started. "You hit some of the high bits really well. I didn't expect you could do that with your voice.

"Anyway, even with that average score, there's no way Yogostein can win." Nick said, quickly deflecting the situation. This caught both Max and Judy's attention, but it was safe to assume he just didn't want to talk about his singing any more. "You heard his voice?"

"Yeah, he's got a voice like a generator." Judy chuckled. "I doubt he'll even hit a five."

"You can't base someone's singing talents on how they look. Or sound, ironically enough." Max said. "Like, you'd expect Nick to be a great singer based on his voice."

"Ouch."

"What I'm saying is that we should keep our guard up." The wolf finished. "Just be prepared."

Yogostein walked over to the Kaijuoke Machine, and picked out a song in only a few seconds. It was like he knew the exact song he was going to pick. The song started off with a heavy rock solo, before Yogostein started to sing.

" _SANGYOU KAKUMEI DA!_ "

The level of volume and baritone that he sung the first line with was amazing, literally shaking the room with his performance.

" _Sunda sora wa kishoku warui, yutaka na daichi hedo ga deru_  
 _Kirei na mizu nomeya shinai, yume ya kibou wa jama na dake_  
 _Kegare yogorete,_  
 _Kitanaku suru ze!_ "

Yogostein's voice was spectacular, despite its deep inflection, he was able to hit the notes in what sounded like a perfect manner. It left the entire audience, Zoorangers included, absolutely stunned. Even the waiters dropped their drinks at how surprising it was.

Well, the Ugutz in the crowd weren't as surprised, and seemed absolutely moved by the song for some reason.

" _Sangyou kakumei da, jojobaa!_  
 _Ore-tacha Gaiarku, kedakaku!_  
 _Sangyou kakumei da, guchagucha!_  
 _Ore-tacha Gaiarku, kashikomare_  
 _Jigoku ni aku no hana sakase Gaiark_!"

He finished, and there was uproarious metallic cheers and claps, even Sambash clapped loudly. The machine's eyes started to spin around again, this time coming up with the equally surprising result of a ten.

Bottle Banki came back on the stage, tears streaming down his face. "That was a… a beautiful performance of the Gaiark Anthem by our glorious master, Yogostein!"

"That can't be right!" Judy shouted as the robot walked down the stage, waving to the Ugutz. "He had to have cheated somehow."

"No cheating, rabbit." Yogosteins aid as he walked over, stepping on Yabaiba's body. "That was pure, vocal talent!"

"But, but…!"

Nick placed a hand on the frustrated bunny's shoulder, and patted it. "Just accept that I lost, Carrots."

She crossed her arms and scowled, before falling onto the seat. Now only her ears popped up above the table.

"Guess you were right, Max," Nick started turning to the wolf. "Shouldn't judge a record by it's cover- What are you doing?"

The wolf's face was buried in his arms, and he was making faint sobbing sounds. "You alright?" Nick asked, a bit worried by the wolf's behaviour.

"That was the most wonderful thing I've ever heard." He muttered.

"Well, get over it, because there's only one round left." Judy said. "We need you to win this, max."

He sat back up, and wiped away some tears. "Right, right. I have a plan."

They both raised their eyebrows at this.

Bottle Banki let out a very loud, prolonged sniff, and started to speak into the microphone again. "Time for round three, though I doubt it can top our previous one! Since there are only two contestants left, we're pitting 'em together! Get up her, Sambash and… wolf guy!"

Max looked around, a bit confused, before getting up and following Sambash up onto the stage. "I have a name, you know." He said to the monster.

"Yeah, but nobody cares." Sambash retorted. There was laughter from the audience, except for Nick and Judy, who just stared in disgust at the monster.

"You two ready to RO-SHAM-BO!?" Bottle Banki yelled. "I really want you two to be."

"Yeah, we are." Max said, holding out his fist. Sambash held his out as well.

They shook their fists a few times, Sambash landing on scissors, while Max landed on paper.

"Hah," Sambash laughed, pulling his fist away. "Looks like I win."

"No, go ahead." Max followed, completely sincere. "I'd love to hear your voice."

"Ooookaaaay…"

He walked up to the karaoke machine, and quickly picked out a song. It started playing, a quick electronic bit phasing into a brass background and guitar.

" _Unare! Ginga no hikari! Juusoukou!_  
 _Yuusha no sakebi, kikoeta ka_  
 _Mabayui kiseki ga, gonin wo tsutsumu!_ "

Sambash's voice was surprisingly great, gruff enough to fit with the song's hard rock style. It didn't leave anyone as shocked as Yogostein's, but nothing could really top that.

" _Baruban! Tadashii kokoro ga_  
 _Baruban! Kujikenu yuuki ga_  
 _Muteki no, genkai, buchiyaburu!_ "

"Are those the right lyrics?" Judy asked.

"How should I know?" Yogostein replied from the other side of the table. "Does sound a bit off, though."

"Ugh, where am I?" Yabaiba let out, quickly getting up. He sat back down at the table. "Did I miss anything?"

"You missed my wonderful performance." Yogostein boasted.

"So, didn't miss much, I guess."

" _Hikari no chikara, kirari kiramekase_  
 _Nosabaru Gingaman, baan to kudake!_  
 _Kimeru n' da! Ginga no senkou!_  
 _Ba! Baban! Baban! Baruban! Seigi yo, kagayake!_ "

The audience clapped as Sambash finished, to which he replied with a quick wave. The eyes of the machine started rolling, leaving them in suspense. It quickly spun onto an eight, Sambash doing a fistpump in response.

"Try beating that score, mutt." He said to Max, before walking jumping down from the stage.

Max wasn't sure how to respond to that. Best thing to do was just pick a song and show him who's boss.

He walked up to the Kaijuoke Machine, and started fiddling around with the menu screen for a moment. It took a bit longer than the rest of them took, oddly enough.

"Hey, you gonna pick a song!?" Sambash yelled up from his seat. Max didn't respond.

"There it is." He said, before tapping the screen. A techno beat started to play.

"Hey, doesn't this sound… familiar?" Nick asked. "I feel like I've heard this before."

"Yeah, this is kinda déjà vu-y." Judy admitted. "Wait, isn't this-"

" _I don't wanna know, heta na shinjitsu nara_  
 _I don't wanna know, shiranai kurai ga ii noni_  
 _Why? Why? Why? Why? Kizukeba I came too far._ "

"Hey, this is the song I picked, isn't it?" Yabaiba asked. "Can he pick the same song as me?"

"We didn't exactly have well defined rules for this contest, so probably." Yogostein replied.

"Shit." Sambash muttered to himself. "He's better than I expected."

" _Tomaranai, kanjiru kono yokan wa_  
 _The new beginning!_  
 _michi no ryouiki ima wo kirihirakun da_  
 _I gotta believe!_ "

"Didn't Yogostein say this song wasn't even in the machine's data?" Judy whispered.

"Yeah." Nick replied, getting where she was coming from. "How'd he even pick it?"

" _Soutou,_  
 _EXCITE! EXCITE! Takanaru_  
 _EXCITE! EXCITE! Kokoro ga_  
 _michibiku ano basho e kakenukete ikudake_  
 _Hey! I'm on a mission right now_  
 _Hey! I'm on a mission right now_  
 _EXCITE! EXCITE! kotae wa,_  
 _One! kono te no naka_  
 _Two! susumu beki life_  
 _Three! ikite iku dake!_ "

The music ended, and there was applause. The machine's eyes spun around, leaving the two groups in suspense. This would decide everything. Well, it would decide this current bout, but it was still a big deal.

Somehow, the first eye landed on an 8, while the second landed… on a 0.1.

"Looks like we have a winner!" Bottle Banki yelled. "Unfortunately!"

Sambash quickly got up, and smashed the table to the ground. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?"

Yogostein quickly smacked him. "We would've won if you hadn't changed the lyrics!" he shouted.

"There's no goddamn way I'm saying those asshole's names in a positive context!" Sambash shouted back.

"Boom!" Max let out, hopping down from the stage. Nick and Judy hopped down from their chairs, and walked up to him.

"What exactly was this plan?" Nick asked.

"See, I have the 'power' to sing any song I hear, even if its just once." Max explained. "Just kind of a psychological thing, I think. Anyway, while Yogostein and Yabaiba were fighting on stage, I was paying attention to the lyrics on the screen, and got them memorized!"

"So, you knew the song before you started singing?" Judy said, a bit impressed. "That was surprisingly clever."

"Hang on, how did you even get to that song?" Nick asked, still confused.

"I hit up, up, down, down, then pressed left, right, left, right and it showed up!" He explained. "That's what Yabaiba did, so I just copied it."

"Great job." Yogostein said, sarcastically, to Yabaiba. "You messed up so bad that the Zoorangers WON!"

"How was I supposed to know that was gonna happen?" He asked. "Don't blame me for this!"

"There is literally no one else to blame, hornhead." Sambash growled, smacking the Org on the back of the head.

"Alright, you guys made the deal, now you have to make up your end." Judy said.

"Yeah, go on an get out of here, run back to your mountain." Nick quickly followed.

Sambash let out a bit of a laugh. "Jokes on you guys, the only thing we lost was a bit of our pride."

"What?"

"We were gonna get out of this place after the contest, regardless of who won." He explained. "And besides, we never promised to go home if we lost, just to get out of here."

The three's ears popped up at this.

"We still have one more stop to go." Yogostein continued.

"Yeah, we'll see you guys in an hour!" Yabaiba finished.

Yogostein opened his mouth, creating a massive cloud of smoke. After a few seconds, the cloud had covered the entire room, leaving all the animals there hacking and coughing. It cleared, revealing that every monster had vanished.

The waiters all fell to the ground, relieved that the monstrous customers had gone. One particularly resilient polar bear walked up to the three. He kneeled down and vigorously shook Nick and judy's paws at the same time, and then did the same for Max. All the while he muttered "Thank you." over and over.

The bear then let out a sigh. "Sorry, we're just thankful for you getting rid of those creeps. They had us running around for hours, it was a nightmare."

"It's only eleven." Judy pointed out.

"It felt like hours."

"HEY, BOSS!" Shouted the snow leopard to the polar bear. "THEY TOOK ALL THE LIQUOR!"

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." The polar sighed.

"We'd love to stay and help, but we have a lot of stuff to deal with right now." Nick said.

"Yeah, we need to figure out where the last place they went to is." Judy continued. "It could be anywhere in the city. Oh, speaking of." She quickly pulled out her phone, and dialed up a number. It rang for a moment. "Hello, Ben?"

"Yes, Judy?" He responded, not sounding at all tired despite how late it was getting. "Let me guess, want me to keep an eye out for any news on the monsters?"

She sighed. "Yes, exactly that. It has been one hell of a night, Ben."

"Oh, I know all about it, been keeping up with the growls." He continued. "You guys had a karaoke contest?"

"Yes, and let's never bring it up again." She said. "Anyway, just call us when you find something, alright?"

"Got it!"

She hung up. "Alright, let's get going, we need to be ready before anything major happens."

Max gave a quick wave as the three ran out. They quickly passed the arctic fox. "Hey, wait!" He shouted.

"You were supposed to pay for half of that!"

* * *

"How long do you think we're gonna have to wait?" Nick asked. The three had returned to Mr. Big's since it was already nearby. Right now, they were just taking a small break from all the insanity.

"It's only been thirty minutes, Nick." Judy said, exasperated.

"Not even, it's been twenty-five since we got here." Max followed. "I doubt anything will pop up that soon."

"Sheesh, fine." Nick said, sitting up from his cushion. "I just want this to be done with so I can sleep."

"Well, it's not going to be done with until we beat the monsters." Judy said. "It's like this every week."

"Did they have to do it so late though?"

"Whatever they're planning requires them to be up this late, obviously." Judy continued. She frowned a bit. "And go to a club and do nothing. And then go to a karaoke bar and do nothing. What exactly are they planning?"

"When we tried to ask them, they just said they 'wanted to have fun'." Max explained.

"Yeah, like we'd buy that." Nick said with a bit of a chuckle. "They have to be up to something."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Judy said, sounding a bit unsure herself. "Their monster seemed like a mistake, so I seriously doubt that they had any idea about what they were doing."

"If they're building a weapon or something, you owe me ten dollars." Nick said.

"Nick, I don't bet."

Her phone quickly rang, and she answered. "Oh my gosh, Judy, you won't believe this!"

"Monster attack?" She asked, alert.

"Oh, that too, but you won't believe what just happened on this show I'm watching…"

"You can tell me later, Ben." She sighed. "Monster attack is more important."

"Right, right. So, they were spotted at a restaurant called Romino's, it's in Sahara Square."

"Any trouble?"

"Well, they kidnapped all of the staff to make them work this late at night, so that's probably a problem."

"Kidnapping is definitely a problem, we'll be right on it!" She followed. "Thanks Ben!"

"Your welc!"

She hung up. "Alright, we got work to do." Judy announced. "The monsters kidnapped the staff of a restaurant to, uh… prepare food for them, I think?"

"Diabolical." Nick said, sounding both serious and sarcastic. "There is nothing worse than labor. See, Carrots? They have to be up to something, why else would they kidnap a bunch of mammals unless they had something really evil planned?"

"Yeah, I seriously doubt they'd do this unless something was up." Max followed.

"You're right." She said. "We've already learned that those three are terrible, so they have to be doing something terrible as well."

Glad we got that all sorted out." Nick said. "What's the restaurant called, anyway?"

"Romino's."

Nick's ears popped up. He quickly clutched at his stomach. "Ouugh, I think I came down with something." He groaned.

Max and Judy glared at him. The fox gave a quick, insincere smile, and stopped faking. "I have a bit of a history with the guy who runs Romino's, alright?"

"Nick, is there anyone we run into that you don't have 'a bit of history' with?" Judy asked.

"Yes, but I know everyone, remember?" He continued. "Doesn't imply I know everyone in a positive way."

"So, what sort of illegal act did you do to get on this guy's bad side?" Max asked.

"Dine and dashing."

"Well, that's not that bad-"

"I did it twenty times."

"Oh my god, Nick." Judy let out. "How do you get into this stuff?"

"I had a hell of a lack of an upbringing."

"…Let's just go already."

* * *

"I think I'll have the lasagne and the saltimbocca." Sambash said. "Get me your hardest liquor, too."

"Alright, uh, sir." The camel waiter said, jotting it down. She turned to the other three monsters at the table. "Are you three prepared to order as well?"

"I cannot eat food, so just get me some wine." Yogostein said.

"I just want some water." Bottle Banki said. "Not for drinking, I'm just running out of fuel."

The waiter jotted the orders down, and waited a moment for Yabaiba. "I can come back when you're ready." She said.

"Can I get the tiramisu?" Yabaiba asked.

"Sir, that's a dessert." She sighed. "You have to order something else before the dessert."

"Oh… Can I get a cannoli instead?"

She sighed again. "I'll just order you a pasta dish." She said.

"Sounds good to me!"

There was a crashing sound, the four monsters and the waiter turning towards the entrance to the restaurant. The Zoorangers had busted through the door, weapons drawn. "What the…?" Blue let out, looking around.

The entire place was… peaceful. The waiters seemed to be going about normally, if a bit tired, while the monsters, who were at nearly every seat at the place, first and second floors included, waited for or were eating food. It was a bizarre spectacle to see.

"Uhhh, hello!" Red shouted. "We're here to rescue you… all?"

The waiters shook their heads, and started back to work.

"I can safely say I wasn't expecting this." Red said.

"Yeah, this is weird." Silver said as the three walked towards the table with the generals.

"Okay, you creeps," Blue started, quickly jumping up on the table. "You're going to tell us what's going on, right now!"

"We're trying to get something to eat, fuzzy." Sambash said, sounding very frustrated.

"Don't expect me to buy that!" She shouted. "You had to have kidnapped all these workers for something else!"

"Uh, not really." The camel waiter said. "They paid us a lot of money in advance to do this."

"But… but that's bribery! That's illegal!"

"Acting like you have the moral high ground, huh, Ms. Vigilante?" Sambash chuckled.

"So, you guys… aren't doing anything evil?" Red asked, genuinely surprised.

"Absolutely nothing evil going on here." Yogostein said. "In fact, while what we're doing is definitely illegal, we haven't harmed a single animal all night!"

"No matter how much we wanted to!" Yabaiba said. Yogostein quickly backhanded him. He shook the pain off. "We have witnesses, too! Right lady?"

"Oh, yeah." The camel waiter said. "It was more like a… hostile invitation, than an actual kidnapping."

"Still illegal." Blue snapped.

"Why don't you three have a seat, maybe we can have a nice, civilized chat?" The robot suggested. "It certainly wouldn't harm anyone!"

"Excuse us for a moment." Red said, bringing the other two Zoorangers a few feet away from the table so they could talk about it in private.

"You're not gonna listen to this, are you?" Red asked the rabbit. "They're still monsters, they're probably lying about everything."

"Yeah, I wouldn't trust them either." Max said. "I've watched enough Zoo Rangers to see this won't end up being good."

"They aren't lying, though." She said. "Everything they've said has been the truth. We're the ones who've been wrecking their night. Arguably, we just made things worse." She untransformed. "As leader, I say that we try to respect them for at least five minutes."

"Fine." Nick said, untransforming. He sounded frustrated at the order. Max quickly followed, though he mostly just seemed worried.

The three walked back up to the table, the camel waiter pulling up two seats. "This is all we have left, sorry." She said.

"It's fine, we have to do this a lot." Judy said. Her and Nick hopped onto one chair, while Max took the other seat.

Judy glanced across the table, scanning the monster's faces… well, their body language, since they didn't exactly move their faces. Yabaiba seemed amused, while Yogostein seemed… relaxed. Bottle Banki she couldn't get a read on at all, and Sambash seemed absolutely disgusted to be anywhere near them. Probably still resentful after the karaoke contest.

"You know," She started. "I think now would be the perfect time to ask some questions."

Nick glanced at her, which she returned with a bit of a sly wink. What was the rabbit up to?

"What can you tell us about your leader?" She asked, shocking the monsters. "You know… The Omnipotence?"

Instantly, the three generals seemed a bit apprehensive. Bottle Banki glanced back and forth at them, confused. "Well, he's…" Yabaiba tried to start. "He's a big… cylinder?"

"Really?" Max said, a bit disappointed. "I was hoping our main villain had an interesting design."

"He's remarkably powerful." Yogostein continued. "He brought all of us back to life, and is the reason we can make and upgrade our monsters. He might be the most powerful thing I've ever seen!"

"Guess a monster called 'Omnipotence' would be powerful." Nick joked. "You guys must be thankful that he brought you back, huh?"

"As thankful as we can be." Yabaiba said. "I mean, by last moments were being eaten by my bosses, kinda wish I went out on a bigger bang than that."

"I wanted to rest in peace." Yogostein followed. "One time, I had the chance to come back, but refused. I was forced away from my peace by this guy. Though, I enjoy how powerful he's made me feel."

"I wish I could understand what you guys are talking about." Bottle Banki said.

"How d'you even know who the Omnipotence is?" Sambash asked, bluntly.

Judy gulped, Nick and Max giving her an awkward look. "I, uh, saw it in a dream?"

"Oooh, dream messages, I love those!" Yabaiba said, suddenly sounding chipper again.

"So, you learned about our boss through some kind of dream?" Yogostein said, sounding a bit amused. "That's ridiculous."

"Well, your boss sent it to me." She continued, a bit smugly. "There was some kind of messenger in my dream, didn't look like any of you guys."

"That must mean you guys have a seventh member you're hiding." Max started.

"No, pretty sure there's just six of us." Yogostein stated.

"Uh, y-yeah." Yabaiba added. He seemed more nervous than he was a few seconds ago, tapping his fingers against the table and trying to avoid eye contact.

"You alright?" Yogostein asked.

"FINE!" He shouted. "NOTHING IS WRONG!" He quickly got up from his seat. "I… I need to go, see you guys later." Yabaiba quickly transformed into slime, and vanished.

"That was a bit… awkward." Nick said.

The waiter came back up to the table. "Your dishes will be ready soon… Where'd the clown guy go?"

"He ran off like a coward." Sambash said, standing up. "And hold our dishes, we won't be needing them for a bit."

"What? Why-"

Sambash pulled out his gun, twirling it, and fired several shots into the ceiling.

"The hell?" Yogostein shouted as Sambash brought his gun back to its holster.

"Yartots, Ugutz, Orgettes!" He shouted, bringing the minion's attention to him. He pointed towards the three mammals in front of him.

"Get them."

Without hesitation, the minions began to crawl out of their seats, heading towards the Zoorangers. "Hey, what's going on?" Judy said, confused. "I thought you guys were-"

"Taking it easy?" Sambash said, before chuckling. "Yeah, this was a big scam. Get your attention, get you into a vulnerable place, and then kill you."

"Sammy, you sly dog!" Yogostein laughed as he stood up. "You even had ME fooled!"

"Knew we shouldn't have trusted these guys, even for a moment!" Nick said, before the three transformed. They pulled out their weapons, and leaped into fights with the monsters.

Red tangled with a series of Yartots, dodging their cutlasses as he retaliated with his own sword, slicing through them one by one. Blue dealt with the Orgettes, dodging by their slow movements and rapidly kicking and cutting at them with her knives. Silver fended off the Ugutz, hitting their vulnerable points precisely with his rapier.

After a few minutes, the entire army had been wiped out. "You really didn't expect that to work, did you?" Red taunted. "We've handled these guys more than you guys have had victories."

"You're forgetting something very important, wall-mount." Sambash said. "You're dealing with two generals here."

"He's right." Blue said. "We can't even handle one general, now we have to deal with two."

"And me!" Bottle Banki said, popping up in front of the two villains. "You have to deal with me, the most powerful Banki Beast!"

"I wish that was true." Yogostein groaned. "If you think you can help, try it!"

Yogostein pulled out his spear, and rushed at the three Zoorangers, he quickly spun it around, Silver jumping over while Red and Blue ducked under it. The robot pulled the weapon above his head, still spinning, where it gathered electrical energy. He slammed the bottom of the spear into the ground, launching the three away.

Blue crashed into a booth table, while Silver was thrown into a nearby potted plant. Red was also thrown across the room, being flung into the nearby kitchen.

"See? That's how you fight!" Yogostein boasted. "Want in on this, Sambash?"

"Oh, you know I do!" He said, stepping forward. "I'll take the mutt, you take the roadkill."

"What about me?" Bottle Banki asked.

"Uh, go handle the fox."

"Got it!" The bottle robot quickly ran towards the kitchen.

Red had slid across the ground, past the feet of several different chefs. He stopped when he hit something big and bulky. He opened his eyes, seeing a very large, very angry hippo towering above him.

"Hey, Romino!" The fox greeted. "Uh, how's… business… going?"

"Why are you in my-a restaurant again, Wilde?" The hippo growled. "I told you before to never come-a back."

The fox quickly scrambled to his feet. "Listen, I'd love to do this dance in any other circumstance, but right now there's a bunch of deadly monsters who are going to kill my friends, and then probably your staff, so-"

"Hey, hey, what's going on in here?" Bottle Banki yelled as he burst through the door. "Oooh, chefs! One of you's gotta have hot water, right?"

"Uh, I have a sink full of hot water right-" The chef, a cheetah, was quickly pushed out of the way by the monster. He jabbed his blue bottle hand into the water, and drained it completely.

"No one will laugh at me once I roast a ranger alive!" He laughed, aiming his red bottle hand at ZooRed. He stepped back a bit… directly onto a puddle of water. "WHOA!"

The monster slipped, accidentally firing his boiling water at a more upwards angle. Directly towards Romino.

"WATCH OUT!" Red shouted, quickly leaping up and shoulder tackling the hippo. This was somehow strong enough to knock the massive mammal to the ground, the hot water splatting against the wall behind him.

"Wilde, you-a just saved my life." Romino said, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, I do that a lot when I'm superhero-ing." He said, before jumping off of the hippo's stomach.

Meanwhile, back in the main lobby of the restaurant, Blue and Silver were sparring with the generals. Sambash fired several shots at the wolf, who dodged out of the way of one, and blocked a few others with his sword.

"Why are you going after me!?" Silver shouted, rushing up and attempting to slash at Sambash with his sword. The biker monster stepped out of the way, and fired a shot directly into the wolf's side. "Is this because of the karaoke!?" He shouted as he reeled in pain.

"Maybe." Sambash said. "Maybe I just think you're pathetic."

"If you're fighting the pathetic one, doesn't that make you pathetic?" Silver shot back.

"Nah, I call it being an opportunist." He fired a few more shots at the wolf, who rolled out of the way.

Yogostein attempted to jab his spear into Blue, but she leaped up and landed on it instead. "Why are you doing this!?" She asked, before running up the spear and kicking the robot in the face. The kick launched her off the spear and back to the ground. "Didn't you say you wanted to rest in peace!?"

"I do, but I want my revenge more!" Yogostein replied. "The Go-Ongers destroyed my friends, so I'll destroy them in return!"

"You can't be serious." She said, stepping back as the robot general continued to jab at her with its spear. "You're smarter than anyone else here, why are you consumed by revenge?"

"There's a difference between mechanical engineering and sensibilities, rabbit!" he opened his mouth, and blew a smoke cloud in Blue's face, blinding her. Using this as an opportunity, he kicked the rabbit into the wall.

Back with Red, he pulled out the Vickscannon as the monster climbed back to its feet.

"Gah, I'm never gonna be considered a threat if my fights keep going all comedic!" Bottle Banki lamented.

"You think shooting boiling water at someone is FUNNY!?" Nick yelled, before firing a shot at the monster. He was blasted through the kitchen doors, rolling across the ground like a, well, large bottle.

"Hey!" The monster shouted, scrambling to its feet. "You can at least give me a chance before attacking!"

"Why should I?" Red replied, before firing several more shots at the monster.

It narrowly managed to avoid each of them. The monster ducked and sidestepped the fireballs, never seeming to end up doing so intentionally.

"Has anyone told you that you're annoying?" Red asked, putting the Vickscannon away.

"You know, I don't think anyone has!"

"Well, you are." He said, pulling out his sword. "Time to get recycled!" He leaped up, and slashed at the monster's chest, knocking it back into a wall. Red attempted to go in for a second hit, but was smacked back to the ground by Bottle Banki. The Banki Beast then quickly ran off towards the bigger battles.

"MASTER YOGOSTEIN!" The robot shouted, before stumbling over.

"Seriously!?" Yogostein shouted, knocking Blue away, almost accidentally. "You can't even handle ONE of these guys!?"

"I could if I had some help!"

"Ugh, FINE!" Yogostein stomped over to Bottle Banki's side, prepared to fight against the fox. "You really wanna do this, Wilde?"

"Uh, not really, but I don't have a choice."

He quickly noticed something between the two monsters. Blue was standing a bit away from them, trying to get his attention. She made a few hand motions, one looking like she was unscrewing something. After, she gave a double thumbs-up.

He returned the thumbs-up, despite not getting it. If she had a plan, it was best to follow it. The only thing he could do right now was distract them.

The fox quickly ran off, leaving the two monsters behind. "Coward!" The general shouted.

Sambash and Silver were still fighting, the pirate somehow being incredibly good at blocking the wolf's sword swings. Red ran up to them, leaping up and smacking the distracted Sambash in the face with the blunt end of his sword.

Sambash let out an angry grunt as he stumbled back. "The heck are you doing, Red!?" Silver asked.

"Saving your butt, obviously!" He said. "Listen, Blue's got a plan, and we need to distract them until she can do… whatever it is."

"Oh, so just keep up what I was doing?" Silver said, a bit snidely. "Real great save."

"I mean, you're not gonna have to fight him alone now, so-"

Red was interrupted by combined gunshots and lightning strikes on both sides of them. "Yeah, but now we have to fight three guys!" Silver retorted as Yogostein and Bottle Banki walked up.

"Well, you're not going to die alone, at least."

"Real reassuring." Silver said, sarcastically. The two rushed in, almost impulsively, to fight the monsters. Silver clashed with Yogostein and Bottle Banki. He effortlessly knocked the Banki Beast back, and then entered a clash with Yogostein. "Can't you guys just go super?"

"Nope," Red started. He had started fighting Sambash, rapidly leaping into the air in order to attack and dodge his bullets. "Need to be in sync for that, which Judy is clearly not!"

"Oh, right." Silver said, kicking Yogostein back, and then slashing at Bottle Banki, causing him to stumble towards a raised section in the middle of the restaurant. "Stupid rules."

"I hope that Blue finishes whatever she's doing soon!" Red yelled, blocking a shot by Sambash.

"Oh, I'm ready to finish this!"

All five of them turned towards the raised section, Blue standing on top of it. She pulled out a white ZooTag, and plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The massive axe appeared in her paws, and she propped it over her shoulder. "What is she doing?" Silver asked.

Red shrugged. "Don't ask me."

She leaped up into the air, and swung the axe towards, towards the cork in Bottle Banki's head. The monster let out a screech of pain as the axe got stuck in the top of the cork. "AAHHHHH! GET OFF MY CORK!"

"Silver, keep him steady, Red, help me pop this sucker open!" She yelled, still hanging from the axe's hilt.

Without hesitation, they rushed over to the rabbit. Red leaped up and grabbed onto Blue's legs. Silver rushed to the front of the monster.

"Oh no you don't!" Yogostein yelled, stomping forward.

"Don't even think about it, mutt!" Sambash followed, aiming his gun at the wolf.

"Alright then, shoot me!" Silver goaded. "Do it!"

Sambash looked around, a bit confused. He gave a shrug, and fired the gun.

In a split second, Silver spun his sword's guard around, putting it into Eclipse Mode. Time froze, a millisecond before the bullet would have hit his snout. He shuddered for a moment, before stepping out of the way of the bullet. He walked over to Sambash, and started to rapidly jab at him, before moving over to Bottle Banki.

Time restarted. The bullet flew into Yogostein's chest, causing a small explosion. Sambash, however, was met with a series of blasts all over his body, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Silver spun his sword's guard around, this time switching it to Moon Mode. He whipped the laser whip forward, causing it to wrap around Bottle Banki.

"H-hey, let go!" The monster pleaded, before Silver tugged him forward. The wolf planted a foot on the monster's body.

"Alright, ready to go!" He said. "You guys just gotta pop it open!"

The two, using their body weight, started to pull down on the axe. "Hey, wait!" Bottle Banki cried.

After a few seconds of struggling, it finally popped off.

Red and Blue crashed into the ground as brown liquid started to fire off from Bottle Banki's spout. Silver quickly retracted the whip from the monster as the liquid just continued to pour out.

As it did, Bottle Banki couldn't stop screaming. It poured from the sky, the color gradually draining from Bottle Banki's body. His scream got weaker and weaker, until he only let out a tiny grunt as the final drop spit from his top.

The monster teetered over, and smashed into a thousand pieces.

"Huh." Sambash said as he sat up, surprised. He dragged his finger across the carpeted floor, and put his finger to his face. "… Champagne?"

"Alright!" Blue shouted. "We've defeated all of your monsters, your plan's a failure!"

"Sheesh, alright." Yogostein said. "We give, we give."

"Alright, good-"

"NOT!"

Yogostein quickly tossed a chaos badge at one of the shards that littered the ground. It impaled, and all of the pieces started to glow.

"Oh COME ON!" Red shouted.

The pieces flew through the air, and started to reform. There was a bright flash, and Bottle Banki had been completely restored, with no real changes, facing away from the others.

"Oh, come on!" Yogostein yelled. "He didn't even change!"

"Wrong." Bottle Banki said, raising a hand. His voice was different deeper than before. "I have evolved. I feel a new power welling within my body… It feels… Divine!"

Out of nowhere, Bottle Banki pulled out a red robe, marked with stars. He quickly pu it on before continuing.

"It feels adventurous!"

He pulled out a red wizard's hat with similar markings to the robe. The shape of it seemed to cover up the spout of his bottle head.

"IT FEELS COURAGEOUS!"

It spun around, revealing that its face and upper torso had changed completely. While its eyes were similar, instead of a bottle opener, its face was now a spout itself, similar to that of a kettle. Its upper torso was also now completely red. With one final motion, Bottle Banki quickly slapped a sticker of the Chaos Symbol onto its chest.

"IT'S JUST MAGIC!"

The five others were stunned silent by the, uh, "changes".

"That's it, I'm done." Sambash said. "We're going home."

"Agreed." Yogostein followed, before belching out a cloud of smoke, which cleared away quickly.

"I'm getting a headache." Red moaned, pounding at his helmet.

"And you're about to get an even worse one!" Chaos Bottle Banki said. "BinBinBanBIN!" It thrust its arms forward, firing off a bolt of magic. The three dodged out of the way before the blast could hit any of them.

However, once it hit the ground, a massive bottle appeared in midair. It pointed itself at Blue, and fired off a torrent of champagne, blasting her right through one of the restaurant's front windows. Once the flow of liquid ended, the bottle disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"BOOMbinBAban!" The monster chanted, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Red and Silver glanced at each other, before running outside. They quickly helped Blue up.

"Whhhaaaat the HELL JUST HAPPENED!?" She yelled.

The monster suddenly appeared in front of them. "It's magic, rabbit!" he said. "Your kind should know it well!"

"I don't get it." Blue replied.

"Ah, I see!" The robot continued. "Then let me show you!" He pulled his hat off, and started to chant. "BINbabanba!"

He reached his hand down into hat, and rummaged around for a moment. Suddenly, Blue vanished in a puff of smoke. Both Red and Silver let out confused grunts, no other way to let their confusion be apparent.

Bottle Banki pulled his hand back up, this time carrying a bottle. Inside it was a shrunken Blue, pounding on the glass. "Not your normal rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick, but thematic!" The monster laughed.

From inside the bottle, Blue pulled out her blasters, and fired out through the top, the small blasts hitting Bottle Banki in the face. "Ow, that stung!"

He glanced back up, Red and Silver rushing at him. The robot let out a bit of a yelp as they both kicked him, Red having to jump up to do so. The bottle flew out of his hand, and into the paws of Red. "Don't worry, we'll get you out somehow."

The rabbit shook her head, and placed her paw against the helmet. "Can you at least stop shaking the bottle!?" She yelled through the commlink.

"Oops, sorry."

"Not so fast, muggles!" Chaos Bottle Banki yelled. "BOOMboombaBIN!" Four bottles suddenly poofed into existence, hovering above the monster's head. They then proceeded to fire out quick laser blasts at the two.

One of the blasts hit Red's foot, causing him to fling the bottle into the air. "BinBINBINbin!" Chaos Bottle Banki chanted, causing recycling bin to appear underneath the bottle. It fell in with a clang, before the bin vanished.

Bottle Banki then lifted his hat up, what looked like hundreds of other bottles suddenly pouring down from it, scattering at his feet. He caught the last bottle that dropped, which held Blue. He shook it around, taunting the two.

"Can I just say that this is the second worst night of my life?" Red said.

"What was the FIRST!?"

"We can talk about that never."

The two readied their weapons, and rushed at Bottle Banki again. "BanbanBANBIN!" He chanted, before throwing the bottle up into the air. A burst of smoke poofed around it, transforming it into a club with a bottle-like end… Blue still being trapped in it, returned to her normal size.

He caught the club, and rushed at the two. The two other Zoorangers hesitated a bit, before the monster slammed its club into the ground between them.

"I really don't want to hurt Judy." Silver said.

"I don't either!" Red followed.

Bottle Banki laughed. "With your friend trapped, neither of you have to guts to try and hurt her! I'm a genius!"

Suddenly, Blue yelled at them through the commlink.

"JUST SMASH THE BOTTLE ALREADY!"

"But-" Red tried to respond.

"I DON'T CARE, JUST DO IT!"

The two shrugged at each other, and slashed at Bottle Banki with their blades. "I'll try to get the club, you distract him." Silver suggested, to which Red gave an affirmative nod.

He dashed forward, and leaped into the air, pulling out the Vickscannon. He fired several shots at the monster, causing it to stumble back. Silver switch his blade to Moon Mode, and whipped it forward. Distracted by the fire, the monster wasn't able to defend as the whip wrapped around the club, and pulled it out of its hands.

Red landed, just in time to watch Silver whip it into the air, and then slam it into the ground. The club shattered, releasing Blue… who seemed incredibly furious.

"Weapons, now." She ordered.

The three tossed their weapons into the air, combining them into the Zookaiser. They aimed and prepared to fire at the Banki Beast.

"Wait, I got more tricks!" He pleaded. "I just need a coin and I can-"

They fired the multicolored blast at the monster, firing through it in an instant. "AUUUUGH!" The monster yelled. "REMEMBER TO RECYCLE!" It cried, before it exploded. Out of the explosion flew a bottle, which shattered against the ground.

"Ugghh, thank god that's done with." Blue said. "But we need to keep on our toes."

They watched as the Chaos Badge flew up into the horizon, forming Chaos Bottle Banki on the outskirts of the city. "IDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION!"

The three quickly summoned up their mechs, which stomped towards the massive bottle wizard. "Hah, you fools haven't seen my GREATEST spell yet!" The monster yelled. "HOT WATER COMMERCIAL!"

A jet of water sprayed from his spout, directly at ZooRobo. The robot blocked the attack with its sword, though it didn't seem to do anything. "You know that hot water only burns flesh, right?" Red asked.

"Wait, really!?"

ZooKami stomped forward, and slashed at the monster with his blade, causing it to tumble over. "That's what you get for being an idiot!" Silver shouted.

"BOOMbinBAban!" The monster shouted, vanishing in a puff of smoke. It reappeared behind ZooRobo, and wrapped its hands around it. "Got you now!"

"No you don't!" Blue shouted, plugging in a ZooTag.

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

The robotic ape appeared out of thin air, and punched at the monster a few times, loosening its grip. ZooRobo, burst free from the monster, and spun around delivering a sword slash. The ape robot then combined with the mech.

"ZOOROBO SARU MODE!"

The robot performed an uppercut, knocking the monster high up into the air. "Hey, Silver!" Red shouted. "Ready to play spin the bottle!?"

"Got it!" Silver yelled back.

"Excuse me?" Blue said.

The bottle monster fell back down, but was met with a punch to the top of the head by ZooRobo. The monster started to spin around, propelled in the air by the attack. As he started to come down, ZooKami smacked him again with its sword, causing the monster to spin even faster.

"Whoever he points to gets to destroying him." Red said. "And maybe gets a kiss."

"No."

The monster landed on the ground, still spinning. After a few seconds, he stopped, pointing towards ZooKami. "Alright!" Silver shouted. "I haven't gotten to use my finisher in months!" He kicked the monster, bringing it back up to its feet.

"W-wait!"

ZooKami brought its sword above its head, gathering silver energy. "ECLIPSE CUTTER!" He brought the sword down, firing a slash of energy at the monster. It started to spin around, becoming a circular blade of energy. It clashed into the monster, grinding through it before eventually bisecting the monster.

"NOOOO!" The monster yelled. "I NEVER GOT TO DO THE COIN TRICK!" It exploded, ending the madness for good.

The robots unformed and vanished, the Zoorangers ending up right back in front of Romino's.

The three untransformed, absolutely exhausted by the events that had happened over the course of only a few hours. Nick glanced up, Romino was walking out of the restaurant… and towards him.

"Look, Romino, I'm really sorry we wrecked your restaurant." He apologized. "But-"

"Not buts about it." He replied. "Restaurant can be replaced, especially with how much-a money those guys gave us. You, Nicky, saved the lives or me and my staff."

"I've never actually heard you be thankful for anything, uh, wow." Nick said, bashful.

"I am-a in your debt." Romino said. "If you ever need anything, just-a ask me."

"I, uh, will." He said, nervously. With that, Romino gave a quick wave, and headed back into the restaurant. "That guy is intense even when he's happy."

"Does anybody even know what happened tonight?" Max asked. "I feel like I just had a psychotic breakdown."

"Yeah, this was… This was weird even for us." Judy admitted. "I say we just go home and get some rest, alright."

"I'm going to sleep like a brick." Nick said, rubbing his eyes.

The three started to head off, but Judy quickly turned around, noticing something still laying on the ground. It was the monster's gear. She quickly ran back, and grabbed it. "Hmm… Wonder if this could help." She muttered, examining it.

"Hey, Fluff, what are you doing?" Nick shouted back.

"Nothing!" She replied, slipping the gear into her pocket. She quickly ran back to the two.

* * *

"Man, that night was a disaster!" Sambash lamented, falling down into one of the chairs.

"I don't think it was an utter disaster." Yogostein quickly followed. "You, me, and Yabaiba got to hang out for a while, I feel like we got to know each other better too."

"I guess." Sambash admitted. He quickly realized something. "Hey, haven't you been collecting the gears from your monsters?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Aren't you gonna go back and get the gear from that guy?" Sambash asked. "You've been doing it pretty obsessively, I assume its important."

"Uh, no." Yogostein said bluntly. "I need the best Banki Beasts for what I'm working on there, and tat guy was definitely not one of the best."

"Got a good point." Sambash said. "Want me to go get something to drink?"

"No thanks, I've seen enough bottles for today."

"Suit yourself." Sambash said with a shrug, before getting up.

Yogostein glanced over at the other side of the table. Yabaiba was sitting there, twiddling his fingers. He looked nervous, something that really wasn't a common look for him.

"You alright?" Yogostein asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just…" He paused for a moment. "I'm alright."

"I haven't seen you like this before. Something's up."

"Nothing is up!" He shouted. "Leave me alone."

"Sheesh, fine." Yogostein scoffed. "Only wanted to help.

Yabaiba sat there as the room emptied, stuck on a single thought that had been naggling in his brain, but hadn't come out fully until this moment. It was an important question, one that none of the villains here would dare ask, even when they were alone.

Who is The Omnipotence?


	32. Day in the LIfe

"Ugh, what a day."

The three officers opened the door to the main hall of the lab, their armor quickly folding up into their belts. "Hopefully nothing else comes up." Emily continued as she stretched out.

For the last two weeks, the SPD had been fighting against the sudden influx of crime caused by the police officer strike. They had been the only officers on duty, and as Clawbick's mere presence noted, they weren't even real officers of the law.

The day hadn't been anymore busy than usual, but the stress of it all was starting to weigh on them. Well it was starting to take its toll on Emily and Henry, Clawbick had been on his terrifying A-game the whole two weeks.

Leopold quickly ran into the room from the hall at the end of the room. He was holding a remote control in is paw. "Clawbick, you know you're not supposed to harm anyone!" He shouted, though he sounded a bit nervous.

"You think I give a shit?" He snapped.

"No, but if you keep at it I'll have to up the voltage." The leopard continued, still nervous. "And you know that neither of us want to do that."

Clawbick's flaring expression didn't change at the threat.

The leopard let out another sigh. "Anyway, Herder called, he said that you need to get to work on capturing the Zoorangers." Leopold continued.

Throughout the last two weeks, they had also gotten into lots of fights with the Zoorangers, who also seemed to be fighting against the criminals they had been going after. Each time they had managed to escape.

"Listen, I know the old goat's impatient," Emily started up. "But this isn't really a good time to go after them, we have a lot more to deal with now."

"I-I know." Leopold said. "I was just giving the message Herder sent me. He's getting impatient, even more so than he usually is."

"If we find an opportunity, we'll take it." Henry followed up.

"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be able to handle them soon enough." Emily said with a bit of a smirk. She turned to Clawbick to ask something, but the lion quickly stepped away from the group. "Dave?"

"I'm going." He said. "See you guys in the morning." He walked down the hall, his footsteps audible in the silence.

"What's up with him?" Leopold asked.

"The Zooranger stuff, probably." Henry said. "Most likely angry at how he keeps failing to beat them."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Emily said. "This would be more of a problem if he didn't have that… thing on him."

"It's a tame collar." Leopold said. "Scrapped pacification devices. I feel horrible just using them."

"I wouldn't." Henry followed. "We'd be risking lives if he didn't have that collar."

"We've been doing our best to keep him in check, but you've done a lot more for us, Leo." Emily said.

Leopold looked at her for a second, and shook his head. "It feels weird to be complimented. Thanks."

"Really? You're a smart guy, Leo, I'm surprised that you don't get more credit." Emily continued, circling him and slapping him on the back.

"Wish my boss thought of me like that."

Emily stepped away from him for a moment. "Just keep up the good work, amigo." She said to him. "Me and Horns are exhausted, we're heading to bed now."

Henry gave a nod, and the two started to walk off down the hall as well. "Uh, thank you!" Leopold yelled down. "I'll try to!"

* * *

Their room wasn't much to look at. It could barely qualify as a bedroom, though, the walls and floor were grey concrete, with two matching bunkbeds at either side of the enclosed space. There was barely enough room for the two of them to move around. There were only a few furnishings besides that, Henry's bunk having a bedside table, and a closet in the corner of the room with all their clothes in it.

There were no windows, either, the only light source being a ceiling light, which was currently off, and a small lamp on Henry's bedside table. Without it on, there would be absolutely no light in the room, which is how they had gotten used to sleeping for the most part.

Emily was laying on her bunk, attempting to relax, while Henry was laying on his, the frame bending a bit as he read a book. "What the hell is up with that Herder guy?" The hyena suddenly blurted out. "The guy's a slave driver."

"Cut him a bit of slack, Em." Henry said, shutting the book and placing it on his bedside table. "You know what happened to him, you should relate a bit."

"Yeah, but the guy hasn't lifted a finger to help us." She continued, rolling over to face the bull. "If he wants revenge on them that bad, he should do something about it himself instead of just yell at us."

"He's old, he would've if he had been younger." Henry continued.

"She sighed. "Yeah. But I don't think that excuses our treatment."

Henry tilted his head, and rose an eyebrow.

"We're living in a dark room away from the rest of society, and are treated like dirt." She continued. "We're basically just prisoners that are called police officers for marketing reasons."

"A lot of things are like prison." Henry said. "The prison of the mind, the prison of self, the prison of existence…"

"No, I mean this is literally like a prison." She said, getting up. She walked over to the door and tried to open it, to no avail. "The door locks after everyone leaves, we're basically stuck here."

"Alright, fair point."

She crawled back into bed. "I know we joined to keep an eye on Dave, but I at least expected us to be treated decently." Emily said, a bit somber. "We were doing better before we took this job…"

"Hey, speaking of Dave, where is he?" Henry asked. "He hasn't been sleeping in his bunk for days."

"Hopefully he isn't doing anything stupid." Emily said, rolling over again. "But knowing him, he probably is."

"You going to sleep now?" Henry asked.

Emily let out an affirmative grunt.

The bull flicked the lamp off, plunging them into darkness.

* * *

Clawbick slammed his fist against the wall, and started pacing around the room. "Why can't I defeat that goddamn fox!?" He shouted. The lion glanced up at the tube with the creature inside, right as an electrical current went through it.

He paused for a few seconds to wait for the shock to pass through the creature before continuing. "Damn thing keeps getting away even when I have the advantage! What does Nicky have that I don't!?" Clawbick ranted. "I just want to wrap my claws around that fox's neck and squeeze the life out." He mimicked strangling someone as he continued. "I need to get revenge on the traitorous scum."

He started to pace around the room again. "And that Herder guy, wanting me to 'catch them' and not murder them right where they stand." He complained, scratching at the collar on his neck. "He has no business ordering me around like that. If I wasn't working for him, I'd have killed him by now."

There was another pause between electric shocks.

"And this fuckin' collar, I hate it." He continued to gripe. "Every time I get used to the shock, they just up the voltage. Thing feels even more like a prison than the prison did." He said, stopping for a moment. "At least I had respect in prison."

He glanced back up at the tube as another electric shock went through it. The lion sighed and glanced down. "You probably can't even hear me in there, can you?"

The lion sat down on the ground, and slowly shut his eyes.

"Sheesh, you really underestimate me, huh?"

Clawbick's eyes burst open, and he scrambled to his feet. He looked around, there was nobody around, where did that voice come from? "Up here, bud." It said. The lion grabbed onto his head, it was coming from inside his head.

He looked up, back at the monster in the tube. It was… talking to him, somehow. He could tell, it had a glint in its eyes, and a toothy smile had creeped across its crystalline muzzle.

"You're… talking to me?" Clawbick stuttered. "How-"

"Through the energy, buddo!" The voice said. "Every time I transferred some of my energy into your fancy sword, a bit of it got into you. There's enough of me in you to make a direct link between our minds."

"Wait, slow down." Clawbick said. "Who are you?"

"Name's Savage, David." The voice said. Before Clawbick could reply, it interrupted him. "Yeah, I know your name, I know everything about you. I know everything about everyone. Before you ask how, it's a long story."

"Alright… Savage." He said. "What's your deal? Why are you talking to me?"

"You and I are kindred spirits, David. We both like violence a whole lot." Savage said. "And as it turns out, you and I seem to have a bit of a common goal."

"What is it?"

"Capturing the Zoorangers, duh." Savage said mockingly. "What other goal do you have in your life besides that?"

Clawbick groaned, this Savage guy was already getting on his nerves. "Why do you want to capture them?"

"Well, I have a bit of revenge I need to inflict on a CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL, and bringing all three of them here would definitely bring him out." Savage explained. "Then I'd kill all four of them. And anyone else in the room. Besides you, of course."

"Oooh, now you're speaking my language." Clawbick chuckled. "Guessing you need someone like me to handle this, since you're stuck in a tube, right?"

"Exactly. Once you get them here, I need you to break me out."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Clawbick asked. "That glass is basically indestructible, and there's no way they'd let me near the powerful stuff."

"I already know how we're going to do it, I wouldn't be talking to you if I didn't have a plan." Savage followed up. Clawbick rolled his eyes at the monster's patronizing attitude. "But we don't have to worry about that yet, its better to wait until everyone is here."

"What makes you think I can even do this? I don't exactly have the best track record."

"Tomorrow is a Monday, you'll be seeing plenty of those three."

Clawbick's ears twitched as a grin crawled across his face. "I'll have them here by tomorrow." He said, before sitting down. "Now if you excuse me, I have to sleep."

"Wait, before you do…"

Clawbick's ears perked up, despite them not hearing anything.

"To seal the deal, once I get my revenge, I'll let you kill Nick Wilde yourself."

"Sounds like a plan." Clawbick chuckled in reply.

* * *

There was an alarm bell ringing into their concrete bunker. It had been going off almost every day for the last few weeks, so the two officers had become remarkably accustomed to it, but it usually never rung this early. The hyena and bull climbed out of their beds, Emily rubbing her eyes.

"Dios mío, what time is it?" Emily groaned.

"About five AM." Henry replied. He seemed perfectly rested, even though they had gotten the same amount of sleep, which wasn't a lot. "Guess I won't get to do my exercises this morning." The bull mumbled.

"How do you even live like this?" Emily asked, getting out of bed.

The alarm went off again, which was basically a way of telling them to hurry up. The two slipped into new clothes, and grabbed their belts, before running to the main hall.

As they ran down the hallway, Clawbick quickly slipped past, going back into the bunker. Emily stopped for a moment to look back, but quickly continued on.

The two arrived in the main hall, the truck having been prepared for them already. "Okay," Leopold started through their communicators. "We've got a monster attack at the Savannah Central Department of Motor Vehicles." He explained. "Its… kind of scary looking."

"They're all scary looking, doc." Henry said. "Least, to you."

"True…"

Clawbick walked down the hall, dressed in what looked like the same clothes, a black jacket, red shirt, and jeans, but noticeably cleaner. "Alright doc, got any other info?" He asked

"Yes, the Zoorangers are already fighting the monster." Leopold continued.

"Well, that's all I need to know." Clawbick chuckled. "Let's get going."

* * *

The truck pulled outside of the DMV's parking lot, and the three officers hopped out of the armored vehicle. The three watched the fight raging in the middle of the lot.

Aside from the three Zoorangers wrecking the place, there was the monster. It resembled an insect, looking specifically like a mantis. However, its face was strange, looking like nothing any of them had seen before, but especially creepy, with a very apparent grin. The sides of its head also seemed to have mantis eyes, but it already had more normal eyes on its face. There were also a pair of antenna poking from his forehead.

The rest of the monster resembled a mantis as well, with a very lanky body. It seemed to wear a black jacket as well, which trailed off at the end into coattails that resembled an abdomen. Its arms seemed relatively normal, just clad in the sleeves of the jacket, but ended in green hands with sharp nails. On each arm was a large blade, shaped like a mantis' sickle. Small spikes poked out of the monster's shoulders as well.

The monster's lower body was bare, as it didn't even seem to have pants on. It only had a pair of boots on, with nothing to really note.

"That thing is ugly." Emily said. "Let's go squish it."

The three pressed the buttons on their belts, causing the armor to cover them. They quickly rushed into the battlefield.

"Oh, that's just great!" Red shouted. The fox was in the middle of clashing with the monster, and quickly knocked it back as he spotted the three officers. "Of all the times for you guys to show up!"

"Listen, Wilde, we're just doing our jobs!" Officer Pink shouted. She quickly pulled out her pistols, and shot at the monster.

It let out a quick whimper as the blasts hit, tossing the mantis monster across the room and into a car. It stumbled back forwards. "Hey, you guys could at least let me say my na-"

Before the monster could finish, Blue and Silver leaped out from behind the car. Silver slashed the monster directly in the chest, knocking it back into the car, while Blue fired several blasts from her guns as she fell.

Both of them hit the ground on their feet, and quickly turned to face the three SPD officers. "Let us deal with this ourselves!" Blue shouted. "You'll just be causing more trouble if you-"

The monster quickly pushed the two to the side and stepped forwards. "Let me introduce myself first, assholes!" The mantis monster shouted. "I am Mandiger, one of Sambash's cohorts, and I will be the one to destroy you all!"

"You already gave us that speech." Red said, quickly running up and slashing at the monster with his claws. "You don't have to repeat yourself!"

Mandiger stumbled back, and let out a growl. "I was introducing myself to the new guys!" He yelled, before glancing back at the three SPD officers. "You guys friends or somethin'?"

"Far from it." Clawbick growled as he pulled out his sword. "And you're gonna be the next thing they put on the Buggaburger menu."

Clawbick quickly leaped at the monster, his sword starting to glow green. The monster cowered for a second, but Red leaped in and blocked the sword with his own. "Oh, there is absolutely no way I'm letting you kill this guy!"

"Why not?" Clawbick asked, mockingly. "You afraid I might kill whoever's in there?"

"Yes, actually, I am!"

Red thrust the blade up, knocking Clawbick's sword out of the way. The fox quickly pulled out his cannon, and fired at the lion, launching him across the parking lot. He skidded across theground, but quickly got back up. He turned to look at Pink and Green. "Well, you two gonna do anything worthwhile!?"

"Oh, sorry." Green said, before aiming his cannon at the monster. He fired a blast, which Silver jumped into, launching him back into the monster anyway.

"Seriously?" Red asked, Blue quickly hopping over.

"Well you said we can't let them hurt him…" Silver muttered as he got up from Mandiger. "So…"

"That was stupid and reckless, but it worked." Blue said. "Don't do it again."

"Got it."

Mandiger suddenly burst upwards, knocking the three of them away. "I WON'T BE TREATED LIKE THIS!" He shouted. The mantis quickly grabbed onto his blades, and pulled them out of his arms, revealing small handles. "Watch my sick technique!"

A line of green energy appeared between the handles on the blades, which quickly formed into a chain that connected them. Mandiger tossed one of the blades up into the air, and grabbed the chain, starting to spin it around in a circle.

He launched to towards the three SPD officers, the chain seeming to grow much longer as it flew towards them. They all leaped out of the way as the blade flew towards them and cleaved its way into the ground.

Pink rolled across the ground ad came to a halt, firing her blasters at the monster rapidly. Effortlessly, Mandiger started to spin the other end of the chain as the other side reeled in, blocking the other shots.

The Zoorangers quickly got up, and attempted to attack the mantis monster with their own weapons. Mandiger fully reeled in the other blade however, and began to whip it forwards rapidly, knocking all three of them away. At the same time, Pink and Green opened fire from either side, Mandiger using the other side of the chain again to block their attacks.

"I'm a lot stronger than I look!" Mandiger shouted. "And I can get even stronger, too!"

He placed the two blades together, grabbing onto both of their handles with one hand, and the chain with the other. The weapon began to glow green, transforming into a large, green scythe. He lashed it forwards, launching the three Zoorangers across the lot and right next to the SPD officers.

"You guys are jokes." Clawbick mocked as the three got up. Red let out a small growl in response. "Let me show you how a real killer handles this."

"Wait, you can't-"

Clawbick kicked the rabbit back to the ground before she could continue, and ran his armored paw against the blade. As it passed over, an eerie green glow began to emanate from it. He started to step closer to the monster.

"Hah, what's a lime-flavored knife gonna do against me?" Mandiger mocked. "Just try it, bucko!"

Clawbick smiled behind his mask, before rushing up to the monster. He slashed through him once, a trail of green energy travelling through the air. Mandiger attempted to block, but the blade went right through his scythe. The monster was launched back at incredible speeds, crashing through multiple cars, which in turn were launched into the air.

Clawbick started to move forward as the cars crashed into the ground in front of him. "WAIT!" Red shouted, causing the lion to turn around. The fox was already running at him. He leaped into the air before the lion could react, and smacked him directly in the face with his sword.

"You aren't touching him!" Red shouted as the lion steadied himself.

"You're really into this hero thing, huh, Nicky?" Clawbick laughed. "Alright, let's see if you've gotten any better."

"Excuse me?" Red said with a laugh. "Last time we fought, I kicked your ass."

"Not gonna happen this time!"

Nick leaped up and clashed blades with the armored lion, using the sword strike's momentum to help propel him into the air. He landed on top of Clawbick's head, and attempted to jump off, but the lion quickly grabbed him and swung the fox into the ground.

"Okay we need to stop this." Blue said, Silver giving a nod.

"We're with you guys this time." Officer Green said, stepping forwards. "The monster is more of a problem than their bickering."

The four rushed up to the fight. Emily and Henry grabbed onto Clawbick's shoulders and pulled him back away from Red, while Blue and Silver eased Red back slightly.

"Hey, let go!" Clawbick shouted, breaking from Emily's grasp and quickly elbowing her in the stomach before pulling his other arm from Henry's grasp.

"Jesus Christ, Dave!" Emily sputtered, before quickly pistol whipping him in the side of the head. "We have more important things to do than feed your fucking inane rivalry!"

"Yeah, if that monster gets away-" Blue tried to explain, but was interrupted by the sound of a motor revving up.

All six of them turned towards the sound, which was coming from a black chopper… which Mandiger was riding on. He gave a quick wave. "See you suckers later, I have mischief to make!"

With that, the motorcycle roared off out of the DMV parking lot, and down the street.

"Look what just happened because of you two!" Silver shouted, smacking himself at the side of his head. "You just let the monster get away!"

Red pounded on his head a few times. "God damn it, I keep screwing this up." He mumbled.

Clawbick glared at Nick as the fox was distracted. He was going to kill the fox right there and then, and get it over with. With a single attack, he could do it and get this nuisance out of his life for good.

"No, stop!"

"What!?" Clawbick blurted out, glancing around.

"Neither of us said anything." Emily said.

"Shut it." The lion snapped back.

"Yo, I can still talk to you al the way out there." The voice was Savage's, it was still in his head. "I know you really, REALLY want to kill the fox, but keep him alive for now, I can't get my revenge if even one of them is killed."

"But we need to defeat them if we want to catch them." Clawbick thought in reply.

"It's best to wait it out, then." Savage continued. "Wait until they're all exhausted, and THEN defeat them! It's simple strategy."

"Alright, got it." He said aloud. He turned to his two team members. "Message from the chief, we're gonna go chase after that thing now."

"Finally, you're making some sense." Emily sighed. The three then quickly ran off to the armored truck, and sped off in it, leaving the three Zoorangers behind.

"Oh god." Red said. "We… we can't let them get to the monster first." He continued to sputter out. "We can't let them kill…"

"We won't, Nick." Judy assured. "We're heroes, that's what we do."

* * *

They had been driving for around half an hour, nothing relating to the monster showing up for that entire time. Emily tapped her foot against the truck's floor in thought as they continued to drive around the city almost aimlessly.

There was something strange going on with Clawbick. Despite her initially being glad about his surprisingly sensible judgement to follow the chief's orders… something was wrong with it.

If orders from the chief had come in, they would have ALL gotten it and not just him. She could easily chalk it off to him coming up with it himself, but his responses and mannerisms did seem like he was talking to someone…

"What the hell is going on, Dave?" She blurted out. The lion visibly twitched from the front seat of the vehicle. "Who were you talking to at the parking lot?"

"The chief." He answered, rather flatly.

"You know that's a bullshit excuse." She snapped back. "We would've gotten the message too, but we didn't."

"She's right." Henry quickly followed. "You very clearly were talking to someone, though."

"Who I was talking to is none of your goddamn business." Clawbick said, surprisingly calm. "We're doing our jobs right now, so you don't have to butt into things unrelated to that."

Emily tried to form a rebuttal, but it was fairly obviously Clawbick would have none of it. He was always stubborn like that, but it had seemed to be getting worse lately. She could only imagine what would happen if he wasn't kept under constant check.

There was a sudden beeping noise, followed by a red light blinking on and off. Leopold started to talk through the speakers.

"Monster report!" He stammered. "Down at the, uh, Savannah Central Bike Park, get there as fast as you can!"

"We're near there." Henry said. "It should only take us a few minutes."

"It'll take us even less if I floor it." Clawbick said, doing just that. The sudden burst forward nearly knocked the other officers off their seats.

"You could at least warn us before you do something stupid!" Emily shouted.

The lion scoffed. "When have I ever done that?"

* * *

The truck zoomed through the grass, and attempted to skid to a halt, but it seemed it was going to fast. The truck slid across the grass, and crashed into a dirt lump, covering the truck in it. The three of them were flung around inside of the vehicle, only protected because of their armor.

"Oh, dios mio." Emily muttered as she got up, shaking her head. "Did you just crash into the track!?"

"Okay, I will admit…" Clawbick started as he climbed up to the steering wheel. "That was a pretty stupid move."

Emily and Henry glanced at each other, and shook their heads. The three then got out of the track, and glanced around. It consisted mostly of dirt, like most biking tracks, with several lumps of dirt serving as ramps. There were a few bikes scattered around the area, and they managed to catch a handful of cyclists running off from the track as well.

The sound of a motorcycle sounded through the air. They turned towards where it was coming from, and watched as Mandiger flew off one of the hills, an explosion of dirt flying from behind him as he swung his chain blade in the air.

The motorcycle crashed to the ground, and the monster turned to them. "Oh, so you yobs are here now?" It said. "Man, I was hoping to have a bit more fun before you showed up."

"Well, ciclista bicho, we weren't going to let you have that fun anyway!" Officer Pink said, pulling out her pistols. "We're gonna squish you-"

They were interrupted by more motor noises. The three turned around, the Zoorangers had arrived on their weird looking bikes. The three of them skidded to a halt as well, right next to the SPD officers. Silver was riding on the back of Red's bike. "Alright, you guys got the plan, right?" Blue asked, seeming to ignore the three enemies next to them.

"Unfortunately." Silver muttered. Blue gave him a quick glance. "I mean, yeah, I know what to do." He quickly hopped off the bike, causing it to visibly tilt a bit.

"You know, if you don't get a ride of your own, this thing is going to break." Red said.

"I can't just drive my car around." Silver said. "I don't even have a car now!"

"Shut it, and let's deal with the monster before the SPD get here." Blue snapped.

"Uh, 'scuse us?"

The three of them turned to face the three SPD officers. "I don't like being talked about like I'm not here." Clawbick growled.

"How the hell did we miss them?" Red asked.

"Silver!" Blue shouted. "Time to do the plan!"

"Oh, right, yeah!" He stammered, before pulling out his sword and pointing it towards the three. He turned his head back to the other Zoorangers. "You guys handle the monster, right?"

Blue gave a nod, and they started the cycles back up again, driving them towards the cycling track itself. Mandiger took quick notice of this, and started his bike, starting to drive down the track. The two other Zoorangers quickly started to follow him around the track, attempting to catch up.

Clawbick chuckled for a moment as Silver stepped closer, still brandishing his blade. "Do you really think you can take all three of us on at once?"

"Uh, not really." Silver admitted. "But I can at least give my friends some extra time to deal with the monster!"

"You still really believe that we'll kill whoever's in there?" Emily asked. "You know how stupid that is, right?"

"Yeah, but its true, and I can't let you kill anyone." Silver dashed forwards, and slashed at the three of them. Clawbick, using his quick reflexes, blocked the slash with his blade. Green and Pink stepped forwards, and fired at Silver multiple times, launching him off.

"Okay, that was a dumb idea…" Silver muttered as he got back up. He quickly spun the guard around, switching his sword to Sun Mode. He thrust it forwards, firing off several fireballs at them.

Green and Pink were showered in the fire, but Clawbick slashed at each fireball that came near him, and started to slowly walk towards the wolf.

Silver flicked the guard around again, switching it to Moon mode. He lashed the blade's laser whip it forwards, attempting to strike at Clawbick. The lion simply slashes at the whip each time it tried to hit him.

Clawbick struck another lash of the whip, but moved it in a way that the whip wrapped around the blade. The lion grabbed onto a loose end of the whip as Silver tried to pull it back. The sword started to glow green, and with a tiny bit of struggle, sliced through the energy whip.

The rest of the whip fizzled out, leaving Silver stunned. "Well, that's a new one."

Pink and Green quickly stepped out from behind Clawbick, and started to fire rapidly. With barely any time to respond, Silver started to swing his sword around, attempting to block the fire. He managed to block a few shots, but a handful of the blasts hit him, knocking him across the field.

The wolf crashed and rolled across the ground, picking up grass and dirt as he did. "Man, this is going even worse than I thought it would." He muttered as he rose to his knees.

"And it's gonna get worse!"

He glanced up, and quickly dodged out of the way as Clawbick brought his sword down to the ground, cleaving a chunk out of it. "Em, Henry, you two gonna sit there or are you gonna do something!?" Clawbick growled as he pulled his sword out from the ground.

"Right, we're on it." Green said, stepping forwards. Pink paused for a moment, before following behind him.

The two dashed over to the wolf. Pink attempted to pistol whip him with one of her guns, which the wolf quickly blocked. However, she quickly pointed the other at his stomach, and fired, knocking him back.

This left Silver open, letting Green step in and swing his cannon at the wolf. He barely managed to duck under it. "Whoa, that's not how you use that thing!" He shouted as he rose up during a pause.

Wordlessly, Henry swung it at Silver's legs, which the wolf jumped over. The bull quickly pulled the cannon over his shoulder and fired it at silver before the wolf could even hit the ground. He was flung all the way back to the bike track, crashing into one of the dirt ramps.

The bull quickly stomped over, and pressed the cannon against Silver's body. IT was nearly the size of the wolf's entire body, keeping him firmly in place. "I'll keep him locked here." He said. "You guys go deal with the monster and the other two."

Clawbick and Pink gave quick nods, and ran over to the side of the bike track. Green looked back down at Silver, and leaned down, the cannon pressing even more into him as the bull rested his arm on it. This seemed to be an unintentional move.

"You know how much easier it would be to just let us do this, right?" Henry asked. "We can get rid of these monsters a lot faster than you and your friends can."

"You just want us to take the easy way out?" Silver sputtered.

"No, I want you to take the sensible way out." The bull followed. "If you left the city to us, you could all go live normal lives somewhere else."

"If we did that, you'd end up killing mammals!" Silver tried to shout, pounding his fist on the side of the dirt mound. "We're officers, we can't let you do something like that!"

"You still don't have any evidence that we will kill anyone." Henry said, leaning in a bit more. "How do you know you aren't wrong about it?"

"I… I don't." Silver admitted. "But we can't let the possibility pass, we WILL prevent you from killing anyone!"

The bull paused for a moment, glancing over at the track. "You three seem especially adamant on protecting this monster. What's the deal?" He asked.

"I don't know everything, but its personal for Nick." The wolf answered. He grunted. "I need to help protect my friends, you understand that, right?"

"You have a good heart, Maxwell." Henry said, with a bit of a sigh. "I wish we could solve this peacefully."

"I do too." Silver admitted. "But you're the one with a psycho on your team."

Red and Blue had chased after Mandiger a few minutes prior, and had managed to catch up with the monster as it zoomed around the track. The two bikes moved in on both sides of the mantis monster's bike.

He glanced from side to side, not seeming to notice the two heroes next to him for a moment. Mandiger then quickly noticed, and let out a shrill shriek. "How did you two catch up so fast!?" He yelled.

"You know these bikes are magic or something, right?" Red said. "You're just riding a normal bike!"

"Augh, curse my quick getaway strategy!" The monster yelled.

"Get off the bike, and we can handle this normally!" Blue shouted as the three of them made a turn.

"NEVER!" Mandiger quickly pulled out his scythe, and slashed at Blue's bike. She quickly pulled away as the scythe started to scrape at the ground.

Red's bike then moved in closer, the fox pulling out his blade, and slashing at the side of Mandiger. The mantis started to tip over, but quickly readjusted himself. "Keep your segmented eyes on the road, bugboy!"

"Grr, I'll need to think of a way to deal with both of you bozos!" Mandiger shouted, before quickly realizing something. "Oh yeah, I have these!"

The mantis pulled his scythe up from the ground, letting Blue move back into a closer position. The scythe started to glow green, and flow into Mandiger's body, the large blades reforming on his arms. "There, much better!"

Without warning, he slashed at the two bikes at the same time, causing the two to quickly break before their bikes could crash. They watched as Mandiger rode off a nearby dirt mound. "Asshole could've scratched the point!" Red joked.

"Not joke time, Red." Blue said. "We gotta catch up with him, right now!"

Red sighed. "Can I just say, I'm really glad you're taking this seriously." He admitted.

"I'm taking this as seriously as I normally do." Blue said as she started up her bike. "But I know what you mean, I know you don't want the SPD to get him."

The fox nodded, and started his motorbike. Before either of them could make a move, Mandiger zoomed past them, having made a full lap around the track. He slashed at them with his blades again, but barely missed.

"Okay, I've had enough of this." Blue said, before the two drove off.

They hit the dirt track after flying off the mound, and were right behind Mandiger. The mantis looked back and growled. "Can't you two just let me have some fun!?"

"Not when your 'fun' involves hitting people with scythes!" Blue shouted back. She quickly pulled out her blasters, and started to fire at the monster's bike.

One of the shots hit, causing the bike to teeter for a moment. "Guns? Two can play at that game!" Mandiger reached for something at his waist, and quickly aimed it behind his head.

The loud firing shot very clearly identified it as a gun. The sound caused both of them to lose control of their bikes for a moment, nearly spinning out.

"Holy shit, he's got a gun!" Red yelled as he scrambled to get control of the bike. "Where did he-!?"

"Don't ask me!" Blue interrupted.

Mandiger proceeded to fire several more shots from the gun, obviously in random directions as he kept his eyes on the road. The two Zoorangers ducked and swerved around the randomly fired shots.

"We can't get close to him like this." Red said. "If we did, he'd shoot us point blank."

"Which means we need to get rid of the gun, right?" Blue replied. She thought for a second. "Red, move your bike next to mine!"

The fox glanced at the rabbit, and shrugged. He moved the bike over next to hers, a few inches between them. "Alright, what now?"

"Move it CLOSER!"

Red looked down at the space, there was barely anything between them. "Carrots, I-"

"Christ, Nick, just do it!"

He nudged the bike over slightly, so that the handlebars were practically touching at that point. Or they would be if they were on the same level. "NOW what!?"

"Grab hold of my bars!" She said, standing up on the bike. "Just hold it steady for a moment!"

"Judy, this is crazy!"

She glanced at him, and the fox sighed. Red grabbed onto one of his own handlebars, and quickly reached down to grab one of Blue's trying to keep it steady as bes as he could.

"Just need one shot to get this over with!" She said, holding one of her blasters. She held it in both paws, and steadied it as best as she could. It was pointed directly towards the monster's gun, hopefully the blast would hit…

She fired it, the blast zooming across the track and smacking the mantis monster directly in his hand. He let out a screech as the pistol flew out from his green hands.

"YES!" Blue shouted, hopping down onto her bike seat. She nudged Red's paw, causing him to let go.

"Ugh, I'm going to have a cramp tonight." The fox groaned as he circled his shoulder around.

"Alright, now we can get up close and deal with him for real!" Blue said, before pointing forwards. The two bikes moved forwards, very quickly catching up with the monster's bike. The three of them started to clash with their bladed weapons, attempting to knock each other off their bikes.

However, things were happening off the track as well.

Clawbick and Pink had been watching the entire ordeal, waiting for a good moment to attack the monster.

Pink sighed for a moment, before putting her pistol back in the holster. "I can't shoot at any of them, they're going too fast." She said as the three bikers zoomed past. "I could end up hitting Nick or Judy, and Herder would be pissed at that."

'Savage would be pissed too.' Clawbick thought to himself. 'But if I want to get all this done, I have to be a bit reckless… but I would probably be reckless anyway."

He looked over to the grass behind Pink. He noticed something glinting in the sun, something metal. "Jackpot." He let out, before running over to it.

"Dave?" Pink said as the lion ran past. She watched as he picked the object up. "Dave, what is that?"

"It's called a gun, Em." Clawbick said. "The monster dropped it a minute ago." He flicked the chamber open to check out the bullet supply. To his surprise, despite Mandiger firing what seemed like a full chamber, the gun had a full six bullets in it. "Huh, infinite ammo." He muttered. Too bad he'd only need one shot.

"Dave, are you an idiot?" Pink asked. "You heard me, they're too close together and going too fast to shoot the monster!"

The lion quickly pointed the pistol at her, digit on the trigger. She backed up ins hock, Green catching this as well and nearly getting up to stop him before anything happened. The lion pulled the gun back, and let out a laugh. "Who said I was going to shoot the monster?"

"What!? You can't-"

Clawbick pointed the gun at the track, and waited for them to pass around again. A moment before they passed, he aimed the gun towards and fired.

The shot hit Red's bike, causing a chain reaction that knocked all three of them over. Red's bike toppled onto Mandiger's the imbalance knocking the mantis onto Blue's bike, all three of them ending up in a pile.

"I…" Pink was stunned for a second. "I can't believe you thought of something that clever."

Clawbick held the smoking gun up, and turned his head to her. "This still has bullets in it. I could show you something REALLY clever." He said, in a very threatening tone, making it clear what he meant.

"Uh, n-no, just forget I said anything." She finished, before looking back at Green. "Hey, we got them all, you can let go of the wolf now!"

Green looked down at Silver. "How you feeling?" He asked.

"Still hurting all over." Silver said, rather bluntly.

"Good, that should keep you there for a bit." Green said, lifting the cannon off him. The wolf let out a groan as the pressure was relieved.

The bull stomped over to the pile of bikes, the three victims crawling out from it. Almost instantly, Blue and Red pulled out their weapons, aiming them at the mantis monster.

"Gulp!" The monster let out, before turning around. The SPD officers had also pulled out their weapons. "Yelp!"

"Alright, you two stand down." Clawbick growled as he stepped onto one of the bikes, pointing his blade at Red. "Let us handle this monster and we'll go easy on you."

"Like hell." Red snapped.

"Fine, I guess we'll just have to-" The sound of a motor started to permeate through the air. The five of them started to look around the field, there wasn't any bikes around. "The hell is that coming from?" Clawbick asked.

"Oh, look in the sky!" Mandiger said. "Its my boss!"

"What!?" Blue said, before looking up herself. "Oh no, not now!"

The rest of them looked up, watching the bizarre sight of a flying motorcycle, propelled by what looked like some kind of anti-gravity device, lowered towards the ground. On it was Sambash, who got off of the bike, and shook his head in mandiger's direction.

"I leave you alone for an hour and a half, and you already get your ass kicked, good job." Sambash said as he approached them.

"I'm sorry, boss!" Mandiger said. "I didn't expect five of these guys to come after me!"

"Alright, whatever." Sambash scoffed. He glanced at the three SPD officers. "So, you guys are those… police guys, right? The ones that are hunting monsters?"

"Yeah, and who the hell are you?" Clawbick asked, stepping off the bikes and walking up to the biker monster.

"Name's Sambash, Gun Boss Sambash." He said. Quickly pulling out a pair of twin pistols. "And you guys are dead meat."

He quickly fired shots at the three SPD officers, sparks flying off of them as all three were flung backwards and into the dirt track. Clawbick let out a growl as he climbed back up to his feet. "The HELL WAS THAT!?" He yelled.

"That… that actually hurt…" Pink said, trying to feel for a wound. Fortunately, the armor still protected her for the most part. "Aren't these supposed to stop bullets?"

"I'm pretty sure they are." Green said as the two got to their feet. "He has to be using something other than bullets."

"Nope, these are standard caliber bullets." Sambash said, flicking the chamber open, and then closing it.

"Man, you're so cool, boss!" Mandiger complimented.

Sambash shot him a look. "No compliments."

"Oh, alright." The mantis monster said.

The biker monster quickly fired more shots at the SPD officers, which seemed to cause around the same level of damage to them as they fell and stumbled to the ground. Sambash stomped over, and stomped down on Clawbick's chest.

"You guys killed a monster in one hit?" Sambash laughed, grinding his foot down. "I don't buy that; you guys are jokes."

Blue looked over at Red, who was looking rather relaxed. "Red, we need to help them." She said.

"Can we at least let him kill Clawbick first?" He asked.

"What!? No!" She shouted. "We can't let anyone die today!"

Red sighed, and the two pulled out their weapons. "Whoa, hold it there!" Mandiger quickly pulled out his scythe and spun around, slashing at the ground in front of the Zoorangers. "You guys aren't going anywhere!"

He attempted to slash at them again, but Blue quickly leaped up and landed on the scythe, before performing another hop and kicking the monster in the face. He stumbled back, and the two headed towards Sambash.

Blue quickly opened fire on the monster, her shots causing him to flinch. "Jeez, can't you two just let me be for once?" Sambash sighed. Without looking at them, he started to fire his gun in their direction. The two dodged the bullets, and leaped up, slashing at Sambash with their bladed weapons.

The biker monster toppled over, but turned into a roll. The SPD officers quickly got up, and drew their weapons as well. "God you guys are a pain." Sambash groaned. He dropped one of his guns to the ground, and placed his free hand on the other gun's hammer.

He started to rapidly fire, shooting a ridiculous number of bullets in a row. The five of them attempted to dodge the incoming fire, but a few shots managed to land. Clawbick ran his paw over his blade as he dodged another bullet, causing it to glow green.

The lion rushed at the monster, and proceeded to slash at him with his powered-up sword. While the slash did manage to hit, it only seemed to barely phase Sambash. "Oh, that actually kind of hurt." Sambash said, only slightly shocked. "Not a lot, though." He brought the gun directly to Clawbick's face, and fired, launching the lion across the field.

"Hah, these bozos should know they can't take on Sambash!" Mandiger said, hopping up next to Sambash, who pushed him back a little. "These chumps aren't worth our time, right boss?"

Sambash looked at his five opponents. The Zoorangers seemed tired, while the SPD guys were obviously inexperienced. He shook his head. "Yeah, not worth the time." He said. He pointed over towards the crashed bikes. "Get your bike, we're gonna go do something that's actually useful."

"Oooh, a bike rampage? I'm down with that!" Mandiger chimed, quickly running over and picking the bike back up. He hopped on the chopper and started to rev it up.

Sambash placed his fingers to his nonexistent mouth, and whistled. The flying bike flew towards him, and quickly shifted to a grounded bike, the wheels flipping around. The two quickly drove off on their bikes, leaving the Zoorangers and SPD behind.

Clawbick let out a growl as he climbed back up. "What the hell just happened!?"

"I think we just lost, Dave." Green said. "I know it's a new experience for you."

The lion clenched his paws together. "Wait until I find that asshole, I'll rip him to shreds!"

Blue glanced at the fox, and motioned towards the dirt mound where Silver was located. He gave a quick nod and the two of them snuck over to help the wolf.

"I'm really not sure if that's a good idea." Pink said to Clawbick. "He managed to pierce our armor with normal bullets, I don't even think that's physically possible."

"A flying motorcycle isn't possible either, Em." Green replied.

"Our job is to hunt monsters, right?" Clawbick asked, though it was obviously a rhetorical one. "So, we go and murder that son of a bitch right now!"

"You can't do that."

The three officers turned to face the Zoorangers. Silver was standing up, though he still looked weakened, and was partially helped up by Red. "Oh, is there someone in THAT monster too?" Clawbick mockingly asked.

"No." Blue continued. "You CAN'T defeat him. We can't even defeat him right now, you're utterly outclassed." Pink and Green glanced at each other, the hyena feeling at where one of the bullets hit.

"That sounds like a lot of shit, rabbit." Clawbick growled. "You're just trying to save your skin, aren't you?"

"Jesus, Clawbick, can't you listen to reason for once in your life!?" red snapped. "That guy was a general, he's one of the six strongest monsters we've fought."

"You three and your boss don't even know what you're up against." Silver coughed. "No matter how powerful you are, you can't defeat all the monsters. It's impossible."

"Shut it, wolf." Clawbick said, stepping forward. "So, you guys think you're smarter than us, huh? Well, just what are we fighting against?"

"You're fighting against monsters from an alternate universe." Blue said, bluntly. "Demons, overlords, and monsters that have terrorized a world completely unlike our own. If you get rid of us, it isn't just the city that's doomed, it'll be the entire world."

"You're attempting to fight gods with peashooters, basically." Red added. "You can't win."

"You're just bluffing." Clawbick said, ignoring his teammates. Pink was starting to shake a bit, and Green had fallen even more silent than usual.

Emily usually wasn't afraid of most things. She'd handled things in her life that would leave most mammals ruined. She was strong. But a fear she didn't know she had creeped over her, the fear of god.

The Zoorangers didn't seem to be bluffing, their tone was absolutely dead serious. Had they gotten in over their heads with this? How could they handle god level terrors? She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Em?" Green whispered. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm… fine." She lied.

"But we could do something together." Blue continued. "If all of us work together, we could take them all down!" She turned to Red. "I know you have objections, obviously."

The fox let out a small growl.

"But we don't have to work together for too long." She continued.

"Yeah, we have the same goal." Silver followed. "Let's try and do this for just one day, alright?"

Clawbick opened his mouth to say something vulgar, but he was interrupted by the voice in his head.

"Hold it, trigger happy!" Savage yelled from inside his mind. "I appreciate you wanting to kill them right here and now, but this is a really good opportunity for us!"

"How so?" Clawbick thought.

"Look at them, they're already weak." He followed. "A bit more action like this, especially up against a general, and they'll be easy to capture! Just play along for now, and we can get this whole thing done in no time."

Clawbick quickly shut his mouth, and cleared his throat. "So, you want to work with us?"

"Really, it's more like you working with us." Red added in an aggravatingly smug way.

Behind the mask, Clawbick's eye twitched, but he tried to regain what little composure he has. "Fine, we can let you come with us." He said through clenched teeth.

"What?"

"What!?"

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"WHAT!?"

All five of the others looked at him. "Stop staring, I already feel paranoid most of the time." Clawbick said, crossing his arms.

"Sorry, I just thought I heard you say…" Red started, before pausing for a moment. He placed a paw to his chin, and stepped away from Silver, causing the wolf to nearly topple over. "I thought you just said you WANTED help?"

"Yeah, want help, sure."

Pink leaned overto Green. "He's acting weird. I think something's up."

"Em, he isn't acting weird, he's acting normal." Green replied. "Which means something is DEFINITELY up."

"Well, we accept your offer." Blue said, before pausing for a moment. "Mostly because our bikes are completely wrecked."

"I dunno, I think they could still work." Red said, turning to face the two collapsed bikes. They very quickly exploded. "Welp, there goes that."

"Wait, does that mean we get to ride in the cool truck?" Silver asked.

"I guessssssss…" The lion mumbled. He was hating this entire idea already, but it would be worth it.

"There's enough room in there for all of us." Green said. "You three will have to share a seat, though."

"We've had to share a lot recently." Blue sighed.

The six of them quickly climbed into the truck, and sped off.

* * *

The truck rattled around as they drove around the city, looking for the monster. The awkward silence within the truck was so think you could cut through it with a knife.

The Zoorangers were seated on one side of the truck, all huddled up on a seat. It was very clearly not meant for more than two mammals, but the three managed to sit on it fairly comfortably, Red and Blue sitting on either side of Silver. The other side of the truck had Pink and Green, who were much more uncomfortable, with the bull taking up most of the seat.

It took around ten minutes for someone to break the ice.

"What's with all the panelling and stuff in here?" Silver asked. He had been glancing around the truck for the entirety of that previous ten minutes.

"What?" Green replied.

"There's panelling all over the place." Silver said, pointing at the walls of the truck. "It looks like its suppose fold up or something."

"That's uh, confidential." Pink followed. "You'll figure it out soon enough."

"That isn't ominous." Red said sarcastically, crossing his legs.

"Since we're trapped here for a bit, how about we spend some time, uh, trying to get to know each other?" Blue started.

There was a collective silence in response.

"Well, alright." She sighed, slumping back in her seat. "Just trying to strike up a conversation…"

"We don't exactly like talking." Pink said. "Well, most of the time. If you caught Horns here in a good mood, he'd talk your ear off about whatever book he's reading." She elbowed the bull and let out a small chuckle.

"Really?" Blue said, ears perking up. "I didn't think you'd like books."

"I mostly read philosophy books." He said, seemingly a bit nervous.

"That's really neat!" Blue said, sincerely. "You really can't judge a book by its cover. No pun intended."

"Yeah, Henry's a pretty good guy." Red said. "He's smart too, talked me out of some stupid stuff during my time with you guys."

"You guys probably have a lot of stories to tell, right?" Silver asked the three.

"Yeah, but they aren't exactly… fun stories." Pink said. "More violent than you'd want."

"Oh, yeah. Gang stuff." Silver said, his mood shot.

There was more silence for a moment, before Emily spoke up. "Do… do you think you could tell us more about these monsters?" She asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Red asked, a bit suspicious at the question.

"I… I don't know, I just want to know." She stuttered nervously. "You said something about… alternate dimensions?"

"Yeah, that'd take a lot longer to explain than the rest of this car ride." Blue said. "Basically, they come from another universe, and want to destroy the city for… some reason."

"Bad guys and their vague plans, hm?" Green chuckled. "Feels like what I'd expect from guys who look like bugs."

"There's definitely a purpose, we just… don't know what it is." Blue said. "There's something big at work here, but that's another can of worms."

"You guys done talking back there?" Clawbick spoke up from the front of the truck. "It's getting annoying."

"'Scuse us for trying to pass the time!" Red snapped. "Its not like there's much else to do right now, we're just waiting for things to buzz."

With that, the Zooranger's Zoolizers let out a loud beeping noise. At the exact same moment, Leopold called over the SPD's communicators.

"Hey, we have a LOT of monsters attacking downtown!" Leopold said, sounding worried. "We need you guys there stat!"

"Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes." Pink said. "the monster's are-"

"Attacking downtown, we know." Red said.

"How do you know where they are?" The hyena asked.

"Oh, these little devices on our wrists transmit the location directly into our brains." Silver said cheerfully.

"We get our calls from our base." Green said.

"Seems pretty efficient if they were only a few seconds behind ours." Blue said. "Who tells you all this stuff? Is it that Herder guy?"

"Oh please, as if Herder would care." Pink laughed. "We get called by Dr. Leopold, he's the guy who built all our weapons and stuff."

"Wow, he designed all of your gear?" Blue said, shocked. "That's pretty advanced stuff, he must be pretty smart."

"He is," Pink started. "But he's also a nervous wreck."

"Definitely Herder's fault." Green followed.

"Yeah, Herder's really abusive to the guy, watching it whenever he comes over makes me…" The hyena clenched her paw.

"So this Herder guy just isn't nice at all, is he?" Red said. He quickly mumbled something else out. "No wonder he got Clawbick…"

"Heard that, Wilde." Clawbick said. "I could very easily crash this car and kill you all instantly, but I won't."

"You know that would also kill US, right?" Pink said.

"Yeah, that's why I said 'you all'."

"Welcome to working with David Clawbick." Green said, sarcastically.

The truck jerked to the side swiftly, nearly causing the SPD officers to fall off their seats, and the Zoorangers to slam their heads into the side of the truck.

"Whoops." Clawbick muttered.

* * *

The truck skid to a halt in the middle of a large plaza downtown. The area was surrounded by buildings on most sides, and required them driving through the sidewalk in order to actually get to it.

"You know, if I was the officer here, you'd be arrested dangerous driving right now." Blue said as the truck stopped.

"Bite me, rabbit." The lion said, pressing a button on the dash panel. The cockpit opened up, and he quickly hopped out. This was followed by the side doors opening upas well, the Zoorangers and SPD officers quickly getting out as well.

As soon as they stepped out, they noticed the massive amount of pirate monsters surrounding the place. They were breaking windows, running around, and yelling in gibberish.

"The hell are these things?" Clawbick asked, looking at the goofy creatures.

"Yartots." Blue said. "They're, uh, pirates."

"Not hard to figure out rabbit."

"Yikes, they're just trashing the place, huh?" Red said, looking around. "Wonder where their bosses are?"

As soon as Red finished, the sound of motors revving sounded through the air. Down two of the four lanes into the plaza drove down Mandiger and Sambash, both still on their bikes. They parked on the other side of the plaza, and got off their bikes.

"Well, I was wondering when you guys'd show up." Sambash said, spinning one of his guns around before holstering it.

"Want me to deal with 'em, boss?" Mandiger asked. "I'd love to crush their faces in!"

"Nah, rather not get our hands dirty." Sambash said. He snapped his fingers, catching the attention of the Yartots. "Yo, Yartots!" He yelled, pointing at the six. "Crush those suckers!"

The pirate minions let out a collective sound of affirmative gibberish, and started to gather up into a small army. "Okay, I'm liking this." Clawbick chuckled to himself. "At least I'll get to kill something today."

"Good thing its nothing important." Red said. "Ready to keelhaul these jolly rogers?"

"I am," Blue started. "But only if you stop making pirate jokes."

"I like the pirate jokes." Silver muttered.

The six of them dashed into the crowd of monsters, Red and Clawbick opening by effortlessly slashing through a number of them, orange sand bursting through the air as they did. Red leaped up in the air to slash through more of them, Clawbick hacking through more of them in what seemed like a rage, nearly hitting Red as he came back to the ground.

"Hey, we're supposed to be working together right now!" The fox said. "Can you at least act like it!?"

"Okay, that was a complete accident, seriously." Clawbick said.

"If you even think of backstabbing me at any point, this partnership is over." Red growled.

"Fine, whatever."

"You wanna get this over with as quick as possible, I know, so let's do that by working together." Red suggested. "Hold out your sword."

"Uh, 'kay?" Clawbick held his sword out flat. The fox leaped up and hopped on top of it. "Now what?"

"Just spin it around!"

The lion sighed, and started to spin around in place. The Yartots, being idiots, moved into the blade, destroying them. "Alright…" Red started. "STOP!"

Clawbick stopped in place, Red using the momentum from the spin to launch himself through the air. He rapidly slashed at the monsters as he flew, clearing out a massive column of them.

"Okay, that was impressive, Nicky." Clawbick said with a chuckle.

"Thanks, but never call me that again."

Blue and Pink teamed up as well to take care of some more Yartots. The hyena blocked a sword slash with her pistol, and pushed it back, quickly smacking the pirate back in the face. "Ugh, these guys are really gross." She bemoaned as she shook some sand residue off the pistol.

"You guys haven't had to deal with the Orgs." Blue laughed, kicking a Yartot away and then firing at it. "Those guys are the grossest."

Pink quickly fired at a few other Yartots, headshotting them and making them burst into sand instantly. "You guys have to deal with hordes like this all the time?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, all the time!" Blue said as she hopped up onto a Yartot's head, quickly slashing at the others around it with her daggers. 'Well, actually, it happens a lot less often than you'd expect."

"Let's try to clean these guys up quick, right?" Pink said. Blue gave a quick nod, and jumped off of the Yartot's head, firing at it with her blaster, before landing on top of Pink's head. "What the hell-?"

"I'll take the far ones, you take the close ones!" Blue said, sounding it out like an order.

"Uncomfortable, but not bad thinking, Hopps!" Pink chuckled, before following her orders. The two quickly cleaned out a large number of the Yartots in only a few moments.

"Wow, check out everyone else!" Silver said, taking a glance at the rest of the rangers' battles. He was quickly pulled back into the fight by a Yartot attempting to strike with him with his cutlass, which the wolf barely blocked. "Maybe we could do something like that?"

"How?" Green asked, kicking a Yartot away with one of his feet, before slamming a row of them with his cannon. "The other four share weapons, we couldn't be farther apart from a team-up."

"Well, then we just gotta get creative!" Silver shouted, jabbing through the Yartot with his rapier. He started to mutter to himself as he slashed through more of them "Oh, I know!" he blurted out, quickly switching the blade to Moon Mode.

'What are you planning?" The bull asked. He turned around just in time to find out.

The wolf lashed at a large group of Yartots, the whip wrapping around them. He then pulled on the sword, and tossed the group up into the air. "Oh, I get it!" Green said, sounding a bit surprised. He aimed the bazooka at the group, and fired, destroying all of them in a single blow.

"Glad you caught what I was going for!" Silver said, lashing at another group of Yartots. "If you didn't those guys would've been landing on our heads!"

"They'd probably die from the fall." Green said, Silver laughing in response.

After a few minutes, the army of Yartots had been completely wiped out, clearing the plaza of all monsters besides Sambash and Mandiger.

"What!?" Mandiger shouted stepping forward. "That was like, three hundred Yartots, how did you six defeat them all!?"

"Teamwork!" Blue shouted, raising a fist in the air. There was a bit of awkward silence from both sides, the rabbit slowly lowering her fist back down.

"I was expecting you guys to be fighting, but I guess y'all are too smart for me." Sambash said with a chuckle. "Now you want to fight us, right?"

"You know it brandy-breath!" Red shouted. "We're going to kick your segmented butts!"

"Usually I love fighting, but today it just seems a bit… I dunno, boring?" Sambash said with a sigh. He placed his hand to his head, presumably in thought.

"Boss, you alright?" Mandiger asked. "Its not like you to pass up a fight!"

"Aha!" The biker boss let out. "How about, instead of a fight, we settle this in a different way?"

The six rangers looked at each other. "What exactly does that mean?" Blue asked.

"Instead of beating each other up, we can settle this with a competition." Sambash explained. "How about a race? We've got a lot of city, and you guys've got heavy vehicles, right?"

"I mean, I guess…" Blue started. "But-"

"And the clencher!" Sambash said, posing dramatically. "Whoever wins the race will get to kill whoever they choose!"

"That's awfully suspicious-"

"Mandiger here will be entering on my behalf." Sambash said, slapping the monster on the back.

"E-excuse me!?" Mandiger said, fearfully. "I didn't agree to this!"

"I'm your boss so shut it and do what I say." Sambash growled. We need two more teams to make this worth anything, so who's gonna enter?"

Clawbick glanced around for a moment, and stepped ofrwards. "I'll do it, getting a chance to kill that thing myself is good enough."

"Then I enter too!" Red said, stepping forward as well.

The lion glanced down at the fox, and the two glared at each other. "That was a short-lived alliance, wasn't it?" He joked.

"I'm not letting you anywhere near that monster, got it?" Red followed.

"Oh my GOD, you two!" Blue shouted. They both turned to face her, watching her shake her head. "You guys know this is a trap, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"No buts!" She snapped, interrupting the fox. "We can do this a lot faster if we just work together, don't be impulsive and-"

"I can do whatever I want, rabbit." Clawbick said as he started to stroll off towards the armored truck. "We're doing this race whether you want to or not."

Blue clenched her fists and let out a frustrated grunt. "I hate that guy." She muttered.

"I do too, and that's why I have to do this." Red said. "I'll win the race, defeat the monster, and then we can get on with our lives."

"Again, it's a trap, I think Sambash has made it so neither of you can win." Blue explained. "Why would he bring us out here and decide not to fight us."

"I know it's a trap, Judy, you just… you have to trust me on this."

She sighed. "Fine, whatever."

"Boss, are you sure about this?" Mandiger asked, nervously. "I don't know if I can actually beat any of these guys!"

"You totally can, dude." Sambash said, smacking him on the back. "I've had this planned out all day, there's no way you can lose…" He paused, and pulled a Chaos Badge out. "Especially when we have this."

He spun Mandiger around, and jabbed the Chaos Badge into the back of his jacket. The monster began to spasm as the badge absorbed into his skin, the emblem of chaos appearing on the back of the jacket. The jacket itself was the first thing to change, gaining more padding, as well as more spikes, specifically around the collar, waist and arm regions. The abdomen-shaped part of his jacket seemed to crease upwards, growing slightly shorter as well.

Mandiger's body changed slightly as well, growing a tiny bit larger than before, more muscles forming in his otherwise lanky body. His neck stretched out, giving him a sudden hunch, which the jacket quickly conformed to. The scythes on his arms grew sharper and straighter, with even more serrated edges on them. Finally, the mantis eyes on the side of his head grew more pointed, and a pair of sunglasses formed on the monster's face.

"VRRRROOOOM!" Mandiger yelled out. "CHAOS MANDIGER IS HERE TO SCHOOL YOU LOSERS, HAH HAH!" His confidence quickly faded. "Wait, I still only have a normal motorbike, and they got real fancy ones, what am I-?"

"I got that covered too." Sambash said, walking the mantis monster over towards the biker monster's own bike.

* * *

"Hurry up, you scallywags, the race starts in ten minutes!" Sambash yelled. For the past hour, the Yartots had been setting things up for the race. It had taken them a long while, and the sun had already gone down.

The six rangers watched as a quartet of Yartots dragged out a flat-screen TV and placed it on a fold-out table. After they placed it on the table, they quickly ran off, bringing in two much smaller TVs soon after.

"What exactly is this all for?" Blue asked Sambash, who was standing distressingly near them.

"Well, how are we gonna enjoy the race if nobody's filming it?" The monster explained. "I'm just being courteous. Also there's probably gonna be some good wipe-outs, gotta catch those on film, too."

More Yartots showed up, each carrying an extension cord. They plugged each cord into each other, and then into a power strip, which they then plugged the TVs into. There was a sudden electrical surge throughout the cords, electrocuting the Yartots and vaporizing them instantly.

"Real competent company you keep." Pink said snidely.

"Shut it." Sambash said, before clapping his hands. "How the cameras coming along!?"

There was a number of Yartots grouped around, one turning to Sambash and giving the "okay" sign with his fingers. The crowd dispersed, revealing five wooden rowboats. Three Yartots hopped into each, one grabbing the paddles, and the other two holding cameras.

The six rangers stared at the boats for a second. The rower Yartots started to row, somehow propelling the boats into the air, where they flew off above the buildings.

"Huh." Green let out. "Now I've seen everything."

Shortly after, the TV screens flicked on, showing several different shots of the nearby city.

"ALRIGHT, PREPERATIONS SET!" Sambash yelled. He spun around and pointed at Red and Clawbick. "You two, get your vehicles, and get to the starting line," He pointed over towards one of the exits of the plaza, which had been marked with a large checkered flag. "I'll explain the rules when you get there."

"Alright, you ready to do this?" Clawbick asked, in a rather threatening manner. "You're gonna get your ass kicked, Nicky."

"There's gonna be an ass kicked, but it won't be mine, Dave." Red said, pulling out a ZooTag. He plugged it in, summoning the Kitsunaider. He hopped on the bike, and drove over to the starting line, where Chaos Mandiger was waiting for them.

Clawbick let out a laugh as he headed for the truck.

"Do all your adventures get this weird?" Pink asked.

"Yeah, but this is actually normal compared to last week." Blue said with a sigh.

"What happened?"

"We sang karaoke and fought a bottle wizard." Silver said, matter-of-factly. "I've been around for a while and nothing as weird as that happened before then."

"Huh." Pink let out, unable to really find anything else to say.

The engine of the truck rumbled as the vehicle passed by them, and headed towards the starting line. It parked, taking up most of the size of the exit. "Alright, let's get this started!" Mandiger yelled, revving the bike's engine.

"We gotta lay some ground rules first." Sambash said, walking in front of the racers. "First off, the Yartots have blocked off every exit that isn't on the course, so just stay on the path and everything should go smoothly. First to the end wins." He started. "Second, if you break past any of the barriers, you're disqualified."

"Are there any other rules?" Red asked.

"Nope, everything else is free game." Sambash said, with a quick chuckle at the end. He walked off to the side, and pointed one of his pistols up in the air. "On three!" He shouted.

"ONE!"

The sound of motors revving filled the plaza, the four other rangers looking on in anticipation.

"TWOOOOOOO!"

Red glanced over at the monster on the bike, and then at the massive truck. This wasn't an entirely fair trade-off.

"THREE!"

Sambash fired his gun, and the three zoomed off down the road. As they exited the view from the plaza, the four rangers turned to look at the monitors. The screens showed several different angles, a few above shots, and some peculiar side shots that didn't seem possible to make from those flying boats.

Sambash walked over holding a folding chair. He opened it, and sat down. "This is gonna be fun." He said. "My bet's on Mandiger."

"Yeah right, Nick will win." Silver said. "There's no way he can't win."

"Well, he might lose, but I trust him." Blue said. She turned to the SPD officers. "You guys are rooting for Clawbick, right?"

"If he was here, the answer would be yes." Green said.

"Yeah, we're kind of hoping he gets his ass kicked here." Pink followed. "We don't like him either, you know."

"Wait, so I'm the only one NOT betting on the fox!?" Sambash said. "That's really lame."

They watched the screen.

The bikes and the truck drove through the street, for the first few minutes it seemed fine. Mandiger and Red were in the lead for the most part, though Clawbick's truck was only slightly behind the both of them.

"This'll be easy." Red said to himself as he inched past Mandiger's bike. "As long as I keep up this pace, I should be able to win in a flash."

There was a sudden crash from the buildings above them. Heavy objects suddenly started to fall from the sky. TVs, couches, office desks, tons of things that would kill you on impact at that height falling from the sky.

Red swerved around a few of the objects, slowing him down significantly. "Hah, loser!" Mandiger shouted as he passed. The wheels of his bike flipped up, and started to glow blue. The bike then jetted up into the sky, well above any potential harm.

Blue looked back at Sambash. "You're cheating!" She yelled. "You're sabotaging them!"

"Not cheating, rabbit." Sambash said, flicking the rabbit in her nose. "I gave two rules, and this breaks none of them!"

"That's just-!" She let out a groan, before placing her paw to her helmet. "Red, Sambash is cheating."

"Yeah, I can kind of tell, Carrots." Red said, attempting to swerve through a couch and a smashed lamp. He glanced behind him, watching as Clawbick's truck seemed to just roll over the obstacles.

"If he's cheating, then you can cheat too!" Blue said into the communicator. Sambash gave her a quick glance. "Use your weapons, shoot him down!"

"Damn, should've made these rules less lenient." Sambash muttered. "But this'll be interesting at least."

Red gave a nod to no one, and quickly pulled out the Vickscannon. He aimed it at some falling debris, vaporizing them and keeping the road clean. The fox accelerated, and drove closer to the flying bike riding mantis monster.

He aimed the cannon upwards, and fired a few shots at Mandiger. "Whoa!" The mantis let out as one nearly grazed his bike. "Looks like I'll have to get serious too!" He laughed.

The mantis slashed one of his blades down towards Red's bike, shooting out a slash of energy. The fox swerved to avoid it, the bike nearly tipping over because of the massive cannon he was carrying. "Ugh, this thing isn't very practical." Red said to himself.

Another laser slash came from above, nearly hitting Red. He couldn't turn anymore or else the bike would fall over. He had to think of something quick. Oh yeah, gun.

He fired several more shots at the flying bike, which quickly dodged all of them. While this wasn't remarkably effective, it did give Red some extra time to center himself again. He quickly glanced back, Clawbick was still remaining at the same distance, not doing anything. He had to be up to something.

But he couldn't let that distract him for long, Mandiger was still his biggest threat at the moment. He zoomed forwards, directly under the mantis monster. He aimed up, and fired, hitting the bike on the bottom, causing it to spin out and start to fall towards the ground.

"Ah crud!" The monster yelled, trying to rev the motor again. The bike sputtered, and then started to rise back up into the air.

"No you don't!"

Mandiger glanced down, watching as a blade suddenly flew up, nearly hitting him in the face. The blade twisted around in the air for a second, the only thing keeping it afloat being a small wire. It then slashed at the bike's back tire, causing it to spin around.

The wheel flicked back into normal wheel position, shutting off the anti-gravity device in it. The bike started to float slowly down to the ground. "Oh, come on!" The mantis monster shouted as the bike's back wheel hit the ground.

"Hey, care to spar for a second?' Red asked, his bike moving closer to Mandiger's. His blade retracted back to the hilt, and he slashed at the monster. Mandiger quickly blocked the blade with his own, the two entering a quick fight.

The two clashed for a few minutes, Mandiger occasionally kicking the side of the bike to try and activate the anti-grav wheel. After a few strikes, Red got a call through his communicator.

"Nick, watch out!" Blue said.

"What do you think I'm doing, Blue!?" Red shouted, ducking under one of Mandiger's swipes, and returning it with a slash of his own.

"No, I mean WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!"

The fox quickly glanced back.

"Ohhh fu-"

A missile flew through the air, crashing into the ground next to the two bikes and causing debris from the ground to fly through the air.

"The hell was that!?" Mandiger shouted, looking back himself.

Clawbick's armored truck has somehow gotten even more imposing. The slope on the front of the truck had opened up to reveal a missile pod, and two large chain guns had appeared on the sides of it as well.

"The hell is he doing!?" Pink shouted at the screen. "Those are supposed to be for emergencies, not for a dumb race!"

"He probably wants to get rid of both of them at the same time." Green suggested.

"I have to say, this is definitely more exciting than it was at the start." Silver said.

"Oh, definitely." Sambash followed with a laugh.

The truck fired more missiles at the two bikes, all of them just barely missing. He was definitely missing on purpose, Nick thought to himself. He was still waiting for something to happen before he went all out on this attack.

"Gah, this is too much for me!" Mandiger shouted. The slits on the back of his jacket opened up, revealing black transparent wings. They started to flutter rapidly, somehow lifting the bike back up into the air. "See you suckers later!"

The chain guns on the truck tilted upwards, and started to fire at the mantis. The truck shifted over on the road, trying and catch the bug in between the two guns. "Whoa, watch it!" Mandiger shouted.

A missile suddenly shot from the pod, striking the bike in the back. The exhaust pipe exploded, launching the bug forwards, before it crashed into the ground in an explosion.

"Oh god." Red muttered to himself. He was trying to kill the both of them, wasn't he? The fox froze in fear for a second, granting the lion enough time to shoot one of the Kitsunaider's wheels, causing it to spin out.

"Well, I say we have a winner." Sambash said. "Too bad nobody here was rooting for him." He quickly clapped his hands. "Alright, boys, cut the cameras, we don't have to see any more."

The TV screens quickly cut out, leaving the four in silence. "I hope Nick's alright." Silver said.

"I do too." Blue muttered.

They heard the roar of an engine, as the truck zoomed passed the finish line, and stopped. The missile pod closed, and the chain guns folded back into the roof of the truck. The cockpit opened, and Clawbick hopped out.

"Whew, that was a rush, huh?" He said, wiping off his armor despite there being no dust. He quickly turned to Sambash. "So, who do I get to kill?"

"They'll be here in a second." Sambash said. With that, the flying rowboats returned, and parked onto the ground.

Red and Mandiger were in two of them. Mandiger climbed out, grunting in frustration at his loss. "You owe me a bike." Sambash said, slapping him on the back of the head.

Red, however, was silent as he climbed out of the boat.

"So, you get to kill either Mandiger, or this fox." Sambash explained. The four other rangers watched on in anticipation as Clawbick examined the two of them.

"Just get it over with." Red said. "I know you want to kill me."

"Oh, I would love to kill you right now, Nicky." Clawbick said, walking over to him. He knelt down and looked the masked fox in his face. "I would love to kill you on this spot, as your friends watch. I'd love to do that, but unfortunately, I can't."

Red's ears perked up in confusion as the lion got back up. "But I WOULD love to cause you as much misery as I possibly can." Clawbick continued, walking up to Mandiger. He glanced back over at the fox. "You and whoever's inside this monster have a past together, right? How would you feel if I killed him?"

Before Red could even answer, Clawbick raised his sword, preparing to strike down the monster.

Suddenly, multiple gun shots hit him, knocking Clawbick over.

"That's enough of this." Sambash said with a sigh. "Man, that plan went south. I had it all set up for Mandiger to win, but nope, you had missiles. Oh well, now we'll just have to kill you both."

"Oh, right!" Chaos Mandiger said. He pulled the blades off of his wrists, a green line forming between the two. They connected, forming a double-ended scythe.

Clawbick got up and pulled out his blade, Red quickly following up. The fox quickly rushed up to the mantis monster, and entered locked combat with his scythe, leaping up in the air rapidly to attempt a strike.

Sambash fired his bullets at the lion, which Clawbick attempted to block with his blade. The bullets bounced off, but also pushed him back a bit. "Shit, how is this guy doing this?" Clawbick muttered. "You can't just make bullets stronger…"

"Don't worry, Red, we're coming!"

The lion looked over, watching as Silver and Blue leaped into the fray. Silver helped Red attack Mandiger, while Blue distracted Sambash for a moment, allowing Clawbick to run off.

He grouped up with the other two SPD officers, who hadn't entered combat yet. "Should we go in there and help them?" Pink asked. "It seems like the right thing to do…"

"No, I hate to admit it, but the rabbit was right." Clawbick admitted, shamefully. "There's absolutely no way we can take on that general guy. I think we'll need to use it."

"But you just wasted a lot of energy on your little weapon stunt back there." Green said. "There's no way we can power it without going back to get a recharge."

"No, I have a way, just follow me."

The three ran back over to the truck, and quickly got inside. Clawbick climbed into the cockpit, while Pink and Green sat on the two seats in the back. "Where's the power source?" Clawbick asked.

"Somewhere above where we are right now." Green said.

Clawbick climbed into the back, and opened a panel between where the two were sitting. There was a miniature engine, powered by Cell Medals. The lion pulled out his blade.

"Dave, what are you-?"

Before Pink could finish, the lion jabbed the blade into the engine. There was a sudden pulse f green energy throughout the truck, it somehow instantly starting up. "How did that even work!?" Pink asked. She glanced at green, who gave a shrug.

"Alright, now we're ready to go." Clawbick started as he climbed back into the cockpit. "Initiating formation sequence." Clawbick said as he pushed at several buttons on the control panels. The two seats at the side of the truck folded upwards, pointing Pink and Green towards the front of the vehicle. Panels started to fold around them, shifting into two control panels for the both of them.

"Arm one, ready." Pink said.

"Arm two, ready." Green followed.

Clawbick pressed some more buttons on the control panel. The vehicle seemed to rise up into the air, while also folding in as well. The cockpit folded inwards, putting Clawbick right next to his two comrades.

From the outside, the truck's change had become incredibly apparent. The five outside looked at it as it folded into a slope like shape, wheels still on the bottom, serving as support, and two massive arms coming out of the side, the chain guns acting as hands.

"Yo, check it out!" Clawbick said through the vehicle's loudspeaker. "We call this the SPD Mech, it's our ultimate weapon!"

One of the arms pointed towards Sambash, and started firing at him. The flurry of bullets seemed to be too much for him, with the final shot launching the biker monster through the air and into a nearb7y building.

"The hell…?" Sambash whispered to himself. He shook the hit off. "YARTOTS, GET THAT THING!"

Another army of Yartots started swarming out of the buildings around them, charging towards the massive robot. The other arm opened fire, clearing out a large chunk of them in a few seconds. As the arm focused on firing at the Yartots on one side, the other arm was busy smashing the pirate monsters to dust.

And while that was going on, the main body itself was turning around, trying to keep locked on to Sambash. The missile pod opened up, and started to rain missiles down onto him, destroying part of the building he was standing next to.

Sambash emerged from the blast, clearly very injured. "This went south WAY TOO FAST!" He shouted. He snapped his fingers, but his bike didn't seem to come to him. "Right, shit, gonna have to come back for it."

He quickly ran over to one of the wooden boats, and quickly rowed off into the air.

"Boss, wait for me!" Mandiger shouted, taking to the air himself.

The Zoorangers could only look on stunned as the entire Yartot army had been wiped out faster than even they could manage, leaving the ground covered in orange residue. "I didn't know they had something like this." Silver said. "Gonna be honest, it's kind of awesome."

"Okay, we really can't focus on how actually cool this is until after we defeat that monster OurSELVES!" Red shouted. "LOOK!"

He pointed towards Chaos Mandiger, who was flying through the air, attempting to avoid the SPD's fire. "Hold on, don't shoot me!" He said. "I've got a very delicate exoskeleton!"

The mech stopped its fire. "Alright then, if you don't want to be shot at," Clawbick started. "Then we'll just do THIS!"

One of the arms swung at Mandiger, smacking him down to the ground. The chain gun arm pulled away, revealing the monster's batted body crushed alongside the pavement. The mech moved both of its chain guns at the monster, preparing to unload everything.

"Oh god, they're going to kill him!" Blue shouted. "I need to think of something quick! Nick, do you have any ideas?"

"Yeah, I got one." Red said, before bolting off towards the remains of the monster.

"Nick, what the hell are you doing!?"

The fox stopped in front of Mandiger's crushed body, and spread his arms out. He was blocking any shots that could be fired at the monster. "You can't kill me, Dave!" He shouted. "I know you want to, but you can't! Come out here and talk to me!"

The mech paused for a moment. There was a minute of agonizing silence as they waited for something to happen. The mech suddenly backed up, and folded back into its truck form. The cockpit opened, and Clawbick hopped out.

"Talk, huh?" He said. "About what?"

"I want to make a deal." Red said with a sigh.

Clawbick raised an eyebrow.

"If you let us destroy this monster, we'll…" He paused. "We'll turn ourselves in."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, excuse me!?" Blue shouted, hopping over. "We can't just turn ourselves in, Nick!"

"Yeah, who's going to protect the city if we're locked up?" Silver asked.

"I don't know." Red said bluntly. "But we're supposed to protect others, and if we keep fighting more mammals will just be harmed."

"But-"

"If we keep trying to run away, then nothing will be accomplished. Things will just get worse." Red interrupted. "You should know that better than anyone, Carrots."

She paused, and let out a sigh. "Alright, as leader, I say we all agree to the deal."

"I'm still against it, but whatever." Silver muttered. "But it's to protect someone, so its alright."

"I never said I accepted this deal." Clawbick growled. "I should just kill all four of your right here and-"

"Hold it, Clawsy!" The voice in his head yelled. "This is a great idea, they're letting you take them in! It's an easy win, just let them take care of this lame monster and we'll have won!"

Clawbick sighed. "Fine, I accept your deal. "Just get to killing that monster."

"Alright." Red sighed. He motioned for the other two to take a step back from Mandiger's body. He pulled out the Vickscannon, and plugged a ZooTag into it.

The cannon fired a massive fireball which exploded on contact with the monster. Out of it flew a sloth, and a Chaos Badge.

Red ran up to the unconscious sloth, and checked to see if he was alright. "Thank god they didn't kill you, Flash." He whispered to himself.

Clawbick's attention was drawn from that scene to the Chaos Badge, which started to glow, and flew off into the distance, forming the massive Chaos Mandiger on the horizon.

"YOU ALL BETTER SAY YOUR PRAYERS!" It roared.

"We're going to have to deal with this too." Red said. "I don't think your robot can handle a fifty-story giant."

Clawbick grunted in response, and headed back over to the truck. He didn't even watch as they summoned up their mechs, an infernal amount of metallic clanking and stomping sounding soon after.

Five minutes passed as Clawbick waited for them to finish. He heard the crashing of blades, gunfire, and the monster seeming to yell at nobody in particular. It had gone like this with every monster the Zoorangers had fought, and it was getting boring to just be a spectator.

The end of the fight was signified by Mandiger yelling out "I'VE REACHED MY FINISH LINE!" before an explosion was heard. After that, there was more mechanical clanking and then the sound of someone landing.

"Alright, we dealt with the monster." Nick said as he untransformed. Judy and Max followed along with him as they walked to the back of the truck.

"Ugh, finally." Clawbick moaned as he followed them. The back of the truck opened up, the three Zoorangers being greeted by Pink and Green, who quickly snapped handcuffs onto them. The three climbed aboard, and Clawbick headed back to the cockpit.

The truck drove off shortly after.


	33. End of the SPD

_Oh god._

_What had he done?_

_He looked at his claws. Blood stained them. It was covering him. There was something on the ground, where the body should have been. A cloud of red and green that pulsated for a moment… before it faded it._

_"Dave?" A voice called from around the corner. "Idiota, where are you?"_

_He looked behind him, down the alleyway. Emily and Henry turned the corner, and were instantly stunned by the sight._

_"Oh my god, Dave, what happened?" Henry asked, both worried and terrified._

_"I… I don't know." The lion muttered. He glanced back down, the cloud had cleared, revealing the dead body of a full-grown panther. Wounds covered his body, ripping through his clothes, and a pool of blood surrounded him._

_Emily ran over, and grabbed the panther's paw, searching for a pulse. "Oh god, he's dead." She muttered. She stared at Him. "Dave, did you do this?"_

_"I didn't mean to…" He muttered, tears starting to well in his eyes. He fell to his knees. "But he tried to… I didn't mean to kill him…"_

_Words soon turned to incoherent gibberish as Henry helped him back up. Him and Emily helped him walk away from the site, but a terrifying thought continued to flow through the lion's mind. As much as he swore he didn't mean to, as much as he was terrified by the concept of having killed someone…_

_It still felt good._

* * *

The truck bumped along the street roads. Clawbick pressed a button on the control pad, a quick ringing noise sounding through the vehicle. "Hello?" Leopold sounded over the speakers.

"Hey, Doc." Clawbick said. "We caught the Zoorangers, tell Herder."

"Oh, alright, I'll-" There was a pause. "You actually caught them!?"

"Yeah, we did."

There was a silent pause, though they could hear muffled chatter. "The chief's already here, he was doing an inspection, so you guys have great timing!" Leopold said. "The chief'll be… thrilled, right?" He said off hand. "Yeah, thrilled."

"We'll be there in five minutes, prepare the entrance." Clawbick continued. "Don't wanna be sitting around for a goddamn half-hour again."

"Alright, see you guys so-" Clawbick quickly hung up.

"So, where're you taking us?" Nick asked from the back. "Old asylum? Museum?"

"Nowhere inside the city, Nicky." Clawbick dully responded.

Nick glanced at his own teammates, who gave shrugs in response.

"If you were a kid, you'd think it was super cool." Emily said with a knowing laugh. She stopped. "Probably won't like it now, though."

There was silence for a few minutes, and then a quick bump. "Alright, we're here." Clawbick said. "You guys escort the prisoners, I'll park the car." He ordered.

"Alright." Henry said, standing up. "But first, we're going to need your wrist things."

"Our Zoolizers?" Judy said. "Why do you need them?"

"To confiscate them, duh." Emily said. "They're basically weapons, we can't just let you three run around in a prison with them."

"But-"

"Just do what they say." Nick sighed. "It'll be easier."

The rabbit gave a sigh as Emily knelt down, and took the Zoolizer off of Nick's wrist.

Henry took Judy's off, and looked at Max. The wolf instinctively jutted his hands away. "Please don't take it." He pleaded.

"Max, seriously?" Judy said. "Just do it, leader's order."

Max sighed, and held out his paws. Henry quickly pulled it off his wrist. "Alright, now we're getting out." Henry ordered, the sides of the truck opened up to reveal a grassy field. The two officers led the three out into the field, and it became obvious where they were.

They were directly outside of the city, around the same area where they fought most of the giant monsters. It was easy to tell, there were massive footprints everywhere.

"Not much of a base." Nick joked.

"This isn't the base." Henry said. The ground suddenly started to shake, and the three looked at where it was coming from.

A large, square patch of grass started to rise up, nearly one hundred feet wide on all sides. There was a horrible metallic screeching as this happened, most likely caused by the large metal bars on all four corners scraping against a metal interior. The patch of grass stopped many feet above the ground, enough for the already massive truck to fit in quite comfortably. There was a metallic platform directly under it, which the truck slowly drove onto.

The officers motioned for the three to follow, and they walked onto the platform. It started to shake again, and began lowering.

"What is this?" Judy asked as they passed ground level.

"An underground panic bunker." Henry started. The roof hit ground level, everything going pitch black. It paused, and lights at the sides of the metallic walls lit up. The elevator seemed to continue downwards shortly after that.

"Built around, I dunno, seventy, eighty years ago?" Emily continued. "It was made in case another war started."

"A war?" Judy said. "There hasn't been a war in a century, why is this place still operational?"

"They made it into a weapons research facility, its where they test new weapons." Henry answered. "Just because there hasn't been a war in one hundred years, doesn't mean one couldn't start tomorrow. At least, that's the idea behind it."

"Weapons? Like, for hurting others?" Judy continued. The bull nodded in response. She was stunned by this information, she had been convinced that nothing like this was needed, especially considering the strict gun laws in the city itself.

"Carrots, are you really surprised by this?" Nick said, way too nonchalantly. "This is how politics work, whoever has the best weaponry wins, according to most politicians at least."

"I just thought that 'Chief of Defense' was a meaningless title." She said. "I didn't know we had a weapons facility underneath the city."

"The guys upstairs love keeping secrets from us." Max continued. "Like Area Fifty-One."

Nick and Judy both looked at the wolf for a second. He looked back.

"What?"

The elevator stopped, revealing a slanted road that seemed to head off into utter darkness. The truck started to move forwards, and rolled down the road. The officers led the three to a nearby door at the base of the road, only slightly off the large elevator. It opened up, revealing another elevator.

"Alright, how deep is this place?" Nick asked as they stepped into the lift. He glanced at the buttons, there were only two, one pointing up, and the other pointing down.

"Don't worry, we're almost at the bottom." Emily said. "And if you think this is bad, try having to do this twice every day."

The smaller elevator stopped, leading to a hallway. They followed to=he hall into a large open space, lined with different machines that none of them had ever seen before. Odd contraptions, some looking like guns, some not.

Standing in the middle of the room was Herder and a leopard, presumably Dr. Leopold.

"Well, if it isn't our guests of honor!" Herder said as the Zoorangers were led into the room. "It's great to finally meet you three in person," He continued, walking over and shaking Judy's paw with his hoof. He was squeezing it to the point of pain, definitely on purpose. "My name is Herder, and this is my assistant, Dr. Leopold."

"Actually," Leopold started, clearing his throat. "It's 'Head of research and development-"

"No one cares, Leopold."

The leopard shut up.

There was a sudden rumbling sound as a door at the end of the room opened up, the truck driving in and parking in front of them. The cockpit opened up, and Clawbick hopped out. "Yo, I miss anything."

"Not yet, but I was just about to give my orders." Herder said to the lion. "I want you to take them to a free bunker, and let them rest for the night."

"What?" Nick said, confused. "Why don't you just do whatever you're going to do right now?"

"Because its twelve AM." He said bluntly. "I think we're all pretty tired now, right?"

There were collective nods.

"Then we can handle this in the morning." He said, before letting out a chuckle. "Besides, its not like you're going anywhere. Alright, see you all in the morning!" He ended, walking out through the hall.

"I'm amazed you handled that so well, Dave." Emily said to the lion. "I thought you'd be really upset about not being able to kill them right now."

"Nah, I got better things to do." Clawbick said. "Like sleeping."

The lion started walking off, leaving the five others behind as he passed through a different hallway at the end of the room. "Alright, guess we should take you to your… uh, rooms." Emily started.

"Ooh, I hope they're well furnished." Nick said sarcastically.

* * *

"Eh, not as bad as I was expecting." Nick said before the officers pushed the three into the bunker. It was made entirely out of concrete, with a small light and no windows, but thankfully it had two bunk beds.

Emily unlocked the handcuffs for them. She paused as she unlocked Nick's, and stared at him for a moment. She sighed, and left the room, shutting the door behind them. The fox stood there.

"This sucks." Max started, sitting down on one of the beds. "I guess we're actually full criminals now, huh?"

"Not yet." Judy said as she started pacing around. "It's up for a juror to decide, we still have a chance."

"Oh, I guess that's, uh, comforting?" Max followed. "Why do you think this Herder guy hates us so much?"

"I have no idea." Judy said with a shrug. "I've never even heard of the guy, I don't know why he'd have such a grudge against us."

"Yeah, it's not like he's really caring about the peace, the guy's clearly got a grudge on us specifically." Max continued. "Maybe we did something to him we're not aware of?"

"What could we have done that would've made this so personal?" She asked. "I don't think he even knew who we were before the doppelganger stuff, so it has to be something related to our Zooranger personas."

Max sighed for a second. "I know this sounds dumb, but maybe we should try applying some TV show logic to it?"

Judy paused and looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"I mean, a lot of stuff that's happened to us has been pretty standard TV show fare." The wolf continued. "I've watched enough to see some common threads. Like, maybe he's being tricked by a bad guy to do this?"

"I mean, the monsters have done terrible stuff like that before." Judy admitted. "But it doesn't seem like his hate is misplaced, either."

"Then I got nothing." Max said. "About the only thing we can say for certain is that it has something to do with Long, right?"

"That, or Long's just part of a bigger scheme." Judy followed. "Remember, Enter was the one who started this whole mess anyway."

"The bad guys don't really explain why Clawbick and his teammates are here, either." The wolf continued. "I guess we just don't have all the pieces to solve this mystery."

"We'll find out in the morning." Judy said with a sigh. She turned back to Nick, who was still standing in the same place. "Nick? You alright?"

The fox seemed to snap out of his trance. "What? Sorry, I was, uh, thinking."

"I know this whole thing's been rough." Judy said. "Running into someone like Clawbick again is… difficult, right?"

"You have no idea how difficult this is, Judy." Nick said, sullenly. He quickly smiled, and claped his paws together. "I call top bunk!"

He quickly climbed up the ladder, and hopped into the bed. Judy and Max stared at each other, Max giving a shrug. Neither of them were sure what had come over the fox in the last few moments.

"We should probably sleep too." Judy said. "I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be difficult."

"Hopefully just emotionally difficult." Max said, before wrapping himself in the thin blankets.

* * *

_"So, you want to join our gang, huh?"_

_The lion knelt down to look the young fox in the eye. It was a terrifying experience, the lion's eye had a glint of malice in it. The fox took a gulp, and spoke up._

_"Yeah, I want to join your gang." He said, absolutely confident._

_The lion got back up, and let out a laugh. "Not a lot of mammals have the guts to talk to me like that." He said, bemused. "What's your name, kid?"_

_"Uh, Ni-Nick?" He mumbled. "Yeah, Nick Wilde. And for your information, I'm sixteen years old, I'm not a kid."_

_"Still younger than me." The lion said with a laugh. "You got some spirit, kid. I like you."_

_The fox's ears tried to pop up, but were blocked by the hoodie he was wearing. "Does that mean I'm in?"_

_"If you think you can handle it, sure." The lion said. "Follow me."_

_Nick followed the lion into a back alley, leading to what looked like an abandoned house. He opened the door, letting the two in. The house was both filthy and somewhat clean, like they had cleaned up only parts of it rather than the whole place. The dirty parts seemed to be nearly inhospitable anyways._

_"Yo, guys, I got a newbie here!" The lion shouted. "Wants to join the gang!"_

_"That's one I haven't heard in a while!" Shouted a voice. The lion lead Nick into the living room, where a hyena in a pink tank-top had just gotten up off the couch. She glanced at the fox in confusion. "Is this the newbie?"_

_"Yeah, his name's Nick." The lion introduced. Nick gave a nervous wave to her. "He's got guts, I like him, but I wanted to know what you guys think."_

_"What's your background?" She asked. "I mean, what have you been through?"_

_The fox cleared his throat. "I had a fight with my mom, and ran away from home." He said. She raised an eyebrow, the fox seemed to be putting on a deeper voice._

_"Not much of a story, is it?" The lion said with a laugh. Nick pulled his hoodie over his face in shame._

_"Dave, don't laugh." The hyena said. Nick pulled the hoodie back, and looked up at her. "That's basically what happened to you."_

_"Don't have to rub it in, Em." Dave aid, crossing his arms. He glanced around for a moment. "Where's Henry at?"_

_"He went to the store to pick up some supplies." She said. "We're running a bit low on cash, I think we're gonna have to do another black market run soon."_

_"You know we barely get anything from selling off our stolen goods." Dave said._

_"Oh, I think I can help!" Nick said, raising his paw up._

_The two looked down at him, both giving a quizzical look. "How exactly can you help?" Dave asked._

_"A couple years ago I started selling popsicles with one of my friends," He started. "We sold them at double the price, collected the sticks, and then gave them to the recycling plant for even more cash."_

_"Wait, you opened a racket?" Emily said. "That's pretty advanced stuff for someone your age, more than Davey here ever did."_

_"Hey, watch it." The lion snapped. "I don't see how popsicles will help us with our cash problem."_

_"Well, we can just sell things at inflated prices." Nick explained. "Give a good sales pitch, and anything will sell!"_

_"Will that really work?" Dave asked Emily._

_She gave a shrug. "I don't know, but it sounds like a solid idea. We need to try something."_

_Dave turned back to the fox. "Alright, Nick, if you can get us some extra cash, then you're in the gang."_

_The fox gave a nod, and smiled._

* * *

There was a loud knock at the door, waking the three of them. "Ugh, what time is it?" Judy groggily groaned as she rubbed her eyes. She blinked a few times, but her eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness. "Ugh, can someone get the light?"

"Oops, sorry." Said a voice from the other side. The sound of a lock turning was heard, and the door opened up. The lights suddenly flicked on, and Judy managed to catch a hyena's paw slipping back out. The sound of the door locking sounded next.

"Seriously?" Max said, rubbing his eyes. "Couldn't you just come in?"

"We're prisoners, Max." Nick said, looking down at him from the top bunk. "They don't let guards into the cells."

"Yeah, I'm not letting you guys escape." Said the voice. The bar on the door slid off, revealing a small slit for Emily to look through. She wasn't in her armor.

Nick quickly climbed down from the top bunk, and stomped towards the door. "What do you want, Emily? Is it time for whatever you're planning yet?"

"No, its only like, four in the morning." She said. "I couldn't sleep without saying this… I'm really sorry for all of this. Genuinely."

Nick let out a sigh.

"I know I've probably hurt you through this, but me and Henry really haven't meant to." She continued. "I don't want you to hate us, we were forced into this."

"You didn't have to accept." Nick said. "You could've just said no, and told someone about Clawbick. They would have protected you."

"He'd find a way." Emily sighed. "I… I'm just sorry. I wish we could've met back up in a better way."

"I know." Nick said, flatly. "Just go."

She let out another sigh, and slid the metal plate back over the slit.

"I'm guessing you two have a past?" Judy asked.

"We were part of the same gang, I've told you this."

She glared at him. "No, I mean something more than just you knowing her, right?"

"Ooh, did you two date?" Max said, bluntly.

"No, we didn't date!" He shouted. The fox started rubbing his arm. "I… might've… Looked up to her a lot when we were friends."

Max and Judy gave each other a knowing look.

"Alright, I MIGHT have had a crush on her when I was a dumb kid." Nick finally let out. "Don't have to make fun of me for it."

"We're not making fun of you, Nick." Judy said. "Everyone's had weird, early crushes."

He fell silent for a moment. "I'd rather not talk about this all right now." He said.

"Alright, it's cool man." Max said, laying back down in his bed.

"Yeah, your old love life isn't important right now." Judy said, also laying down. "We should get some sleep."

"Alright… yeah." He muttered before climbing back up to his bed.

* * *

Clawbick creeped into the room, the green light pulsing on and off. "Hey, you ready for this?" he asked the creature inside the tube.

"Where were you last night?" Savage asked through his head. "You didn't come sleep down here, it was lonely."

"Yeesh, you're a bit clingy, huh?" Clawbick said, a bit weirded out by the telepathic crystalline monster. "Yesterday was rough, and I wanted to sleep somewhere where my back wouldn't cave in."

"Ah, preparing for today, I see?" Savage followed. "I get ya, I get ya… NOW HURRY UP AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The lion nodded, and pulled the sword out. He pressed the button on his belt, the armor forming around him, for safety. He dashed forwards, and slashed at the tube.

It clanged against the side, sending an electric shock through the blade and electrocuting him. He was flung back out of the room, hitting a wall with enough force to leave a dent. His armor folded back up, and he unsteadily walked back into the room.

"Oh yeah, should've told you that what ever this tube is made of is super strong." Savage said, Clawbick letting out an aggravated growl in response. "You'll need something a lot stronger than that sword to get me out of here."

"What?" Clawbick said, confused. "If you can't break it, then I don't think there is anything that can break it."

"See Davey, you're not the only creature who's mind I can read." Savage continued. "I've heard… rumblings about a powerful weapon located somewhere in this facility."

Clawbick raised an eyebrow. "Where would it be?"

"I don't know, I just know that its here, somewhere." Savage continued. "Find it, and you'll be able to break me outta here, and we can both get our revenge!"

"Well, that's not a lot of help." Clawbick said, crossing his arms. "This place is nearly as large as the city itself, where would I even start looking?"

"It shouldn't be too far." Savage claimed. "You just need to look thoroughly… but do it quick."

"You're such a good motivator, Savage." Clawbick sneered.

* * *

"Alright, it's nine AM." Nick said. "We should be getting close to whatever they're planning."

"It can't be a trial, that'd take way more time to prepare." Judy said as she paced around. "I'm really worried about what they're actually planning."

"I have a feeling that there won't be any justice systems involved." Max followed. "The bad guys don't usually do legal stuff."

"Herder doesn't think he's a bad guy, though." Judy said. "He's pretty high up on the legal ladder for the city."

"Technically we're not in the city." Nick said. "He might not have any power here."

"…Or, he has all the power." She said. "Think about it, he could kill us, and then claim we've been locked in prison. Nobody would ever be able to find out the truth."

Nick and Max looked at each other, nervously. "There's… there's no way he'd do that, right?" Max asked. "He wouldn't kill us."

"He hired a murderer." Nick said. "I don't think he cares."

There was a knock at the door. "It's time." Said a deep voice from the other side.

The door unlocked, opening to reveal Henry and a rather tired and sullen looking Emily. "You guys, uh, ready?" She mumbled.

"Ready for anything." Judy said.

The two officers quickly slapped the handcuffs back on the three, and dragged them all out of the room. They walked down the hall, and down into the main hall of the facility. There was a small room in the corner, which they were lead to.

The inside of the room, which seemed to be designed for much shorter mammals, rather than animals like Max, was designed very differently from the rest of the facility. It seemed more modern, with fake wooden panelling for walls, giving it a more coz feeling.

There were three seats in the room, alongside a desk, which Herder was seated on. The officers pushed the three in. Herder gave a nod. "Take a seat, please."

The three complied, since they didn't have much of a choice. "Nice place you got here." Nick said, attempting to start a joke. "You take it from your third cabin in the alps?"

There was silence. Herder and Judy glared at the fox, Max gritting his teeth. The fox's smug smile turned to a frown.

"Anyway, I suppose you three are wondering why you're here." Herder started, grabbing a pencil from a cup on the desk. He started to roll it around on the flat surface. "Why I've gone to such great lengths to capture you three."

"Yeah, we are." Nick said. "We've never even met you, why do you hate us so much?"

"I have a question for you three." Herder continued, ignoring Nick's own question. "Where were you all on March twelfth of this year?"

Nick and Judy's eyes widened, though Max seemed a bit confused. "I was at work." He said. "I don't see what that has to do with anyth-"

"March twelfth was the day you killed my son."

Max's jaw fell open.

"He was on his way home from school that day, he was studying to become a physicist, and we hadn't seen each other for a while." Herder continued, rolling the pencil faster. "He was always a punctual boy, so when he ended up an hour late, I knew something was wrong."

He rolled the pencil even faster, turning it more into a grind.

"When I checked the news, it turned he had died in a monster attack. A mantis monster or something, it attacked his car, and killed him." His tone was starting to get angrier. "I was devastated, he was the only thing I had left. When the idiots in the city called you heroes for destroying that bug, all I could think of was…"

He stopped rolling the pencil, and raised his fist into the air.

"WHY!?"

He slammed his hoof down onto the pencil, snapping it in half.

"Why were you being considered heroes when you couldn't even save a single life!?" He shouted, tears starting to well up. "I couldn't just let you… criminals run free, but nobody agreed with me until you actually started committing crimes! I was right, I was right all along!"

"You can't be serious!" Nick shouted, getting up. "We saved thousands of lives that day, it isn't even really our fault that he died!"

"The where were you!?" Herder retorted. "If you could've saved him, why didn't you!?"

Nick tried to come up with a rebuttal, but couldn't come up with anything.

"I wasn't even there!" Max followed. "And we've said this before, but those were clones committing crimes, we're the ones who stopped them!"

"Max is right, this is a baseless accusation!" Nick said. "Right, Judy?"

He turned to face her. The rabbit was shaking in her seat, pupils dilated.

"Judy?"

"I've already made my decision on what we're going to do with you." Herder said, trying to regain his composure. "In one hour, you will be executed."

"WHAT!?" Nick and Max shouted.

"That isn't legal!" Nick shouted. "This…"

"Nick." Judy said, finally speaking up. Her tone was flat. "Stop it. Just let us go back to our cell."

"Good idea." Herder said. The door behind them opened back up, revealing the SPD officers, who both seemed shocked. "Officers, take them away."

They were lead out of the office and back into the hall. "You heard all of that, didn't you?" Nick asked Emily as they continued down the hall.

"Nick, I… I did." She said. "We both did. I…" She fell silent, unable to properly vocalize her confusion, fear, and anger into a single sentence.

Henry unlocked the door, and the three walked in. He slammed the door behind them, locking it quickly.

"Henry, you don't believe it, right?" Emily asked as they started down the hall. "You don't think Nick would purposely do something like that, right?"

"Dr. Leopold told me to put these wrist devices in his office." Henry said, pulling the three Zoolizers out of his pockets.

"What? That doesn't-"

"I am going to do that now." Henry finished, walking down the hallway, leaving Emily behind. She let out a sigh. The bull was never good at saying how he felt, he was just trying to ignore it.

The hyena took a deep breath, and ran back up to him. "Uh, haven't seen Clawbick around all day, have we?" She started, trying to spark up a different conversation. Hopefully it would get both their minds off what they heard.

"No, I guess we haven't." Henry said with a sigh. "He slept in the bunker last night, but he vanished when I got up."

"Yeah, where do you think he gets to at times like this?" Emily asked as they reached Leopold's office.

"I dunno, maybe he found somewhere quiet to think." Henry suggested. "Might be why he seems a bit more sensible."

"I doubt that." Emily muttered at the entered the room.

The office was rather bare, the only furnishings being a large desk with a computer, and an office chair. There were also tons of screens on the wall, showing various parts of the city. Leopold was seated at the desk.

"Oh, hey guys." The leopard said, surprised by their arrival. "What brings you here?"

"We're here to deliver these." Henry said, holding up the Zoolizers. He quickly dropped them down onto the desk.

"Alright!" Leopold cheered. "I've been waiting a long time to study these things."

"What are you gonna do with them?" Emily asked.

"I was thinking I might be able to reverse engineer them, you know?" He said. "If I can do that, I might be able to design better weapons!"

"Oh, then keep it up, Leo!" Emily said, giving a thumbs-up. "From what we've heard, we have a hell of an uphill battle against these monsters."

"Don't worry, I'll get something finished soon." He said.

The two exited the room, waving back to Leopold before shutting the door. The sound of someone running quickly grabbed their attention.

It was Clawbick, who was running directly towards them. He noticed them, and skid to a halt. "Hey, guys!" He started, sounding overly friendly, at least for himself. "have either of you seen any… suspicious rooms around here?" He asked.

"This whole place is suspicious." Emily said. "What kind of suspicious are you looking for?"

"Uh, like, an extra guarded room or something?" He said. "Maybe with multiple locks, steel plating?"

"No, I don't think we've seen anything like that." Henry said. "But we also haven't been past this hallway."

"Yeah, this whole place is espantoso." Emily said. "Why do you even need to-"

"Thanks for that!" Clawbick said, running off down the hall.

"Think he's up to something?" Henry asked.

"The chance of him NOT being up to something right now is very, very low."

* * *

_"I can't believe the kid's actually doing it." Dave said to the hyena. They were watching as the young fox managed to sell off most of their stolen goods._

_A large rhino walked up to the small stand he had set up, and looked down at the variety of objects. There was pottery, electronics, photos, books, anything that could have some value to it. The rhino glanced at a vase._

_"How much is the vase?" He asked._

_"Fifty bucks." Nick said._

_The rhino snorted. "Yeah, no way."_

_"Well, you're missing out then!" The fox said. This caught the rhino's attention. Nick grabbed the vase. "This here is a rare, imported vase from overseas. Its artisan crafted, fifty bucks is a steal for something of this quality!"_

_"It just looks like a vase."_

_"Well, it's a very fancy vase, and if you get it, you'll look fancy as well." Nick continued._

_The fox was soon left without the vase on the table, and fifty bucks in his paw._

_The day continued on, until the market they were attending was about to close._

_The fox counted through the money. "Fifty, sixty, seven hundred bucks!" He said, counting the last of the cash. The stand had been completely emptied. "Told you I could do it."_

_"I'm impressed." Dave said. "You even sold all that stuff in an open market, I thought that would've been a bad idea."_

_"Trust me, the black market is not an ideal selling spot." Nick continued. "You don't really get any visitors, you have to go public if you want to sell."_

_"How did you get to be such a good…" Emily tried to search for a word. "Hustler?"_

_"A what?" Nick asked, apparently not hearing the word before._

_"A really good salesman, basically." Dave answered._

_"Oh, my dad was one of the best salesmen in the city!" Nick explained as he folded the stand up. "He was a lot more honest though. He was a tailor, but he worked as a salesman on the side."_

_"Your dad?" Emily asked. "I thought you were just living with your mom, what happened to him?"_

_Nick shrugged. "I dunno, just sorta vanished one day." He walked over to Dave, and handed him a stack of bills. "Here's your half of the money for today."_

_"What?" Dave said, grabbing the money. "It's my gang, why do I only get half of it?"_

_"I need it for… something." Nick said, straightening his hoodie out. "I don't want to talk about it. I need the money, and that's why I want to join your gang, because you're some of the best thieves in the city."_

_"Well, best amateur thieves." Emily said. "Can't beat that La Rouge guy."_

_"So, uh, am I in?" Nick asked._

_Dave looked at the cash, then back at the fox. "Yeah, you're in, kid."_

* * *

"I can't believe this." Nick said as he paced around the room. "This is crazy, we can't just be executed with no trial!"

"It's like Judy said," Max started, solemnly. "He has all the power, we can't do anything about it."

"We have to do something!" Nick shouted. "We need a plan, we need something." He turned to Judy. "Carrots, do you have any idea-"

He paused. While the two were ranting about this, they had failed to notice Judy herself. She was huddled up, sobbing. "Oh my god, Judy, what's wrong?" Nick said, quickly sitting next to her. He hugged her trying to comfort her. Max got up as well, to see what was wrong himself.

"Oh god, Nick." She muttered through the tears. "It was my fault. This whole thing is my fault."

"What?" Nick said, confused. "How is this your fault?"

"The monster, that was the one where I had that freak-out." She started. "The one where I gave up. The monster killed Herder's son when that happened."

"Judy, that's not-"

"IT IS!" She shouted, pushing him away. The fox fell to the ground as she got up, still crying. "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING THEN! HOW CAN I EVEN CONSIDER MYSELF AN OFFICER IF I LET SOMEONE DIE!?"

She stumbled over to the bunkbed, and started to slam her head against the metal pole. Max quickly rushed over as she struck it again, and pulled her away before she could hit it three times. "Judy, don't do that!" He said, placing her down.

"I deserve to die…" She muttered, as she went onto her knees, ears touching the ground. "I'm horrible, I can't do anything right, I'm a failure…"

"Judy, it wasn't your fault!" Nick started, trying to get her attention. "It was the monster's fault, there was nothing you could've done."

She raised her head, and shot a glare at him. "Was that supposed to make me feel better?" She said, depression gaining a hint of anger.

"Well, I, uh…" The fox stumbled to try and say something comforting. There was no way he could do this. An innocent had died, and it WAS their fault.

The fox fell to the ground, paw to his head. "God." He muttered. He tried to say something else, but nothing came out. "…oh god…" He finally sputtered, tears welling in his eyes as well.

Max didn't know what to feel. He had no connection to whatever was going on. He was out of the loop, and it made him feel awful. Not in the same way as his friends were feeling, but more in the way that he just couldn't help.

The wolf backed up, and sat on the bunkbed. There was nothing he could do.

Just like usual.

* * *

"Where the FUCK is this place!?" Clawbick shouted, his voice echoing down the empty halls of the facility. He was in his armor, entirely because the place had become too dark to see a thing, and it allowed him night vision. It seems like any power had been cut from the place years ago.

He stumbled down the hall, checking every door he could find. Most of them lead to more bunkers, while some lead to abandoned offices. There was nothing even noteworthy down in this hell.

"God, I'm going to be stuck here for ages." Clawbick muttered.

"Well, you better hurry up then, bud!" Savage said, startling the lion. "You got forty minutes left before the party starts!"

"This place is massive and empty, there's nothing here!" Clawbick complained. "Are you sure this powerful whatever is here!?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it." Savage replied. "I dug pretty deep into that leopard's brain for it, I planned this out, trust me."

Clawbick shook his head. "I don't know if I trust you, but I don't have much of a choice." He sighed. "I need some help, was there, like, ANYTHING else you got from him?"

"Not really." Savage said. The lion rolled his eyes. Before he could shoot a snide comment, Savage started up again. "I do have a general tip, though, try to find some electricity."

"What? How would that help?"

"If there's power, that means someone's actually been there recently." Savage explained. "Idiot."

"Alright, whatever." Clawbick said. "I'll try to find it soon, but-"

"Thirty-five minutes!"

The lion quickly dashed down the dark hallway.

* * *

The goat tapped the broken pencil end on his desk. He had been thinking about things. About the Zoorangers. Was it right to just kill them? Had he overreacted? Maybe he should at least hold a trial, and not just leave them for dead like he had planned.

Maybe he should-

"Hello."

Herder let out a scream as he nearly fell out of his seat. Long had suddenly appeared in his office. The armored creature let out a bright glow, scorch marks seeming to appear on the walls around him.

"I see you've managed to actually capture the Zoorangers." He said. "It took a much shorter time than I had expected."

"Yes, yes." Herder said as he straightened himself out. He paused for a moment. "I've been thinking about this."

Long's visor glowed a bright red for a moment, glaring down at the goat.

"I don't think we need to kill them." Herder said, tapping the pencil on the desk again. "I mean, I hate them, but if I kill them, I'm just as terrible as they are." He explained. "Maybe we should let the judicial system handle this-"

Long slammed both of his hands down onto the desk, and glared at the goat, staring directly into his eyes.

"What do you think will happen if you let them live any longer?" Long asked. "They've caused enough damage to the city as it is, and they're crafty enough to escape from a prison, I can tell you that."

"But… It doesn't seem fair; the wolf wasn't even involved in my son's death…"

"Guilt by association." Long said, standing back up. Burn marks in the shape of his gauntlets had been burned into the wooden desk. "They tricked him into joining, obviously. They might have advanced powers, but deep down they're just another gang."

Herder thought for a moment. "Fine, if you think they're that big of a threat… I'll do it."

"Twenty minutes until its time, correct?" Long asked. Herder gave a quick nod. "I'll be sure to oversee it."

Long vanished into a golden mist, which passed through the creases of the door. Herder sighed, and put the pencil down.

* * *

_Nick walked up the stairs of the building. He was going to go in, and tell Dave what he needed to. He could be out of the gang at any point after that._

_Over the last year, Dave had… changed. He become more violent. Abusive towards his friends. It used to only be playful jabs and such, but now it had become verbal abuse. The fox had had enough of it. He was going to get what he needed, and get out._

_He approached the lion's bedroom door, took a deep breath, and prepared to knock._

_His ear twitched as he heard voices._

_"I can't believe this, Dave." One of the voices said. It was clearly Emily. "You did it again. How many times are we going to have to do this?"_

_"I swear, I don't… I don't mean to do it." Dave said. He didn't sound like he did recently, but more like the old him. "It just happens."_

_Nick gently placed his ear to the door, trying to hear them better._

_"This is the fifth time, Dave." Emily said. She sounded pissed off at him. "I don't even know who it was this time!"_

_"I don't know either," Dave said. He sounded like he was going to burst into tears. "God…"_

_"If you keep doing this, we're going to be found out and arrested." Emily said. "Quick, help me get rid of the body-"_

_Nick let out a silent gasp as he heard that. Had Dave actually killed someone? Had he killed five different mammals? That sealed it, he needed to get out of this gang as soon as possible. He nearly had enough to-_

_"Nick?"_

_The fox let out a quick yelp as he turned to face Henry, who had suddenly appeared. "Are you eavesdropping on Dave and Emily?" Henry asked._

_"Oh, no, I was just, uh…" the fox stumbled for a moment. "Waiting for them to finish up?"_

_The bull chuckled. "You know we have magazines downstairs, right?"_

_The fox blushed. "No, I'm serious, I need to talk with Dave about something." He said._

_"About what?"_

_"Uh, it's a money thing." Nick explained. "I joined the gang to get some cash, and I have almost enough… I just need to get a bit more from Dave."_

_"What do you need the money for?"_

_"It's… a personal thing."_

_"Alright, you don't have to tell me." Henry said. "I say you ask him as soon as possible, you know? Besides, with the way he's acting, you might want to get out of here fast."_

_The sound of glass shattering interrupted them. They could hear Emily let out a "GOD DAMN IT!" from outside the house._

_"Those two must be having fun." Henry joked._

_Nick gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, fun."_

* * *

The lion dragged his sword across the concrete wall of the dark hallway, he had been doing this for nearly his entire time exploring the place. It was a way to easily find his way back to the start, but it was starting to get annoying.

"You got five minutes left, bud." Savage chimed in. "Better find it fast!"

"I'd LOVE TO, BUT-" Clawbick paused for a moment. He had stopped at a turn. One of the halls had a dim light flickering on and off. "I-I found it."

"Wait, seriously?"

Clawbick rushed over to the light. There was a double door underneath it. He attempted to open it, but the door was locked. He slapped himself in the face, he should have grabbed a key or something.

"Guess I have to tough it out." He said, pulling his sword up.

He slashed through the direct middle of the doorway, and then kicked the door open. There wasn't much inside, only a few desks… and a pedestal in the middle, with a glass box on it. With another slash, the box shattered, and he grabbed the object inside.

"Is this it?" Clawbick asked, a bit frustrated. It looked like one of the medals he used to power his weapons. The ones he had a ton of already. "I have a ton of these already!"

"Yeah, but you didn't have THIS one." Savage said. "Trust me, this is the right thing, hurry back and bust me out of here."

Clawbick nodded, and dashed off down the darkened hallway once again.

* * *

"Alright." Emily said as she opened the door to the cell. "It's time."

The three prisoners looked depressed, and came out of the cell and into the handcuffs very willingly. "Listen, Nick…" Emily tried to start as they began walking down the hall. "I don't think this is right either, I-"

"Just shut up." He quietly said.

Henry gave her a look, and shook his head. The death row march wasn't a good time to talk.

They marched into the hall, where Herder and Leopold were waiting. "Uh, where's Clawbick?" Leopold asked, looking around. "He should really be here."

"We, uh, haven't seen him at all today, really." Emily said. "Last we saw he was running off deeper into this place."

"Hopefully he can find his way back." Herder sighed. "Don't want another death on my hooves."

"You gonna get this show started or what?" Nick growled.

"Yeah, if you're going to kill us, just do it already." Max said.

Judy remained silent.

"We'll get to it soon." Herder cleared his throat, and turned to the two officers. "I hate to say this, but we're going to have to have you kill them."

"What!?" Emily shouted. "You can't make us kill them, I was friends with Nick!"

"We don't really have anything else." Leopold said. "Any of the weapons we have in here would take a lot longer to set up."

"And my benefactor would get a lot angrier at me if I postponed it." Herder said. "Already got into a fight about this…"

"Benefactor?" Nick spoke up. "You're working with someone ELSE to help kill us?"

"Yes, it'd be impossible to do what we've done without the help he's given." Herder said. "But it doesn't matter now, since you'll all be de-"

"Stop."

Everyone turned to Judy as she started to walk forwards. "If you kill all of us," She started. "Then everyone is doomed."

"What does that mean?"

"The Zoorangers are the only way to save the world." She continued. "The SPD might be strong enough to defeat the monsters, but there's no way they can take on the generals."

"She has a point." Henry followed. "We tried to take one on, and even with six of us we couldn't defeat him."

"So, what are you saying, rabbit?" Herder said. "If you're trying to get out of this, then-"

"I'm not." She said solemnly.

"Wait, Judy…" Nick said.

"I blame myself for your son's death. The entire thing was my fault." She said, lowering her head. "Let Nick and Max go, let me die in their stead."

"No!" Max shouted. "You can't do this!"

"This is the leader's choice, Max." Judy said, raising her head. "Do you agree, Mr. Herder?"

The goat placed his hoof to his chin, and started to pace around.

"Uh, can I shoot this idea in the bud?" Nick said, speaking up. "I didn't agree to this, we're a team, it's either all of us or none of us." Max nodded to the statement.

"Quiet, Nick." Judy snapped. "This is my decision."

"You can't just throw your life away!" Nick yelled. "What am I supposed to do without you!?"

"You've figured it out before, you can figure it out again."

"No…" He muttered. "I can't…"

The goat finally stopped. "I suppose that's a fair deal." He admitted. "If we need some of you to protect the city, then getting rid of one shouldn't be much of a difference." He clapped his hooves together. "Alright, officers, ready your-"

Before Herder could finish, there was a bright flash, followed by the smell of smoke and fire. Footsteps came from the flash's direction.

"I'm hearing a lot of nonsense here, Herder." Said a familiar voice that emerged from the flash. "You ARE going to kill all of them, correct?"

The three Zoorangers' jaws hung open at the sight of the figure.

Long.

* * *

"So, you're absolutely, one hundred percent sure that this is going to work?" Clawbick asked as he held the medal up to the tube.

"Yes, absolutely." Savage replied. "Hurry up, he's already here!"

Clawbick popped open the bottom of his sword, and slid the medal in. He held the blade up, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did.

"I think this thing's a dud." Clawbick said, shaking the medal out of his sword. "Got any better ideas?"

"Hm, must be outta juice." Savage said. "Hold it up to the tube, I think I can recharge it."

Clawbick sighed. At this point he was just running through hoops to do this, at this point it would be better to just go up there and slaughter Nick himself. But for now, he did as the monster asked, and held the medal up.

An electric shock shot from the tube, hitting the medal. It started to glow green, and then let out a burst of energy, nearly knocking Clawbick down. "Jesus Christ, the hell was that!?"

"That was it being recharged, duh." Savage said. "Try it out."

Clawbick slid the medal back into his sword. In almost an instant, it let out a pulse of energy as well, glowing a devilish red color. "Holy shit."

"Behold, my friend!" Savage started. "That Cell Medal was the originator of this plan, one from an alternate universe! It holds ultimate power against this world, use it and destroy this HORRIBLE PRISON!"

Clawbick nodded, and slashed at the tube. The sword cleaved cleanly through it somehow, but that wasn't all.

A creeping light started to spread across the machine, spreading over every inch of its surface. Without warning, in almost an instant, the machine vanished from sight, the now freed Savage standing where it once was.

Clawbick was left speechless as he held the sword in his paw. "This thing can erase things from existence?"

"You bet it can." Savage said, walking past him. "Follow me, we're going to go kick some ass."

"One last question for you, Savage." Clawbick started. "Who exactly is this guy you want to get revenge on?"

"It's a long story."

* * *

"You can't be serious right now." Nick said, stepping forward. "Get these handcuffs off me, right now!"

Judy started to back off as Long's threatening presence walked ever closer.

"What?" Emily said, responding to Nick's yell. He was struggling to try and get the cuffs off. She quickly turned back to Herder and Long. "Chief, who… who is this guy?"

"This guy?" Herder said, pointing at Long. "He's my benefactor."

"Oh god." Judy muttered. "Max, you were right."

"I was right?" The wolf said, slightly confused. His ears popped up as it hit him. "Hey, I was right!"

"Herder, you're being tricked." Judy continued. "Your benefactor is one of the monsters trying to destroy the city!"

"What?" Herder said, a bit confused. He looked up at Long. "Are you really…?"

"And that's not all!" Nick started, still trying to break the handcuffs off. "It was his monster that killed your son! He was the one that did it!"

Herder's eyes dilated, and he started to shake. "Is… Is that true?"

"No, obviously not, they're trying to trick you." Long lied. "I mean only the best for this world."

"No, he doesn't!" Max shouted. "He's going to destroy it! He tricked you into capturing us, and he's trying to trick you into killing us so we won't get in the way!"

For the last time, Herder glanced at Long, and started to back away, alongside Leopold. "You tricked me, didn't you?" The goat muttered. "You've been manipulating me the whole time!"

Long crossed his arms, and fell silent. He started to chuckle, then laugh, and then burst out into full maniacal laughter. "I was hoping to keep this a secret until you killed them." He said. "I wanted to tell you myself, so you could think about how much of a fool you are."

"But really…" Long continued, turning towards Herder. "I'm amazed at how easily you fell for this. Did you really expect me to be on your side completely? The way you went along with my plan was amazing, you never questioned anything until the very end. I suppose that's revenge for you, it blinds idiots to the obvious."

Long quickly held something up, a statue of some kind. "Oh god, Herder, watch out!" Judy yelled.

The goat couldn't get out of the way in time as Long flung the statue at him. Leopold stumbled away as a cloud of black energy surrounded Herder. He let out a spine-chilling scream as the energy engulfed him, which was soon muffled.

The energy began to expand out, forming a new body. The energy quickly dispersed, revealing the monster that Herder had transformed into.

The monster was almost entirely blue, gold, and brown, and seemed to wear a fairly ornate set of armor. Large curved pauldrons marked its shoulders, which puffed out at their bottoms into frilled sleeves, which in turn transitioned to golden arm guards.

The monster also wore what looked like blue pants, covered by several separated skirt pieces that hung down. Its legs ended in golden shin armor, and then with grey boots that resembled a hoof. Its head resembled a helmet, though it covered the entirety of the head, and most likely was the head itself judging by the large eye that stared out from the center of it. On both sides of the head were spiral horns, each pointing outwards.

Finally, decorating the monster's chest, was the large head of a ram, golden wool decorations surrounding it.

The monster spun its head around in circles as the rest of its body twitched. "Beep boop, update complete!" It let out, before quickly clapping its hands. "Here I am, Capricorn-Fist user, Dorou, ready to own all you noobs!"

The five rangers and Leopold stared at the monster in confusion, the monster itself seeming confused as well. "What, is there a virus in my CPU?"

"You know, if you were aiming for threatening with this guy, dragon breath, you really failed." Nick joked.

"I brought Dorou here for a reason." Long started, completely serious. "Show them why."

"On it, boss!" Dorou said, stepping to the center of the room. "Behold, Capricorn style, Instant Hacking!"

The monster's eye glowed, projecting a holographic keyboard in front of it. The ram monster started rapidly typing at the keyboard. As it happened, things around the room started to light up.

Weapons, unidentifiable pieces of technology, they seemed to activate in an instant. "Oh god." Leopold said, running over to the rangers. "He's activating all of the weapons somehow, he's going to use them to kill us!"

"You got it, NPC!" Dorou mocked. "In only a few short moments, you'll all be permanently DELETED-"

Before he could finish, the lights flickered, and then shut off completely. Everyone looked around, confused, though Long's body seemed to light the entire room up anyway. "No! NO!" The monster yelled. "The computer systems are shut down, I can't hack into anything!"

"The power went out!" Leopold said. "Thank god, we're saved!" He paused for a moment. "Wait, the power was connected to the power station, which means… oh no."

"Doc, what's wrong?" Henry asked.

"I think we're in more trouble." Leopold muttered.

The ground shook for a moment, before a wall to the side of them exploded open, creating a massive hole. A green light shined from the hole, and stomped its way into the hall.

There was a familiar laugh as the green light made itself clearer. The Zoorangers froze at the sight of the monster, while the SPD officers backed away, and Leopold fell to the ground in fear.

"Guess who's back!?"

It was Savage.

"What!?" Judy yelled. "What's Savage doing here!?"

"That thing was given to us by him!" Leopold said, pointing at Long. "He told us to use him as a power source for our new weapons!"

"WHAT!?" Judy yelled again. "Why would you ever do that!?"

"I didn't really have much of a choice!"

"I guess that explains why we haven't seem him around for a while." Nick said. "In all this weirdness, I haven't really thought about it."

"How did you escape?" Long growled, stepping towards Savage. "That was supposed to be an impenetrable prison!"

"And it was, but I had a little help." Savage declared. He stepped to the side, Clawbick, armored up, stepped forwards, carrying his glowing blade.

"Yo."

"Oh god, Clawbick, you idiot!" Nick shouted. "Do you know how dangerous that guy is!?"

"Yes, I do." Clawbick retorted. "Why do you think I helped him?"

"Davey and I are birds of a feather," Savage started. "We both love murdering others, and we both have a specific someone we want to get revenge on!"

"I was getting tired of this prison anyway." Clawbick continued. "Me and Savage are gonna take over this town once we handle everything down here."

"I'm assuming you want revenge on me for my betrayal?" Long said. He started to laugh. "Do you really think you can defeat me? I am a god, challenging me is like writing a death warrant."

"Oh, you think I'm NOT a god?" Savage growled. He started slashing his clas against each other, sparks shooting off of them, before rearing them up. "I'll show you how dangerous I am!"

Savage rushed at Long, attempting to slash at him, but the dragon warrior quickly blocked the strike, and reversed it into a gut punch. There was a shockwave as the punch connected, both parties stumbling back.

Long clutched at his hand, which seemed to have been hurt in the impact. He clutched it tightly, and let out a low growl, before calming himself. "Dorou, I'll need your help in this."

"Right, boss!" Dorou said, giving a quick salute. He eye glowed again, this time summoning a holographic, curved blade in front of him. He grabbed the blade, causing it to materialize in his hand. The ram monster quickly dashed into the fight.

"You need any help there?" Clawbick asked, looking as Savage blocked the ram monster's attack, and quickly knocked him backwards.

"Nope!" Savage responded, blocking several of Long's punches.

"Oh, alright." He quickly jolted his head at the group of six, and pointed his sword at them. "Guess I'll just have to deal with you guys then."

He quickly dashed towards them, and prepared to strike them all down with his blade.

Suddenly, he paused, and let out a horrible scream of pain, before falling to his knees.

"What the-?" Nick started.

"Tame collar." Leopold quickly interrupted, waving the remote for the collar. "Maximum voltage, should take him a minute to recover."

Judy's ears twitched, the four villains were distracted. This would be a good time. "You need to get us out of these." Judy demanded, tugging at the handcuffs.

Without hesitation, Emily and Henry unlocked the three from their handcuffs. Nick rubbed his wrists in relief. "Wow, that was quick."

"You think we're just going to leave you guys handicapped when we have four monsters to deal with?" Emily scoffed. "We don't want to die either, you know. So, what exactly are we dealing with?"

"An immortal dragon god and the embodiment of violence itself." Max chimed in. "The two most powerful villains we've ever fought."

"Oh, that's wonderful." Henry muttered.

"At least they aren't teaming up right now." Judy said. "We need to get our Zoolizers back, where are they?"

"Last we saw them, they were in Leo's office." Emily said.

"Uh, I moved them down to research and development before this happened." Leopold said. "It's uh, a couple hallways down. I kind of had to rush over here so-"

"What!?" Nick shouted. "Why would you DO that!?"

"I had no idea we were going to be attacked by a bunch of monsters!" Leopold shouted back.

"No arguing!" Judy ordered. "If we want to survive, all of us will need to work together." She pointed at the SPD officers. "You two, fight against that ram monster and try to free Herder. It'll keep Long and Savage locked in their battle while we get our Zoolizers back."

"Uh, alright." Emily said, despite not liking the idea. It was the only plan they had right now, so going along with it seemed like the best choice.

"You two," The rabbit continued, pointing at her teammates, before thrusting her thumb over her shoulder. "Follow me."

Nick and Max nodded, before the three rushed down the corridor.

The two SPD officers turned back to Savage and Long's fight. Dorou would occasionally come in to attack Savage, but would be knocked away almost instantly. They summoned up their armor, aimed their blasters at the distracted ram monster, but were distracted by grunting next to them.

They watched as Clawbick climbed back up, and shook his head. "Ugh, once I'm done with Nick, you're next on my list, Leopold." He growled, before running off down the corridor as well.

"That's going to be a problem." Pink said. "But we got our own problems to deal with." They aimed their blasters at the monster again, and fired.

Dorou didn't see the attacks coming, and was knocked across the room. This caught the attention of the other two monsters, who turned towards the two.

"Hey, do you mind!?" Savage yelled. "We're TRYING to do something over here!"

"Pests." Long followed, waving his hand.

There was an earthquake, holes in the ground suddenly appearing all over. Rinshi started to climb from each of them, and hopped towards the SPD officers.

"Well, this sucks." Green let out.

* * *

"So, how do we know when we'll find this research and development place?" Nick asked as the three ran down the corridor.

"Uh, I'm not sure." Judy said, stopping. The other two skidded to a halt in front of her. "I was kind of just rushing ahead."

"Well, we could be lost in this place for hours." Nick said. "You should've asked Leopold."

"I know, but-"

"I have a suggestion." Max said. "Why don't we just look for the room that has 'Research and Development' written on it?"

"That's actually not a bad idea, good thinking Max."

The three prepared to run down the hall again, but froze in place as they saw figures moving through the dimly lighted corridor.

Rinshi, only a handful of them, hopping directly towards them.

"Ugh, I feel like I'm in a bad horror film." Nick said.

"Try a bad Kung-Fu film instead!" Max said, unsheathing his claws. He dashed forwards, and quickly slashed at one of the Rinshi, knocking it back into a few of the ones behind it. "Remember, these guys are pathetic!"

"Right, we can take them on without any help!" Judy said. She rushed forwards as well, leaping into the air, and kicking another Rinshi directly in the head, causing it to explode into purple dust.

"I'm just going to stay back here and not get attacked." Nick said, backing up.

"Good luck with that."

The fox froze, and slowly turned his head. Clawbick was staring down at him with his red visor. "Well, this isn't ideal."

The fox quickly dashed forwards as Clawbick brought his sword to the ground, cleaving through the concrete.

Nick rushed past Max and Judy, who were still fighting the monsters. "Nick, what the hell!?"

"RUN!" He shouted back.

They both looked back, the lion slowly approaching them.

"Okay, yeah, we should run." Max muttered.

The two quickly dashed off, leaving a number of Rinshi behind. The zombies mumbled incoherently to themselves, unaware of Clawbick. The lion effortlessly slashed through them, and continued down the path.

The three continued to run, slashing, kicking, and dodging Rinshi that continued to appear throughout the facility. "Where the hell is this room!?" Nick yelled as he scampered underneath the legs of a Rishi who had attempted to jab him with a spear.

"We just need to keep looking!" Judy said, kicking another Rinshi away. Her ear twitched as she heard metallic scraping coming from down the hall behind them. "We need to get moving!"

The seemed to be running for hours, and hadn't found anything. Empty room after empty room, nothing, nothing, nothing.

"After all this running around looking for R&D, I think I'll need some serious R&R." Nick joked, leaning against a wall and rubbing his forehead. The two equally tired mammals stared back at him. "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Nick, I don't think-" Judy paused. "Lighten… we need to look for a light!"

"You mean like the ones we've been running under?" Max said.

"No, a light from a room!" Judy continued. "Leopold said he had to rush to the hall from there, so he could have left the lights on!"

"Excellent deduction, Sherlock Hopps." Nick complimented, pushing himself off the wall. "Let's go find that room!"

They started running again. Due to how much time they had spent in the maze of corridors, it seemed like all of the Rinshi had just vanished completely. This at least made everything a lot easier.

A few minutes later, they had found it, a double doored room with the lights still on. They strolled into it. There seemed to be write ups, and unfinished machinery littering a large desk in the room. Max walked up to the desk, which was much to high for either Nick or Judy to reach, and snatched the Zoolizers off of the table.

"Alright, got 'em!" He shouted, quickly tossing Judy and Nick theirs.

"Now we just have to make it back and deal with those monsters." Judy said as they strapped the Zoolizers on. "Once that's done, our names will be cleared, and this insanity can end."

"Unfortunately, you're not going to make it."

They looked at the entrance to the small room. Clawbick was standing there.

"I've been waiting for this." The lion growled. He raised his glowing blade to the side, and slashed forward.

A laser slash shot out, directed towards them.

The beam exploded, sending pieces of the desk flying. "Hm, I was hoping you guys would put up more of a fight, but I guess I was-"

The smoke cleared, revealing the three Zoorangers, fully transformed. "Alright, we're back in business!" Silver shouted, pulling out his sword. "Man, I felt like I was never going to do this again!"

"WHAT!?" Clawbick shouted. "You three should be dead, this sword can destroy anything!"

"You can't destroy justice!" Blue shouted, pulling out her daggers.

"Wow, great comeback, Carrots." Red said, rolling his eyes behind the mask.

"Shut it."

The three dashed at Clawbick, each attempting to slash him with their weapons. Silver ran up first, and clashed blades with the lion. He pushed Clawbick out of the room, and into a wall, hard enough for the concrete to crack.

The wolf stepped out of the way as Blue leaped in, kicking the stunned lion in the face, before bouncing off and firing at him with her blasters. Red ran underneath her as she flew over, and leaped into the air, slashing Clawbick with his blade.

Clawbick seemed to be knocked unconscious by the last blast. "Alright, lets head back to the hall before anything catastrophic happens." Blue ordered.

"How are we going to find our way back, though?" Silver asked. "We got lost trying to find the place, so…"

"I say we follow these scrape marks." Red suggested, pointing at a large scrape mark along the concrete wall. "Someone must have been using it to mark the way back."

"Good eye, Nick." Judy said. "Let's go!" The three quickly ran off down the hall once more, following the scrape marks Clawbick had left earlier.

A moment later, however, Clawbick's unconscious body started to move again. He pushed himself from the wall, and grabbed onto the sword that had fell to the ground. "God damn it." He muttered. "God DAMN it. I'll kill them, I'll kill all three of them." He let out, starting to stumble down the hallway.

* * *

"Alright, we're here to help finish-"

The three Zoorangers ran into the main hall, and instantly froze. The two SPD officers had been absolutely defeated, though their armor was still up. Savage and Long were still fighting each other, though Dorou seemed to be taking a small rest.

"Oh god, Em!" Red shouted, running over to her body. He shook her, causing her to give out a cough. "Are you alright?"

"We tried to take out that monster, but the dragon guy summoned a bunch of minions." She started, weakly. "We managed to take them out, but they tag teamed us. We couldn't handle them."

"Nick, just let her get some rest, alright?" Blue said. She glanced around, while Green's body was laying only a few feet away from Pink's Leopold was nowhere to be seen. There was the remote he had been holding, however. "Where's Leopold?"

"He ran off somewhere." Pink sputtered. "He had the right idea."

"You all should have run off when you had the chance."

"Christ, Clawbick, can you stop sneaking up on us like that!?" Red shouted as he turned to face the lion. "It's getting really annoying."

"The hell are you talking about?" Clawbick said. "Whatever, I'm going to kill all of you, so Savage and I don't have to put up with your bullshit."

"Oh, really?" Red said. He quickly turned to Judy. "Alright, I have a plan."

"I don't like the sounds of that." Silver said.

"Shut it, Wolfsbane." Red snapped. "Okay, you guys need to take care of the monsters here, I'll take Clawbick. It's personal."

"Do you really think we can take on three different monsters?" Blue said, a bit confused by the fox.

Red puled out the sun-shaped ZooTag. "Ohh, I get it." Blue said, pulling out the moon-shaped ZooTag. "Let's do it!"

They quickly plugged both of the ZooTags in at the same time, an explosion of energy, knocking all of the monsters away.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two had transformed into their super forms. "Alright, Dave, we're going to finish this for good." Red said, pulling out the sun shaped rod.

"Hah, your costume just got even more ridiculous." Clawbick mocked. "How's that supposed to help you two out?"

Red lifted the rod into the air, and twirled it around, before slamming the dull end of it into the ground. Cracks started to form in a circular area around the two, red and gold lights shining between them. "What the hell…?" Clawbick let out, before the floor collapsed beneath the two of them.

"Did he do that on purpose, or…?" Silver started.

"Probably on purpose, I wouldn't worry." Blue said, pulling out her dual blades. "You take Dorou, I'll take Long and Savage."

"Seriously!?" The wolf shouted in disbelief. "There is NO way you can take both of them on at the same time!"

"Wanna see me?"

She dashed forward towards Long and Savage, who were recovering from the blast of energy. "Oh look, if it isn't the rabbit." The crystalline beast mocked. "Does the wittle bunny think she can defeat me?"

"No, I'm going to defeat both of you!" Blue declared, before leaping at Savage. She swung both her khopeshes at the monster, causing him to fly back into a nearby wall.

"You know you can't kill me." Long said as Blue turned to him. "You've seen that I'm immortal."

"Don't need to kill you, just need to get you out of here." Blue said, before swing both of her blades in Long's direction, flinging blades of energy at him.

He grabbed the blades of energy, and tossed them at Savage, most likely attempting to hurt him instead. The beast slashed at the energy, causing them to fly back and hit Long instead. "You're not going to backstab me any longer, Long, I'm going to wreck your shit!"

Long recuperated from the blast. "Things aren't going in my favor…" He muttered. "DOROU! GET OVER HERE!"

"Oh, right!" Dorou said, quickly shutting down a monitor he had opened in front of him. "I was just taking a break, sorry-"

"I DON'T CARE!"

Dorou grabbed his curved blade, and attempted to aid his master, but was quickly interrupted as Silver leaped in front of him, and started to rapidly slash him. "No way!" Silver said. "Blue needs to concentrate on those guys, a small fry like you doesn't even deserve your attention."

"But YOU'RE the one giving this small fry attention! What does that make you?" Dorou threw back at him.

"…Shit."

"OOH! SELF OWN!" Dorou cheered, before Silver promptly slashed at him with his sword, knocking him back.

Dorou quickly got up, and fired another holographic projection from his eye, this time forming a metal shield, which also materialized as he grabbed it. "Bam, level up!"

The two dashed at each other, clashing their blades. Silver pushed him back, and thrust his foot into the shield, knocking the ram to the ground. The wolf prepared a follow up strike, but Dorou blocked it with his sword, pushing Silver back.

Dorou climbed to his feet as Silver recuperated, and the two continued to clash their blades. "You think you can beat me!?" Dorous threatened as they stepped back from each other. "That's SUCH an EPIC FAIL!"

"Oh my GOD, I hate you so much." Silver muttered, before dashing back at him.

Blue knocked Long back once again, causing him to stumble. "I've been taking it too easy on these two…" He muttered to himself. "I think its time to show off part of my real strength!"

Long let out a roar, catching Blue and Savage's attention. He burst into a golden light, which lit the entire room up. He began to glow with an intense golden light, which soon lessened into a golden aura, brighter than his previous aura.

He raised his hands up into the air, pointing two of the fingers on one hand upward. He pulled back on something invisible, which quickly materialized into existence as a bow made of fire. He let go with his other hand, causing a barrage of fire arrows to begin falling from the sky.

"Oh, you're actually getting serious, huh!?" Savage said, almost cheerfully. "I was wondering when we'd get to the good part!"

He slashed at the arrows as they came down, slicing them in half with his claws. They cleanly cut through the flame arrows, which quickly evaporated afterwards.

Blue attempted to block the arrow rain with her blades, but the arrows continued to push down on her, ultimately resulting in her doing her best to dodge. The arrows erupted into flame as they hit the ground, making it that much harder. Despite her efforts, arrows would still hit her, resulting in a small explosion.

As soon as the rain had stopped, she had become exhausted, dropping to her knees and trying to catch her breath.

Savage, however, seemed perfectly fine.

"I knew you had it in you, Long!" Savage said, brandishing his claws. "I'm glad I wasn't the ONLY one taking it easy!"

He raised his claws into the air, them starting to glow with energy, before he slashed them rapidly up and down. Energy slashes flew from his claws, directed at Long. The armored monster kicked and punched them out of the way, sending the energy slashes flying all over the room.

One quickly headed towards Blue. She grabbed her swords, and quickly blacked it with them, and started to get up. "I'm… not sure… I can take these guys." She said in between exhausted breaths.

"Keep on it, Blue!" Silver said, as he entered another clash with Dorou. "I know you can take them on, it'll be fine-"

"DISTRACTION!" Dorou shouted, distracting the wolf from what he was saying and doing. The wolf was punched in the gut with the shield, knocking him to the ground. "Hah, LOOOSER!"

"I'll show you a loser…" Silver growled as he tried to get up. Dorou made quick work of that by kicking him in the face.

"Nope, you're not getting up!" The ram monster said, kicking Silver in the face again. "It's the ultimate strategy, stun locking!"

Silver tried to get up, but was quickly stomped on by the monster, who continued to stomp on him.

The SPD officers watched on from a distance. "We… need to help." Pink said, crawling to her feet.

"Em, no." Green said as he unsteadily got up as well. "We've taken too much damage. We'll die if we try to take them on."

Pink took a deep breath. "We'll all die if the Zoorangers are killed, we need to help them!" She yelled out, adrenaline pumping. The hyena rushed into the fight, quickly pulling out her pistols and firing at Long.

The armored monster stumbled back. "Oh, isn't that adorable, you think you can actually do something." Long mocked.

"I can try my damndest!" She shouted, firing another shot at Savage this time. She dashed over to the exhausted rabbit, and helped her up. "You ready to take care of these perdedores?"

"I have no idea what that means…" Blue started, before brandishing her blades. "But definitely!"

* * *

_"So, you want some extra cash?"_

_Asking Dave about this at that moment was probably a bad idea, something Nick thought back on and regretted most days of his life. Hours had passed by before he could be let in, and when he did, it was into a barely lit room with the lion looking out the window._

_The fox paused, and then nodded. "Yes, I just need a bit more. Maybe another hundred or three."_

_The lion paced around his room, thinking. "We had a deal, didn't we?" Dave started. "We split the money evenly every time you sell the goods. What happened to that?"_

_"We can still do that, Dave." Nick said. "It's- It's not a big deal, we make like five hundred a month."_

_"And you can get what you need at the end of the month." Clawbick said. "Is there a problem with that?"_

_"I… I guess not." The fox muttered. "I just want to do this as soon as possible."_

_"And what are you going to do once you get your money? Leave?"_

_The fox opened his mouth, but was interrupted. "Listen, Nicky," Clawbick started, turning back to the fox. "You're invaluable to us, you can't just up and leave. Imagine what will happen if you go, we'll probably all starve while you're living it up in the Bahamas or whatever you're saving for."_

_"It's… I'm not saving up for a vacation." Nick said. "This is for something important, and I can't just let you-"_

_"If you leave, I will make sure your life becomes a living hell, got it?" Clawbick snapped. "I won't have someone like you use me for whatever they want."_

_Nick started to slowly back up towards the door._

_"If you want to keep that money, you'll be staying here for a long time." Clawbick said. "If you're part of my gang, then you're part of it forever, got it?"_

_"I… yeah, I got it." Nick mumbled, before heading out of the room._

_Henry was able to spot the fox, as his room was right next to Dave's. he watched the sullen fox slink out and into the hallway. "Nick, you alright?" He asked, getting out of his bed and heading into the hall._

_Nick remained silent, but stopped at the stairs. "Just leave me alone."_

_"Oh. Alright." Henry said. "If you want to talk about something, come and see me, alright?"_

_The fox silently walked down the stairs, leaving the bull to head back to his bedroom._

* * *

"So, deciding to take me on one-on-one, huh?" Clawbick mocked. The two had fallen into what appeared to be a boiler room, pipes lining the walls. A red glow seemed to permeate through the room as well.

"Its something I've wanted to do for years." Red said, clanking his staff against the ground. "I just didn't have the strength until now."

"'Until now'?" Clawbick laughed. "You've never had the strength, not to do anything."

"You ruined my life, you piece of shit." Nick snapped. "You're the reason most of my life's been as bad as it is."

"Hah, really?" The lion said. "I think you're looking too deep into what I did-"

Before he could finish, Red flew through the air, attempting to bring the staff down onto Clawbick's head. He quickly blocked the golden staff with his sword, but the fox's strength weighed it down a lot.

"Okay, you have gotten stronger!" Clawbick admitted, pushing the fox back, causing him to land on the ground. "But I'm guessing its only because of those fancy powers."

"I haven't gotten stronger physically, you idiot." Nick said. Red quickly thrust the rod forwards, which extended out to try and hit Clawbick. The lion dodged most of the strikes, but one hit him directly in the gut. "I changed myself, I made myself better. You're the same psychopath as you were two decades ago."

"Ooh, emotional strength." Clawbick sarcastically cooed. "Get real, you're just the same emotionally unstable fox you were back then too!"

"No, I'm not the hustler I was back then!" Nick shouted. "I have friends, I have a job, I have a place in the world, a job where I can make a difference."

"And look where that got you."

Nick shook his head. "You're just ignoring everything I'm saying, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Red growled, before flinging himself forwards again. The two continuously clashed their weapons, Red remaining in the air as he swung the rod again and again, attempting to hit Clawbick, who blocked every strike.

With a swipe from his sword, the lion knocked the staff away from him, and jabbed the blade into Red's just, launching him forwards, through the pile of debris that had been created from the fall. The chunks of concrete flew everywhere, crashing into the pipes. Wells of steam started to blow from them, creating a deafening wail.

The fox continued past the debris, slamming into a concrete section of the wall, hard enough to leave cracks. He looked up, watching as Clawbick walked towards him.

"Face it, Nicky, there's no way you can beat me!" He taunted. "Thanks to Savage, I have one of the most devastating weapons in the whole universe! I can destroy ANYTHING!" He demonstrated by slicing his blade through a single piece of debris that hadn't been blasted away. The sword cleaved through it with no effort, before the rock vanished in a flash.

"And what's this garbage about ME ruining YOUR life!?" He growled. "If anything, YOU ruined MY life!"

"What…?" The fox let out as he got up, with the help of his staff.

"You called the cops on me! You betrayed me!" He yelled. "I was almost sent to prison because of you!"

"Are you crazy?" The fox asked, though it was rhetorical. "I didn't even do anything to you! The police didn't even ARREST you!"

"It doesn't matter!" Clawbick said, dismissing the fox. "Ever since then, I've wanted to get my revenge on you!"

"Are you sure that's why you wanted the revenge?" Nick asked.

"W-what?" Clawbick stuttered, taken a bit off guard by the reply.

"To me, it seems like you're jealous of me." Nick followed. "I'm everything you ever wanted to be, but were too afraid to actually do!"

The lion stumbled back a bit. "N-no, that's stupid." Clawbick nervously stuttered. "Its because you wronged me and-"

"You're just lying to yourself at this point." Nick interrupted. "That's the real reason, isn't it? When we met again at the prison, you saw what I had, a job, a girlfriend, and you became more jealous of me than ever."

Clawbick couldn't respond.

"YOU wanted everything that I had, things you could've had if you actually made those choices YOURSELF!" Nick yelled. "But you're a COWARD! You couldn't go through with them! You wanted to distance yourself from everyone so they wouldn't find out!"

The fox stomped forwards, rod prepared to strike at the lion, who slowly backed up away from him. "The only choice you made resulted in you losing everything, your morals, your dignity, your friends-"

"I… I have friends." Clawbick said, meekly.

"You mean Emily and Henry?" Nick said. "They aren't your friends anymore. They're the ones who called the cops that DID lock you up. They thought putting you in prison would help, but I guess it didn't."

"Emily… and Henry… betrayed me!?" The lion growled. He seemed to be regaining some of his ferocity. A burst of energy shot out from him as he let out a roar, leaving Clawbick with a waving aura of red energy, while the red sections of his armor turned black.

"You're just trying to mess with me!" Clawbick growled. "I don't give a shit what you have to say! I'm going to rip you to shreds, fox!"

"Oh, that isn't good." Red muttered

* * *

Green rushed forward into the battle as well, blasting Dorou off of the wolf. "Whew, thanks." Silver said as the bull helped him up. "I thought I was going to have to listen to him forever."

"No problem." Green said, before firing another shot at Dorou.

With Blue and Pink, they had started fighting against the monsters as well. Blue had gone for Long, while Pink went for Savage.

"Hah, you really think a runt like you can hurt me?" Savage mocked as the hyena stepped closer to him. "My skin's made out of pure crystallized energy, it's impossible to-"

Pink quickly fired one of her blasters at the monster, which hit him directly in the stomach. "Ow! That actually hurt!"

"We're using a pretty powerful energy source ourselves!" Pink said, twirling her gun around. "Thanks to you, that it."

She opened fire on the monster rapidly, each shot hitting him and sending sparks flying. "Ugh, that's enough of this nonsense!" Savage yelled. He started to swipe the blasts out of the air. He let out a laugh and stepped forwards as the last blast was knocked away.

Before he could do anything, Pink ran up and pistol whipped him right in the face, causing the monster to be flung back. "I thought you'd be stronger than this." Pink said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"That's because you haven't given me a chance to HIT YOU!"

"And I think I'd rather keep it that way!"

Green and Silver took on Dorou themselves, going two-against-one. Green quickly stepped in and smashed the monsters shield, knocking him back into a slash from Silver. "Ow, this is totally unfair!" Dorou whined, stomping his foot on the ground. "HAX!"

"Okay, now I see why you hate this guy." Green said, before firing another shot at him.

The blast hit the monster's shield, but couldn't block another strike from behind from Silver. "Ow, I can't focus on both sides of me at once, you know!" Dorou said, turning to face the wolf.

"Yeah, not having any periphery vision must suck." Silver joked, before punching the distracted monster in the eye. The monster let out a cry of pain and stumbled back. "Green, grab him!" Silver shouted.

Green complied, quickly locking his arms around the monster's arms. "Hey, let go of me!" The monster cried.

Silver switched his blade to Moon Mode, and lashed the laser whip forwards, wrapping around Dorou's blade. He ripped the sword out of his hand, it seemingly dematerializing as it was flicked upwards. Silver then whipped it at the shield, and performed a similar trick.

With both his weapons gone, Green let go of the monster, and kicked him in the back. As the monster stumbled forward, Silver switched his blade to Sun Mode, and shot several fireballs at him.

The fireballs exploded, launching Dorou back into Green, who whacked him to the ground with his cannon. "Hey, is this what being a school bully is like?" Silver asked.

"I feel we're more creative than a school bully." Green said, before stomping onto Dorou's back.

"This is SO CHEAP!" Dorou continued to whine, pounding his fists on the ground.

Meanwhile, Blue took on long. She leaped up into the air, attempting to strike at the monster, who continued to dodge her attacks.

"Do you really think this will work?" Long mocked. "I can't be defeated, you know this."

In response, Blue quickly kicked one of her blades into the air, and began slashing at Long with her remaining one. The dragon warrior continued to block, but was unaware as the flying blade came down on him.

Blue kicked off of Long, landing back on the ground. The falling blade cleaved right down his middle, Blue quickly catching it once it was at her level. She then leaped into the air, slashing at Long with both of them, causing him to be flung back.

The monster stumbled, before glancing back at her. "I don't have to defeat you right now!" She started. "I just have to make sure you don't hurt anyone else today!"

"Futile!" Long shouted, frustrated. "No matter what you do, this place will be your grave! You have too much riding against you!"

"Really? Maybe you should pay attention to someone other than yourself!"

"What-?" Long quickly glanced around. He turned to Dorou, who was still trapped under the bull's foot. Then he looked over to Savage, who was putting up a decent fight against Pink, but the hyena was deftly dodging his attacks and retaliating with her own.

"There's too many of us for all of you to handle, Long!" Blue said. "You're going to lose!"

Long remained silent for a moment. Then he started to laugh, quietly. The laugh got louder, weirding the rabbit out.

"Do you really think I hadn't thought of something like this!?" Long shouted. "I have a plan for everything!" He pulled out a Chaos Badge, and flashed it in his hand.

"No!" Blue shouted, stepping forward.

"Do you want to see the real reason why I brought Dorou with me?" He asked, rhetorically. "Here it is."

He tossed the badge at Dorou, jabbing into its helmet. "What the-?" Green let out, before a pulse of energy knocked him away.

"Oh shit." Silver let out as Dorou rose into the air. The Chaos Badge absorbed itself into his helmet, and began to change the monster itself.

The monster's eye started to spin around as the helmet started to change in shape. The horns to the side turned green and black, resembling data from an old computer. Several more horns of the same coloring sprouted from the monster's helmet, resembling the top of the Chaos Badge. More of them sprouted underneath, giving the helmet the overall shape of the badge itself.

The monster's armor started to change to a much darker shade of blue, as well as a slightly lighter shade of gold. The armor started to cover up the monster's entire body, gaining neon lights across it, getting a more futuristic look to it. The skirts around his waist started to extend out a bit, becoming grey and gold SATA wires, which became a full skirt that surrounded the monster's whole waist.

The ram face on his chest changed to a much smoother, less detailed version.

"I AM INTERFAAAAAACED!" The monster yelled as it landed back on the ground. "Prepare for utter deletion!"

He waved his arms in the air. Suddenly, the machinery in the room started to act up again… this time in a much more violent manner. Several of the guns flew from the walls, and started floating in the air, before firing at the Rangers, as well as Savage.

"Yeesh, watch where you're firing those things!" Savage yelled, dodging a laser shot from one of the guns.

"You're saying that like we're on the same side." Long said.

Blue leaped out of the way of a shot as well, catching a glimpse of one of the guns. She slashed her khopesh at it, shooting out a blade of energy that cut right through it.

"Hey, those things are expensive!" Chaos Dorou yelled.

"Nobody cares!" She yelled, shooting a blade of energy at the monster directly afterwards. The blade knocked Dorou off of his feet, causing the guns to drop to the ground and break.

"Ugh, guess I'll have to get a bit more… INDUSTRIAL!" Dorou said as he got up. He swung his hands forwards.

Two large cranes tucked away in the corner started to roll over to where he was. These cranes had very articulated necks, and large claws at the end. They were most likely meant for moving heavy objects around the place.

Now they were going to be used to kill them.

The cranes zoomed forward, one lunging its claw at Pink, who quickly dodged out of the way. "Does he just have control over machines now!?" She yelled, dodging another strike.

"I sure do!" The monster said, swinging another arm forwards.

There was a beep from the armored truck. It started to roll forwards, revealing its multiple large weapons.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me." Blue let out as the truck started to fire its weapons.

* * *

The enraged Clawbick dashed forwards, swinging his blade at the fox, who quickly leaped out of the way as it cleaved cleanly through the walls behind him. The lion pulled his blade out, and fired several red energy shots from it. Red dodged most of them, but one struck him right in the shoulder.

As Clawbick approached the injured fox, Red swung his staff forwards, shooting off a fireball that hit the lion directly in the face. This stunned him for a moment, letting Red leap in and kick him away.

Clawbick was flung through the air, but flipped around, plunging his sword into the ground, which grinded his travel to a halt. He then swung the blade, cleaving it free from the ground, while also shooting a massive red slash of energy that also cut through the ground.

Red leaped out of the way again, as the slash cut through the wall as well. The pipes on the wall let out some more bursts of steam, the total noise being nearly deafening.

"Alright, Nicky, give up?" Clawbick threatened as he approached the fox.

"In your dreams."

Red quickly used his staff to bend one of the steam pipes that had been freed by the slash, blowing it into the lion's face. This didn't seem to affect him, other than causing him to flinch for a second.

"The hell are you trying to do?" Clawbick asked.

"I think you need a steam bath, Dave!"

Red quickly stuck the rod's open circle into the steam, going through the middle. As the steam passed through, it turned into flames, which quickly engulfed the lion. He let out a scream of pain as he stumbled back. Red quickly leaped in, and smacked him away with the rod.

Clawbick let out a growl, and then ran up to the fox, attempting to strike him down with the blade. Red leaped up as well, trying to block the sword. Instead, the lion's strength pushed him back into a wall.

The sword pushed into the side of the rod of his staff, pressed dangerously close to his neck. The blade pushed hard enough against the rod that it pushed against his neck and paws, effectively trapping him. "Why would I ever be jealous of YOU!?" The lion growled. "You're just a pathetic hustler, and yet you act like you have so much pride."

"I'm not a hustler any more-"

Clawbick quickly grabbed the staff, Red still hanging on, and slammed him into the ground, leaving a large dent. "Don't try to act so high and mighty, fox!" Clawbick growled. His voice had started to sound different, more growly and less like his overly smug normal tone. He had started to sound like a scratchier Savage, in fact.

"That rabbit, your girlfriend," He started. "You know you've tricked her!"

"What? I haven't tricked her!" Red said weakly, trying to climb back to his feet. Clawbick quickly brought his foot down onto the fox.

"Hah, you keep telling yourself that!" He laughed. "What do you think will happen when she finds out about your little secret? She'll probably hate you, freak!"

"I-I've kept it a secret for most of my life…" Red muttered as Clawbick grinded his boot into the fox's torso. "I can keep it a secret for the rest of it too!"

Clawbick scoffed, and raised his foot from Red. He then promptly kicked the fox into another wall. "You're pathetic."

Meanwhile, back up with the rest of the team, they were having trouble themselves.

The truck launched its missiles at them, creating a flurry of explosives around them. The rangers were flung across the room in different directions. As they were recovering, the cranes zoomed over, grabbing Blue and Silver with their claws.

"Hey, let go!" Silver yelled, trying to break free. "I didn't consent to this!"

Blue struggled as well, attempting to move her blades to a position they could cut through the steel, but she wasn't able to.

"Don't worry, we'll get you down!" Pink shouted. Green stepped forward, and fired his cannon at the crane holding Silver. The arm exploded, freeing the wolf.

"Hey, thanks." Silver said, brushing himself off. "Wanna go kick some butt?"

"Definitely." Green replied.

"You two ready to get YOUR butts kicked!?"

Savage rushed in from nowhere, attempting to strike at the two. They dodged out of the way, though Silver quickly moved back in to attack the monster. Green ran up and smacked Savage over the head with his cannon, but was quickly knocked back.

Pink tried to shoot at the crane holding Blue, but it didn't seem to be effective. She glanced over at Green, preparing to ask for his help. He seemed to be a bit busy.

"Damn it, my guns aren't strong enough!" She yelled.

"Wait, take my swords!" Blue said. She dropped the blades from her grip, causing them to drop to the ground with a clang. "They should be able to cut through this thing!"

"Got it!" Pink said, rushing over and picking the blades up. The crane quickly attempted to slam its claw into her, using Blue as a weapon, but she side stepped out of the way. The crane slammed into the ground… Blue taking the brunt of the attack.

"Oh, whoops, sorry!" The hyena apologized.

"No biggie!" She said, though she sounded a bit dazed. "My armor protected me!"

"I don't think that's how that works, but…" Pink shook it off, and leaped up, slashing at the crane's neck. The metal arm fell to the ground, releasing Blue from its clutches.

She shook her head as she got back up. "That was like a terrible rollercoaster." She mumbled.

"Actually, its more like one of those spinning rides." Pink followed.

"Gah, you stupid bugs!" Dorou shouted. "I'll have to pull out the big guns! HEN! SHIN!"

Dorou thrust his arms outwards. The truck started to transform, changing into its mecha form. It aimed one of its railguns, and shot a spread of bullets across the entire room. Pink and Blue managed to duck into a blind spot, but Green, Silver, and Savage were all struck by the bullets. They were flung across the room again, Green and Silver crashing against the wall behind them, and Savage managing to stop his momentum by dragging his claws into the ground.

"What the hell is that!?" Savage yelled. "Actually, I don't care, I'm going to rip it to shreds!"

He rushed towards the mech, and leaped up, scratching directly through its cockpit. 'Hey, stop that!" Chaos Dorou scolded. "Don't make me stop you!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, nerd?" Savage taunted.

"I can do this again!"

The mech suddenly fired more missiles, and started to back up. The missiles flew all over the room, hitting practically everyone but Dorou and Long.

One of the missiles was launched towards Pink and Blue, who were flung in opposite directions. Pink skidded across the floor, and next to the hole that Red had created. She quickly glanced down the hole, seeing Clawbick stepping on the fox.

Nick was in trouble. He definitely needed help. If he couldn't beat Clawbick in a fight, he needed to do something more backhanded. What would be a good way of pacifying him…

Oh, duh.

She glanced across the room, looking for the tame collar's remote. There it was, across the room… Right next to the robot. She needed to get over there and back. Time to run.

She dashed off, the mech seeming to spot her. It fired a barrage of bullets at her, but she slid under them. She quickly made it to the robot, much to the surprise of Dorou. "What!? What are you planning!?"

"Uh, nothing against you." She said, picking the remote up and tossing it in her hand. "Well, not yet, anyway."

She quickly ran off, leaving the ram monster very confused.

The hyena ran back up to the hole and glanced down. Nick was across the room, clearly in a lot of pain, and Clawbick was heading towards him. She glanced at the remote.

"NICK!" She shouted, holding the remote up. Both Red and Clawbick glanced up "TAKE THIS!"

She tossed the remote to Red, who quickly sat up and caught it in his paw. "The heck's this…?" He asked.

"IT'S THE REMOTE FOR CLAWBICK'S TAME COLLAR!" She shouted down.

Red glanced at the remote, and then back at Clawbick. He did have a tame collar, it had been wrapped around his neck the entire time. He had been wearing his weakness on his neck the entire time.

"The remote!?" Clawbick growled. He turned back to look at the hyena. "You really HAVE betrayed me!"

"No, Dave, you're the one who betrayed us!" Red followed. The fox used his staff to help him up. "You've done so many unforgivable things, hurt so many innocent mammals. Now its time for you to really pay."

"Bring it on, fox!" He goaded. "Hit me with what you've got!"

Red turned the knob on the remote to its maximum voltage, and hovered his thumb over the large, red activation button. "I'm going to press this button once for every atrocity you've committed."

Clawbick stepped back, clearly nervous. He clutched at his neck. "W-wait!"

Red pressed the button, sending a massive jolt of electricity through the lion's body. He let go of the button. Smoke was visibly coming from the lion's body, but he was still standing.

"That was for Emily."

He pressed the button again.

"And that was for Henry."

And again. And again. And again. And again. And Again.

"Those are for the mammals you murdered!"

He pressed it again, holding it for several seconds.

"That was for the homicide!"

He pressed the button, holding it down even longer.

"That was for the SECOND homicide!"

This went on for several minutes, going over Clawbick's entire personal history. As he went on, Nick got angrier and angrier, while Clawbick grew weaker and weaker with each shock.

Eventually, his armor seemed to fold back on its own. He fell to his knees, out of breath from the pain Nick had inflicted. "Please… have mercy…" He pleaded.

Nick glanced at the remote, then at the horribly burned mammal in front of him. "Why should I give you any?" he asked. "It's not like you ever gave it to anyone."

He pressed down on the button, causing another electric shock. This one went on for a painfully long time. Nick felt gross, disgusted in himself for even doing this, even if he deserved it. It just didn't feel right.

He let go of the button.

"That one was for me." He muttered, dropping the remote to the ground.

The lion quickly fell over, either unconscious, or dead. It didn't matter which. Red stepped on the remote, shattering it. He gave one last glance to Clawbick's unmoving body, and leaped out of the pit.

As soon as he was out, his eyes saw utter chaos.

Long and Savage were fighting each other, and everyone else was fighting against the SPD's giant robot truck, and what looked like the upgraded version of that goat monster.

"The hell did I miss?" Red mumbled to himself.

Blue's ears perked up as she spotted him. She dashed over. "Hey, Red, good to see you alive!" She greeted.

"Yeah, same." Red said. "So, can you tell me what happened here?"

"The monster can control machines." Blue explained. "That's it, really."

"Oh."

"We really need to beat him." She said. "And I think we can do that!"

"Together?"

"Together."

The two ran to the middle of the battlefield, and fistbumped. They readied their weapons, and dashed at the monster. Red went for the monster itself, while Blue went for the robot. Red jumped up, and smacked Dorou in the face with his staff. The monster bounced off the mech, letting Red follow up with another attack, as his staff extended to pin the monster to the robot.

"Hey, stop it!" Dorou whined.

The robot seemed to stop, unable to be controlled by Chaos Dorou as he was distracted. Blue used this opportunity to leap up onto the robot, and sliced at one of its arms, causing it to fall to the ground. She hopped to the other side, and sliced the arm there off as well.

Dorou grabbed onto the staff, and quickly pushed it off of him. He glanced up at the robot. "NO! My really cool mech! You ruined it!"

Blue leaped down, hitting Dorou in the face with her feet, knocking him to the ground. She jumped off, and landed next to Red.

"Nice work." Red complimented.

"Thank you." Blue said. "Why don't we keep that good work up and take care of this geek?"

"GEEK?!" Dorou yelled. "I'm a NERD, thank you very much! And I'm not out of this yet!"

He thrust his arms forwards, causing the robot to start shooting missiles. "I'll handle this." Red said. He started jabbing his pole forwards rapidly, striking every missile out of the sky, all of them exploding before they could touch the ground.

Suddenly, the missiles stopped.

"Huh?" Red muttered, turning back to the monster.

He seemed exactly as confused, thrusting his arms forwards, trying to get the mech to do something. "C'mon!" He said, trying it again. "Do something!"

"Hah, idiot!" Pink yelled from the other side of the room. "You used it too much, its gone muerta!"

"It's… it's out of fuel!?" Chaos Dorou said to itself. He turned around, seeing all five of the rangers standing there. "Oh, uh, hi?"

"You guys all ready?" Blue asked. The others nodded.

She dashed forwards first, performing an uppercut with her blades, launching the monster up into the air. Pink and Green followed up by shooting Dorou with their blasters, keeping him suspended in midair. Red and Silver were up next, and shot fireballs at him, keeping him in the air even longer.

Silver quickly jumped onto Green's cannon, who thrust it upwards, launching Silver into the air. Red leaped up next, both of them on each side of the airborne Dorou. They rapidly struck him with both their weapons, before slamming him down to the ground.

The ram monster bounced as he hit the ground, letting green bat him away with his massive gun. Blue quickly followed him as he flew through the air, and jumped up, kicking the monster before slashing it with her khopesh. He flew back to the group, but didn't make it before Red's staff extended, smacking him in the face and halting his momentum.

As Dorou recovered, he quickly found a whip wrapped around him. Silver quickly reeled him in, and flung him into the air. He fell towards Pink, who started to shoot him at near point-blank range. She shot him in several key locations, knocking all his horns off, and piercing through his armor, all while keeping him stunned in the air. She then placed both her guns together, and fired a larger balst, sending him flying again.

Red and Blue set their combined weapon up, and aimed it as Dorou flew towards them. They pointed it up, and fired the energy arrow directly through him. It pierced through his chest, instantly causing him to explode.

All five of them let out a victory cheer, as the stunned Long and Savage looked on, having stopped fighting as soon as they saw the first hit. Savage started clapping his claws together. "Okay, gotta admit, that was awesome."

Long just growled and clenched his fist. He quickly shot Savage a look.

From the explosion flew Herder, and a Chaos Badge, which clinked against the ground. Emily and Henry rushed over to him, their armor folding back up into their belts. "Chief, you alright?" Pink said, shaking the goat.

He opened his eyes, and sat up. "Ugh, what happened?"

"The Zoorangers and us saved you." Henry explained.

"They did?" He mumbled, surprised. He fell silent afterwards.

"We haven't saved you guys yet!" Silver said, pointing to the Chaos Badge. "We still got a giant monster problem!"

The Chaos Badge lifted itself into the air, and then flew off… jabbing into the ceiling. It started to hit the ceiling repeatedly, before it started to glow.

"Uh, that's new." Red said, watching the badge.

"Oh god!" Blue yelled. "Everyone get out of the way!"

"What?" Red asked.

"It's going to grow giant IN HERE!"

The five ran as fast as they could, Emily and Henry helping Herder along to the very edge of the room, right by the steel sliding door that had let the truck in.

Blue's prediction was right, as the badge exploded, creating a bright flash of light. Chaos Dorou had reappeared, towering above them while still crouching down in a four-legged position. The monster took up nearly the entirety of the room, his feet touching the corners. He let out a groan, before thrusting himself upwards.

The monster crashed through the ground, creating a massive surge of sunlight to flood the room as he pierced to the surface. "SYSTEM RESTORE!" The monster yelled, before leaping out of the pit and up to the ground.

"Oh, cheese and crackers!" Blue let out. "He's right next to the city!"

"We can't let him hurt anyone!" Silver shouted. "Let's go take him out!"

The three quickly summoned their mechs, which leaped out of the pit as well. As they jumped out, ZooSagi and ZooKitsune formed into ZooRobo, while ZooOkami transformed into ZooKami.

"Well, looks like we'll have to handle this some other time, huh?" Savage said, starting to walk away from Long. "Don't worry, this isn't over!" He said, turning back to Long as he walked backwards.

"Oh, but it IS."

Long thrust his palm forwards, shooting out a stream of golden energy, which flew directly towards Savage.

"What the-" The energy started to flow into Savage, causing him to groan in pain.

"The hell's he doing?" Emily asked as they watched the energy flow into Savage.

"I have no idea, but its probably not good." Henry answered.

Suddenly, Savage started to swell up, growing slightly larger. He then started to grow rapidly, until he had been transformed into a giant monster, on par with the monster that had just escaped. He leaped out of the pit as well.

Long quickly fell to one knee. "Used too much of my Qi on that…" He muttered. "I need to go recoup…" He dissipated into golden mist, which quickly vanished.

* * *

ZooRobo and ZooKami stomped forwards, towards Chaos Dorou. "Welcome to the FINAL BOSS!" Chaos Dorou taunted. His eye started to glow, creating a holographic laser sword, one much more futuristic than his previous steel blade. He grabbed it, and marched towards the robots.

"This guy should be easy." Red said, stretching his arms out.

"Right, he's just a geek with a lightsaber, shouldn't be much of a-" Blue was interrupted by a crashing noise behind them.

"Uh, guys?" Silver said. "We have REALLY bad news."

ZooRobo spun around, spotting the massive sized Savage. He let out an animalistic growl, which sounded like a mix between several different growls and roars at once. He slashed both his claws, knocking the mechs backwards.

Chaos Dorou took this chance, and swung his lightsaber at both of them, causing them to stumble forwards again. "Yeah, now this is a fair fight!" Dorou cheered. "Time to pwn you n00bs!"

"I'll take Dorou." Silver said, almost instantly. "You guys handle Savage."

"Hey, since when do you get to give orders?" Blue said. "I mean, it's a good order, but…"

"I really, REALLY hate this guy." Silver said, ZooKami stomping forward.

"Not really sure if we can do this ourselves." Red said as ZooRobo stomped towards Savage. "We haven't been able to take him on without our super forms, what's our mech supposed to do?"

"I got a pretty good answer," She said, pulling out both a blue and white ZooTag.

"Clever bunny." Red said, pulling out a gold and yellow ZooTag.

They both plugged one of the tags in, specifically the white and yellow tags.

"DAI SAI!  
GRAND SAI!  
BREAKING THE FIST  
ZOOSAI!"

"BAN BAN BOOM!  
GIRI GIRI!  
CUTTING THROUGH!  
ZOOKUMA!"

The rhino and bear mechs appeared from nowhere. The rhino leapt forwards, smacking Savage with his horn. It then flipped around and combined with ZooRobo, forming into ZooRobo Sai Form.

"ZooKuma, go help Silver!" Red ordered. The bear let out a growl as it leaped over to the fight with ZooKami and Dorou.

The bear mech flew through the air, and started to rapidly scratch at the monster. "AUGH, ORGANIC CONTACT!" The monster whined, before the bear mech kicked itself off of him.

ZooKami stepped in, and slashed the monster with his sword, causing him to stumble backwards. "Alright, now we're getting started!" Silver cheered, pumping his fist.

ZooRobo stepped towards Savage, and slashed at him with the large axe hands of the mech. They seemed to cut through him, green shards of his crystalline body flying off. Savage let out a pained roar as this happened, and then reached forwards with his massive claws, grabbing onto ZooRobo.

"Augh, I really don't like seeing this guy's ugly mug up close!" Red yelled as they struggled to push the monster away. Savage opened his mouth wide, and chomped down on the robot.

His teeth went right through the robot's metal, mostly only affecting ZooSai's body. The rhino mech, from its attached state, let out a cry of pain as Savage pulled his mouth out. The mech stumbled back as the monster continued to slash at it.

ZooKami clashed blades with Chaos Dorou, the mech being strong enough to push the ram monster backwards. As the monster's feet dragged against the ground, he fired a laser from his eye directly into ZooKami, causing the robot to stumble back.

ZooKuma quickly jumped in, slashing at the monster before it could get another hit in on ZooKami. This gave the mech time to recover, letting him quickly get back into the action and land a direct attack to Dorou's midsection.

"Augh, dumb bear!" The monster shouted, knocking ZooKuma away. "I'll obsolete you!" He started to fire beams at ZooKuma which flipped and jumped to avoid them. One of the lasers managed to hit, knocking the bear mech away. He shot more blasts at it, causing it to explode.

"NO!" Silver shouted. "How dare you do that!?"

"Relax, its just a robot!" Dorou mocked. ZooKami stomped forward and slashed at Dorou. The ram managed to block it with his blade, but the wolf pushed down, and broke through the monster's defenses.

ZooRobo attempted to attack Savage, but the now mindless beast managed to keep getting in before they could do anything. "I think we're taking this the wrong way!" Red shouted, quickly pulling his ZooTag out. "I think we should play a bit safer!"

"Sounds like a good idea!" Blue replied. The two pulled out their other ZooTags, colored gold and blue, and plugged them in.

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

"JUNGLE MIND!  
BUSTING TIME!  
UKI UKI OO!  
ZOOSARU!"

The bison and ape mechs appeared out of nowhere. ZooSaru leaped over to help ZooKami, while ZooBison dashed forward and rammed into Savage, knocking him back. ZooSai quickly detached from the mech and vanished, letting ZooBison combine with ZooRobo into ZooRobo Bison Form.

The mech quickly started firing its guns at the monster, keeping it far away from them. "We gotta play the range game." Blue said. "Savage getting too close will lead to trouble."

ZooSaru leaped over ZooKami, and started to punch Chaos Dorou in the face "AUGH!" He yelled. "IT'S LIKE HIGH SCHOOL ALL OVER AGAIN!"

"Alright you horrible neet," Silver started, before delivering a sword strike to Dorou's chest. "Prepare to be deleted!"

The mech rose its sword into the air, and spun it around, creating a mirage of the moon in the circle. He then slashed downwards, the illusion flying forwards and carving through the monster. The monster let out a final scream as it exploded.

ZooKami quickly spun around, watching the fight between Savage and ZooRobo. The mech was firing multiple shots at the monster, but at this point they seemed to be ineffective, the beast just walking through them.

"Don't worry guys, I'm here to help!" Silver said, moving the mech over to the fight. ZooSaru quickly leaped over as well, landing next to ZooKami and pounding its chest. ZooBison stood next to them as well, letting out a snort.

"Let's take care of this together." Red said. "This is the end of you, Savage!"

The monster roared in response, and stomped forward. It slashed at the two mechs, causing them to stumble backwards. ZooRobo quickly opened fire as soon as it regained its footing, but again, the shots didn't seem to be working anymore.

"Ugh, we need something stronger!" Blue said. Her ears perked up. "Hey, why don't we just combine?"

"Oh yeah, that's a thing we don't really do often, huh?" Red said.

ZooBison quickly detached, and the two mechs combined into the colossus known as ZooRobo Oh Kami. The super mech stomped forward, both of its blades in hand. Savage followed suit, and the two titans began to clash.

ZooRobo struck at the monster with his blades, cleaving through Savage's crystalline skin, but it seemed to have no effect beyond that. Savage slashed at the mech, it still taking incredible amounts of damage from the strikes.

"Seriously?" Silver said, the inner mechanics of the mech sparking around them. "We can't even beat him with our ultimate combo!?"

"We just need to pin him down!" Blue said. "Keep him still, and we can get off our finisher!"

"I think I know how to do that!" Red said. "Let's bring in the cavalry!"

ZooKuma and ZooSai appeared, fine after a bit of rest. They landed in front of the mechs, ZooSaru and ZooBison joining in. They quickly leaped at Savage. ZooSaru started to punch at the beast's face, while ZooKuma dashed around his midsection, keeping his arms busy, while occasionally scratching at him. ZooBison and ZooSai rammed at his feet, preventing him from moving.

"Alright, now we can finish him!" Blue said. "Let's do it!"

The mech brought one of its blades downwards, and one upwards, and then slashed with moth of them. The slashes flew forwards, the mini-mechs leaping out of the way as they cleaved through Savage's body. ZooRobo then brought both its blades to its sides, one on the right, and one on the left, and slashed again. Those slashed flew forwards as well, again cleaving right through Savage.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The monster let out as it stumbled back. He quickly turned around, and stomped towards Mount Animalia as his body began to spark.

On the mountain, Long had arrived, stumbling onto the side of it. He was still weak from the amount of energy he had lost. He heard the monster's cry, and turned to look. The massive Savage was staring at the mountain…

No, it was staring at him.

"LOOOOOONG!" The beast cried out. "YOU TRAITOROUS FIEND! I'LL GET MY REVENGE ON YOU, IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"

With a final cry of pain, Savage's crystalline body exploded, his green energy floating up into the air, then dissipating.

While ZooRobo and its mini-mech partners struck a victory pose, Long watched on. He remained silent, and then stumbled off, attempting to find the entrance to the base.

* * *

"I can't believe we did it!" Nick said, Judy jumping up and high-fouring him. "We destroyed Savage!"

"Yeah, and we did it together!" Max added.

The three had returned to the underground bunker to celebrate. Judy glanced around, and spotted the SPD officers, Herder, and Dr. Leopold. The four of them were resting against a wall. "Hey, you guys alright?" She yelled over to them.

"Yeah, we're fine!" Emily shouted back. The four of them got back up, and Emily whispered something to Herder, who gave a nod.

The goat walked over to the Zoorangers, and cleared his throat. "I want to apologize profusely to you three." He started. "I was such an idiot for believing in that monster. Can you three forgive me?"

The three of them nodded.

"Thank you." Herder muttered. He looked back up at them. "And I'd also like to tell you that I'm disbanding the SPD."

"What?" Red said. "Why?"

"Because with you three around, they aren't necessary." He explained. "Don't worry, I'll make sure they get pardons for good behavior and-"

"Don't disband them." Judy said, defiantly.

Herder gave her a confused glance.

"They helped us out during that fight." She started. "If our two teams were to work together, we could take these monsters out even faster than before!" She sighed. "We can help prevent what happened from happening to anyone else."

Herder gave her a smile.

"We'd love to help you out, Judy," Emily said, henry following behind her. "But we can't."

"You guys don't have to be humble," Nick started. "You guys did great back there, and I can't think of anyone else I'd like to have on our team."

"No, she means we can't." Henry interjected. "That, uh, Savage guy, was powering our armor. With him gone, we can't use our armor."

"Actually," Leopold said, popping out from behind the bull. "I might have a solution to that!"

"Hey, where were you during that entire fight?" Max asked.

"Oh, I was hiding in my office." Leopold replied. "But, to the point, I had a bit of time to examine your transformation devices today, and I discovered something."

The three raised their eyebrows.

"See, they use some kind of wireless signal to connect to… something, and that's what powers them!" He explained. "If I had time to study them, to see how they work, I could maybe reverse engineer it, and we could use that to power the SPD Officer armor!"

"Seriously?" Emily said, surprised. "Then get to it, Leo!" She finished, smacking the doctor on the back.

"The problem is that I'd have to, uh, borrow, your devices." He said, directly to the Zoorangers. "Except yours, Wolford, yours is completely different."

The wolf raised an eyebrow to this.

"We can let you borrow them." Judy said. "If its for a good cause!"

"I mean, I guess…" Nick said, sarcastically. He gave a chuckle as the rabbit elbowed him playfully.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Silver said, stepping in. "That would give us, like, five members, right?" He said.

"It sure would, Max." Judy said, getting what the wolf was trying to say.

"Then that means…" he paused. "We're a full team now! We're a full Zoo Rangers team now!"

"What are you-?" Emily was quickly interrupted by Nick.

"Just let him be, he's nerding out."

"Well, that's all settled then!" Herder said. "I'll do my best to get everything back to normal, get Bogo back into his position, do a public service announcement saying how wrong I was, and everything should go over cleanly!"

"Alright, now we don't have to live in a basement anymore!" Nick said, pumping his fist.

"Oh, and if we're doing this…" Herder said, turning to Emily and Henry. "How would you two like to have ACTUAL jobs?"

"Wait, you mean…" Emily paused. "You mean we get to work with the Zoorangers, and get to be paid?"

Herder gave a nod.

"We're in."

"Alright, now that everything's settled…" Herder started. "Let's get out of this depressing hole!"

Everyone gave a cheer, and they all headed out of the bunker. Everything was fine, and all the chaos of the last few months would finally stop, and things would go back to normal.

But they all seemed to forget something.

In a pit of the bunker laid a burned body, the burned body of a lion. It started to twitch.

* * *

" **YOU INCOMPETENT FOOL** "

The Omnipotence roared, firing a beam of electricity at Long, who fell to his knees in pain. The other five villains watched on from a tunnel. "How badly do you think he messed up?" Yabaiba asked.

"He made a monster a day after I did." Sambash answered. "He messed up pretty bad."

" **DUE TO YOUR PLAN BACKFIRING, WE NOW HAVE INSUFFICIENT ENERGY** " The Omnipotence roared. " **WE MUST WAIT A FULL MONTH BEFORE WE HAVE ENOUGH TO CREATE ANOTHER MONSTER** "

"But my plan almost worked!" Long said. "I could've defeated them if Savage hadn't reared his ugly head!"

" **BUT YOU DIDN'T** " The Omnipotence followed, blasting Long with another bolt of lightning. He let out a pained scream, something he had never done before in his immortal life.

"I don't care about your rules!" Long finally said. "I am an immortal being, I cannot be killed! I will make this world my own, and you cannot stop me!"

" **FOOL** " The omnipotence said. " **YOU ARE IMMORTAL NO LONGER** "

"Hah, you lie!" Long shot back. "I regenerated the last time I was killed, my immortality remains!"

" **I HAVE CONSIDERED THIS** " The omnipotence continued. " **AND I REMOVED YOUR COMPLETE IMMORTALITY WHEN I REVIVED YOU** "

"What?" Long said, stumbling back. "That's impossible."

" **YOU HAVE A WEAKNESS, LONG** " The omnipotence roared, before shooting another bolt of lightning at him. " **AND I WILL LET YOU LIVE WITH THE FEAR OF THAT** "

" **AND REMEMBER** "

Long glanced up at The Omnipotence's tube.

" **I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT YOU BACK, I AM THE ONE WHO CAN DESTROY YOU** "

Long grunted, before stumbling over to the cave the other villains were standing in. He pushed them to the side and headed off into the interior of the base. "A weakness… That self-proclaimed god can't even tell a good lie." He muttered to himself.

"I'll figure out a way to defeat them all." Long said. "I will make this world my own."

* * *

_"Hey, Nick, what's wrong?"_

_The bull approached the young fox. He was in the attic of the building, hood pulled over his face and crying. The sunrise peered in through the attic window. Henry sat down next to him, attempting to comfort him._

_"What happened?" He asked gently. The fox sobbed in response. "Alright, you don't have to tell me."_

_"Why can't other mammals like me!?" Nick sobbed, leaning into the bull. "Why can't I be accepted somewhere!?"_

_"We accept you here, don't we?" Henry said._

_"No, you don't…" He muttered. "I hate everyone…"_

_Henry gently pulled the fox's hood down, and started to pet him, trying to get him to calm down. "I don't need to know what happened." He said. "Just know that, eventually, you'll be accepted somewhere. I know you will."_

_The fox continued to sob._

* * *

"WILDE!"

The lion stumbled around the now abandoned bunker. It was pitch black, leaving him utterly blind. It didn't help that one of his eyes had seemed to have gone blind.

"WIIIIIIIIILDE!" He shouted again, slamming into a wall. "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!"

"Well, aren't you interesting."

The lion spun around, coming face-to-face with Long, who lit up the dark hallway. "You're lost, aren't you?" He asked, the lion backing away in response. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you…"

Long quickly vanished, and the reappeared next to Clawbick, grabbing his head and slamming it into the wall.

"Or maybe I am." He said, picking the lion up. "Doesn't matter. You'll be absolutely perfect for my next plan…"


	34. Into the Spirit

_October 5th, 2019_

"Ugh, can't believe we have to wait a MONTH!" Sambash groaned as he paced around the base. It had been two weeks since the incident with Long's botched plan, and the villains were starting to get impatient.

"I know, right?" Yogostein replied. "All because Long tried to get too ambitious, and somehow we're the ones who are punished!"

"We were on such a good track record before he did this!" Sambash continued. "I don't even get why we need this 'recharge' anyway, haven't we gathered enough… chaos whatever, to fuel our monsters?"

"I believe you two are getting too worked up over this." Kyuemon said, startling the two as he appeared from nowhere.

"We haven't gotten to do anything," Yogostein shouted. "Of course we're getting upset!"

"Just think of it like this," Kyuemon continued. "You can use this downtime to think about future plans. Come up with your masterplans or some such."

"Masterplans?" Sambash said to himself. "Hmm."

"I've already thought about my masterplan, I don't need more time to plan it!" Yogostein shouted. He let out a grunt, and stomped off.

"I'm more worried about what's happening soon!" Yabaiba said, popping up from under the table and startling the two.

"I'm going to go and… do something else." Sambash said, quickly getting up and leaving the room. Kyuemon and Yabaiba were left alone.

Kyuemon let out a sigh as Yabaiba turned to him. "You wanna know what I'm worried about?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"Nope!" Yabaiba answered. "So, we're in the middle of October, which means we're almost at HALLOWEEN!"

"Halloween?" Kyuemon said, a bit confused. "Why would you care about a human holiday like that?"

"Uh, because it's the BEST holiday?" Yabaiba replied. "Especially for us monsters, it's the day we get even more evil energy!"

Kyuemon stared at him, a bit dumbfounded.

"No seriously!" Yabaiba continued, getting up. "Demons and ghosts like us get supercharged when Halloween rolls around! I wanted to take advantage of that and cause some trouble."

Kyuemon thought for a second. It was stupid, but he had a point. Halloween was at the end of the month, meaning that they would be fully able to attack the city by then. "Alright, what do you suggest we do for a plan?" Kyuemon asked.

"Uh, I dunno, I'm not that smart." Yabaiba admitted. "I was hoping to get some ideas from someone else…"

"Wonderful." The yokai said, sarcastically. "If you come up with anything, let me know-"

"HEY!"

The two turned over to the cage hanging from the roof. "Helloooo?" The sheep inside said. "Why does nobody ever ask me about evil plans, I thought that was the reason you guys brought me here!"

"The reason none of us ask you anything-"

"Hey, I ask her stuff." Yabaiba interrupted.

"The reason the INTELLIGENT villains here don't ask for your help is because we have nothing to gain from a lower being like you." Kyuemon explained.

"And yet you get constantly beaten by those lower beings." Bellwether snidely said. Kyuemon growled in response, as Yabaiba giggled quietly.

"Very well, if you think you're so smart, why don't you come up with a plan?" Kyuemon growled at her.

"I can give you a tip." Bellwether continued. She quickly pulled herself forward, head going between the bars. "But you have to get me something to eat and drink after."

Kyuemon scoffed. "I'll get you those if the idea you have is any good."

"Trust me, this is good." Bellwether continued. "I doubt any of you know this, but there's been a pretty big influx of mammals using their phones for everything."

"I am aware of the concept." Kyuemon said.

"Well, a lot of other mammals complain about our electronics slowly taking over, turning us into zombies. I think it's a bit ridiculous, but that's beside the point."

"I don't really SEE your point." Kyuemon scoffed. The sheep glared at him.

"Wait, did you say 'zombies'?" Yabaiba said. "That's a perfect idea, zombies are the HOTTEST thing in Halloween culture!"

"Excuse me?" Kyuemon said, confused.

"I thought you said you were supposed to be smart," Bellwether said. "And you can't even read between the lines."

Kyuemon paused, and thought for a moment. "Hmmmm." Suddenly it clicked. He shook his head in embarrassment. "Ah, I see what you're getting at now. I will say, it isn't a terrible idea."

"Great, then you have to get me something to eat and drink." She said, suddenly turning stern.

"In a moment." Kyuemon replied quickly, turning back to Yabaiba. "How about you and I work together for this plan?"

"Seriously? You and I, working together?" Yabaiba said in disbelief. "I'd love to!"

"Excellent. I will need someone a bit more charismatic for this."

* * *

_October 29th, 2019_

"Ohhh, I'm so nervous!" Judy said, pacing back and forth in front of the door. "What if I botch it? Nobody will take this seriously then!"

"Judy, you're great at speeches!" Nick said. "Just go out there and tell everyone about what's going on."

"But what if nobody believes me? I just feel like I have a lot of pressure, I've never had this much responsibility before." She continued.

"Just get out there!" Max said, handing her a remote and quickly pushing the rabbit out of the door.

She entered the darkened bullpen, which was full of her colleagues, alongside Emily and Henry. They seemed a bit out of place, wearing their casual clothes, despite them being a part of the force now.

It had been an entire month since the debacle. It took half the month for them to get their jobs back, and even more than that to set up their new roles in the police force, out of request by Herder and Bogo. The mayor seemed to be the main roadblock in the way of getting what they wanted.

Judy had been assigned to give a speech to the entire precinct. Nick, Max, and her had been keeping them out of the dark for most of their time as Zoorangers, and it was important to illustrate what, exactly, was going on.

She took a deep breath, and walked up to the podium, cranking the platform up so she could see the whole room. She cleared her throat, and started.

"Hey, everyone!" She said. "Long time no see, huh?"

Dang it, she botched it.

She grimaced as small chuckles could be heard through the room. There was a small creaking noise as she glanced over at the door, Nick and Max coming out. Nick shot her a double thumbs-up. She took another deep breath and continued, putting on a more serious tone.

"You are all here today to learn sensitive, classified information." She continued. "As is mostly obvious, Zootopia has been ravaged by horrible monsters throughout the last year, and me and my partner, Officer Wilde, and fellow officer, Wolford, have become superheroes."

It sounded a lot weirder saying it out loud to a crowd. Maybe that's why AkaRed said to keep it a secret, too awkward.

"This speech is the explain just what is going on with this whole ordeal." Judy said. "We'll start with the most important part, just what we're dealing with."

She pressed a button on the remote, a projector at the back coming on. It projected an image of five drawings, rather crude sketches of the monsters they had been fighting. They had been drawn by Max.

"These are our five main threats." She said. "We weren't able to get any pictures of them, so we got someone who had been close to them to draw sketches. They're pretty good if I say so."

"She's just saying that." Max whispered to Nick. "I think they're terrible."

"You drew them all in five minutes, I think they're pretty good for that." Nick replied.

"You don't know the struggle of an artist."

"These five are the ones responsible for creating the monsters that me and my team have been fighting for the last few months." Judy continued. "And, I know this may seem completely ridiculous, they come from an alternate universe, one that's completely different from ours."

There was the sound of confusion throughout the room. "Don't try to think about it too much, you might end up vomiting." She said, trying to get them to calm down. "We're going to cover all of them, going from least dangerous to most dangerous. Though, keep in mind all of them are dangerous."

She pressed the button again, flicking to a slide depicting the full sketch of Yabaiba, which was the same sketchy, crude quality, and had his name and title under him.

"This is Yabaiba, a 'Duke Org'. He's the least dangerous of these guys, and is kind of just an idiot." She said, chuckles coming from the crowd. At least they had laughed at an intentional joke. "He's still a threat to most mammals, however, and can handle a knife surprisingly well. His monsters seem to be more dangerous than him, and have caused a number of… strange events for us."

"Did we ever tell you about the time travel bit?' Nick whispered to Max.

"Dude, I still remember being erased from existence." The wolf said back.

Judy pressed the button again, flicking to the sketch of Sambash. "'Gun Boss' Sambash. As his name states, he has guns. Not laser guns, bullet guns. I feel the threat should be obvious." She said. "He behaves like a biker thug, and that goes along with his monsters too."

"What do you think that stuff they wear is?" Nick asked Max. "It feels weird, kind of like skin."

"I don't want to know."

The rabbit moved to the next slide, consisting of a picture of Kyuemon. "Kyuemon, just, uh, Kyuemon." She started. "To be honest, we haven't seen a whole lot of this guy, so we can't measure exact danger levels, but he is still a threat, we can be sure of that. His monsters have been a bit less of a threat, but they have been very strange most of the time."

"Weird, or just boring." Nick joked.

The next slide came up, showing Yogostein. "'Earth Pollution Minister' Yogostein. He's a robot, and seems to come up with some of the more clever, direct plans." She explained. "He's responsible for the arena attack, and the near invasion a few months back. He can be a bit goofy at times, but that doesn't lower his overall danger levels."

"Should she have told them about the alternate layer whatevers?" Max asked.

"I still don't get that at all, so no, she shouldn't have."

Next slide, this one showing a sketch of a cheetah in a longcoat. "Enter. He might look like a normal cheetah, but he's actually a digital creature taking on the form of one as a disguise. He can blend in easily, and is incredibly manipulative." She said. "Despite him not doing that much damage, his danger is pretty clear."

"What do you think he actually looks like? Max asked.

"Probably like the rest of the monsters." Nick answered. "Really ugly."

Judy flicked to the next slide, showing a sketch of Long. "The Infinite Dragon, Long. He is the most dangerous villain we've fought, and managed to manipulate the entire city for a good few months. He's the one of these villains that is truly a monster. His danger level is near maximum."

She flicked to the final slide, with a big question mark on it. "Finally, we have their leader, The Omnipotence." Judy said. "We have no idea what this guy looks like, or even what he is, but he brought these villains back to life somehow, making him probably the most dangerous of them all."

"The reason I'm telling you about these monsters is very important." She continued. "As of today, Bogo has opened up a temporary police squad designed around fighting these monsters. My team and I are the main part of the group, but we have two new members you might have met, Officers Hyerez and Hornsby."

"I can't believe we officially have those titles now." Emily said to Henry.

"It's only a very large technicality, Em."

"We also have Clawhauser on double time, checking for monster updates as well as dispatch." Judy continued. "We need you all to help as well. If you see a monster, call in to Clawhauser and tell him where and when you saw the monster. We've also directed the message around the city as well. In order to protect everyone, we all need to work together."

"Remember, despite us listing them in least to most dangerous, do NOT attempt to take them on yourselves. They are still incredibly dangerous, no matter what." She reiterated. "And, uh, that's it."

The rest of the officers clapped as she lowered the platform, before walking back off into the other room.

"How did I do?" She asked, out of breath.

"You did fantastic." Nick said. "Trust me on that."

She wiped her brow, and the three walked out back into the lobby of the station.

"Man, I can't believe we get to fight monsters and be officers at the same time now!" Max said, in disbelief. "Its like, everything I ever wanted."

"Honestly, I'm glad we're getting the extra help now." Judy said, a bit relieved to be out of there. "I'm not sure how long we could keep fighting them without revealing our identities anyway."

"We haven't gotten a monster alert in a month, though." Nick said. "Maybe after we wrecked them they decided to hide away for good."

"This happened before, Nick, I don't think we're done." Judy said. "Either way, we've got our jobs back, and we're still officers, so we should go on patrol now."

They walked by the front desk, and were quickly interrupted. "Oooh, hey guys!" Clawhauser said, catching their attention. Judy seemed to jump as he called them, going into a serious stance.

"Do you have a monster alert, Ben?" She asked.

"Oh, no, sorry for startling you." He apologized. "I just wanted to ask if you and Nick were going to come to the Halloween party on the thirty-first."

"Mmm, probably not." Judy said. Max's ears popped up as she said that. He quickly glanced at Nick, who was shaking his head.

"Aw, but you guys never come to the Halloween parties." Ben said, disappointed. "We even made you guys the guests of honor!"

"I'll be coming, Ben!" Max announced, though Clawhauser didn't seemed that thrilled.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you always come to the Halloween party." Clawhauser said. "It'd be a lot more special if all of you came!"

"Which is still a 'no'." Nick said. "This is one of the few things me and Judy agree on."

"Yeah, it's a very rare event for us to agree on not doing something." She said. "Come on, we have work to do."

"Oh, okay." Ben said, slumping back in his chair.

Max watched them as they walked towards the door. He wasn't part of their team when on duty, but…

He quickly dashed after them, and followed them out of the building, catching them on the sidewalk. It was a brisk autumn day, the wind blowing fairly breezily.

"Hey, that was pretty rude." Max said as he followed them to the parking lot. "Ben looked really disappointed that you weren't coming, what do you have against Halloween?"

"I don't have anything against it, per say." Judy said. "I just feel like we shouldn't waste resources on something like the party, especially on Halloween night."

"It's a morale thing, though!" Max said. "Besides, we still have tons of officers patrolling the city on Halloween, its perfectly safe."

"I just don't think it's a good use of my time, alright." She snapped back.

"What about you, Nick? Why do you not want to go?"

"I hate Halloween." He said. "Bad experiences, alright? Don't really want to talk about it."

"Oh, alright then." Max said as they continued along. "But I feel a bit upset you guys don't like the best holiday."

"We like Christmas." Judy said.

"I think he means Halloween." Nick followed.

"Yeah, Halloween is the best holiday!" Max declared. "It's a time where all the weirdos get to come out and show what they love! It's a day for kids to overcome their own fears and watch whatever spooky thing they want! It's the greatest!"

"I think you're stretching a bit." Judy chuckled. "Its fun, sure, but I don't think it has that many values besides… diabetes."

"You guys just don't have the Halloween spirit in you!" he quickly lifted the two up, clutching them under his arms. "I know you guys will love it if you just get in the right mood!"

"We appreciate the gesture, Max, but-"

Judy was interrupted. "We're going to a Halloween store; you guys will get it then!"

"Max, we really don't-" Nick was interrupted as Max ran over to his own cruiser, and tossed them in the back seat. He got in, and drove off quickly.

"Guess we don't have much of a choice." Nick groaned from the back seat.

"You certainly are… spirited, about this, Max." Judy said, though she wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

"I love Halloween, and I feel like others should love it too, y'know?" He replied. "It's like if someone didn't like Christmas, I'd want to help them enjoy it too."

Nick sighed. "It's thoughtful, but we really just don't want to go to the party."

"Yeah, it's really nothing personal." Judy said.

"Well, it is for me." Nick muttered.

"And that's why we need to find your Halloween spirit, Nick!" Max said. "We're going to my favorite seasonal Halloween store, Black Bat Halloween, we'll definitely find some spirit there!"

The two looked at each other. Judy gave a shrug, and Nick sighed. It didn't seem like they were going to get out of this anytime soon.

* * *

The car parked in front of a large building, part of a shopping center in Sahara Square that had been there for years. The three got out of the cruiser, and looked up at the building. It had a large, orange banner hanging from it, reading "BLACK BAT HALLOWEEN – COSTUME AND DECORATIONS".

It looked professional enough, but it clearly wasn't what the building was originally used for.

"Hey, wasn't this that electronics store that went out of business?" Nick asked as they walked towards the entrance.

"Yeah, they use the building for seasonal stuff now." Max replied.

As they walked, Judy glanced towards the middle of the shopping center's parking lot. A large white pedestal had been placed there. It seemed like an event was planning on being held, though she hadn't heard about anything.

The three entered the Halloween store, and were instantly met with a ridiculously large amount of tacky decorations and costumes. The place was crammed full of Halloween items, there being surprisingly little space to move around, especially for larger mammals.

Max took a deep whiff of the air. "Ah, I love the smell of that cheap plastic."

"This certainly is… something." Nick said as he walked up to a nearby rack of items. He pulled a fake plastic picture off of it. It was lenticular, the picture shifting from a normal black and white picture to one where the mammals had been replaced by skeletons.

Was this supposed to be… scary?

Judy glanced around. There were actually a few customers from what she could see and hear, but there still weren't that many. Could be because it was early, could be because it wasn't that popular. She walked past rows of different costumes, all consisting of various different themes and colors.

"Whoa, was goin' on here?"

The three glanced up as a bat flapped down from the air. He was wearing an orange shit, a pin reading "MANAGER".

"What are police officers doing at my fine establishment?" The bat asked, looking at the three.

"We're not on duty right now." Max said, though he was technically lying. "We're just here to check things out, entirely for Halloween based purposes."

"Alrighty…" The bat started to flap back up, but paused, drifting down a bit before gliding over to Judy. "Hey, wait a sec… You guys are the Zoorangers, ain't ya?"

"Yes?" Judy said, not sure exactly what to reply with.

"Wow, actual celebrities, at my shop!" The bat said, sounding fairly happy. "Hey, I gotta show you guys something, follow me."

He flapped up into the air, before gliding off. The three officers followed him to the direct middle of the store. What they found was incredible.

And ridiculous.

It was a massive, nearly cube shaped rack that held a ton of different Halloween costumes and decorations… all based around the Zoorangers.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Max let out, awestruck.

Nick and Judy both stared at the collection of most definitely not entirely legal goods, absolutely dumbstruck and unable to say anything.

"We got a massive shipment of these things earlier this week, you guys are super popular again!" The bat said as they started to examine the items.

Max excitedly went through the costumes and props that were there, while Judy and Nick examined them, unsure what to do.

"I can NOT believe this!" Max said, running around the racks to get to the two. He held up a costume, depicting ZooSilver. "I'm a Halloween costume!" He said, with absolute glee. He held the costume close to his chest. "This is everything I have ever wanted."

"I mean, I guess its nice that we're role models." Judy said as she walked around. "But this just kind of feels weird and off, don't you- WHAT THE HECK!?"

Nick and Max followed her, and spotted what she had reacted to. Costumes of their villains, almost all of them, minus Enter for some reason.

"Why would they sell costumes of… of terrorists!?" Judy shouted in utter disbelief.

"Okay, I was sort of finding this neat, but now I'm kind of angry." Nick admitted. "This feels… remarkably unaware."

"Okay, yeah, I have to agree." Max said, before hanging the costume back up. "This kind of ruined the whole mood, didn't it?" The other two nodded in agreement.

"Let's get out of here." Nick said, before storming off, Judy quickly following.

Max took one last glance at the costume of himself, and followed them.

"Okay, so that wasn't… the greatest." Max said as they exited the store. "But, maybe I can show you some of my personal stuff!" He suggested.

"I'd rather not see your 'personal stuff'." Nick joked.

"No, I mean my own decorations and costumes!" Max corrected. "I have tons of them, it'll be fun!"

"I wouldn't mind heading back." Judy said. "I want to see if I can figure out who manufactured those, and sue them for copyright."

"Just make sure you do some research, wouldn't want to file a spurious lawsuit." Nick said. "I know that's a bad ide- Hey, what's going on over there?"

The two looked over to the middle of the parking lot. The pedestal that Judy had spotted earlier had suddenly gained a massive amount of attention, a mob of mammals standing around it, though nothing seemed to be happening.

They walked up to the crowd and watched. "What do you think is going on here?" Max asked.

"Probably some kind of publicity stunt." Nick suggested. "Maybe some kind of new fur cream."

Being the tallest one there, Max glanced around the crowd of many different mammals. He had caught a whiff of a familiar scent a few moments earlier, and used it to find Emily, who was standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Hey, Em!" he shouted, waving his paw in the air. She turned to them, and quickly started to move through the crowd.

"Hell are you guys doing here, I thought you were on patrol?" She said as she walked up to them. She was still in very casual clothing, and carrying a bag of groceries.

"We were going to go on patrol, until Jack O' Lantern boy here dragged us to the Halloween store." Nick explained.

"Oh, so you guys have no idea what's going on either, do you?" She asked.

"Absolutely not."

"So, why are you here?" Judy asked, eyeing the bag. "Doing some grocery shopping?"

"Yeah, I was just getting supplies for-"

Before she could finish there was a sudden explosion of smoke from the top of the pedestal. Purple in color, it spread across the lot, leaving the entire audience coughing. Two figures appeared from the smoke, now standing on top of the pedestal.

One was an antelope wearing a ringmaster uniform, and carrying a megaphone. His fur was almost entirely white, and his eyes were an odd shade of yellow. The white on the fur was only broken up by yellow, green, and purple markings under his eyes.

The second figure was someone in a cartoony mascot costume. It looked like some kind of feline, red, brown, and white in coloring, and with arms and legs a bit too stumpy to properly move around in, while its head was strangely large. It seemed to have two tails, and its pudgy stomach was marked with a green watch-like design, with the wristband heading around its entire waist, forming a belt.

"Hello ladies and gentlemammals!" The antelope shouted into the megaphone. "I suppose you're all wondering, 'Just what is going on here'?" The antelope moved in a weird, exaggerated manner, and its voice seemed… familiar.

"Well, I'll tell you what's going on!" He continued to shout, the mascot character starting to dance, as best it could with the stubby limbs. "This is the greatest deal of the year, no, the greatest deal of the century!"

Nick, Judy, Max, and Emily watched on, completely baffled by what they were watching. The entire audience seemed to think similarly too.

"Today and tomorrow, we'll be selling an exclusive preview version of the new Carrot Inc. device, one so hot it hasn't even been announced yet!" The antelope continued. "INTRODUCING, THE Y-WATCH!"

There was another puff of smoke, this time a smaller pedestal appeared on top of the larger pedestal. On top of that pedestal was a small, white watch. The antelope grabbed it, and slapped it onto his wrist.

"This device is like our Carrot Inc. branded Y-Phones and Y-Pads, except its even better!" He continued to shout. "This device not only keeps time, but you can browse the internet on it, listen to music, play games, and SO, SO MUCH MORE!"

"Oh, wonderful, another technological 'marvel' that will be obsolete in the next year." Nick grumbled.

"Yeah, even if they're having a sale, its probably going for incredibly high amounts." Judy followed.

"You're probably wondering how much we're selling them for today!" The antelope said. "Normally, these would sell for around eight hundred dollars, but we're going way lower than that." He looked over the crowd for a brief moment, before pointing at a random elephant. "You! How much do you think we're giving this away for?"

"Uh…" the elephant paused for a moment, not sure what to do. "Four hundred?"

"EHHHHH!" The antelope yelled, crossing his arms in the shape of an X. "Wrong, we're going even lower than that! Any other guesses from the audience?" There was muttering from the crowd, but no actual answers. "Here's the answer…" He backed away from the crowd, and took a deep breath.

"We're giving it away…"

"ABSOLUTELY FREE!"

There were surprised gasps from the crowd, alongside lots of muttering. "Hah, yeah right." Nick scoffed. "There has to be a catch."

"No catch, we're giving them away for absolutely nothing!" The antelope said. He looked over the crowd again, and spotted Nick, Judy, Max, and Emily. He let out a small laugh, before leaping down from the pedestal. "We're going to be giving our first Y-Watches to these lovely mammals in the back!"

He moved through the crowd, until he reached the four. He pulled out a white box, and held it out in front of Judy. "Do you want this one, Madame?"

"Uh, sure?" Judy said, grabbing the box. Nick gave her a quick glare. "Hey, its free."

The antelope slid over to Max. "How about you, sir?"

"Sure, I love free stuff." Max said. The antelope pulled out another box, seemingly from nowhere, and plopped it into the wolf's paws.

"What about you two?" The antelope continued moving over to Nick and Emily. "This is a once in a lifetime deal, I doubt you'd want to miss out-"

"No thanks." Both of them said.

"Listen, you have no idea who you're talking to right now." Nick started, approaching the antelope, who backed away. "I can smell a scam a mile away, and this is the rottenest smell I've whiffed in a long while."

"Yeah, you don't seem particularly trustworthy." Emily added.

"Hm, fine!" The antelope said, sounding a bit angry. He moved back through the crowd, and leaped back up onto the pedestal. "Everyone else here that isn't a KILLJOY can line up to get their own Y-Watch from Neko, our new mascot!"

The mascot character jumped up and down cheerfully, waving at the crowd.

"And we're not limited either, we're giving them to anyone who comes to this parking lot! So, call your friends, your family, yell about it to random mammals on the street! Let them know about this amazing deal!" He continued to yell. "You can even get multiple, we don't care! Just GET THEM!"

The antelope clicked his heels together, before vanishing in a puff of purple smoke. The mascot stepped to the center, and held out two more of the boxes. The crowd proceeded to go wild, as the mascot started to throw them into the mob.

"I wonder how much storage this thing has." Max asked himself, shaking the box.

"I doubt that thing even works." Emily scoffed. "They wouldn't give them away if they were completely functional."

"Emily's right, it could be, I dunno, some kind of test run." Nick said.

"Seems like it works fine." Judy said, tapping at the watch on her left wrist.

The other three paused to look at her, each of them a bit confused by how she had gotten the watch on so quickly.

"Please, you're looking at me like I don't buy a ton of Carrot products." She said. "I know how these things work."

"Well, I should probably be heading back." Emily said. "I have some important business to attend to-"

"Hey, I know!" Nick blurted out. "How bout you come over to our place for a bit, and we can, I dunno, hang out?"

"Like I said, I have some important-"

"I think it would be fun!" Judy said, butting in. "You haven't gotten to catch up with Nick for years, and we've just sorted our lives out again, so…"

Emily paused for a moment, before letting out a half sigh, half chuckle. "Alright, I'll go along with you guys." She said. "But we have to pick up some food beforehand."

"Hey, wait a second…." Max said. "Did you two just-"

Nick gave a smug smirk to the wolf, who squinted at him in return.

* * *

"Ugh, this is HELL!"

The antelope stumbled into a back alley near the parking lot of the shopping center. "Kyuemon, you there?" He said. "I can't handle wearing this thing anymore!"

"Relax, I'm here."

He looked down the alleyway, seeing a yellow fox. He performed a quick motion with his hands, before pointing at the antelope. It exploded into a burst of purple smoke, which cleared to reveal Yabaiba, still wearing the ringmaster uniform.

"How can those guys handle having skin and fur!?" The jester monster asked, shaking the smoke away. "Especially in this kind of heat, I thought it was supposed to be fall!"

"They feed in different temperatures into the different sections all year round." Kyuemon explained. "The only place that gets natural weather is the central section. Antelopes aren't particularly meant for desert heat anyway."

"Well, then why'd you turn me into one!?"

"There was nothing else that fit you." Kyuemon said. "You needed to have something flexible."

"Fine, whatever." The clown said, crossing his arms. "Hopefully that show didn't go to waste, and this plan works."

"Did you manage to give the Zoorangers the watches?" Kyuemon asked.

"Yeah, but only two of them." He sighed. "I feel like not getting the fox might be a problem."

"It would be… If I didn't already plan on that." Kyuemon said. "Trust me, I'll make sure everything goes off without a hitch. All you and Nekomata have to do is make sure everyone in the city gets those Y-Watches."

"Alright, I got it." He said, brushing the fox off. "I'm guessing your plan involves looking like that?"

"Yes, yes it does."

* * *

"So, this is where you guys are living?" Emily chuckled as she sat down on the couch.

"Uh, yeah." Nick said, a bit embarrassed. "I know it's a bit… strange."

They were in Max's house.

For the last month, that was the only place they could go, since they had no money. Max owned the property, so they decided to stay there until had gathered up enough cash to buy a new apartment, even if it wasn't their old one.

"Nah, there's nothing strange about it, hombre." Emily said. "This is the kind of life we've lived, remember?"

"I get what you mean," The fox started, hopping up onto the couch. "But its just that I'm supposed to be a professional now, and I'm mooching off a friend."

"There's really no need to feel guilty about it." Judy said from the chair next to the couch. She was still staring and tapping at the watch, before she looked back up at them. "Friends are there to help when you're in trouble, remember?"

"Yeah, chin up, zorro." Emily said, bumping her elbow into the fox. "There's no reason to be ashamed of-"

"ALRIGHT I'M BACK!"

Max walked down the hall and into the living room, carrying a massive green plastic box. He was clearly having trouble with it as he stumbled back and forth a bit. He slammed it to the ground, shaking the room, and leaving the wolf panting on the floor.

"Uh, what is that?" Emily asked.

"It's…" Max attempted to climb up the box to get back on his feet, but quickly fell to the ground again, still out of breath. "…It's my Halloween box."

"Oh." Emily said, sounding a bit disgusted.

He finally got back up, still a bit out of breath. "Specifically, this is my box from the last two years."

"Uh, what exactly does that mean?" Judy asked.

"Do you have different decorations every year?" Nick asked as well.

"Well, duh, you can't just repeat the same thing every year." Max scoffed, like it was obvious. He lifted the lid of the box open, and tossed it off to the side. "It also has all of the costumes I've worn from the past two years, too."

"You mean, your Halloween costumes?" Emily asked, with a bit of a chuckle.

"No, just costumes." He said, pulling out a silver outfit. It was similar to his ZooSilver costume in build and coloring, but had a few differences that differentiated it. "This was what I wore to last years ZooCon, it's the Lunar Ranger from Zoo Rangers Wild Force."

"Uh huh." Judy said, a bit confused. "How much did you spend on that?"

"A lot." He said, quickly pulling out another costume, this one black. "This is Ranger Series Black from Zoo Rangers RPM, I wore this to the con before last year's."

"You're pretty into your… costumes, huh?" Emily said, stifling a laugh.

"And this is what I wore for Halloween." He said, pulling up a black robe and a wolf skull. "Check it out, the eyes on this one light up." Max quickly demonstrated, the eyeholes of the skull blinking orange. There was a bit of an awkward silence before they flashed off.

"The rest of the stuff in here is my decorations," He continued. "I haven't had a chance to decorate this year, because of all the things going on, you know."

"Wow, that's really…"

"Lame." Emily finished off for Nick. Max's ears drooped a bit upon hearing it.

"Seriously, Emily?" Nick said. The hyena had, unfortunately, said what both of them were thinking out loud. Emily had never been one to hide her emotions, unlike Nick.

"Well, it is." She continued. "Halloween itself is a waste of time."

"Oh my god…" Nick mumbled. "I know you don't like Halloween, but you don't have to be a jerk."

"It's alright." Max said, sullenly, putting the costumes back in the box. "I can tell when nobody wants to pay attention to me."

Nick shot Emily a glare, but she didn't seem to express any sort of guilt over the situation.

"Max, you should open your Y-Watch!" Judy suddenly blurted out, seemingly unaware of what had just happened. She glanced around. "Uh, did I miss something?"

Nick's tail twitched, how had she missed all that? Judy was usually incredibly alert, and missing a conversation like that wasn't really in her character.

"No, you didn't miss anything." Max said, grabbing the box off the TV stand behind him. "Guess this box is the only interesting thing I'll show off today."

"Stop being passive aggressive." Emily growled.

The wolf quickly unpacked the box, and took out the watch. It was a shiny, metallic white all over, with very little blemishes. The actual watch part of the Y-Watch was round, kind of like a normal watch, but slightly larger in order to fit the screen. He popped it onto his left wrist, and started to play with it.

"So, what can this thing even do?" Max asked Judy, not glancing up from the watch.

"It basically does everything." She said. "You can browse the internet, send texts, its even a phone."

"That's awfully… convenient." Nick said.

"Wait, don't your actual phones do all that stuff?" Emily asked, a bit confused.

"It's the shape, carrying it around on your wrist makes it more convenient." Judy explained.

"Oh wow, check this out!" Max said, quickly tapping at the screen. The watch started to play music, sounding like a rather generic "spooky" song. "It connects to my Y-Pod, so I can play my Halloween playlist wherever I go!"

"Wonderful." Emily scoffed.

"Why do you have a Halloween playlist?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"Because I like to listen to music while I work on stuff, it helps me concentrate." He explained. "Why not keep it seasonal, you know?"

The music continued to play, as Max suddenly became entranced with his new Y-Watch.

Nick placed his paw to his chin in thought. This was strange. He knew that Judy and Max were way more into the technology than he was, but they seemed to be remarkably into the Y-Watches, more than even their actual conversations.

Factoring that in with the strange, somewhat familiar salesman, and then giving them away entirely free, something weird had to be going on.

"I'm going to head out." He said, hopping down from the couch. There wasn't a response from Judy or Max, and he slowly walked out, seeing if they'd do anything.

Emily raised an eyebrow, and followed Nick out, leaving the wolf and rabbit to enjoy their new toys.

"Where do you think you're going?" Emily said, catching the fox on the sidewalk.

"Police station." He said. "This entire thing feels suspicious, I need to check if there's been anything up with the Carrot company."

"You're just going to walk all the way to the station?"

"It isn't THAT far." He said. The fox stopped, and turned to her. "Besides, we could, I dunno, talk on the way there?"

"Love to, zorro."

The two started to walk down the street, the station was only a few blocks away, it would be around twenty minutes in total to get there. It was oddly quiet, however, no cars coming down the street, nor that many mammals walking either.

"So, what have you been up to lately?" Nick asked the hyena.

"Been trying to adjust to… not being in prison." She admitted. "Herder managed to get Henry and I enough money for some cheap apartments, but it just feels weird."

"I know how that feels." Nick sighed. "It's difficult trying to go straight-edged after so many years."

Emily chuckled. "I don't know how Henry's been handling it, but… I wouldn't call my place that great, I'm basically surrounded on all sides by noise."

"Probably not the worst apartment I've heard about." Nick laughed. "Judy used to live in a place where the neighbours were so loud, they shook pictures off the walls."

"That sounds like hell." Emily said. "How long was she there?"

"Two and a half years."

"Yikes."

Nick's ears popped up after a moment of silence. He turned to face Emily, walking backwards in front of her. "Hey, it's almost November, do you still do-"

The fox was interrupted as something bumped into him, knocking him over. It was a wildebeest, who continued walking along, looking at something on his wrist.

"HEY!" Emily shouted. "PENDEJO! AT LEAST APOLOGIZE!"

He didn't seem to notice.

"Hell was that guy's problem?" Emily said as Nick got back up.

"He was looking at his watch." The fox said, dusting himself off.

"Oh, you can't be serious." She said.

"Alright, we need to keep an eye out." He started. "Look at the wrist of anyone we pass, check if they're wearing a Y-Watch."

Emily sighed, and then nodded. She was enjoying having a conversation with someone for once, but this seemed important to Nick, so she complied.

They continued to walk to the station, making sure to check anyone they had passed.

As they got closer to the station, it was near the middle of the city after all, the crowds of mammals started to get larger and larger. They passed by shops, checking into them through the windows to check what their current watch fashion statement was.

"So, everyone you checked had a watch?" Nick asked. They had arrived at the station, and decided to recap on what they had saw on the way there.

"Pretty much everyone I could see was wearing them." Emily said, shrugging.

"Everyone I saw was wearing them too." The fox noted. "I think everyone in the city besides us might have one."

"You know how stupid that sounds, right?" Emily said with a bit of a laugh. "There's probably some mammals out there who don't have them."

"On the way here, I saw a homeless skunk and a ninety-year-old elk wearing them." Nick noted. "I just feel like something weird is happening."

Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright, let's go check if your conspiracy theory has any merit."

The two walked into the station, and were instantly greeted by a few officers walking around, all of them tapping at the Y-Watches on their wrists.

"Oh, em, goodness!" Clawhauser said as they entered. "Hey Nick, hey, uh…"

"Emily." The hyena said.

"Emily, got it!" Clawhauser said. He quickly held up his wrist, the flab on his arm was being pressed down by a Y-Watch. "Have you guys SEEN these things!?"

"Yeah, we saw like, three-hundred of them on the way here." Nick said. "We need to check some stuff on the computers, is that alright!"

"Yeah, sure, I don't think anyone's in there right now anyway." Ben said. "If you guys want some of these watches, I could go and-"

"Yeah, thanks but no thanks, Ben." Nick quickly interrupted. He gave a wave, and the two headed into the computer room.

It was definitely empty; the rest of the officers were probably using their watches to check things on the internet rather than the desktops. It was more "convenient", as Judy had said.

"Why'd we have to come here to use the computers?" Emily finally asked as Nick climbed up onto a seat the reach to desktop. "Couldn't you just use your phone?"

"We have some things in records that you can't get to online." Nick said as he pulled the keyboard closer to him. "Financial records, history of the CEOs, that kind of stuff."

"You ever consider using this stuff for blackmailing?" Emily joked.

"Are you kidding?" He scoffed. "Judy would literally kill me if I did that."

The fox started to look through the computer's database, pulling up anything related to Carrot Inc. His search seemed to come up fruitless, with nothing particularly odd being noted by the files. At least, not in any recent capacity.

He then started to look online, and found a surprising article.

"Carrot Inc. founder Steve Maws Reveals Odd Marketing Strategy" it read. Nick raised an eyebrow, and clicked on it.

There wasn't anything incriminating, it was just an interview with the turtleneck wearing rabbit, published only a few hours ago. He talked about the new PR guy, the antelope from earlier, but didn't mention a name. he did oddly seem to praise the odd antelope a lot, however. Overall, a complete failure of an investigation.

The fox slumped back. "I swear there's something up." He said. "This has to be the monsters, they have to be doing… something."

"Yeah, when the company itself announces what they're doing, there's no way its illegal." Emily said, leaning on the chair. "I have no idea if its good for the company, but down with the establishment and all that."

"I know a scam when I see one." He continued, crossing his arms. "And this reeks."

"Have you considered that you might just be getting old?" Emily suggested.

"You're one to talk, you're like three years older than me." Nick scoffed.

"Yeah, and I'm the one who kept in shape, lanky." She mocked, elbowing him.

"I'm only just over thirty, I'm not that old."

"You don't have to deny it, it's a thing that happens." She said. "You're just not able to keep up with the kids."

The fox groaned, and quickly hopped down from the chair. "I'm going to head back home." He said. "You should probably head back too, there's only, what, four days before the start of November?"

"Yeah, and I got a lot of setting up to do." Emily said. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah." Nick said as the hyena left with a quick wave, which the fox returned. Nick placed his paw to his chin again. "Maybe tomorrow will shed some light on this…"

* * *

Nick walked into the house, and glanced into the living room. Max and Judy were there, but they were talking instead of just looking at their watches. There were also a lot of Halloween decorations littering the floor.

"Hey, I'm back." He said, walking in.

"Hey!" Judy greeted, hopping down from the couch. "Where did you and Emily go?"

"Oh, we just went… out."

Judy raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that," He said. "We just had some catch-up time."

The rabbit laughed. "I knew that's what you meant, slick." She said. "We were just worried something happened."

"Awfully considerate." He said. "Why aren't you guys on your watches?"

"Turns out they have a really short battery life." Max said. "Like, 2 hours, tops."

"So, Max started showing me his Halloween decorations." Judy followed up. "Some of these things are way too high-quality to be decorations."

"Yeah, that's the point." Max said with a chuckle. "It's about showing off and trying to scare kids. My house isn't even the most extravagant one on the block most of the time."

"Huh." Nick said, picking up a plastic bovine skull. It started to rattle in his hands, shocking him and causing him to drop it. The fox let out a nervous laugh as the other two giggled at him.

"So, you guys want to go see a movie tomorrow?" Max asked.

"Depends on the movie." Nick said, trying to avoid stepping on anything as he walked through the room.

"Well, it's kind of a tradition for me to go see a horror film before Halloween." He said, starting to twiddle his thumbs. "And I thought, since we're all together, we could all go."

"Sounds fine." Judy said. "There's worse things we could do on our break."

"Yeah, guess I'm fine with that." Nick said. He might not have liked Halloween that much, but horror films were a different story.

Besides, he really wanted to see how Judy would react to one.

A few hours passed, and it was starting to get late. The three headed to bed, Max going upstairs to his own room, while Nick and Judy headed down to the basement. As it turned out, the uncomfortable couch down there was also a futon, so they at least had somewhere to sleep.

Still wasn't very comfortable.

"Have I said that this just feels like we're back in Mr. Big's place yet?" Nick asked the rabbit, who was laid down next to him.

"Yes, you have." She responded. "Multiple times in fact."

"Well, I said it again." He continued, turning over on the mattress. He really wanted to talk about how awkward actually sharing a bed was, but couldn't bring himself to. Judy seemed to share the same sentiments from what he could tell.

"I know that this probably isn't the best bedtime discussion," She started, looking up at the ceiling. "But what do you think the monsters have been up to? I wouldn't think they'd just do nothing for a whole month after all that."

Nick really wanted to bring up the watches, which he still felt something off about, but he had no evidence that it was related to the monsters. He'd look like a conspiracy theorist, something he really didn't want to come across as in bed.

"Probably nothing." He eventually said. "They're probably just scared of us."

"Still doubting that." Judy said with a sigh. "Goodnight, Nick."

"Goodnight."

* * *

"Check it out, I'm ordering our movie tickets ON THE WATCH!" Max said.

"Fascinating." Nick groggily said, taking a sip of his coffee. Judy was also drinking her coffee, but was simultaneously playing with her Y-Watch as well. "You guys have waited all night to use these things again, huh?"

"Yep." The rabbit chipperly let out. It looked like she was checking her emails.

The fox let out a muffled noise of disapproval as he took another sip from his coffee.

"So, which movie are we going to today?" Judy asked Max. "I saw that there was a new Saw movie coming out, I hear those are passible."

"Not that one." Max replied. "It's a surprise."

"Well, when's the showing?" She asked. "I should be able to figure it out."

"Just after twelve, so in a few hours." Max said. "And its not at any big theater."

The two of them looked up at him, and then at each other. That certainly sounded… odd.

"I can tell you it will be a BLAST, though." Max said. He at least sounded optimistic about it.

There was a sudden buzzing noise. Judy looked at her watch, and tapped on it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Judy!" It was Clawhauser on the other side, the screen showing him sitting at the front desk. "You got a Y-Watch too?"

"Yeah, I did!" She replied.

"Aren't these things great!?"

"Yeah!"

"I'm talking to you, through my wrist, it's amazing!"

"Are you just calling to talk about your electronics, or do you have another reason?" Nick asked, grumpily.

"Oh, yeah, this is important!" Clawhauser said. "We got a report down at the ZRS station, there's a monster attacking down there! The SPD are already on their way there, but they'll probably need help."

The three were instantly alert. "Alright, we'll head out ASAP!" Judy said, putting on her leader tone.

"Oh, and I got that report through my Y-Watch!" Ben continued. Nick instantly slumped down a bit.

"Seriously?" Judy said, going back to a more casual tone. "That's amazing!"

"Alright, we can talk about this stuff when there isn't a monster!" Nick said, clapping his paws. That seemed to snap Judy out of her trance.

"Oh, right, yeah." She muttered. "She you later, Ben!"

The cheetah gave a quick wave with his other hand before hanging up. The three gave a nod, and quickly moved out.

* * *

"Geeerageragerapo!" The monster said as it fiddled with something on the roof of the radio station. The building wasn't that large, but it did have a large antenna on it, which is what the monster was playing with.

"Just gotta twist a wire here, nyudge a bit here and-" An electric shock quickly went through the monster's body, causing it to stumble back. "That oughta do it!" It sputtered, before leaping down.

As soon as it hit the ground, it noticed the massive armored truck, alongside two armored mammals, armed with guns.

"Hold it right there, you… Uh…" Pink said. She tried to aim her blasters at it while coming up with a quip, but nothing seemed to come out.

The monster looked like a feline, at least, that was the closest comparison they could make. It had a large, orange watch face embedded in its chest, underneath its brown, black, and white cat head. The watch itself was green on the inside, with a literal face inside of it, casting a scowl with hateful eyes and the watch's time, 10:30, clamped in its toothy jaws.

The teeth continued around the rim of the watch, up until an orange part of the watched that caved down into the face, making it look like it had angry eyebrows. Two large patches of fur overtook the monster's shoulders, movingto the watch's area, and bizarrely had teeth on them as well. The rest of the monster's body was cat-like and furred, but lead to more orange watches. The arms seemed to be more wrapped around the arms rather than attached to them, creating more of an armor like look.

The arms themselves came to an end with large, mechanical claws, controlled by the monster's paws inside the device. Its legs were a similar story, though the watch armor only seemed to cover the front of the legs, a unique orange fur coloring helping them blend in slightly. The feet, however, were entirely covered by armor similar to the ones on its hands. It had two tails, each pointing off in a different direction, and were entirely watches, with the monster's fur coloring creeping across part of it. The tails both ended with large watch connector points, the metal bars seeming to have been sharpened to a point.

"Geeeragerageragerapo!" The monster laughed, placing its claw next to its immobile cat mouth. "Its just you saps, I thought it would be the real Zoorangers!"

"We're just as effective of taking you down as they are." Green said, stepping forwards. Before they could continue, the sound of motorbikes quickly came from down the street.

The bike sounds headed into the parking lot of the small radio station. The Zoorangers quickly hopped off their motorbikes, and entered into the battle.

"You guys alright?" Blue asked as the three met with the SPD.

"We haven't even started fighting yet, so yeah, we're fine." Pink said. "But we'll be even better when we kick this guy's ass!"

Red took a quick glance at the monster. "Hey, have I seen you somewhere…?"

"WHAT!?" The monster shouted. "Nyo, why would you have seen me anywhere!? I just showed up, totally nyot part of an elaborate scheme, nyope!"

"Uh, alright." Silver said. "That sounds awfully suspici-"

"I AM YOKAI NEKOMATA!" It shouted, interrupting the wolf. "I am master of time, and the one to kill you meddlesome animals!"

The Zoorangers prepared for a fight, taking on a battle stance as Nekomata paused for a moment.

"But nyot right nyow!" It finally let out. "I have more important places to be-"

Blue quickly fired a volley of laser shots into the monster, causing it to stumble back. "No you don't!" She yelled. "If you think we're letting you get away, guess again!"

"Yeah, we're not going to let whatever you're up to happen!" Silver followed. "We protect this city for a reason!"

"Ugh, fine, you give me nyo choice!" Nekomata shouted, reorienting himself. "Prepare to face my feline fury!"

Fireballs burst from the tips of the Nekomata's tail, balancing on the point of the needle. He thrust his arms forward, causing a flurry of fireballs to fire from them, and towards Red, Blue, and Silver. Green quickly stepped in front of them, blocking the fireballs with his back.

"Whoa, nice save, Horns!" Red said, giving a thumbs-up.

The bull let out a grunt as he shook the pain off. He quickly spun around, and fired a blast at the feline monster.

The blast hit him directly in the clock on its chest, causing it to fly through the air and smack into the front wall of the radio station. "Just doing my job." Green said, though he was still obviously in some pain.

"Let's take this guy out before the clock hits twelve!" Blue said. The five of them rushed towards the monster as it got back up.

The Nekomata swung its claws forward, attempting to strike at Pink and Silver. Silver blocked the claws with his sword, while Pink held them back with her pistols. They quickly pushed the monster in, letting Blue and Red leap up and kick it in the chest, knocking it back down.

"Augh, I might nyeed some help!" The feline monster shouted as it rolled on its back for a moment. "Jukkarage, attack!"

The ground shook for a second, before a dozen of the stone monsters popped up from the ground, each holding a large blade and mumbling something. "Great, gonna play it that way." Red groaned.

"Oh man, now the fight's getting started!" Silver said. He started to fiddle with the watch on his wrist, before loud rock music started to play from it. "Now I can just play fight music really easily, and not just hum it in my head!"

Everyone there, monsters included, turned to look at the wolf.

"What, it's perfectly normal!"

They started to fight. Pink and Green rounded up a few of the Jukkarage, Pink shooting at their feet to corral them into a single spot, before Green fired a blast, destroying them. Despite this, more of the Jukkarage seemed to appear from nowhere and continue attacking them.

"These guys seem a lot more…" Blue paused, before leaping up and slashing at a Jukarage with her knife, before kicking it away. "More aggressive than normal."

Silver slashed through a few of them, before some more jumped him from behind, slashing at his back with their own blades. "yeah, and that just makes them more annoying!" he shouted, before spinning on his heel and slicing through them.

The monster got back up as the five continued to fight the Jukkarage. "Gerageragerapo!" It chuckled. "Nyow I can do this!" He eyed the fox, who was locked with the blade of a Jukkarage. "Out of the way, fun size!"

The feline monster dashed in, and knocked the Jukkrage away, taking the fox by surprise. He quickly brought a claw down, but Red managed to block it just in time.

"You think you can win, huh!?" The monster said, bringing another claw down onto his sword, causing Red to stumble back. "Well you can't, it's already too late for you and your friends! You don't even knyow you've lost!" He started to rapidly strike at the fox's sword, continuing to push him back.

"Sorry, but…" Red let out a grunt as the monster hit his sword again. "But I REALLY can't take you seriously with that speech impediment."

"HEY, I DIDN'T GET TO CHOOSE HOW I TALK!" The monster yelled before slamming both its claws down. The force of the strike slammed Red into the ground, and popped him up into the air, where Nekomata quickly punched him across the parking lot.

Red skidded across the ground, before stopping. He quickly got to his feet, and got back into the fight, leaping up and attempting to strike Nekomata with his blade.

The feline monster held its claws up, causing the blade to bounce off. Red tumbled back to the ground, and the monster raised its claws up. "Nyow, prepare to be-"

"'Scuse us!"

The monster turned around, seeing that it was now surrounded on al sides by the Zoorangers and the SPD. Blue gave a quick wave of her paw.

"What happened to all my-?"

"We destroyed them all." Pink said, rather bluntly.

"Oh."

He glanced around again. "Well, I didn't want to fight you guys anyway. I was hoping I was sneaky enyough to get everything done without being spotted, but I guess it couldn't be helped!" It said. "Besides, I already have everything set up here! Meow-meow!"

The monster waved its claw, before vanishing in a burst of familiar purple smoke, leaving the five coughing. "Ugh, can't believe that guy got away!" Emily said, her armor folding back into her belt. The rest of them untransformed as well, the fight music stopping.

"What was that he said about… everything being set-up?" Judy asked, a paw placed to her chin in thought. "Was he doing anything weird when we got here?"

"Didn't look like it." Henry said. "It looked like he was trying to destroy the antenna, but it doesn't seem like it worked."

"Strange… It didn't want to fight us, and it said it wanted to avoid being seen…" Judy continued to think for a moment. "What could it mean?"

Max let out a gasp, everyone turning to him. Did he have an answer?

"Oh gosh, we're going to be late for the movie!" He said, absolutely panicked.

"Max, we have more important things to do right now than go see a movie-"

The wolf quickly scooped the rabbit and fox up, and started to run off, leaving the hyena and bull behind.

"Idiots." Emily sighed. She glanced at Henry, who was fiddling with something on his wrist. "Hey, is that-"

"Yeah, it is." Henry said, bluntly.

"Seriously?" She said. "I thought you were smart enough to not fall for a scam."

"I have my reasons, Em, don't worry." He replied.

"Whatever." She let out, before storming off.

* * *

The feline monster stumbled into the mountain cave, a bit out of breath. "Master Kyuemon!" He shouted as he entered the base. "I did what you told me to do!"

"Excellent." Kyuemon said, stepping towards the yokai in his regular monstrous form. "Though I see you had a bit of interference."

"Those guys were nyo problem!" He said, still very clearly tired from the fight. "I could take them on a hundred times!"

"I doubt that." Kyuemon sighed. "But you did manage to plant it, correct?"

"Yep, it's directly connected to the antennya, the largest radio wave transmitter in the city!" Nekomata stated. "They didn't even knyow what I was up to!"

"Probably too busy looking at their watches, hm?" Kyuemon said with a slight laugh.

Nekomata laughed in response, before turning back to his master. "So, how's the plan going?" Nekomata asked. "You think we're almost done?"

"Very close to being done." Kyuemon said. "By my estimations, only around two hundred civilians don't have one of our Y-Watches yet. I've had Yabaiba go around delivering them by hand."

"Oooh, sounds exhausting." Nekomata chuckled. "Glad I'm nyot doing it!"

"Actually, it seems Yabaiba is getting a bit tired." Kyuemon said, turning to the table in the center of the base.

The two walked over, and watched as the flat surface shifted, revealing a scene of the city. Yabaiba, in his antelope form and still wearing the ringmaster outfit, was sitting on the ground next to a building, completely out of breath.

"I was hoping you could take over for the rest of this." Kyuemon explained.

"Great." Nekomata said, sarcastically. "Do you knyow how difficult it is to move in that mascot form? It's awful!"

Kyuemon glanced at the yokai, shooting him a steely, yellow glare.

"N-nyot saying I won't!" The Nekomata stuttered. "I'll get on it right away, just poof me in!"

The fox yokai performed a quick series of hand motions, causing Nekomata to disappear in a puff of purple smoke. In his place was Yabaiba, back in his monster form, but still wearing the ringmaster outfit.

"Ugh, I can't feel my legs…" He groaned as he got up. "Feels nice to be back to having normal knees, though!"

Kyuemon looked the Org up and down. "You know you don't have to wear that outfit anymore, correct?"

"I like wearing it." Yabaiba said, tugging at the red jacket. "It makes me feel like I have control!"

"Mm, of course you'd wear it because of something like that." Kyuemon sighed.

* * *

Nick, Judy, and Max had just finished watching "Paws of Fate".

Supposedly, it was a horror film, but the only horror the fox and rabbit had found in it was how horrifyingly terrible it was. Bad acting, a confusing plot, and the first twenty minutes consisting of nothing but a car driving in the ugliest quality possible.

Somehow, Nick and Judy seemed to be the only ones there that didn't enjoy it.

It was located at a much smaller theater, located in the slums of Tundra Town. It was still decorated for Halloween, and it was clear whoever the management was had a love for films in general, as the place was lined with old posters.

It wasn't packed, but there were a good number of mammals there (There were more there than some movies Judy had taken Nick to see), and everyone, including Max seemed to be laughing and having a good time.

"Oh man, wasn't that amazing?" Max said as they exited the theater, alongside the rest of the theater goers. "I really liked the part where the goat with the weird knees showed up."

"Did we watch the same movie?" Judy asked. "Because that was absolutely terrible."

"I agree, probably the worst movie I've ever seen." Nick said as he munched on some popcorn.

"Well, that was kind of the point!" Max said with a laugh. "The guy who runs that theater plays a different bad horror film every year, and I've been to every one of them."

"Well, that's good, but why did you take us along?" Judy asked.

"To help you find your-"

"Our Halloween spirits?" Nick finished, dryly. "Listen, Wolfsbane," He said, dropping the popcorn bag and walking over to the wolf. "It's really… admirable that you're trying to get us into the spirit, but sometimes you can't get others to see your way."

"I just want you guys to enjoy something I like…" He muttered.

"Don't get all passive aggressive on us." Nick said, rather rudely.

"Nick, just stop," Judy said, stepping between the two. Max's ears perked up. "You stop too, Max. Nick was incredibly rude about it, but he's right. We just don't like Halloween."

"I get it." Max said as his ears drooped, and he put his paws in his hoodie's pockets.

"We have more important things to worry about, like the monster." Judy said.

"Hey, uh," Nick paused for a minute. Hopefully this didn't come off weird. "I'm not the only one who thinks it's a bit odd that a watch monster showed up as soon as a new watch caught on, right?"

"That's a good point, Nick." Judy said. The fox swelled for a moment. Would she figure out there might be something connecting the two? There was some actual, albeit tangential, connection between the two now, so she could maybe…

"He was probably created from one of the Y-Watches!" Max said.

Nick's ears fell once he heard this.

"Right!" Judy followed. "They probably stole one, and used it to create that Nekomata monster!"

"Now we just have to figure out what its doing!" Max continued, as Nick quickly facepawed.

Judy's watch began to ring again. This was just the "Annoy Nick Hour", wasn't it? She quickly answered, Clawhauser showing up on the screen.

"We got another report!" He shouted. "Its in Tundra Town, the monster from earlier and, uh…" The watch's camera quickly flicked away from Clawhauser's face, showing the inside of the front desk. "Yabayba?" He finished, the watch focusing back on his face.

"Yabaiba." Judy corrected. "I know it's difficult to pronounce, most of their names are. Are the SPD on the way?"

"Actually, we're not sending the SPD in, just you guys!" He said. "We got the call from an anonymous source, and said that the two monsters were preparing something! Apparently, he got in close and they didn't see them! That's why Bogo just wants you guys to go, it's like a stealth mission."

"Alright, we'll head over there right away." Judy said.

"Oh, one more thing!" The cheetah said, just before she could hang up. "I got that message by a Y-Watch too!"

"Technology is truly amazing." Nick said, completely dry.

The three quickly rushed off.

* * *

"Okay, we don't need to transform for this." Judy whispered. Nick and Max nodded in response.

The three of them had entered the slums of Tundra Town. The coordinates Clawhauser had sent lead them right to a particularly shady alleyway.

They duck down, entering more stealthy stances as they silently moved through the snow and down the alleyway. The alleyway lead to a building at the back, though there were cracks in the side that lead to a snowy area between the buildings.

That was where Yabaiba and Nekomata were. The two seemed to be talking about something.

The three pressed themselves against the wall, and leaned in to the small passage, without being seen, to listen closely to their discussion.

"So, I actually think that KitKat are the best chocolate bars." Yabaiba said.

"Pssh, of course you'd think that!" Nekomata mocked. "Only fools like KitKats, and you're the biggest fool I've ever seen!"

"Well, what kind of chocolate bar do YOU like, fleabag?" Yabaiba retorted.

"I prefer a classic Twix bar, I'll have you know."

"Riveting discussion." Nick quietly mocked. Judy proceeded to shush him.

There was silence for a moment. "Alright, I guess we should talk about the important things." Yabaiba quickly said.

"Are you saying this chocolate bar discussion ISN'T important!?"

"You know, we have to talk about… 'the plan'."

"Oh, right."

"Finally, we'll figure out what they're doing!" Judy excitedly whispered.

"It's a good thing those Zoorangers didn't botch 'the plan' when they attacked me!" Nekomata said. "Or else 'the plan' could have been completely ruined!"

"Too bad they can't stop us!" Yabaiba followed. "If they wanted to foil 'the plan', they'd have to come to our secret base!"

"You mean, the one in THE MOUNTAIN?" Nekomata added on, sounding a bit oddly stilted.

"No, our super secret hidden base in the city!" Yabaiba said. "The one we spent all month building!"

The three Zoorangers locked their eyes together. That's why nothing had happened, they were planning some kind of invasion!

"We should probably head there now!" Nekomata said, still a bit stilted.

"Right, off we go!"

There was a poofing sound, the same that had happened when Nekomata had disappeared before. The three Zoorangers stepped away from the wall, Judy quickly checking to see if they had gone. The small area had been completely vacated.

"This is big!" Judy said, starting to pace around. "They're planning something, and we have to find this base before they can pull it off!"

"Problem is that we don't know where the base is." Nick added. "We'd basically have to check the entire city."

"Why don't we split up?" Max suggested.

"Isn't splitting up always the worst thing to do?" Nick asked.

"That's only in horror films."

"Max is right," Judy quickly said. "If the three of us split up, and Henry and Emily take downtown, we can cover the whole city."

"Wow, I actually had a good idea." Max said, still acting a bit passive aggressive. Nick squinted at him.

"Max, you take Tundra Town, Nick, you take Sahara Square, and I'll take Savannah Central." Judy ordered. "I'll call up the SPD and tell them to start looking downtown, got it?"

The two nodded, and quickly transformed. Max leaped off, while Nick summoned his bike, riding it off. Judy ran off without transforming, quickly dialing something on her watch.

"Geragerageragerapo!"

Yabaiba and Nekomata stepped out of the alleyway. "Good job with the smoke effects." Yabaiba said to an unseen third party.

"My pleasure." It was Kyuemon. The Zoorangers hadn't managed to see him due to the angle of the building. "Everything's been going exactly according to plan."

"Yeah!" Nekomata said. "After you sent in that distress call, they came running!"

"And they actually believed that secret base baloney!" Yabaiba laughed. "They'll be looking for it all day, and they won't come up with anything!"

"Except for exhaustion!" Nekomata followed, the two of them both laughing.

"And meanwhile, we only have one thing left to do." Kyuemon continued. "You two better prepare for tonight. We have a spectacular Halloween party coming."

* * *

"So, you guys couldn't find anything either?" Judy tiredly asked into her watch.

"Nope." Emily said on the other side, talking through her phone. She, similarly, sounded exhausted.

They had spent all day trying to figure out where that hidden base was. The five of them had managed to search the entirety of the four main districts of the city, searching every nook and cranny they could possibly find something in, but still nothing came up.

"Did you check, uh, the fountain?" Judy said as she fell down on Max's couch, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, we did." Emily responded. "Listen, Hopps, I think you might've been tricked."

"The only place where a hidden base could be would be under the city," Henry said into Emily's phone, a bit muffled. "And you three already dealt with a hidden base under the city."

"But why would they make us look for a fake base?" Judy moaned.

"Probably to tire us out." Nick said. The fox was equally tired, and planted on the couch, right next to Judy. Max was on the chair next to the couch, half asleep.

"But they have to have a reason, right?" She said. "To distract us from something?"

"Probably, but what would their plan even be?" Emily asked.

"Something involving the watches", Nick wanted to say, but stopped himself.

Judy let out a prolonged, loud sigh, waking Max back up. "We'll just have to figure it out tomorrow." She groaned. "I can barely even think, I'm so tired."

"We are too." Emily said.

"I'm not."

"Well, you have more stamina than an elephant, Horns." Emily chuckled. "Henry's just driving me home, you guys should probably get some rest."

"Yeah." Judy said. "See you guys tomorrow." She quickly hung up, her arm dropping to the side of the couch. "Even fi there's no monster stuff, tomorrow, it's still going to be busy."

Max's ears perked up.

"Yeah, gotta keep the streets safe for those kids trick or treating." Nick said.

"Oh, so you're still not going to the party?" Max said, a bit upset.

"Sorry, Max, we just… don't want to." Judy said, rather bluntly.

"I get it." Max said, getting up from the chair. "If you guys change your minds, though… just come talk to me."

He gave a quick wave, and somberly headed up to his bedroom.

"He does know it's only seven, right?" Nick asked. Judy scoffed in response.

"We're all tired, and we should probably go to sleep too." Judy continued. "Well, I should at least, I know you nocturnal types are weird about it."

She quickly hopped off the couch, and headed towards the basement door. Nick watched as she walked down it.

"Looks like I got the place to myself." Nick said, a bit smugly.

He paused for a second, and instantly passed out, head plopping against the couch as he started to snore.

* * *

"Ohhhh, MAN!" Yabaiba let out. He was dancing around the mountain base, absolutely excited about the real plan. "I haven't felt this excited about doing an evil scheme since… the one with the turbine!"

"What the heck are you guys doing?" Bellwether asked from inside her cage.

"We're using your plan, sheep." Kyuemon said. "And I must say, it is going rather well."

"Well, it isn't really MY plan," She said, modestly. "You guys are the ones who filled in the details."

"Yeah, look at us!" Yabaiba said, wrapping his arm around Kyuemon's shoulder. "A real team effort, huh?"

"Get away from me." Kyuemon said, pushing the Org away.

"So, what exactly ARE the details of your plan, anyway?" Bellwether asked, curiously.

"We gave free, hi-tech watches out to everyone in the city!" Yabaiba started. "And in a few hours, all of 'em are gonna be turned into brainless zombies!"

"I don't entirely see the connection between the watches and the zombies." The sheep admitted. "How did you guys even get the watches?"

"I went in and brainwashed the CEO and founder of the Carrot Inc. corporation," Kyuemon started. "Allowing Yabaiba and Nekomata to go undercover and deliver the watches to everyone in the city."

"We got Yogostein to modify them a bit." Yabaiba added.

"They now react to special Yokai energy called 'yo-ki', which festers the world in extreme amounts every Halloween." Kyuemon continued.

"And we're going to get Nekomata here to channel that into a device we planted on this antenna," Yabaiba followed. "Sending it across the city, which will cause the watches to transform into zombifying parasites!"

"That's… pretty elaborate." Bellwether admitted. Arguably, it was more elaborate than her scheme, which was already stupidly elaborate.

"Wait, how do you expect me to channel yo-ki?" Nekomata asked. "I'm nyot exactly the best at channeling that kind of power!"

Kyuemon silently held up a Chaos badge, and quickly tossed it at the monster. It impaled the glass on his chest, causing him to begin transforming.

The transformation was simple, and spread across Nekomata's body in a flash. The glass quickly fixed itself as the badges was absorbed into Nekomata's body. The face in the watch changed, becoming red and its already angry face becoming even angrier looking, its eyes becoming beadier, the faux-eyebrows tilting more, and the mouth clamping down on the time signature even more. The Chaos Symbol was positioned directly above its brow.

The monster's fur quickly changed, becoming different shades of black and grey, and eyes glowing red. The watch pieces changed color as well, turning purple. A blue cape suddenly sprouted from his neck, hanging over his left arm. The feline yokai then started to hover slightly above the ground.

Surprisingly, those were the only changes that seemed to be visible.

"I am nyo longer Nekomata…" It said. Its voice had changed from a bit of a screechier one, to a deeper, more serious sounding tone, though it still seemed to be the same voice. "I am… DARK NEKOMATA!" The monster flicked its cape as it finished

"Actually, I think it's supposed to be 'Chaos Nekomata'." Yabaiba corrected.

"Dark Nekomata sounds cooler." The monster claimed. "Is it time to complete our plan, Master Kyuemon?"

"Indeed." He said. Kyuemon performed some hand motions, before Dark Nekomata disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The cat monster suddenly reappeared on top of a roof. The roof of the radio station he had attacked earlier, to be exact. It was early morning at the latest, the sky somewhat grey as the sun just began to peek out from the horizon. He spotted the antenna.

A small object had been embedded in it, a disc resembling the face on his previous form's chest. The monster thrust his claws towards it, shooting out a beam of energy into the small disc. The energy seemed to be absorbed into it, and rose up through the antenna.

Suddenly, the antenna began to glow an eerie purple, before beginning to spin around. Visible waves began to fire from the antenna, purple rings of energy that rose up into the air, and spread across the city. Impossibly, the sky instantly shifted back to night as this happened.

The rings encircled the entirety of the city. Not a single life form there would be safe.

Nekomata let out a laugh as he prepared to watch the chaos unfold.

* * *

A loud bump shocked the fox from his sleep. He pushed himself up, and looked around. "Great, I fell asleep on the couch again." He mumbled groggily to himself as he sat up.

He looked over at the hall, right by the entrance to the basement. Judy was standing there, back to him, her head rocking back and forth. She was wearing her casual clothes, since none of them managed to change before going to sleep it looked like.

"Hey, Carrots!" He said, quickly hopping down from the couch. "You hear that weird noise too?"

No response.

He paused, shook it off, and started to walk to her. "I don't think it was anything, but if you need Slick Nick to be there for you, I can come downstairs and sleep there." He said, sounding a bit smug, and sincere at the same time.

He placed a paw on her shoulder.

"You're not usually that quiet when I make a quip like that." He said, a bit nervous. "You're… not usually this quiet at all."

Everything fell still for a moment. The rabbit's head started to jerk, unnaturally, before beginning to twist to face him.

He let go of her and started to back off as she turned around completely. Her eyes were completely purple. Not like her usual, pretty violet, but entirely a malicious looking dark, glowing purple that lit up in the darkness. Her jaw was hung open as well.

She still stood there, silently, head jerking every few moments.

"J-Judy?" He said, stepping forwards and raising a paw to her face.

She quickly let out a horrific sounding growl, snapping into a feral position. It sounded like her own voice, mixed with the sound of someone choking to death. The sudden change shocked Nick, causing him to fall to the ground.

She started to crawl across the ground on all fours towards him, still growling, as he quickly skidded across the floor himself. He scrambled to his feet before she jumped at him, managing to barely dodge out of the way.

"What the hell's going on!?" He shouted, running to the other side of the room. The rabbit quickly turned around, and started to crawl towards him again.

He rushed into the hall, and up the stairs. Maybe Max could help figure out what the hell had happened to her. He liked horror films, and her certainly felt like he was in one right now!

That idea was quickly dashed as he reached the top of the stairs, immediately spotting the wolf slowly shuffling down the hall. He had the glowing eyes as well, and the same horrific sounding growl.

The fox glanced back down the stairs. Judy was crawling up the stairs, and the wolf was slowly approaching him.

"Really don't want to know what happens when you guys bite me." He said, before slamming the button on his Zoolizer, transforming into ZooRed.

He looked down the stairs, and then quickly managed to leap down, jumping directly over the rabbit. He needed to get out of here, find some actual help to figure out what had happened to his friends. He rushed to the door before the zombified versions of his friends could react from the jump, and jumped up, managing to pull it open.

The fox froze in terror.

There were dozens, or hundreds, of mammals walking around, all in a zombie-like state, with the glowing eyes of his friends. What the hell was going on? Did he sleep through a zombie outbreak or something?

There was a groaning noise behind him.

He spun around, and stepped out of the way as the zombie rabbit leaped through the door and into the yard. He quickly slammed it shut, and locked it, before ducking out of the way again as the wolf lunged at him.

The zombified Max slammed into the door head-first, as Red quickly stepped back out of the way. He rose up nearly instantaneously, seemingly not affected by the head injury.

"Whoa, Max, hold it!" Red said, the wolf slowly approaching him. "Try to snap out of it!"

The wolf unsheathed his claws, before swing both his paws down, jabbing into the floor and just barely missing the fox. In that brief moment, Red managed to catch something on the wolf's arm.

It looked like the Y-Watch, but instead of looking like a normal device, it had transformed into something distressingly organic… and somewhat familiar.

The watch had a bulging green face instead of the screen, matching that of Nekomata's. The wrist strap of the watch had grown veins, and rows of teeth were coming out of them, each of them biting into the wolf's flesh.

"Okay, definitely not going to listen." Red muttered as he ran back into the living room. His suspicions seemed to have been correct, the watches WERE part of an evil plan. An evil zombifying plan that he needed to stop.

The obvious solution was to tear the watch off of him… but the teeth were biting in very deep by the brief look he had got. He wouldn't be able to tear it off without causing major bodily harm, and he really did not want to do that.

He looked around. There had to be some way to stop the zombie without hurting his friend, right?

"Maybe I just need to try harder." He muttered again. He ran up to the TV stand and grabbed a box resting on top of it. He turned back to the wolf, and waved the box. "Hey, remember these? You love video games!"

The wolf just growled in response and shuffled closer.

"Hohkay, not doing the trick." Red said, quickly flicking the box away. Hopefully there wasn't actually a disc in it.

What else could he use…

"Remember your favorite TV show, Max?" He asked, jumping out of the way again as the wolf attempted to bite him. "Zoo Rangers! It helped you become an officer!"

Still nothing.

The wolf quickly spun around, kicking Red in the stomach and launching him into the couch, which tilted with the impact.

"Ugh, guess talking won't help!" The fox muttered, shaking his head. He needed something to get Max's mind straight. Suddenly, something clicked.

Max had said something like that the other day, right? Something that helped him concentrate.

Music! That was it!

Red glanced at the coffee table, his phone was sitting right there. And the wolf was slowly approaching. He grabbed it, and opened the music app. Before he could do anything, he leaped off the couch as Max jumped at it, fully knocking the seating over.

The fox was about to press play on the first song in his selection, but paused. What if Max didn't respond to his music? Maybe he needed to try something more suited to the wolf.

He fumbled a bit to open the web browser, and quickly typed in "good Halloween music" into the search, keeping an eye as the zombie wolf climbed over the couch. He hit the first result, from a kid's movie, and a spooky tune started to play.

The wolf approached, but then suddenly stopped, making a loud groaning noise. The watch trapped to his wrist started to spark, before the face of it exploded. The watch let go of Max's arm, and dropped to the ground.

Max stumbled forward, and shook his head. "What…? Where…?"

"Oh thank god that worked." Nick said, untransforming. "You alright there, Wolfsbane?"

"Why am I downstairs?" Max asked. "Why does my arm hurt?" He continued, rubbing where the watch had been biting him. He glanced down to see the smoking remains of his watch. "Why is my Y-Watch destroyed, and why does it have teeth?"

"SO!" Nick said, clapping his paws. "I had a suspicion that those watches were actually part of an evil plan, and I was right."

Nick cautiously tapped the watch with his phone, it not seeming to react. He quickly grabbed it, and showed it to Max in full. "This thing was biting onto your arm, and turned you into a violent… zombie, for lack of a better word."

"Seriously?" Max said in utter disbelief as Nick dropped the watch back to the ground.

"I managed to free you by playing some Halloween music." The fox followed. "Seems like it worked!"

"Well, that's good." Max said.

"I know, right?" Nick said with a chuckle. "Judy was under the control of it too… and I think the entire city is, as well."

"Are we seriously in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?" Max asked, both a bit freaked out and excited. "On Halloween day?"

"Looks like the spooky dice rolled in your favor." Nick said, quickly checking his phone. "We're celebrating Halloween after all."

"I'd rather not celebrate it like this."

Nick paused for a moment. "My phone says its seven AM, but its still pitch black out."

"That's definitely not normal." Max replied. He thought for a second. "Wait, so, if all this is a monster plan, then it has to do with Nekomata… which means…"

"It has something to do with the radio station he attacked." Nick said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "We should get Judy back to normal and…"

The fox paused. He had forgotten about Judy. He quickly slapped himself in the face.

"What's wrong?" Max asked. "Oh no, do you not know where Judy went?"

"She jumped out the door." He groaned. "She could be anywhere in the city, and I don't think we have enough time to go looking for her."

"Well, we should head out anyway." Max said. "Not much else we can do other than try and stop this."

Nick nodded, and the quickly rushed out of the house and into the zombie infested streets.

* * *

The two hid behind a dumpster in an alleyway. They had been running from the zombies for around an hour at this point.

They couldn't hurt them, since they were still just civilians being controlled… but they were still trying to attack them. The best they could do was try and sneak around them.

"I don't know if we can make it." Max whispered. "They'll tear us to shreds, and there's nothing we can do."

"I know, this is probably the most effective plan these monsters have had." Nick admitted. It was a pretty airtight strategy, and limited what they could do.

The radio station was in the business district, which was only a few blocks away, but it would still take them a long time if they kept at this pace. A horde of zombies was shuffling down the road to the place. If they ran in, they'd be attacked instantly, and who knows if they'd survive.

"Hang on, let me try something." Max said, quickly sneaking out from the dumpster.

"The hell are you doing!?" The fox angrily whispered at him. "You're gonna get killed!"

"No, trust me, I saw this in a movie." He said. The wolf cleared his throat, and then stuck his arms out, slowly shuffling forwards while groaning.

He was pretending to be a zombie.

"That isn't going to work!" Nick whisper yelled.

Max didn't answer, and quickly shuffled into the crowd of zombies. Somehow, it seemed to be actually working. The zombies didn't seem to pay attention to the slowly shuffling wolf, and continued on their brainless way.

"You have to be kidding me." Nick grumbled.

He got out from behind the dumpster as well, and began to imitate Max's movements, shuffling forward and groaning. He couldn't believe it was actually working as he shuffled past a zombified wildebeest. The two began to slowly shuffle down the street, working their way through the zombies and to the business district.

After what felt like a distressingly long time, they had made it. Nick's legs were starting to get tired, shuffling was a really hard thing for his muscles to actually pull off.

The two of them glanced at the end of the street, where the radio station was. It was glowing with an odd purple color, while the antenna spun around rapidly, shooting rings of purple energy into the air. A large number of zombies seemed to have flocked to it, as there were more on the street than there were elsewhere.

How much longer was he going to have to do this? Hopefully not much longer. All they needed to do was get close to the station, and charge in.

Before that plan of action could go into motion, Nick spotted something in another alleyway, between a convenience store and some kind of kitschy art store, both of which looked recently abandoned. There was a yellow fox there, who subtly waved his paw at him.

It was Kyle! He was alright, and wanted them to come over!

Nick quickly turned his shuffle to Max, bumping into his legs. The wolf glanced down, as the fox nudged his head over to the alley. Max nodded, and the two slowly shuffled over, before quickly ducking back into the alley.

"Oh thank god." Nick moaned, clutching his throat. "My throat hurts from all that groaning."

"I'm really glad you guys are alright!" Kyle said, leading them back into the alley some more.

"We're glad you're alright too." Nick replied.

"Well, we're mostly glad we're not the only ones in the city who aren't zombies." Max followed. For once, Nick got to elbow someone for being rude.

"Yeah, when I woke up, the whole city was covered in these zombie things." Kyle explained. "I tried to check out what was going on, but they chased me all the way here."

"So, you've just been hiding in an alley?" Max asked.

"Nope, I've been hiding in this convenience store." The yellow fox replied, pointing over his shoulder to a back door. "Zombies don't know how to use doors, apparently."

"That's definitely some good news." Nick sighed in relief.

The three quickly went through the back door, Max pulling it open for the smaller mammals to go through first. The place didn't seem like it was abandoned, it actually looked like it had just been closed up like normal.

"So, the zombies can't get us in here?" Max asked, a bit skeptical. "Usually zombies are great at busting things down to get to brains."

"These aren't actually zombies, Max." Nick stated. "They're just being brainwashed. They'll probably only attack us if they actually see us."

"Yeah, and we should probably be fine in here for the next few months!" Kyle said. "This place is stocked with food!"

"Yeah, we're not living in a convenience store for the rest of our lives." Nick stated. "All the trouble is coming from that radio station, and we're going to go stop it?"

"'We're'?" Kyle said, sounding a bit hopeful.

"Max and I." Nick followed up. "Its too dangerous for someone like you."

"Oh." The fox muttered, a bit upset. "But I don't think you'll be able to make it."

Max's ears raised.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"Well, there's… these blue guys stationed outside." He explained. "If you get spotted, something bad would probably happen."

"And how do you know that?" Max asked, skeptical.

"Uh…" Kyle paused for a moment. "It just kind of seems obvious."

"He's right." Nick said. "The guards will probably alert the monster, who will attack us when we're surrounded by guards AND zombies." The fox glanced up at the wolf, giving him a condescending look. "Why are you being so rude, Max?"

The wolf was suspicious about this fox. He had a smell on him that sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"No reason." Max said. "If what he's saying is right, we'll need a plan to break in."

"I think I have a plan, but we'll need more than two of us here." Nick said, starting to pace around. "But we might be the only ones left that aren't… Hey, wait a second!"

The fox quickly pulled out his phone, and dialed a number.

"Hello?" Emily said over the phone.

"Hey, Em!" Nick greeted. "We're kind of in the middle of a crisis here, and we need you!"

"You mean the zombie crisis?" She said.

"Yeah, you know about it?"

"I got woken up by my neighbours trying to break through their doors, of course I know about it." She said. "You got an answer for this? Hopefully you have a reason why its pitch black at nine AM, too."

"I was right, the watches were part of an evil scheme." Nick said. "Turns out they're mindcontrol devices that turned everyone wearing them into zombies, including Max and Judy. I manage dto get Max to snap out of it somehow, but we lost Judy. I'd say, 'I told you so' but I really wish I was wrong right now!"

"Alright, so where do you need me?" She asked.

"By the radio station, that's where all the trouble's coming from." The fox stated. "We're in an abandoned convenience store, and we need you here ASAP!" He paused for a moment. "Just try not to hurt anyone on your way here, alright?"

"Can't promise that." Emily said, before the sound of a zombie growling could be heard. There was a loud thwack, and then a thud. "Already failed your request, zorro."

"Alright, just don't kill anyone, kay?" He said with a sigh, before hanging up. "So, we probably have a bit of time before she gets here, what do you guys want to do?"

"How about we try to find something edible in this place?" Max said, sifting through some of the racks. "We both missed breakfast, we should probably keep our energy up."

"Good thinking, Max." Nick said.

"I, uh, have to use the bathroom." Kyle said, before dashing off to the back of the store. He entered the bathroom, and slammed the door shut.

The fox started to make several quick motions with his hands, before a dark rift of energy burst in front of him. It opened to reveal Yabaiba. "Hey, Kyu, how's everything going?"

"Worse than it could be." Kyuemon whisper growled. "It turns out that the Y-Watches have some weakness we're not aware of, and now two of the Zoorangers and one of their new members aren't being mind controlled."

"Aw, that sucks!" Yabaiba said, sounding a bit sad. "I really wanted this plan to go off without a hitch!"

"Don't worry, I should be able to work something out." Kyuemon said, before sighing. "Hopefully, that is."

"Well, keep at it!" Yabaiba said, giving a thumbs-up. "Don't want a month's worth of planning to go to waste!"

* * *

An hour later, the three trapped mammals were still waiting for Emily to show up. "When do you think she's going to get here?" Max asked as he leaned up against a rack.

"I dunno, she doesn't live that far away from here." Nick groaned in response, leaning up against a freezer. "I think she's in Savannah Central, but I guess the zombies have been slowing her down."

There was a sudden crashing noise outside, sparking all three of them into an alert. "What was that?" Kyle asked, running up from the back of the store.

"Hopefully not trouble." Nick said.

While the lights of the convenience store had been switched on, it was pitch black outside. A figure started to move towards the door, masked in shadow. The three braced themselves for an attack.

"Hey, lemme in!"

It was Emily, she was pounding at the glass door. "This thing's locked, y'know!"

"Oh, right!" Nick said. He quickly pulled out a pin, and jumped up, sliding it into the door's keyhole, and unlocking it.

"Sorry for taking so long, the commute was brutal." The hyena joked as she entered the store. "Nice hideout." She glanced down at Kyle, who gave a quick wave. "Who's your friend?"

"Kyle, he's kind of our 'superfan'." Nick said as he slammed the door back shut, locking it before any zombies could get in. He sighed in relief, and walked towards the three others. "Alright, for the last hour, I've been trying to come up with a plan."

"Never a good sign." The hyena continued to joke.

"Not the time, Em." Nick groaned.

"Just trying to lighten the mood."

"I think I've worked something out." He said, starting to pace. "It's not as good as something Judy would come up with, but I think it should work."

"Lay it on us!" Kyle said, enthusiastically.

"So, the first part of the plan…" He paused, and took a deep breath. "Emily, Max, I need you to work together and distract the guards in front of the station. While they're distracted, I'll sneak into the station, and destroy the antenna. After everyone is freed, we'll take down Nekomata."

"Sounds good." Max said.

"Do I really have to work with Mr. Pumpkin Spice over here?" Emily groaned. Max quickly shot her a glare.

"Oh my god, Em, we don't have time for this." Nick said, starting to get frustrated. "Just follow the plan, and we can get to fighting afterwards."

"Hey, what about me?" Kyle asked. "Don't… don't I get to do anything?"

"No, you don't." Nick said, starting to sound much more frustrated than he had moments before. "You're not a super hero, Kyle, you'll just get hurt."

The fox's ears drooped as he backed off.

Nicks hook his head, and turned back to Emily and Max. "Alright, you two got it?" He asked. "Gonna work together for a bit so we can actually deal with this?"

"Yep."

"Yeah…"

"Alright, let's go."

The three quickly transformed, and headed out the door of the store, leaving Kyle behind. The fox started to laugh.

"Idiots." He said to himself. "You've just made this so easy."

He performed several quick motions with his paws, before disappearing in a burst of dark energy.

He reappeared on the roof of the radio station. "Whoa!" Dark Nekomata said, quickly slipping back into his old voice for a moment. "Master Kyuemon, what are you-?"

"The Zoorangers have a plan, and we're going to stop it." He said, interrupting the feline monster. "One of them is trying to sneak through the front door during a distraction."

"Hah, those three will be running to their deaths!" Dark Nekomata laughed, before falling silent for a moment. "How are we going to stop them?"

"You leave that to me." Kyuemon said. "I'll set everything up, I just need you to do one thing."

"And that is…?"

"Find the rabbit, and bring her here."

Nekomata gave a salute, before flying off.

* * *

"Alright, so here's what we do." Red quickly started as they ran down the street, avoiding zombies that were prepared to attack them. "I'll duck out of the way for a bit, and you guys distract the front guards, that should draw the others out and let me make a run for it."

"Got it." The two said.

The fox quickly dashed to the side, and stayed behind the two. The zombies were focusing more on them, and the general chaos would let him get in without being spotted.

The radio station came into view. There were around six Jukkarage out front, acting as guards. Pink and Silver could handle that small of an amount no problem.

He quickly ran to the side of a building, as Pink and Silver ran towards the end of the cul-de-sac that the radio station had created.

"Hey, el cargazón!" Pink shouted as her and Silver leaped into the parking lot of the station. Pink fired her blasters at one of the Jukkarage, causing it to explode.

They landed, attracting the other five, who drew their blades and started to stomp towards them. Silver drew his blade, and rushed in, locking blades with one. Pink moved in as well, quickly pistol whipping one of the guards.

Red watched on as the five remaining guards entered the battle. He quickly dashed in, sneaking behind a parked car, before going for the door. He jumped up and, surprisingly, it was open. He was expecting to have to use a lock pick, but not having to was even better. He entered, and pulled the door behind himself.

He took a deep breath, and turned to the hall of the station.

There were around sixty to seventy Jukkarage, all standing there, all waiting for him.

"Well, this wasn't in the plan."

Outside, Silver and Pink continued to attack the Jukkarage guards. Silver quickly slashed through one with no effort, while Pink quickly blasted two in the head with her pistols. The two quickly joined together as the last two Jukkarage charged from both sides. Pink swung her pistols over her shoulders, firing them at the one heading towards Silver, while the wolf quickly spun around and shot a fireball at the one running towards Pink.

"Whoo, that was fun!" Pink said. "Nice and breezy, huh?"

"Uh, I don't think it was SUPPOSED to be that breezy." Silver said, a bit worried. "Weren't the other guards supposed to show up…?"

"Uh…"

"IDIOTS!"

The two looked up, seeing the transformed Nekomata floating above them. "Did you really think we'd be beaten by such a simple plan!?" He mocked. "Nyo, we're too smart for that! Zombies, attack them!"

With that shout, the two looked on as the crowd of zombies turned towards them. Their glowing eyes, all in various places, stared at them. They started to move forward.

"This isn't good." Silver muttered.

"We should make a run for it, shouldn't we?" Pink said.

"Oh yeah, definitely."

In an instant, the zombies started to charge towards the two. A few larger mammals jumped in first, a rhino quickly divebombing them. They split up, go around the rhino as it crashed into the ground, before making a full-on run for it.

A hippo made a move for Silver, trudging as fast as it could to block him. He stumbled back before colliding with the flesh wall, and leaped out of the way as it attempted to chomp down on him. He scrambled to his feet, before hearing a shriek and looking up.

A handful of bats started to fly down, attempting to scrape at him with their teeth. "AUGH! ITS MY WORST NIGHTMARE SLASH GREATEST DREAM!" He yelled, swatting the bats away and running through the crowd of zombies.

Pink ran as well, and quickly became blocked by a large, black panther, who growled at her. It rushed forward and attempted to swipe at her, but the hyena ducked out of the way, and then quickly kicked the zombified feline in his back, knocking him down.

"There's YOUR bad luck!" She shouted, before running off. As Pink ran, she suddenly stumbled, and fell to the ground, and began to be dragged across the pavement. She looked at her feet, spotting a bunch of… mice? No, definitely rats. An army of them, all working to pull her away.

She attempted to shake them off, managing to get rid of most of them, though a few still clung on. She got back up, and started to flick the mice off of her suit leg, before raising a foot to them. Instinctively, the mice started to run off. She quickly got up, and started to run, meeting up with Silver in a small open area.

The two drew their weapons as the zombies closed in, preparing to attack. "What are we supposed to do now?" Silver asked, panicked.

"Why don't you just jump!?" Pink shouted.

"Oh yeah, I can do that!"

The wolf quickly grabbed Pink's paw, and leaped up into the air, the two landing in front of the store. Silver quickly rushed in to the store, still dragging Pink behind him, and slammed the door behind him.

"Whew, that was close." Silver said, letting go of Pink. The hyena quickly stumbled back, and fell down. "You alright?"

"Give me a WARNING before you leap three stories in the air!" She shouted.

"Oh, sorry!" He apologized. He glanced around for a second. "Hey, is something missing…?"

Pink got up, and looked around as well. "Yeah, where'd that yellow fox go?"

"Great, did he run out while we were doing the plan!?" Silver shouted in frustration. "We need to go back out and find him."

"Uh, might be a problem." Pink stated.

Silver turned back to the front of the store. The zombie horde was starting to surround the store, preparing to break in.

"Oh, wonderful."

* * *

"Alright, guess you guys are all new callers, huh?" Red said, flipping his sword into the air, before catching it. The Jukkarage quickly stepped forward, mumbling and brandishing their blades.

"To play you in, how about a classic?" The fox said, also prepping his blade.

He leaped forward, bringing his blade down as he slashed through one of the Jukkarage. He skidded across the tiled floor, and then used the momentum to spin around, cutting through several more of them.

"You guys should really just tune out!" Red joked as he jumped up again, quickly flicking his blade. It quickly detached from the hilt, spinning around in a circle and destroying the rest of the Jukkarage in the main hall.

"Alright, time to move on to the next track." He said. He took a step, and then quickly pumped his fist, ecstatic about the number of jokes he was making. He then quickly dashed down the hall, which lead directly to another room, this one, compared to the bare entrance, had a few chairs littered around.

The building was only a few stories high, and not that tall, only a few stories… but it seemed to have been built in an incredibly strange way. He ran out the only exit, and luckily found the stairs. Just before he could go up them…

"HELP!"

The fox froze. The scream had definitely come from down here, and the voice sounded familiar.

Kyle?

He quickly dashed down the hall again, following the screams. He came to a recording room, and leaped up on the control panel, spotting Kyle being attacked by a few of the stone monsters.

He rushed over to the door to the other side, and tried to open it, but it appeared to be locked. He couldn't get through there without wasting time unlocking it. There had to be a quicker way.

The fox quickly got an idea, and pulled out his yellow ZooTag, plugging it into the Zoolizer.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

The gloves appeared on his paws as he leaped back up to the control panel. He drew back his arms, and slashed at the window, causing it to split apart into neat slices of glass. The Jukkarage caught find of this, before Red leaped in and quickly slashed them all to pieces.

"You alright?" Red asked the panicking fox.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kyle said, getting back up.

There was silence for a moment as Red stared at him through his visor. "Why are you here?" He finally asked.

"I, uh, snuck in after you." He admitted, ashamed. "I felt like I could help."

"You went against my orders, and almost got yourself killed." Red snapped. He groaned and shook his head. "I'd tell you to leave, but it'd more dangerous out there than in here with me." He admitted.

"Kyle's ears poked up. "So, I can come along?"

"Yes, but just… stay close to me, alright?" He said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"Alright, sir, I got it!" He said, giving a faux-salute.

"Also, keep quiet." Red continued. "We want to do this without any fighting, alright?"

Kyle nodded, silently.

"Alright, let's go." Red said, running up to the door, and kicking it down. While the fox's back was turned, Kyle chuckled to himself.

"I got it, alright." He said to himself, a wicked grin growing over his muzzle.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

* * *

The hordes of zombies banged on the front door and windows of the store, attempting to break them. "We need to get out of here." Silver said.

"Great idea." Pink replied, sarcastically. "Where the hell are we supposed to go?"

"They should have a back area." Silver said quickly jogging to the back of the store. Pink shook her head, and followed.

She was greeted with a metal door next to the bathroom. It had a padlock on it, most likely trying to prevent anyone from breaking in. Unfortunately, that also meant they weren't able to get it.

"I don't think we have enough time to find the key." Pink said. "So now what do we do? Get eaten by zombies?"

Silver quickly held out his blade, and spun the guard, switching it to moon mode. "Oh, there is NO way that is going to work." Pink sneered.

Silver stepped back, and thrust the rapier forwards, the laser whip going directly into the padlock's lock. He quickly twisted and turned the blade multiple times. There was a sudden click, and the padlock opened.

"Huh."

Pink quickly tore the padlock off and threw it to the ground, along with the chain it was attached to. They both ran through it, and into the freezer.

"Now we can just freeze to death." Pink said. She paused. "Is that better or worse than being eaten by zombies."

"Neither is going to happen." Silver said, quickly grabbing a heavy box and pushing it towards the door. "Why don't you trust me?"

"Because you're a child!" She yelled. "Why would I trust anyone who gets that excited over a holiday meant for children, or who dresses up as characters from kids shows!?"

Silver paused for a moment, before continuing to move heavy boxes over to the door, creating a decent barrier. There was the sudden sound of glass breaking, followed by many angry groaning noises.

"Get down." Silver said. "Get ALL the way down."

"What? Why!?"

Silver moved up to the wall on their other side. It was lined with frozen foods and other things that needed to be frozen. "There isn't a solid wall here." He stated. "If they spot us, they could come in easily."

"This is a wonderful safe spot." Pink followed up, still sarcastic.

"But they don't know that." Silver continued. "So lay down, and be quiet."

She sighed, and the two of them laid down on their stomachs, neither of them breaking past the small, solid wall at the base of the floor.

"I have a question." Silver asked, quietly.

"Didn't you just say to be quiet!?" Pink whisper yelled back.

"You act like you personally dislike Halloween." He continued. "Why is that?"

"Is this really important right now!?"

"Yes." Silver said. "I just want to know so I can understand why you don't like me. I'd like to change whatever I do that upsets you, so we can be… better teammates."

The hyena sighed, and then started. "My parents came from out of the country to Zootopia, but I was born here. We had financial troubles, so my dad got some money from the mafia." She explained. "When he couldn't pay it, the mob… killed him and my mom."

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Silver said. "You don't have to continue, I didn't know…"

"No, I'm going to keep going." She sighed. "I was left on the street for the rest of my life, well, up until now, I guess. I was only with my parents for a few years, but I remember something special they did every year, at around Halloween time." She continued. "They'd bring out an altar, dedicated to their parents, and every time they'd bring out candy and other treats…"

Normally, the hyena sounded annoyed or ambivalent towards everything, but as she talked about this, she seemed to be… happy.

"The Día de Muertos." She said. "Its one of the few things before their deaths that I can remember clearly. So, I decided to do what my parents did, and celebrate it each year, for my mom and dad."

"But I really couldn't." She continued. "I never had enough money to get what I needed, and every year I would see all these kids with their parents, going out for Halloween. It felt like the world was mocking me."

There was silence from the two, making the groaning noises from outside more noticeable.

"I'm sorry." Silver said, absolutely genuine.

"You don't have to apologize." Pink said. "You didn't do anything."

"I shouldn't have been so… passive aggressive about all this." He admitted, the hyena quickly shooting him a somewhat confused look.

"Seriously, I should be the one apologizing," She chuckled. "I've been really rude to you."

"No, if I had known about all that, I wouldn't have tried to force it on you the other day." Silver continued. "I wish there was a way I could make it up to you, and we could become friends."

"We can worry about that later, kid." Pink said. "You know, when we aren't about to become muerto ourselves."

There was a sudden banging noise at the door. The two quickly got up, and looked at the blockade. One of the zombies was barging into the door, attempting to force it open.

"Hopefully that isn't soon!" Silver said.

* * *

Red and Kyle quietly stepped through a darkened room of the radio station. They had managed to reach the third story of the building in an alarmingly fast time. There weren't even any bad guys on the second floor

They peeked around the corner, spotting a handful of Jukkarage guarding the stairs. "Looks like those are the last of the guards. Guess they sent all of them to the first floor." Red said, before turning back to the yellow fox. "I'll take care of these guys quick, you stay here."

Kyle quickly nodded.

Red brandished his clawed gloves, and leaped out, flinging several sharp laser slashes at them. The monsters weren't destroyed by the assault, most of them just stumbling back. They were, however, alerted to the fox's presence.

Red leaped forward, slicing through two of them as they charged forwards. As the remaining Jukkarage charged at him, he leaped back and fired more laser slashes at them, the barrage being enough to destroy them.

"Alright." Red said, a lot louder. "Its safe, Kyle."

The yellow fox stepped out, and glanced around cautiously, before running over to Red. Red unsummoned his gloves, and the two made their way up the stairs.

"I need you to stay in here." Red said to Kyle as they reached the top of the stairs. There was only a door between him and the monster.

"Right, because the monster's dangerous." The younger fox said. "I'll just stay here, like you said."

"Good."

Red charged through the door, kicking it open. He stopped, spotting the monster, Nekomata, hovering near the antenna. He ran across the roof, and pulled out his sword as he leaped up to strike the monster.

Dark Nekomata quickly spun around, grabbing the sword with his massive claws. "Hey, I've been waiting for you." The feline monster said as the fox dangled from his own sword.

"And I've been waiting to kick your ass."

Red grabbed the hilt of the blade, causing it to detach from the blade itself. He landed on the ground, and tugged at the wire, with enough strength to pull Dark Nekomata down from the air and slam him into the roof.

The blow caused the monster to let go of the blade, which quickly retracted.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Nekomata yelled. He started to wave his arms in front of his face, as his watch face started to glow. "Geragerageragerageragera…"

"PO!"

He then thrust his arms forward, firing a large ball of energy from his stomach. Red leaped out of the way as the ball crashed through the edge of the roof, destroying part of it.

"You should just give up while I'm ahead!" The watch monster laughed.

"How are you 'ahead'?" Red asked with a chuckle.

"I dunno, maybe because of HER!"

Nekomata swung his claw to the antenna. Two Jukkarage came out from behind it, carrying… Judy! She was still zombified, and one of the Jukkarage had its blade to her neck.

"Judy!" He shouted, before glancing back up at Nekomata. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

"Oh, I won't!" Dark Nekomata said, snidely. "But only if you back down, and give up!"

"Please!" Red scoffed. "Its two guys, I can deal with them no problem."

Nekomata let out a laugh, and looked towards the door. "Who said there was only two?"

Inside the building, the yellow fox had made his way downstairs. He performed a rapid series of hand motions, nearly a dozen to two dozen Jukkarage appearing.

"Go finish that fox off." Kyuemon growled.

The Jukkarage quickly ran up the stairs, and burst through the door, flooding the roof. Red looked around, as multiple thoughts ran through his head.

Where had they all come from? He was pretty sure there weren't any left in the building.

Oh god, what happened to Kyle? If these monsters swarmed in, does that mean he was hurt?

And his most worrying thought.

There was no way he could take on all these monsters alone.

The fox dropped his sword, and fell to his knees. "Alright." He muttered. "I give up, you win."

"Oh, MAN, that feels good to hear!" Nekomata said, floating down to get a better look at the fox. "You ready to die, Zooranger?"

Red lowered his head, and braced himself.

* * *

Silver and Pink quickly ran up to the boxes, and pressed their bodies against them, trying to keep the zombies from breaking through.

"I don't think we're strong enough!" Silver shouted.

"Just push harder!" Pink yelled.

Silver spun around, and started to push the boxes with his back. There was a sudden rustling noise from the racks they had been hiding behind. The products that were lined up started to be torn off the shelves, revealing the glowing eyes of the zombie citizens.

"NOT GOOD!" Silver shouted.

"Shit!" Pink shouted as a particularly tough barge knocked her down. "This is REALLY not how I want to die!"

"What are we supposed to do now!?" Silver shouted again as smaller zombie mammals started to crawl through the cracks.

"We can punch 'em!" Pink responded.

"I'd rather not cause bodily harm to anyone."

"You're no fun."

There was another crash, the boxes tipping over. Another crash, and a bear burst through the door, letting out a gurgling roar. The two screamed in terror, and closed their eyes, bracing themselves for it to strike at them.

Suddenly, there was music.

Loud music. Music that seemed to drown out the growling.

Techno music?

"What the? Where am I…?"

The two opened their eyes, and looked back at the bear. Somehow, he had been turned back to normal, and the Y-Watch was laying on the floor, completely burnt out.

They looked back, and the rest of the previously zombified mammals had returned to normal as well. The techno music was STILL playing, however.

"'Scuse us!" Pink said as they sneaked past the dazed bear.

They ran into the main part of the store, and spotted where the music was coming from. It was Henry, holding his phone up.

"Henry!?" Pink said, confused. "I thought you turned into a zombie!"

"Nope." He said, not turning the music off. "You didn't even call to check."

"Well, when I heard it was the watches turning everyone into zombies, I kind of just assumed…"

"You assumed I'd be wearing the watch, right?" He said with a chuckle.

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay, what the hell did you just DO!?" Silver asked. "How did everyone just turn back to normal!?"

"Like I said to you earlier, Em, I had a reason for getting one of those watches." Henry started to explain. "And like you said, I'm not dumb enough to fall for a scheme like that. I could tell something fishy was up, so I decided to check the watch itself."

"Wait, so you checked the actual internal workings of it?' Silver asked. "I didn't know you knew how this kind of stuff worked."

"Me either." Pink said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I read a lot of engineering and technology guides while I was in prison." Henry said. "Not a lot to do when you're stuck there for years."

"Anyway, I found a weakness in their build." The bull continued. "When I opened the watch, there was this odd purple… thing, stuck in it. It didn't seem to do anything until the energy from that antenna started pouring out. The best I could describe it is a half-magical -half-machine virus of some kind."

"Oh, obviously." Pink said, sarcastically.

"Okay, but how did you figure out the cure?" Silver asked again.

"It turns out that whatever those viruses were latched onto picked up soundwaves." He continued. "Which normally wouldn't be a problem in short bursts, but the kind of soundwave caused by music causes it to overload and burst."

"Nick said he saved me earlier with music…" Silver started. "So that's how he did it."

The bull nodded. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"He went to go stop the antenna, but it looks like we don't need to!" Silver said. 'I'll radio him up and tell him, you guys go cure more of the zombies!"

Henry put up his armor, and headed out with Pink. Silver placed his paw to the side of his helmet. "Red, you there?"

There wasn't a response, but he could hear breathing.

"Okay, stealth, I get it." He said. "We figured out how to cure the zombies! You just need to play music, and it'll destroy the watch!"

Red's ears popped up.

Dark Nekomata raised his claw, and prepared to bring it down. "Wait!" Red shouted, looking back up. "I want a last request."

"What?" The feline monster said, a bit confused. "Uh, what is it?"

"I just want to play a song." Nick said, untransforming and pulling out his phone. "It's a song that reminds me of a very, very special mammal in my life."

"Guess that's fine." Nekomata said. Apparently, he didn't know about the watches' weakness.

He cranked the volume on his phone, opened the music app, and pressed play. He held the phone up as the music started.

" _I messed up tonight_  
 _I lost another fight_  
 _I still mess up but I'll just start again_  
 _I keep falling down_  
 _I keep on hitting the ground_  
 _I always get up now to see what's next_  
 _Birds don't just fly_  
 _They fall down and get up_  
 _Nobody learns without getting it won_ "

"AUGH, WHAT IS THAT WRETCHED NYOISE!?" Nekomata cried, covering his ears. "It's so… PEPPY!"

The Jukkarage responded in turn, all of them placing their hands to their heads. The two holding up Judy didn't seem to notice as she blinked a few times.

"What?" She mumbled, glancing around. "Where am-"

She was cut off as the watch around her wrist started to spark, and then explode, causing one of the Jukkarage to recoil backwards, letting her go. The watch dropped to the ground along side the stone monster's sword, and left the rabbit hanging from her arm in the other one's grasp.

She quickly shifted her bod over, and then hip checked the monster, knocking it back as well. She landed on the ground, free. The rabbit then glanced in the direction of the music.

"Nick has some explaining to do." She mumbled before transforming into ZooBlue.

She leaped into the air, and crashed down in front of Nick, who quickly shut off the music. "Hey, Carrots!" He said cheerfully. "Glad you could make it to the party."

"After we deal with these guys, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do." She growled in response.

"WHAT!?" Dark Nekomata cried. "What is this!? How did you get free from our zombie spell!?"

"Turns out, watch boy," Nick started, tossing his phone up into the air. "Your perfect plan had a bit of production flaw!"

"What!?"

"The mind control of those watches could be counteracted by music!" The fox explained. "I don't know how it works, but it does, and all of the zombies in the area should be entirely cured by now!"

"That's impossible!" The feline monster said as it floated upwards and looked onto the street. There were none of the zombified mammals there anymore, just three figures standing in the middle of the road. "WHAT!? But… But…!"

"Okay, think I've got the gist of it." Blue said, before twirling around and firing her guns at Nekomata. The monster let out a cry of pain as it fell to the ground. "Watches, zombies, mind control, sounds like you had a rough… night?"

"Actually, it's like, twelve PM." Nick said, before quickly transforming into ZooRed. "That antenna is the source of our problems right now." He said, pointing at it.

"We might have a bit more of a problem." Blue said as the army of Jukkarage started to swarm in closer.

"Not when we're together." Red said, pulling out his sun-shaped ZooTag. The two quickly fist bumped, and plugged their super ZooTags in.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed into the Solar and Lunar forms, quickly drawing their weapons. A few moments passed, and there was a massive explosion on top of the building, engulfing the whole thing, including the antenna. Bits of metallic shrapnel flew out from the blast, the antenna completely destroyed.

"Yikes!" Pink shouted, looking up at the building. "Hopefully they're okay."

"Don't worry, they are." Silver replied.

Red and Blue leaped down from the building as the smoke cleared. The energy pulsing from the antenna seemed to vanish, the sky clearing to reveal the mid-day sun.

"GAAAAAH!" Dark Nekomata yelled, floating back up into the air. "We were so close to victory, and you ruined it!"

"That's what we do!" Blue said. "Ruining evil schemes is what being a hero's all about!"

"Come on guys, let's finish this feline freak off." Red said. The five quickly surrounded the monster, each of them drawing their weapons.

"DON'T THINK I'LL GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" The monster growled. He raised his claws which started to glow purple, and began to swipe them around rapidly, sending energy slashes out all around him

The five scattered, but Pink and Green rolled to opposite sides, and quickly blasted at the monster with their guns. The monster lit up in sparks, and stumbled back, directly into an attack from Silver and blue, who slashed right through him with their blades.

Blue quickly leaped back as she hit the ground, and started clashing her blades with the monster's claws. Silver quickly ran up to Pink, and raised his paw for a high four.

"What's that for?" Pink asked.

"It… It means I want to do team attack with you." He said, a bit awkwardly.

"You could just tell me that, then."

The two quickly moved into performing their attack, Pink rapidly firing at Dark Nekomata. Blue kicked off of the monster's body before the blasts hit, but Silver quickly followed by firing a fireball out of his blade.

The fireball caught the laser blasts, causing it to glow pink as it slammed into the monster, knocking him through the air. The monster crashed into the ground, and quickly got up, spotting Blue and Red quickly jumping in front of him to go for an attack.

They both swung their weapons at the monster, who quickly grabbed both of them, Blue's sword by the blade, and Red's staff by its rod. "Hah, guess you guys thought a bit too lowly of me-"

Before the monster could finish mocking them, the staff's end started to jut forward and backwards, extending in and out as it smacked Nekomata repeatedly in the face. "Ow, hey, quit it!"

The monster quickly let go, letting the two finish their attack by leaping up and simultaneously striking the monster in its watch face. The glass cracked as it was flung backwards, this time into a building.

The wall it crashed into received a large dent, and the monster stumbled back to its feet. Green quickly came charging in, ramming the monster through the wall and into the building. "Hopefully nobody owns this place." The bull said to himself as he took aim at the monster through the hole. The monster was shot many more times, before it let out a quick growl.

"Okay, enough playing around!" It said, raising back into the air. It quickly dashed at green, tackling him out of the way before swooping up into the air. "You'll all get to see my real strength now! Prepare for my ultimate attack!"

The monster started to wave its arms in front of its face. "Geragera PO!" The monster thrust his arms out, firing a purple ball of energy towards Blue, who quickly leaped out of the way as it exploded, creating a small hole in the concrete.

The feline monster continued to perform the motion, firing out the energy balls rapidly. After a minute, the ground was littered with craters. "Hah, guess you guys are gonna have a bit of trouble!" The monster laughed from above. "If only you guys could hover like me, geragerageragerapo!"

"Gimme a sec." Red said, before slamming his staff into the ground. He gripped tightly to it as the pole suddenly extended upwards, taking the fox along with it. The monster let out a whine as it watched the pole extend well above him.

It then retracted, leaving Red up in the air. The fox thrust the staff forwards again, it rapidly going back and forth to hit the monster repeatedly once more. The monster let out another growl. "Time to show off my ultimate technique! CLAWS OF FURY!"

Dark Nekomata started to punch rapidly, managing to block out all of Red's attempted strikes. The force of the punches gradually pushed the rod back, moving Nekomata closer and closer to the fox.

"Okay, that's bad." Silver said. "We should probably do something."

"Pink, Green move over to the monster's right and left!" Blue ordered. "Silver, we'll take the back!"

The three nodded, and they all moved into position. "Alright, while he's distracted, we're going to fire off all out attacks!" She explained. "GO!"

Blue rapidly slashed her blades forward, while Silver fired multiple fireballs, and Pink and Green fired shots from their own blasters. All of them connected with Dark Nekomata, who was blasted back out of the air.

The monster crashed back into the ground, but started to crawl back up. Quickly, Red thrust his staff down, launching him back into the air and over Nekomata's body. He then started to rapidly thrust it down onto the monster's back, pounding him into the ground even further. He then retracted it, and swung it, launching a massive fireball.

The flame exploded, leaving the monster weakened in a crater.

"Alright, time to finish him off!" Red said, the five of them leaping into the crater.

"Oh, I have an idea!" Silver said, quickly gathering the five rangers together. "Since this is our first official mission as a team, why don't we destroy the monster together?"

"Silver, only me and Red's weapons can combine." Blue said.

"Well, we don't have to combine them." He said. "Let's just shoot at him at the same time!"

"Alright, if it makes you feel better." Red said.

Red and Blue quickly combined their weapons, pointing the large bow at the slowly recovering Nekomata. Silver drew back his sword, and prepared to fire a flame from it. Pink and Green quickly pointed their own blasters at him

"FIRE!" Blue shouted.

They all fired their weapons at the monster. The various forms of energy converged, and seemed to engulf the monster in energy for a moment, before bursting into a towering pillar of flames. A rather obsolete wrist watch flew from the flames, along with the Chaos Badge.

"Whew, wasn't that awesome!?" Silver shouted, raising his paw for a high four. Nobody responded. "Oh, come on."

Pink shook her head and let out a small chuckle, before high fouring the wolf. He gave her a smile behind his mask.

"HEY!"

The five turned to face the station, watching a smaller, yellow fox in a hoodie run out. It was Kyle, running up to them. "Did you guys beat the monster?" He asked, out of breath.

"We did." Red said. "But you should probably get out of here."

"What, why?" He asked.

"Because we aren't done yet." Blue followed. The rangers watched as the Chaos Badge flew into the air, and then off into the horizon, reforming into a massive Dark Nekomata.

"NYOW I'M BIGGER THAN EVER!" It shouted. "COME AT ME, BITE SIZES!"

"Oh, right, got it!" Kyle said. "I'll go off now, see you guys later!" he quickly dashed off, leaving the five behind.

"Who was that?" Green asked Pink.

"I dunno, some friend of theirs." She responded.

The bull glanced back up at the monster, and looked to the three Zoorangers. "You guys can handle this one." Green said, as he and Pink backed out of the crater.

The three ZooRangers summoned up their mechs, forming into ZooRobo and ZooKami. They stomped towards the monster, who grinded his claws together.

ZooRobo moved in first, and attempted to slash at the monster, but before the blade could connect, the yokai-watch hybrid flew into the air. "GERAGERAGERAPO!" It laughed. "I can still fly, idiots!"

"Great, how are we supposed to get him down from there?" Red muttered. "Think we should go for long range?" He asked.

"We can try, but I'm not sure if it'll work." Blue said, sounding a bit unsure.

"I'll keep him busy!" Silver said, quickly shifting from ZooKami to ZooOkami. The wolf mech leaped into the air, and slashed at the monster with its tail, knocking it away.

Red quickly pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it in.

"BANG BANG  
BOOM BOOM!  
IT'S RODEO TIME!  
ZOOBISON!"

The two mechs quickly combined, ZooOkami falling back to the ground and shifting back to ZooKami. ZooRobo aimed its guns up at the monster, and rapidly fired.

"Hey, watch it!" It shouted. The monster started to block the bullets fired at it, and quickly managed to reflect a few back.

"Augh, this isn't working!" Blue grunted.

"Hold it, I think I have an idea!" Silver said. ZooKami quickly jumped to the opposite side of the monster. "Fire one of the guns at me!"

"Excuse me?" Red said, puzzled.

"Just do it!"

ZooRobo pointed one of its guns at ZooKami, and one up at Nekomata. "Hell are you guys doing?" The monster questioned.

The armed mech started to fire at the feline monster, who continued to block, but then quickly shot at ZooKami rapidly as well. The wolf mech started to bat the blasts back up at Nekomata with his sword, striking the monster in the back.

"MEEYOWTCH!" It shouted as blasts started to hit from both sides. The monster quickly fell to the ground, now at the mercy of the robots.

"Alright, guess its TIME to finish this!" Red said. Blue shook her head at the joke.

They pressed both of the guns together, building up energy for a moment, before firing it at the monster. The blast formed into a bison's head, which quickly rammed through its body.

"NYOOOOO!" The monster shouted. "I didn't even get to try the chocolate…" It fell over, and quickly exploded.

Nick, Judy, and Max appeared back on the street, and ran out of the crater, meeting with Emily and Henry.

"Well, I feel like we've all learned lessons here." Nick announced, crossing his arms. "If anyone has any idea what they were, feel free to share."

"Maybe we learned about the societal implications of technology ever encompassing our lives, and how eventually corporations will reduce us to herded masses." Henry suggested.

The four looked at him oddly.

"You know, evil watches, zombies." He continued. "It's a metaphor."

"Well, I don't know about that, but I feel I learned something." Max started. "I learned that trying to force what you feel onto others just distances you rather, instead of bringing us together." He looked down at Nick and Judy. "I just want to apologize for all the stuff I did to try and force you to like Halloween."

Emily smiled a bit at the wolf. Maybe he wasn't as childish as she thought.

"Actually, maybe going to the party this year would be fine." Nick admitted. "It's been a terrible day, and some relaxation would be nice."

"Really?" Max said, a bit surprised.

"Maybe you're right." Judy said. "With all this stress going around the last month, we haven't really had any time to unwind."

"Seriously?" Max said, still baffled. "After what I learned, you guys want to go now!?"

The two cautiously nodded, and Max fell silent.

He quickly hoisted them up. "We're gonna go get some costumes!"

Nick and Judy glanced at each other, before the wolf dashed off. The hyena scoffed, and shook her head. Nope, definitely as childish as she thought.

* * *

"Are you really, seriously sure you want to dress up as that?" Nick said as the three costumed mammals walked down the entrance to the station.

Nick was dressed as a pirate, complete with hat an eyepatch. A rather childish costume, to be sure, but he had always wanted to go as one since he was a kid, so it made it the obvious choice for him. Judy, however, was dressed as a zombie, wearing tattered clothes and white contact lenses, as well as slightly matting up her fur.

"Yeah, not really sure that's appropriate for an officer, let alone a superhero, to be wearing." Judy said, a bit concerned. "You might set a bad example for the children."

"Oh, come oooon." Max whined. The wolf was dressed in a baggy half purple, half white outfit, featuring a cape, and a horn taped to his forehead. He was dressed as Yabaiba. "Its Halloween, you're supposed to dress as bad guys!"

"I still think its wrong, and a bad idea." Judy said.

"You're the one dressed up as a zombie." Max grumbled.

"Yeah, not even the first time you've been a zombie today." Nick joked.

"Har, har." She grumbled. "Lets just get in there and relax already."

They walked in to the station, and were greeted with a very… odd scene.

Everyone there was wearing different colored outfits, though they all looked the same. In fact… they looked like the Zooranger outfits.

"Surprise!" Everyone shouted.

"How do you guys like our costumes?" Clawhauser asked, wearing a yellow version of the costume. "We decided to dress up as our own colors of your costumes to celebrate you guys coming back!"

"That's… very sweet." Judy admitted, though she was a bit weirded out.

"You come up with it, spots?" Nick asked.

"Actually, it was Bogo's idea!" He said, looking over at the buffalo, who was dressed in a black version. "Seems he appreciates you guys a lot more than it seems."

"You should've told us." Judy said, elbowing the chubby cheetah's leg. "We wouldn't have gotten costumes if we knew we could just come in our superhero outfits."

"We wanted to make it a surprise, sorry."

"I probably would've shown up in this anyway!" max admitted. "What's a superhero gathering without a villain, right?"

The fox let out a laugh. "Alright, Halloweenie, let's get this party started!"

* * *

The hyena placed the small altar on the desk in her apartment. It wasn't very large, only big enough to maybe fit two. She let out a sigh as she looked at the altar.

It wasn't much, just the last remaining picture she had of her parents. It was surrounded by a few candles, and a painted plastic hyena skull. In front of the picture were a few bowls, each containing a few cheap candies she had managed to buy. There was also a bottle of liquor, which was the most expensive thing there. It was all placed on a few brightly colored cloths, to brighten it up.

"Lo siento por el altar de aspecto barato este año. Sólo tengo suerte de poder hacer una." She said, before letting out a weak laugh. Before she could continue, there was a knock at the door.

She got up from her bed, and opened the door. It was Max, carrying a bag. "Hell are you doing here?" She asked.

"So, I… I wanted to make up for how I acted the other day." He said. "So, I decided to come over and, uh, celebrate the Day of the Dead with you." He held up the bag. "I don't really know what you need for it, so I just bought some, uh, soda and candy."

Emily sighed. "You got a lot to learn." She said. "Come on in."

The wolf walked into the tiny apartment, and sat on the bed next to her. She clasped her paws together, and started to talk again.

"Mucho ha cambiado tan rápido." She continued. "Me siento libre, finalmente, como si se hubiera quitado una cadena. Ojalá estuvieran aquí para ver cuánto he hecho."

She let out another sigh, and glanced at the wolf. "You gonna say anything?" She asked. "It's rude to keep them waiting."

"Oh, uh…" Max unsteadily clasped his paws together as well. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Hyerez. I'm one of your daughter's co-workers." He started. "I don't know much about her yet, but I'm hoping that, maybe, we can become closer friends. What I do know, is that you would be so proud of her if you were here today."

Emily let out a smile.

"Was… was that good?" He asked, nervously.

"It was alright." She said.

"So, I have a question." The wolf started, getting up and looking at the altar. "What exactly is this kind of stuff for? I mean, what does it represent?"

"Wanna learn some culture, huh?" She laughed. "Sit down, and I'll enlighten you."

The wolf complied.

"Every November first, its said that the spirits of the dead are free to roam…"


	35. Seeing Yellow

A few months ago…

The fennec let out a snore. It was around midnight, and he was passed out in the front of his van. He had been busy looking for a new job, hoping to make his life a little bit better and not just mooch off of Nick for the rest of his life.

It made him feel sick, having to live off of someone. At least before they had worked together, instead of just the fox doing all the work.

He had passed out after a long day, a car magazine hanging loosely in his paws, and his shirt off. Suddenly, there was a loud banging noise.

His ear twitched in response, and he sputtered in his sleep, but he didn't respond.

The banging got louder.

After a moment, Finnick dropped the magazine, and rubbed his eyes. He sat up from the seat, and the banging suddenly started up again, shocking him awake.

"Augh, WHO IS IT!?" He shouted, hopping down from the seat and heading to the back of the van. He quickly put on his black and red shirt, and kicked the door open.

There was nobody there.

He glanced around, confused. Who would come to his van in the middle of the night?

Who would come to his van, period? Well, aside from Nick.

He glanced around the alleyway he had parked in, there was definitely nobody there. He couldn't even get a smell, and there was no evidence of anyone being there.

Aside from a peculiar briefcase that sat on the ground.

He hopped down from the back of the van, and examined it. Completely silver, with a black handle. It had a strange marking on it, shaped like a V. He tapped it with his foot, and nothing happened.

The fennec groaned, before climbing back into his van. He grabbed his baseball bat, and slid the handle under the briefcase's handle, lifting it up and placing it in the van.

Personal experience had told him that opening a mysterious briefcase probably wasn't a good idea. He circled around it, examining it some more. He couldn't hear anything, so it wasn't a time bomb.

He let out a tired sigh, and pushed the briefcase into the corner of the van. He'd figure out what to do with it tomorrow.

* * *

Present day…

"So, I see your plan went… a little bust." Enter mocked as Long passed by in the cavern of the base.

The dragon warrior hadn't been out of his quarters for nearly a full month. Enter hadn't even had time to mock him before he secluded himself.

"Indeed, it did." Long said, stopping in his tracks. "And it also seems like out little game is over."

Enter let out a small "tch". He had wanted to figure out something to do with that Savage character, but his destruction made that hope an impossibility.

"I doubt you could've come up with anything to do with him." Long admitted. "He was a little hard to work with."

"Seems like you're the one who's harder to work with." Enter retorted. "What with you betraying him and leaving him in captivity to follow your own plans."

"I feel like its obvious I'm not the type of guy you can trust." Long said. "Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do."

Enter raised an eyebrow, and looked back at Long as he started to walk away. "Work?" He asked, intrigued. "What kind of work?"

"Nothing." Long replied. "Just a little something I've been planning."

"Hopefully it goes better than your last plan…" Enter muttered.

There was a sudden booming throughout the base.

" **ENTER** " Cried the voice of The Omnipotence. " **YOU ARE CHOSEN. COME TO THE MAIN HALL IMMEDIATELY** "

He sighed in relief as he started down the cavern. It had felt like he hadn't done anything in ages, it'd be nice to have a bit of fun for a while.

He stepped into the main hall, the massive pillar still glowing red. "What is it, le maître?" Enter asked, though he knew what it was already. It was the polite thing to do.

" **CAUSE CHAOS** " The Omnipotence boomed. " **KYUEMON AND YABAIBA PUT UP A SPIRITED EFFORT LAST TIME, BUT I REQUIRE MORE CHAOS ENERGY IN A MORE EFFICIENT MANNER** "

"Efficiency is my middle name." Enter said with a chuckle. Red data particles started to surround him, before he transformed into his cheetah disguise. He gave a bow, and teleported off.

* * *

"So, you stopped a zombie apocalypse and nobody noticed?" Finnick asked with a chuckle. He was sitting in the front seat of the van.

"Yes, I did." Nick replied from the back of the van. "This was last week, it was on the news."

The fox had arrived at Finnic's van, almost impromptu. Aside from a brief call a few days ago, there was basically no warning. Apparently, he wanted to play catch-up, since he hadn't seen the fennec that much for the last few months. It kind of reminded Finn of the old days, but it was also kind of just annoying for him to be here.

He didn't entirely mind the company, but he was hoping to spend his day off… alone.

"Uh huh, yeah." Finnick said, rolling his eyes. "You super hero types always go through weird shit like that?" He bluntly asked.

"Yes, yes we do." Nick said. "That was probably one of the least insane thing's that's happened to us, I never even told you about the time me and Judy swapped bodies…"

The fennec burst out laughing. "WHAT!?" He blurted out after his fit of laughter. "HOW'D THAT EVEN HAPPEN!?"

"There was lightning involved, and-"

"Oh man, that must've been HILARIOUS!" He continued. "Li'l bunny Nicky!"

"Oh, so you believe that, but you don't believe in the zombies." Nick said. "Of course."

"I'll believe anything if it has you getting horribly embarrassed." The fennec continued. "Any other embarrassing things you have to tell me?"

"Not that I want to say aloud." The fox scoffed. He then let out a sigh. "Listen, Finn, let's not talk about me anymore, what have YOU been doing?"

"Working."

"And?"

"That's basically it." He continued. "Been working at Buggaburger the last couple months, you know?"

"I know that." Nick said. "I'm the one who helped you get the job interview. I want to know what you've done OUTSIDE of work. Have you gotten any new friends, gone out and done anything, you know?"

"Nope." He said, pretty bluntly, and sounding a bit saddened. "Just been going to work, and then sleeping."

"That… that sounds terrible." Nick admitted, sitting down on the mattress that lined the van's back.

"It's called getting a service job, Nicky." Finnick continued. "Your first job was being an officer, there's a big difference between that and flipping burgers."

"Hey, it gets boring on the force some days." Nick said. "I mean, not recently, but…"

"You're a super hero, Nick." Finnick scoffed. "Of course your life is more interesting, it comes with the territory."

"Hey, I wasn't expecting to become a super hero." Nick said. "It just kind of happened, and it felt like the right thing to do."

"I'm not trying to shame you for it, man." Finnick said. "We just have really different lives right now. You've got all these new mammals in your life, I'm still trying to work up to having a house. I think it might just be better if we stop trying to keep this friendship alive right now."

"Finn, I'm not going to abandon anyone else again." Nick said, getting back up. "We've been friends since middle school, I can't just leave you."

"Just leave me until you clean up this whole monster business, alright?" He said. "I just want to get my own life sorted out before I get into anything else, got it?"

Nick sighed. "Alright." He muttered. "Guess I'll be heading off, I have work to do-"

He paused for a moment as he spotted something in the back corner of the van. A silver briefcase. He hadn't noticed it when he came in.

"Hey, Finn, heading out of town for a bit?" Nick joked as he tried to lift the briefcase up. It was remarkably heavy, and he quickly had to put it back down.

"What?" Finnick looked back, and spotted the briefcase. "Oh yeah, that thing. Weird story."

Nick started to examine the briefcase as the fennec went on. "Kind of just showed up a few months back, thought it might've been a bomb, but it hasn't gone off yet. Wouldn't suggest opening it, though."

Nick looked over it, it seemed very familiar. He then noticed something, a very peculiar V-shaped marking.

Wait a second.

This was exactly like the briefcase he and Judy got when they first became Zoorangers.

He steadily moved his paws to the latches, and slowly lifted them. He carefully opened the lid, trying not to make any noise. He looked into the case.

There was a blank Zoolizer, just like the ones they had.

He slowly shut it, without Finnick noticing. "So, this just, uh, showed up one day?" He asked, a bit nervous.

"Yeah."

"Guess I better leave it here." Nick said, standing back up, still sounding a bit shaken. "Hey, I have to… go. Right now."

"Yeah, you said something about work, right?" The fennec asked. "Probably don't want to make your girlfriend upset."

"Right, yeah!" He said, giving a double thumbs-up. "I'll see you soon, bye Finn!"

The fox quickly burst out of the van, and ran down the alleyway. Finnick got up, and watched, a bit confused, as the fox ran off.

"What a weirdo."

* * *

"You're kidding me." Judy said, unamused at what the fox had just told her.

"I am absolutely not kidding you." Nick responded.

Max casually walked into the room, not hearing what the two were talking about. Judy sat on the couch, looking livid, while Nick paced around in front of her, looking more worried.

"How could HE be the last member of our team?" She sighed, smacking her paw into her face.

"Look, I'm just as confused as you are, I don't-"

"Did I miss something?" max asked as he walked into the living room. "Something super important about the last member of our team? Did you guys leave me out of that?"

"We were going to tell you once we sorted this all out." Judy explained. "This is kind of personal for Nick."

"Its personal for both of us." Nick corrected. "But yeah, we found our last member."

"Cool, who is it?" Max asked, cheerfully.

"It's uh…" Nick paused and cleared his throat. "…My old partner, Finnick."

Max blinked a few times, out of confusion. Not confusion out of the actual statement, but confusion of why they hadn't told him. "I've met Finnick, guys." He continued with a small laugh. "Why didn't you let me join in on this?"

"There's a lot more going on than that." Nick continued. "Me and Judy were about to talk about if he should be our new member."

"Personally, I don't think he should." Judy said. "He's a violent hobo, basically, I don't really think he'll be able to help us that much hero-ing wise." She quickly let out a sigh. "But if its who AkaRed chose, then I guess there isn't much we can do, right?"

"Yeah, that red god guy chose you two, and that worked out pretty well, right/" Max said.

"Well, I don't want him to join at all!" Nick said. "He's got a lot going on right now, and he could get in some serious trouble if this takes over his life." The fox then quickly glanced at Judy. "But on the other paw, I think he'd make a valued member of the team. Little guy's got a lot of strength in there."

"Okay, you have a point there too, Nick." Max admitted. The wolf started to pace around for a few moments, thinking of something. "Why don't we just let him test the powers out?" Max suggested.

"What does that mean?" Judy asked. "You mean, like, a trial run?"

"Yeah, let him have the powers for a mission, and see what he thinks after." The wolf continued. "That way, Finnick can figure it out himself."

"I guess that could work." Judy said. "Having him here for a day couldn't harm any of us, right?"

"Yeah, especially not on his day off." Nick said. "I'll call him up."

The fox quickly pulled out his phone, and started to dial the fennec's number. "Why the hell are you calling me, Nick?" Finnick responded almost instantly after he picked up.

"I need you to come over to my… my place." Nick said.

"Jesus fuck, you were just here an hour ago!" Finnick yelled. "Why should I come over to your place!?"

"Its an emergency, Finn." Nick said, rubbing his forehead. "I just need you here as soon as possible, got it?"

"Ugh, fine." The fennec growled over the phone. "I hate that I'm such a pushover for you. Be there in thirty minutes."

"Alright, see yo-" Finnick hung up before the fox could finish. He slipped the phone back in his pocket. "Okay, hopefully everything goes well, and Finnick doesn't decide to bash our faces in."

"Has anybody told him that his voice is terrifying?" Max asked, letting go of his pulled down ears. "Because it is."

"Yeah, he gets that a lot." Nick said, before turning to Judy. "Surprised you haven't said anything about it, Ms. Sensitivity."

"I lived in a house with four-hundred other bunnies, I can handle loud." She said.

* * *

"Let's do this quickly before the cops show up." The adolescent weasel said to his friends. "Hand me one of those."

The teenage rhino with him quickly tossed over a spray can, which the weasel caught. It was nearly as large as him, however, but he could still spray it.

"You guys sure we should be doing this?" A nervous leopard asked as the other two shook their spray cans.

"Don't be a loser." The rhino said, quickly starting to spray something on the wall of the abandoned building in front of them. "We just have to finish before anyone reports us."

"Yeah, but I'm still not really sure-"

"Bonjour, my friends!"

The three screamed as they turned to face a fully-grown cheetah. It looked a bit odd, with completely tan fur and a strange pair of goggles resting on its head.

"Oh, hello there, sir!" The weasel said. "We were, uh, just, not, doing anything right here!"

"Please don't report us." The leopard pleaded. "My mom will kill me."

"Don't worry, I won't report you three." The cheetah said. "I'm a bit of a troublemaker myself. Toss me one of those cans, and I'll show you what I can do."

The rhino glanced down at the weasel, who quickly motioned his head, suggesting the rhino follow along with it. He took a gulp, and tossed the spray can over.

"Ooh, magnifique." The cheetah said as he caught the can. He quickly held up something that looked like a credit card, and jabbed it into the can.

It started to glow as he tossed it to the ground. The three teens started to back off as the can somehow shifted and transformed.

The spray can's new form revealed itself. Its body was covered in strange, random patterns, which seemed to form into an eye searing mess of primary colors, purple, and gunmetal steel. The patterns were broken up by the steel linings on its chest, inner legs, inner arms, and neck, the rest of it covered in the mishmash of colors.

Despite its body being overall humanoid shaped, its head was bizarre. An elongated tube of a neck that ended at a stump of a head, the only things resembling facial features being two split visors, and a blue jewel in the middle of its forehead. On both sides of the head were two spray can sprayers, each coming out at a sideways angle.

The monster's chest had an odd V-shaped insignia on it, and its shoulders had two spray can bodies coming out of them. Two hoses seemed to connect them and the head together as well. Its arms were fairly simple, but its left one had a large device strapped around its wrist. The device seemed to be an oversized spray can itself, with a tube at the end for more precise spraying. It was connected by a joint, allowing it to move down and not get in the way of the monster's hand. The can itself was also covered in the same color mishmash, and had some odd writing on the side.

The monster's legs moved down into full leg armor at the knees, which splayed out at bronze ends. The feet were of a similar shade of silver, but had small dotting of color over them. The feet also had large, thin spikes at its toes.

"Yo yo yo, Sprayroid Two in da house!" In shouted. The teenage mammals screamed again, and quickly ran off. "Aw man, didn't get to show those homies my talents!"

"Sprayroid Two." Enter said, causing the monster to spin around.

"Hey, if it ain't my homie, Enter!" He said. "Hows life been treating you the last few years?"

"I don't really care enough to tell you." Enter followed. "But you have a mission to do, got it?"

"Oh, yessir!" The monster said, quickly giving a salute. "Whaddya want me to do?"

"Just do what you do best." The cheetah explained. "Cause some trouble with your… special skills."

"Oh, you mean I get to go tag some places?" He asked, excitedly. "Count me in, I am totes down for that!"

"Can you please stop talking like that." Enter groaned.

"Talk like what?"

* * *

Thirty minutes had passed, and like Finnick had said, he was there. The van pulled up to the house, and he got out. The fennec examined the place. Pretty white-collar from the outside, not the kind of place he'd expect Nick to buy.

As he walked up the driveway, the door opened and Nick came running out. "What kind of emergency is this?" Finnick asked as he walked up.

"A very important one." Nick said. He glanced over at the van. "We need that briefcase."

The fennec glared at him. "Did you snoop around in my stuff?"

"What? No, of course I didn't!" The fox nervously said with a chuckle.

"Then how do you know this involves that briefcase?"

"I just… I know, alright?"

The two headed over to the van, Finnick hopping into the back and lifting the briefcase up. It was nearly as large as his entire body, it was amazing he could even lift it, the fennec didn't even seem to be having any trouble as he hopped back down from the back of the truck.

"How are you actually managing to lift that thing?" Nick asked as Finnick used his back to close the van doors.

"I'm a lot more fit than you are, Nicky." He chuckled. "Maybe I you bothered going to the gym, you'd be able to lift things that aren't lighter than paper."

Nick grunted in response, and they walked back up to the house.

"So, this your place?" Finnick asked.

"Technically it is a place where I am living." Nick answered. "Bit it isn't 'my place'."

"Wait, so you're mooching off someone?" The fennec chuckled as he hopped up the stairs. "AGAIN!?"

"Yes, because I haven't had any financial income over the last few months, I have been forced to go entirely off the good will of one of my friends." Nick explained. "It isn't mooching when someone offers."

"IT TOTALLY IS!"

Nick tried to ignore the laughing fennec as he jumped up to grab the doorknob, and then pushed it open.

The two walked in, Finnick still laughing. "Didn't know Finnick liked our jokes that much." Judy said as they entered the living room.

"He doesn't, he just thinks my misery is hilarious." Nick replied.

Finnick quickly calmed down, and got a grumpier expression on his face as he looked around, dropping the briefcase to the carpeted floor, handle pointing towards the couch. "So, the hell do you guys want me for?" he asked. "Doesn't seem like an emergency to me."

"It isn't technically an emergency." Max replied, the wolf sat on the couch next to Judy. "But we do need you here."

"Hold it, you the guy who owns this place?" Finnick asked, interrupting Max before he could continue.

"Uh, yeah, I own the building."

Finnick started to laugh again, much to the fox's annoyance. "You seriously live with your whole superhero team!?" He laughed. "What are you guys, the Super Roomies!?"

"You can see why I don't want him joining." Judy whispered to max, who gave a quick nod.

"Finn, can you please stop for a second?" Nick asked politely.

The fennec stifled his laughter for a moment. "Yeah, sorry, this whole thing's just too great."

"Okay, now that you aren't going to laugh for another thirty seconds," Nick started, walking to the other side of the breifcase. "I need you to open that briefcase."

"You snooped at my stuff, didn't you?" Finnick asked as he walked up to the briefcase.

"I did, yes."

The fennec groaned, before unlatching the briefcase. Judy and Max got down from the couch, and watched as he opened it.

"Oh my god." Judy said, not really believing her eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me." Nick muttered.

"Hell's this?" Finnick let out.

Inside the briefcase was, like Nick had managed to catch a brief glimpse of before, a blank Zoolizer placed in a black foam mesh to keep it safe. Oval shaped and completely greyed out, waiting for someone to wear it so it could take shape.

Unfortunately, this one seemed far too big to fit on Finnick's tiny wrists.

"Seriously, what the hell is this?" Finnick repeated, lifting the wrist device out of the black mesh. He had to use both of his paws in order to do so.

"It's a lot larger than the other ones." Max said.

"What other ones?" Finnick asked, obviously very confused. "Can someone explain to me what the hell's going on!?"

"So, Finn, as it turns out…" Nick paused, and rubbed his paws together, the fennec shooting him a glare. He spent a few seconds trying to find a good way to ease him into the knowledge of being a Zooranger.

"You're a Zooranger now." Judy bluntly finished, a smug look on her face. She shot a quick look at Nick, telling him she definitely did that on purpose.

"Excuse me?" The fennec said, waving the device around. Suddenly, a grin crept across his muzzle. "Oh, I get it, this is some kind of prank, right?" He said, walking away, from the three, still carrying the Zoolizer.

"What? No it isn't-"

"Yeah, good attempt on you, Nick." Finnick interrupted. "Just because its been years since you pulled one on me doesn't mean I don't know how to read them."

"Finnick, seriously, this isn't a prank-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, 'not a prank, this is serious', you don't think I've heard that a hundred times from you?" He continued. "What, were you just expecting me to put this thing on my wrist," He said, quickly placing it against his left wrist. "Then what, snakes would pop out of it or-"

Suddenly, the wrist strap wrapped around his wrist, buckling it tightly.

"What the hell!?"

The Zoolizer started to glow, and there was a burst of yellow light throughout the entire house. It shined out the windows, like a star had exploded inside the house, strong enough that it was clear even in the broad daylight.

When it cleared, the four were all dazed by the light. Finnick rubbed his paws against his eyes, managing to get them to settle back to normal. "Oh, I got it, some kind of light show." He groaned. "You know I'm sensitive to light, Nick."

"We ALL ARE!" He shouted. The fennec noticed that all three were trying to steady their eyes as well.

"This isn't a prank, Finnick!" Judy shouted as she finished rubbing her eyes. "Look at your wrist!"

"What are you-" The fennec lifted his wrist up and looked at it. The device was directly attached to his wrist now, and had shrunken considerably in size to become more proportional with the rest of his arm. The design had changed as well, it now resembling somewhat of a fennec face with a nose-shaped button.

"Welcome to the Zoorangers." Nick groaned. "I was going to try and ease you into this, but Ms. Smartrabbit here decided to be clever."

"You're not exactly the kind of mammal who can 'ease' someone into something." Judy replied. "I just did what I had to, to speed things along."

"What, so I'm actually one of your super hero team guys now?" Finnick asked, in disbelief. "This isn't a prank?"

"No, this is very serious." Nick said. "We were going to ask if you actually wanted to join us first, but I guess its too late for that."

"Whaddya mean 'too late'?" he asked, starting to sound a bit panicked. That wasn't an emotional state Nick had heard Finnick in a lot. "Can't I just take this thing off?"

He started to tug at the device, and then tried to play with the strap, in a desperate attempt to get it off of his arm. "WHY ISN'T IT COMING OFF!?"

"They don't come off." Judy stated. "You need modifications to do that, and we don't have anyone here right now that can do that."

"So, I'm just stuck with this thing forever!?" He shouted.

"Looks like it!" She said, smugly.

"Judy, you're acting like a real jerk right now." Max whispered.

"Eh, guy deserves at least a bit of this." She replied, shrugging.

"You're scary sometimes."

"Alright, so, Finn." Nick started. He quickly grabbed the fennec by the shoulder, and moved him over to the couch. "Just sit down for a moment, and we can talk about all of this."

"Yeah, just relax for a bit." Max said.

The fnnec nodded, and hopped up on the couch, laying down on it. Nick hopped up after, and was quickly followed by Judy. Max moved behind the couch, and looked over the back of it.

"We're going to have to tell you EXACTLY what's going on." Judy said, Nick nodding in agreement.

"This is slightly bigger than just us being super heroes." Nick started. "What we actually are now goes back a lot longer."

"Basically, we're sort of a branch off of another group of super heroes from an alternate universe." Max stated. "Well, actually a bunch of other super hero teams."

"Let me handle this." Nick said. He cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. "Basically, there's another universe where these superheroes called the Super Sentai protect the world from monsters, and a bunch of their past villains have been revived somehow, and we were tasked to become our own team in order to fight against them and protect the world."

Finnick turned to glare at him.

"Everything I said was completely true."

"Yeah, it is, sorry to drop all that on you at once." Judy said.

"I wasn't told any of this when I joined." Max said. "That's what a god told them when they met with him. You forgot to mention that, Nick."

"I left that part out on purpose, Max." Nick groaned.

"So…" Finnick said, sitting up. "I'm supposed to help you guys fight against monsters and protect the world, or whatever?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Judy said.

"What if I… don't want to?" The fennec asked. "What if I just want to go home and sleep?"

"Too late for that now, buddy." Nick said. "Like Carrots said, that thing doesn't come off once you put it on." He paused for a moment. "But if you REALLY don't want to do it, we can try and figure something out."

"Yeah, just give it one day." Max suggested. "If you don't want to, we can just not bug you about it after."

The fennec groaned. He wasn't getting out of this one without at least an attempt at this super hero thing. "Fine." He grunted, sitting up. "But I have no idea how to work this thing."

"We can guide you through that." Judy said. "Step one, if you want to transform into your superhero form, you need to say 'zoo on' and then press the button on your Zoolizer."

"The Zoolizer is the wrist thing." Nick continued.

"Alright, if I'm going to do this, might as well try it out." He groaned, before hopping off the couch. He walked towards the middle of the room, and placed his paw on the button. He hesitated for a moment. Did he really want to do this? Did he even have a choice at this point? The fennec gritted his teeth.

"Zoo on?"

He pressed the button in, causing two large ears to fold out from the Zoolizer, as well as causing the eyes to open up and light up a bright yellow. There was a flash of light, a lot weaker than the one before.

A second passed, and Finnick had transformed into ZooYellow.

His suit was nearly the same as the other Zooranger outfits, the same markings and such, but it was done in yellow rather than in blue, red, or silver. The suit even covered his puffy tail. The largest change was the helmet, specifically designed to fit around his head, and even covered his ears, still letting them move around.

"This is weird as shit." Yellow said as he moved around in the suit. "What is this stuff made out of?"

"We're, uh, not entirely sure." Nick answered.

"But it gets comfortable after a while, trust us." Judy said.

He let out a small groan.

"Alright, we should probably go over some basics first." Nick said, hopping down from the couch. "You know, combat training and such."

"I know how to beat people up, Nick." Yellow said.

"Yeah, but this gets a lot more complicated than that, like-"

There was a sudden horrible loud beeping noise all four Zoolizers, shocking all of them "AUGH, WHAT IS THAT!?" Yellow shouted, pulling his ears down. "And why am I thinking about… central park?" He finished as the beeping subsided.

"Monster alert!" Judy said, hopping down from the couch as well.

"What she means is that that's what happens when we get a monster alert." Nick said. "And when that happens, it sends you a telepathic message that tells you where the monster is attacking."

"This sounds like it gets very annoying, very quickly." Yellow groaned.

"Oh, it is definitely annoying." Nick said. He quickly grabbed Yellow by the arm, and started to drag him out. "We'll have to go over the basics when we get there."

The fennec groaned as they all headed out of the house.

What in the world had he gotten himself into?

* * *

"Aw, man, there's like, nothing else to tag 'round here!" The monster said as it walked through the park. It looked around, examining its work, a number of multi-color squiggles drawn across the grass, trees, benches, rocks, any surface that could possibly be drawn on.

"Still do good work though!" It bragged to itself. "Maybe I should head out of here and go cause some more of a ruckus somewhere else!"

"Stop!"

The monster spun around, and watched as the Zoorangers drove in on their motorbikes. Blue was carrying Yellow on her bike, while Silver was riding on Red's. They skidded to a halt, Red and Silver getting off quickly, while Blue helped Yellow down from it.

"Those things are great!" Yellow said, finally a bit enthused about something. "But you guys suck at actually driving the, do you even have your license?"

"No, we don't." Blue said. "We were just kind of given them, hard to get your license when that happens."

"Maybe I should check out some of the specs on these babies." Yellow said, running a paw over the Usagider.

"You can fawn over the bikes later, got it?" Red said. "We have to fight a monster!"

Yellow turned to look at the monster. "Are all the guys you fight as ugly as this?" He asked.

"UGLY!?" The monster shouted.

"Yeah, but usually they're not as much of eyesore as this guy is." Blue stated.

"EYESORE!?" The monster shouted again. "You guys have no idea who you're talkin' 'bout, I'm the master of art in the underworld, I'm the greatest graffiti artist in the monster kingdom! I AM SPRAYROID TWO!"

"'Two'?" Blue said, confused. "We've never fought a Sprayroid ONE!"

"Oh, then, uh…" The monster paused for a moment. "Just call me Sprayroid, then."

Blue shook her head. "Red, teach our new teammate how to use his stuff, Silver and I will handle the monster for now." She ordered. Nick gave a quick nod, and the two dashed into the monster, starting to fight him.

Before he started talking to the fennec, Red glanced around, spotting an add assortment of multicolored squiggles on the ground. It was in the middle of the grass, but seemed to be flat like pavement. He placed a paw on it, it felt like pavement too.

He shook it off, and got back up. "Alright, ready to learn about your new powers, Yellow?" Red asked.

"Hell are you calling me 'Yellow' for?" The fennec said.

"From what I can tell, we actually can't call each other by our actual names unless something extreme happens." Red said. "Try it."

"Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me, Nick."

"…Never mind, then."

Red looked back at the fight. Blue and Silver leaped into the fight, the rabbit attempted to slash at the garish monster with her knives, while the wolf went in for a side swipe with his rapier. The monster managed to block Blue's attack, but was slashed by Silver. It unfortunately seemed to recover fairly quickly, and kicked Silver away.

"Okay, let's do this fast." Red said, turning back to Yellow.

"Yeah, those two look like they're gonna get killed." Yellow said bluntly. "This thing come with any weapons?"

"Uh, it should." Red said, scratching the back of his head. "We got weapons with ours."

"Well, I don't see any pockets, so where the hell do you keep 'em?"

"I… I dunno, usually we just… think about a weapon, and then it shows up?" Red said, trying to explain. When he said it out loud, he realized how it made no sense at all. "Listen, just try to… pull something out from behind your back."

"Uh, okay." The fennec said, really not sure how that would work. He awkwardly reached behind his back, and thought of a weapon.

Surprisingly, there was something there.

He quickly pulled it out from behind him. It was a large club of some kind, yellow in color, and with a baseball bat like handle for him to grip onto. It was shaped, oddly enough, exactly like his tail, and even stranger, was twice as tall as Yellow was himself, being nearly the same size as Red.

"Whoa."

"How the hell are you carrying that thing?" Red asked.

"I dunno, I don't care." Yellow said, quickly slamming the club into the ground, turning up dirt with a surprising amount of force. "Haha, yeah, this is what I want."

"Yo, your friends ever gonna come join this party?" The monster asked as it spun out of the way of dual swipes from the two Zoorangers. "It's getting pretty boring! Its like being trapped in an art gallery," Sprayroid continued as Silver jumped in for another swipe, before the monster clonked him on the head with his spray can. "So DULL, no PIZZAZZ!"

"You want some 'pizzazz'!?" Yellow shouted as he ran into the battle. The monster turned to face him, watching as the fennec leaped into the air. "HERE'S SOME GODDAN PIZZAZZ!"

Yellow quickly swung his club into the monster's chest, causing it to stumble back as he hit the ground. He leaped back up again, swinging the club upwards into the monster's chest. The force of the hit launched the monster up into the air, as the fennec hit the ground again. As soon as he hit the ground, he leaped back up into the air, and slammed the club back down on the monster, sending it careening into the ground, leaving a crack in the dirt.

The monster let out a groan as Yellow hit the ground again. "Hey, maybe this whole thing isn't that bad." The fennec chuckled to himself, pounding the club into his other paw.

"Wow, that was pretty amazing, Yellow!" Silver said, walking up to the fennec.

"Yeah, seems like you're enjoying yourself too!" Blue continued. "Sure you don't want to work with us?"

"Ehh, maybe-"

"YOU JERKS!"

The three turned back to the monster, who had gotten up from its crash. Its body seemed to be considerably beaten, gas of some kind seeming to leak out of some wounds. "I'm going to get repairs, and once I do, you guys will be utterly humiliated! JUST YOU WATCH!"

Sprayroid grabbed onto its spray can, and started to spray it in the air, creating a cloud around him, which quickly vanished alongside the monster.

"Good job, there, Finn!" Nick said as he walked up and untransformed, Judy and Max quickly following. The fennec looked back and forth at them.

"How the hell do you get out of this thing?" Yellow asked.

"You just gotta hit the button again." Nick explained. Finnick did so, and quickly turned back to normal.

"So, now what do you guys normally do?" He asked. "Monster got away, so do we chase after it, or do we sit around on our asses until something else happens?"

"Usually the later." Nick said.

"That's not true, Nick." Judy said. "Usually there's something else going on at the same time, like we'll get a call from Clawhauser and-"

Before she could even finish, her phone went off. She pulled it out, and saw it was Clawhauser. "Huh." She muttered as she answered it.

The cheetah's face appeared on the phone's screen, standing not behind his desk, but near the witness room by the looks of things. "Oh, hey guys, we need you at the station for some-"

"There is NO WAY this is police regulation!" A voice from off camera yelled, very clearly Emily's.

"Well, this isn't normal police business, of course you two are in charge!" Yelled another voice, definitely Bogo's.

"We need you here-" Clawhauser tried to continue.

"How the hell are we supposed to handle something like this!?" Emily shouted again. "OH GOD, IT'S EVERYWHERE!"

"Sir, Ma'am, whatever, can you please come down from the ceiling." Said a third voice, this one Henry's.

Clawhauser opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted by Bogo. "CLAWHAUSER! GET THOSE THREE ON THE LINE!"

"I'm trying, chief, but you keep interrupting!" He shouted back, though nowhere near as forceful as Bogo's yell. He turned back to the screen. "Please get here as soon as possible, we're in a heap of trouble." He quickly hung up.

The four remained silent, and left in obvious confusion, for a moment.

"So, we should, probably head to the station now, huh?" Nick said. Judy and Max nodded.

"Excuse me?" Finnick said. "I'm not going to the police station, sorry."

"Seriously, Finn?" Nick said with a sigh. "You won't be arrested, we'll make sure of it."

"We can't actually make sure of that." Judy quickly added, causing the fox to slump for a second.

He pulled himself back up, and ran his paw over his head. "Listen, if you're going to work with us, and I'm not saying you will, you should probably meet our other two members."

"It just makes sense." Max followed. "Can't have a full team if we don't all know each other."

"Mmmmmmmfine." Finnick let out. "I'll go to the station, but if I end up getting throw in the slammer, its all your fault, got it?"

"Yes, we got it."

* * *

The four arrived at the station soon after the call. "Okay, Finn, just act natural." Nick said. "And I don't mean act like yourself, I mean try to be as nice as you possibly can."

"That's a very high bar, Nicky." Finnick replied as they walked into the station.

"Yeah, I know, but please try."

As soon as they walked in, they were greeted by Clawhauser, who was sitting at his desk. "Oh, hey guys!" He said, in his usually cheerful way. "Glad you made it here so fast, the chief needs you in…" He paused as he spotted Finnick. "Hey, have I met you before?"

"Yeah, I've been arrested a few times." Finnick replied.

"Good going, Finn." Nick said.

"You're friends with Nick?" clawhauser asked, a bit excitedly. "How long have you known each other?"

"Schoolyard friends." Finn said. He turned to Nick. "You work with this guy?"

"Yes, we do work with him, it isn't a big deal." Nick sighed.

"Anyway!" Judy started, clapping her paws together. "Bogo wants to see us? Trouble happening somewhere, right?"

"Oh, yeah, at the witness room." Ben said. "It's, uh… There's definitely something happening there!" He finished, sounding a bit scared.

"Alright, we'll head there ASAP." Judy said, and the four continued on.

"Feels weird to be in here and, y'know, not be under arrest." Finnick said.

"Yeah, take's a few months before you get used to it." Nick replied.

They quickly arrived outside the witness room, a rather large room at the back of the building. Bogo stood outside the door, while Emily and Henry sat on a pair of chairs just outside.

The hyena was covered in what looked like green goo, and looked absolutely miserable. Henry, however, had what looked like ink splattered across his face. Bogo just looked completely livid.

"Oh, thank god you three are here." Bogo said, before pausing. "Though I see you've brought a fourth."

"Yo." Finnick said, giving a quick wave.

Emily glanced over at the fennec. "Finnick? That you?" She asked.

He looked at the two, and squinted. "Seriously?" He continued, elbowing Nick. "Didn't tell me these two were your other teammates."

"Wait, you guys know each other?" Nick asked, confused.

"Yeah, we-"

"Excuse me." Bogo snorted. "Why did you bring a criminal into the station?"

"Oh, as it turns out," Judy started. "He's kind of the las member of our team."

Bogo shot her a glare, before sighing. "I don't care, but this is police business." He started. "So you need to go wait in the lobby."

"Got it." Finnick said. It was clear he didn't want to be there. "See you guys after whatever the hell you're doing is over!" He continued before walking off.

The fennec walked back to the lobby, and let out a sigh. He was feeling very conflicted about this whole thing. On one hand, becoming a superhero could very well help him get his life back on track, and potentially let him get a place to sleep that isn't a van in the middle of the alleyway.

But he wasn't sure if he actually wanted to help. He'd be doing this entirely for his own selfish motives, which probably wouldn't end up going over well with the bunny cop – and in turn, not going over well with Nick.

Despite what he had said earlier, Finnick did want to try and continue the friendship between the two of them. He had been friends with Nick for years, and it would feel wrong to just leave him like that, even if it would probably be good for the both of them.

Clawhauser watched as the fennec paced around the lobby, muttering to himself. "You want some privacy?" He asked.

"What?" Finnick asked, snapping out of his thoughts. He shook his head. "Yeah, I need somewhere quiet."

"I don't think there's anyone in the break room right now." Clawhauser said, pointing over to a door on the other side of the room. "You can go there, if you want."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Finnick said. He wasn't exactly sure how to treat that kind of kindness, but he headed into the room anyway.

He started to pace around, more conflicted thought running through his head. He just wanted to figure out his own life, but nothing really seemed to be clicking in place. What if he just didn't have anywhere to go once Nick left? What if helping him was his only real purpose? What if…

The fennec's thoughts were interrupted by his phone going off, playing a brief heavy guitar riff. He looked at the number.

It was his boss.

He cautiously answered it. "Hello, Mr. McElroy." Finnick said, timidly. A tone he rarely, if ever put up.

"Finnegan, get your tiny little behind over here!" The manager shouted, his voice gruff.

"But sir, it's my day off, can't I just-"

"We're short staffed right now!" He continued to shout. "Lucile got in an accident, something about a can of paint, so she couldn't show up. You're the only one having a day off today, so I need you to get here NOW!"

"Sir, I'm in the middle of something important, alright?" Finnick said. "Give me three hours, and I'll be there."

"Ugh, fine." He groaned. "But if you aren't here by then, you're FIRED!"

The phone hung up, and the fennec slumped his head to the side.

What a day.

* * *

"Alright, now that he's gone…" Bogo started, looking down at the three Zoorangers. "I suppose you three would like to know what's going on."

"That's be very appreciated, yes." Nick said, glancing at the dirtied SPD officers.

"What happened to you guys?" Max asked, a bit concerned.

"That's something you're going to have to see for yourself…" Emily groaned, placing a paw to her face.

"Yeah, we can't really… describe what happened." Henry continued.

"Well, I hate the sound of this already." Nick said.

"Um, I'd at least like to go in there expecting something." Judy said. "You guys being quiet about it is a bit… distressing."

"We're all in a bit of distress right now." Bogo sighed, before opening the door to the witness room. An unholy stench creeped out from it.

"OH GOD!" Max yelled. He dry-heaved for a moment. "Excuse me!" The wolf quickly ran off, most likely to puke somewhere.

"Oh GOD, what is that?!" Judy yelled, clenching her nose as well.

"It'll clear up in a moment." Bogo said. A few seconds passed, and the smell went away, though the two's eyes were still watering.

"What could even make something that terrible smelling?" Nick managed to choke out.

"See for yourself."

The two walked in, and both their ears popped up. What was in the witness room was… definitely something else.

It was a host of… creatures? One looked like a pile of green goo with two odd stylized eyes. Another was some kind of cephalopod, clinging to the ceiling, though it had an odd, rounded head unlike a real octopus. There was also some kind of tin robot, a floating eye with wings, and an odd, floating skeleton with a bovine-esque skull and horns.

They stared at the group for a moment.

"Hey, no staring, please!" The skeleton said in a very light female voice. "We know this is weird, but its still uncomfortable."

"Sorry, I think the fumes are making me hallucinate." Nick said with a chuckle.

"You're not hallucinating, Wilde." Bogo said.

"Who are they?" Judy asked. "Why do they look like that?"

"We're just normal mammals, you gotta believe us!" The robot said in a fairly normal male voice, though it sounded like it was coming out of a speaker.

"Yeah!" The octopus said in a VERY masculine voice, before it dropped to the ground. "This weirdo monster attacked us and turned us into these things!"

"Did the monster look like a paint-by-numbers done by a colorblind mole?" Nick asked.

The transformed mammals started nodding and letting out affirmative noises.

"Yeah, we've definitely seen that guy running around."

"You guys just need to stay here for right now." Judy said. "We'll figure out how to get you all back to normal, don't worry."

"Thank you, Ms. Hopps." The skeleton said.

The two exited the room, Bogo closing the door behind them. "You two have any bright ideas?" He asked.

"Why are you asking us, aren't you the chief?" Nick replied.

"I'm not the one who deals with evil monsters all the time, now am I?"

"Okay, true."

"What I would recommend," Judy started. "Is putting on a full alert for the monster." She finished "I'll try to draw up a sketch, and you can send out a full report."

"Sounds like a plan." Bogo said with a sigh. "I have an order for you now, as well."

"Is it 'go and find the monster and beat them up'?" Nick guessed.

Bogo let out a snort.

* * *

"Sorry, but that smell was just… terrible." Max apologized as he followed Judy, Nick, Emily, and Henry back out into the lobby. "I couldn't even make out what it was, just that I never want to smell it again."

Around forty minutes had passed, and Max had only come back from his bathroom escapades. They had already called on the alert, and were now planning on heading out to deal with the monster itself.

"Max, it's fine, don't let it get to you." Judy said. She turned back to Emily and Henry. "You guys sure you don't want to come with us to track down the monster?" She asked.

"Yeah, I just want to have a shower." Emily groaned.

"But we have a new member, remember?" Nick said. "Don't you guys wanna work as a full team?"

"I'd rather not work with Finnick." Emily grunted.

"Good luck on finding the monster." Henry said, the two walking off.

"Hm." Nick let out, before glancing around. Finnick wasn't around, even though he had been told to wait in the lobby. He looked up at the cheetah behind the desk, who was playing something on his phone. "Hey Spots, you know where that little fennec went?"

"Oh, he looked like he needed somewhere to think, so I told him he could use the break room." Clawhauser explained, looking up from the phone. "Please don't tell Bogo."

"Don't worry, we won't." Judy said with a chuckle. "Even though that totally goes against business ethics, but whatever…" She muttered to herself.

The three headed into the break room, and spotted the fennec sitting on one of the large couches, arms crossed.

"Hey, Finn!" Nick called over to him. "We're going monster hunting, you coming with us, or are you gonna sit here all day?"

Finnick let out a small growl, before hopping down from the couch. "Alright, but let's make this quick, got it?" He continued to growl as they headed out of the break room.

The fox paused for a second as they left the break room. "Can you guys go wait outside for a moment?" He asked, turning to Judy and Max. "I want to talk with Finnick for a moment."

"Sure, you two have your privacy." Max said.

"I'd rather not know what you two are going to talk about, so, yeah." Judy followed. The two quickly walked out of the building. Clawhauser put his earbuds in, to give them full privacy.

"How do you know Emily and Henry?" Nick asked.

"We met in prison." Finnick said, bluntly.

Nick placed his paw to his forehead. "When were you in prison?" He sighed.

"The time I played patsy for you when one of your dumb schemes blew up in you muzzle." The fennec growled. "Remember that?"

"Uh…"

"It was eight years ago, Nick."

"I had a lot of dumb scheme blow up in my muzzle, you have to be specific."

"The pencil one."

"Oh, yeah, that one." He muttered. "Did I ever apologize for that, or…?"

"You never did." Finnick followed. "But I met them back then. Seems like we had something in common in knowing you."

"They don't seem especially keen on working with you," Nick continued. "So what exactly happened?"

"We got into a fight." He explained.

"Was it about me?" Nick asked.

"No, not everything is about you, Nick." Finnick growled. "It was with that Clawbick guy. To be fair, I was the one who started it."

"Okay, yeah, that explains it." Nick muttered. "Kind of a shame, I thought we could all, y'know, work together for once."

"Nick, you're the only mammal who doesn't hate being around me." Finnick said.

Before he could continue, the Zoolizers started to buzz. Monster attack.

"Oh, hey, guess we didn't have to go monster hunting after all." The fox said, defusing the conversation. "Let's head out."

Finnick sighed, and then begrudgingly followed the fox out of the building.

* * *

"Ah, the perfect place to tag!' the monster said, shaking the can attached to its arm. It was at the dock, where there were tons of empty and abandoned places to spray his art on. He walked up to a warehouse, and started to spray some paint squiggles on it, and in a few seconds producing a squiggly lined mess of colors.

"Mwah!" The monster said, doing its best to feign a kiss. "A true piece of artwork, none matched in the entire world!"

"Yikes, you really think that?" Said a voice. The monster spun around, seeing the four Zoorangers. "Because from what I can tell, you've just been putting that everywhere." Red continued.

"Yeah, not exactly 'artistic' when you keep doing the same thing over and over again, huh?" Blue followed up with a laugh.

Sprayroid growled. "How dare you make fun of my art! I'll show you all my art of PAIN!"

"Doesn't sound like it has much artistry to it!" Silver finished, pulling out his weapon alongside Blue and Red.

"Christ, do you guys do this EVERY time?" Yellow asked.

"Uh, yeah, witty banter is a big part of this." Silver replied, stepping out of his battle stance.

"You call that 'witty'?"

"This isn't time for arguing about jokes!" Blue shouted, quickly stamping her foot. "We have a monster to defeat, and civilians to save!"

Red, Blue, and Silver rushed in, Yellow hesitating for a moment, before pulling his club out and running in as well. Red and Blue leaped in first, the fox jumping up to slash at the monster, who quickly managed to block his blade with the spray can.

Blue slid in, directly after the two started to clash, and went under the monster's legs. She dragged her knives across its heels, causing it to let out a screech of pain. Red kicked off of the monster's spray can and up into the air, kicking the robot in the head, before kicking off again and landing on the ground.

The monster let out a growl, Silver and Yellow standing back as Red and Blue continued to fight. "You gonna do anything, or do you just want to watch?" The fennec asked, resting on his large club.

"Actually, I was thinking that you and I could do something!" Silver said. "Wanna go for a team attack?"

"Uh, I guess…?"

"Great, just hold still then." Silver continued. He quickly spun the guard of his rapier around, and then whipped it forward, causing a rope of energy to fling from it and wrap around Yellow's legs.

"Whoa, hey, what are you-"

The fennec was then abruptly flung into the air, clinging desperately onto his club. "YOU COULD'VE WARNED ME!" He shouted down.

"Oh, sorry!" Silver shouted back up. "I'm going to fling you back down at the monster, and you'll hit it with your club, got it?"

"WHAT!?"

Before he could object any more, the wolf tugged his sword, causing the whip to lash back down towards the ground. Yellow let out a scream, before he raised his club, and slammed it over the unsuspecting monster's head.

There was a sudden explosion of dust as he collided with the Sprayroid.

"Oh, whoops." Silver said, the whip retracting back into his blade, no one attached to it. "Maybe I swung it a bit too hard."

He ran towards the dust, which quickly cleared, revealing all four of them laying in cracked rubble. The monster and Yellow were face down, while Red and Blue were trying to get back up.

"Dude, I'm so sorry!" Silver shouted, helping the fennec back up. "I should've told you in advance! It's just that, usually when I work with someone, they get what I want to do."

"Well, I'm obviously not one of them!" Yellow shouted.

"Could've given us a warning too!" Blue shouted as her and Red got back up.

"AUGH, I'LL MAKE ALL OF YOU PAY!" The monster shouted, suddenly bursting from the ground. "You want to mock me, huh!? WELL, let's just see how YOU handle being the subjects of my CARICATURE PERIOD!"

The spray can moved up, and into the monster's hand, before he quickly aimed it at the crouching Silver. He quickly pushed Yellow out of the way as the monster started to spray him. A cloud of paint covered Silver. "You like collecting stuff, huh!?" The monster shouted as he painted. "Let's see how YOU like being collected!"

The smoke cleared, revealing a small, grey wolf plush toy. It quickly tipped over. "Oh COME ON!" Yelled Silver from inside the toy, his voice much higher pitched than normal.

"What the hell!?" Yellow shouted.

"So that's how it does it!" Blue said. "Yellow, make sure he doesn't get you!"

"I am already way ahead of that!" The fennec yelled back, preparing to run off. Before he did, he glanced back at the plush toy laying there, and then up at the monster, who was quickly approaching him.

Making a split decision, Yellow dashed past the monster, attempting to make a run for the plush. The monster quickly stepped in front of him, and attempted to spray him. Yellow quickly put up his club, the size of it blocking him from the spray.

"Gah, what!?" The monster grunted in frustration. Yellow opened his eyes, noticing that the club of his club had turned into the brush of a paint brush. The handle, however, remained the same.

Yellow jumped up, and jabbed the robot in the stomach with the hilt, before hitting the ground and running off, grabbing the plush. The two quickly went behind a nearby warehouse.

"Doesn't matter if one gets away!" Sprayroid chuckled, turning to Red and Blue. "I still have two commission spots open!"

"Just try us!" Blue shouted, twirling her daggers. She quickly dashed up to the monster, and leaped up to slash the monster.

"JUDY, NO!"

Before she could land a hit, the robot sprayed her in midair. "You put yourself pretty high sometimes huh?" The monster said as it painted. "Well, let's make it literal!"

The smoke from the spray quickly cleared, revealing a tiny blue bird. "What the-!?" It let out, before nearly falling to the ground. The bird started to rapidly flap its wings, trying to keep itself in the air.

Sprayroid attempted to swat at the bird, but it quickly zipped out of the way, and back over to Red. "Well, that could've gone better." Judy, the now bird, said.

"Don't worry, I'll figure out how to get things back to normal." Nick said. "Uh, hopefully."

"Please try, I don't want to be eating worms for the rest of my life."

"HEY!" Red shouted, stepping forward. "TIN CAN!"

The monster flared at him, before letting out a chuckle.

"Turn my friends back to normal, or I'll make you pay!" The fox growled.

"Sorry, don't know how to!" The monster laughed. "I don't give refunds, what you see is what you get, and if you want to complain about it, take it to Boss Enter!"

Red let out a growl, before dashing forward. "Nick, you idiot!" Judy the bird shouted. "You know how this is going to end!"

Red ignored her, and leaped up, trying to slash at the monster. It quickly stepped out of his way, and kicked him in the stomach as he landed. Before the fox could do anything else, Sprayroid started to spray him.

"You're a slimy guy!" The monster said as the cloud engulfed the fox. "A cheater, a liar, a big enough liar to keep something from your own friends! Can't think of anything more perfect for you!"

The cloud cleared, revealing a rather large red and green snake.

"This ssssssssucks." Nick the snake let out, his tongue flapping along with his 's'.

"Hah, I can't believe it!" The monster said. "I beat the Zoorangers! Gotta tell my homie Enter about this!"

"Haven't beaten all of us, wannabe." Yellow said from behind the warehouse. He just needed a plan to save them all, obviously. Shouldn't be that hard.

Okay, yeah, it'd be very hard.

He glanced down at his club-turned-paintbrush. If it was normal, then he could definitely pull a plan off without a hitch. He just needed to figure out HOW to turn it back to normal.

"Ugh, this whole thing sucks!" Max the plush toy complained. "I can't even smell anything, my nose feels all plugged up!"

Almost instinctively, Yellow sniffed the air, catching a faint smell of something. Paint? Well, obviously, the monster was a painter, after all that spraying, of course there would be…

An idea suddenly popped into his head. Could it work? He'd need to try it, and to do that he'd need a distraction.

"Alright, wolfy, I got a plan."

"I'm sure I'll be SUPER helpful." The plush wolf said sarcastically in his squeaky voice.

"You will, actually." Yellow said, picking up the plush toy.

"Hey, what are you-?"

The fennec quickly ran out. "HEY, DADA-HEAD!" Yellow yelled, catching the monster's attention. "CATCH!"

He quickly flung the plush toy at the monster. It flew into his face, the monster clutching at the toy and screaming. "AHHHH! WHAT IS THIS!? IT'S ATTACKING ME!"

Yellow quickly ran off towards the dock's edge. The bird and snake looked up as the monster fumbled around with the plush toy, holding it to his face, but still not realizing what was actually happening.

"Okay, thissss guy issss terrible." Nick the snake said. "How did we lose to this guy?"

"I think Finnick was trying to tell us something!" Judy the bird said, fluttering over to the snake. "This guy does suck, maybe we can take advantage of that!"

"Not like thissss we aren't."

"Look how well Max is doing, and he can't even move!" Judy pointed out. "Let's try to use these forms to our advantage!"

"Oh, I got it!" Nick said. He quickly jutted forward, wrapping around one of the monster's legs. "Go for his head, Carrotssss!"

"That nickname is super not appropriate right now, but I will!" She said, before fluttering up and landing on top of the monster's head. She started to peck down on it.

"Ow!" The monster let out, finally letting go of the plush, which fell to the ground. "Stop pecking me, bird!"

Nick quickly stretched out his body, wrapping it around the struggling monster's other leg, and then quickly wrapping back around to the first leg. The monster's legs pulled in, causing him to fall over, Judy fluttering off before it hit the ground.

Nick slithered off the monster as it thrashed around on the ground. It quickly got up, towering over the three transformed Zoorangers, though Max couldn't notice because he was face first in the ground. "Obviously, I didn't go FAR ENOUGH!" Sprayroid growled. "I'll have to move on to my SCULPTING PERIOD!"

He pointed his spray can at the two, before someone yelled out.

"I BET YOUR SCULPTURES ARE AS UGLY AS YOUR PAINTINGS!"

The monster turned around, watching as Yellow leaped up. He prepared to swing his club, which had returned to normal somehow, and swung it into the monster's face, knocking him into the air.

The monster flipped into the air, and then crashed back into the ground. It let out a groan as it got up. "Alright, I've had enough of this!" Sprayroid said. "You guys are stuck like that, and I have more work to do, peace!" The monster sprayed a cloud of paint in front of itself, before disappearing.

"Good riddance." Yellow muttered.

"He's right, though." Judy said, perching on Nick the snake's head.

"Ow, your talons are sharp."

"Oh, sorry." She apologized. "But yeah, we're stuck like this. There's no way we can stop him unless we get back to normal."

"Lucky for you two, I found the way." Finnick said, untransforming. "You guys did notice I turned my club back to normal, right?"

"I didn't!" Max said, face still in the dirt. "I can't move!"

"I noticed that." Nick said. "How'd you manage that?"

"Like this."

Finnick quickly grabbed onto the snake's tail, before twirling him around in the air, and flinging him off towards the sea. Nick splashed into the water.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Judy shouted, before pecking at Finnick's head. "He doesn't have any arms, he can't swim like that!"

"Just watch, bluebird!" Finnick said, before running over to the edge of the dock. Judy followed, and the two watched as bubbles started to rise from the water.

A second later, Nick, back to being a fox, though utterly soaked, broke through the surface. "Why the hell'd you do that, Finn!?" The fox shouted.

"Check it, Nicky!" Finnick yelled down. "You're back to your foxy self!"

Nick raised an arm as he paddled, seeing that he had returned to normal. "Oh, wow!" The fox let out, before swimming over to a nearby ladder and climbing out.

"So, we just need to get wet, and we'll return to normal?" Judy said.

"Yep." Finnick said. "Found it out because I could smell wet paint. He painted you guys up, so obviously we just had to wash you!"

"Wow, that's a really clever idea, Finnick!" Judy admitted. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go take a bird bath!" She flapped out over to the water before, taking a dive. A second after the bird broke the water, Judy the rabbit rose through the surface.

"I'll go get Max." Nick said as Judy climbed back up.

A minute later, the three of them were back to normal, but absolutely wet.

"So, am I a valued member of the team yet?" Finnick chuckled.

"Oh, definitely." Judy muttered. She pulled out her phone, hopefully it still worked. "I need to tell Clawhauser about this, I didn't realize we'd be able to help those poor mammals so soon!" She quickly dialed a number, thankfully it was still working.

"Hey, Judy!" Clawhauser greeted. "You guys beat the monster yet?"

"Not yet, but we managed to figure out how to cure all the victims!" She explained. "Just s[ray them with some water, they should all go back to normal after that!"

"Is that why you're all wet?" The cheetah asked. He let out a gasp. "Did the monster attack you guys too?"

"Uh, yeah." She admitted, a bit embarrassed.

"Judy got turned into a cut little birdy." Nick joked, walking up and patting her on the head,

"Shut it!" She snapped. "Least I didn't get turned into a snake!"

"Wow, sounds like you guys went through a lot!" Ben said. "I'll tell Emily and Henry, they should be able to get something together! See ya!"

He quickly hung up, and the rabbit let out a sight of relief.

"I'm glad we got that sorted out." She said. "But we still need to find that monster. I suggest we go patrol the city and see if anything comes up."

"Sounds like a plan." Max said. "Always good to stay vigilant, right?"

"Yeah, I can't go." Finnick said.

"Seriously, Finn?" Nick sighed.

"Turns out someone didn't show up for work today, and I need to take their place." He explained. "I gotta be there soon, or else I'll lose my job."

"We have to do this together, Finnick!" Judy started. "We're a team now, which means we all have to work together."

"Yeah, and your boss will probably understand if you were late because you saved the city!" Max followed. "Only someone unreasonable would say that was a bad excuse!"

"No, I really think I should be going to work right now." Finnick continued, backing away from them.

"Finn, please." Nick said. "We're supposed to be a team now. You seemed like you were enjoying it, too. So, why don't you just come along with us for the rest of the day."

"Mmmmmfiiine." The fennec said, though he very clearly didn't want to. "Let's get this stupid thing over with."

* * *

"Enter, man, you didn't tell me how tough those Zoorangers were!" Sprayroid complained. He had met up with Enter in the back alley of a building.

"They aren't that tough." The faux-cheetah said. "Maybe you're just too weak."

"I hardly think so!" The monster scoffed. "How is four against one a fair deal!?"

Enter raised his eyebrow. "Four…?"

"Yeah, there were only four of them, guess they were missing a member." The monster said.

"Where any of them pink or green?" The cheetah asked, stepping forward.

"I know my colors, and there was only a blue one, a red one, a yellow one, and a grey one."

"Silver."

"Silver and grey aren't the same color?"

Enter let out another "tch". "They got ANOTHER new member?" He whispered to himself. "How did they manage that so fast?"

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Enter said. "So, you said you wanted some upgrades?"

"Yeah, I need to be strong enough to bring some PAIN-by-numbers to them!" Sprayroid said. "You got anything for me?"

"Yes, I do." Enter said, holding up a Chaos Badge between his digits. He quickly flung it into the monster's chest, causing it to transform.

The monster quickly gained a bit more bulk, before its large head split directly in half, the two tubes on its neck disconnecting for a moment. The two halves started to move around the monster's body. One half moved onto the monster's back, growing into a larger canister with the same multicolor motif as the rest of its body, but broken up by a blue crystal on its back, a remnant of its previous head. Two tubes burst from both sides of the canister, and connected directly to the monster's arms.

The other half moved to the monster's other arm, and quickly formed into a large cannon of some kind on the underside of the arm. It was attached similarly to the spray can on the robot's other arm. The cannon retained the multicolor pattern, and while most of it was large and cigar shaped, it ended at a point similar to a regular paint sprayer.

The two heads also revealed a new head inside of it. This was a functionally more normal head, with a large, V-shaped crest over its forehead, marked by four black dots. Under the crest was a black visor, and a mouth plate. The rest of the head similarly followed the monster's multicolor color scheme. The symbol on its chest quickly changed to that of the Chaos Symbol.

"Wow!" The monster shouted, rotating its new head. "This feels great, I feel like I could paint the entire city red, or blue, or yellow, or whatever color I want!"

"Well, why don't you get to it then." Enter growled. An idea quickly popped into his head. "There should be some Zoorangers patrolling this part of the city. Why don't you go show them your new power?"

"Ooooh, sounds like fun!" Sprayroid said, before running off. "Gonna go paint them black and blue!"

Enter thought for a moment, letting out a groan of thought. "Another one. This could be…" A smile creeped across his digital muzzle.

"Interesting."

* * *

"So, we cleaned everyone at the station up, what are we doing now?" Emily asked, double checking with her partner. They were driving around the city in the repaired truck. The vehicle had taken around a month and a bit to fully fix, but the mecha mode would take even longer to fix. Emily was just glad to not be walking around.

"We need to find if anyone else was attacked." Henry explained. "There could be more mammals that didn't show up. And while we're out here, we can try and take out the monster, too."

"Hmm, yeah." She replied, holding up a squirt bottle. "I'm amazed at how terrible this weakness is. But now that we know it, there's no way it can cause any more trouble. Right?"

The bull nodded.

Henry glared at a monitor on the control panel for a moment. "Hm, radar's saying there's something going on at a nearby park."

"Think we should check it out?" The hyena asked, sitting back up from her slouch. "I say 'yes'."

"It might just be another error, but its better to be safe than sorry." He said.

The truck pulled down a nearby road, and headed into a dusty Savanna Square park. They drove into it, and parked, before getting out.

There was a single figure standing in the park, and the two approached it. "Wow, boss was right, you two WERE really close by!" The creature said, stepping forward.

"Is that the monster?" Pink asked Green as they flicked their armor on, just in case.

"Looks like it." Green said. "Might've gotten an upgrade."

"You're damn right I got an upgrade!" Chaos Sprayroid said, stepping towards them. "Now I can… um, do more things!"

"You don't even know, do you?" Pink asked, crossing her arms. "Why is every single one of you guys an idiot?"

"Well, the only way to improve your art," The monster started holding up his cannon arm. "IS TO TRY IT!"

He lowered the cannon, and fired a compressed burst of paint in the SPD's direction. The two quickly moved out of the way as the burst of paint splattered onto the grass, turning it into a multi-color paved road.

"Well, that's not good for the environment." Green said, pulling out his cannon. He quickly fired it at the monster, but Chaos Sprayroid started to spray the can on his arm in the direction of the energy blast. A cloud formed around it, before a beach ball bounced down to the ground.

"Wow, now I can transform things besides people!" The monster laughed, kicking the beach ball away.

"Ugh, that's going to get obnoxious." Pink said, before rushing at the monster. Green quickly followed behind her, going for a melee strike on the monster.

The hyena attempted to pistol whip the monster, but it ducked out of the way. It then spun around as her attack missed, and knocked her down with the large canister on its back. Green quickly followed up, trying to slam his cannon down onto the monster, but it held up its own cannon, blocking the strike. The spray can robot then quickly kneed the bull in his stomach, causing him to stumble back.

"Man, I thought you'd guys at least be kinda fun to fight." The monster said, spinning its head around. But I guess I was wrong. Maybe I just need to lighten your moods a bit! Oh, I know!"

"Hell does that mean?" Pink asked, watching as the monster started to skip across the field, stopping at the truck.

"DON'T TOUCH THE TRUCK!" Green yelled, slamming his hoof into the ground and almost instantly rising back to his feet.

"Look how drab this thing is!" The robot sighed. "Let's see, I could go for something fun, or… Hmmm…"

Green quickly started to charge at the monster, causing it to turn around. The robot let out a blast of air from its cannon, directly in the bull's direction, launching him off.

"Henry, NO!" Pink yelled, scrambling to her feet. She rushed over to the bull, and noticed he wasn't covered in any paint. "What the…?"

"Hey, don't want to be wasting any paint outside the canvas!" The monster said. "I got more important things to draw!"

He started to spray it, much to Green's dismay. In a few seconds, the cloud cleared, revealing a small three-wheeled vehicle, distinctly police issue, but only large enough to fit a smaller mammal. Green let out a loud groan.

"I decided to go for a metaphor involving the uselessness of the police, and how small their impact can be when they're trying to do good!" The monster explained. "Man, that was fun, but I think I need a bigger canvas!" The Metalroid looked around, noticing all of the buildings, drab and lifeless. "Oh, I know, why don't I just use this WHOLE CITY as my canvas? See you chumps later!" The monster gave a quick wave, before spraying a cloud in front of itself, vanishing a moment later.

Henry unfolded his armor, and let out a heavy sigh as he walked over to the truck. "Just disgraceful." He muttered, looking at the puny thing.

"Hey, don't worry, Horns!" Emily said, her armor folding up as she walked over to him, giving a quick smack on the back. She held up the spray bottle. "We got a quick fix, remember?"

She sprayed the former-truck, but it just seemed to cause it to get wet. "Hm." She groaned, before attempting to spray it more.

"It's not working, Em." Henry sighed.

"But it worked like, twenty minutes ago!" She growled, spraying the vehicle from every possible angle. She quickly let out a groan of frustration, and threw the spray bottle to the ground.

"Guess that was one of its upgrades." Henry said. "Permanent paint."

"We should probably tell the others." Emily suggested. She glanced down at the tiny vehicle. "Think you can lift that? We might need it later."

Henry effortlessly lifted the vehicle up with one hoof, and even tossed it up a few times. "Is this really a police vehicle?" He asked. "It's kind of pathetic looking."

"Yeah, looks like something a meter maid would ride around in." Emily chuckled.

* * *

"You guys spot anything yet?" Blue asked as the four looked over the sides of a tall building. They had been on the lookout for Sprayroid for the last while, but hadn't managed to find anything.

"No, not yet." Red said. "Think it'd be a bit easier to find this guy making a mess, huh?"

"Not really." Yellow quickly added in. "Guy's got the personality of a graffiti artist, they tend to lay pretty low from the law most of the time."

"Yellow makes a good point." Silver said. "Maybe we need to be looking somewhere a bit more on the downlow than in the middle of downtown."

"Well, I just kind of guessed that a monster would attack downtown if it was trying to get attention." Blue said, a bit upset at herself. "But that sounds like a decent plan, we should go check out the savanna slums."

"Sounds like a plan." Red followed up, stretching his back out. "Ugh, still feel wiggly from that whole snake thing…"

Suddenly, Judy's phone rang up. It was Clawhauser's number, but it wasn't Ben who answered.

"Yo, A-Squad." Emily said, her face popping up on the screen. She was outside the police station by the looks of things.

"Oh, hey Emily." Blue said. Red quickly sprinted over, Silver and Yellow following a bit behind. "Are you calling me from Clawhauser's phone…?"

"Yeah, guy let me use it." She explained. "I left my phone in the car, and… well, that's why I'm calling you guys."

"Finnick knows a few things about cars." Red pointed out. "Maybe he can help you out if there's still some bugs going on."

"There wasn't a breakdown, Nick." Emily sighed. "We got attacked by the monster, and it kind of turned our car into, well…"

She turned the camera around, showing the dinky little vehicle, Henry standing next to it. The bull gave a quick wave before Emily turned the camera back on herself.

"…Yeah."

"Hey, wasn't that one of those three-wheeled joke mobiles you were riding around on when we first met?" Red said, elbowing Blue in the shoulder.

"Ugh, don't remind me." She shuddered. "You guys managed to turn everyone back to normal with the water, right? Why isn't that working on the truck?"

"Barksy got an upgrade by the looks of things." The hyena explained. "Stuff's permanent now, water doesn't work."

"Apparently he can transform a lot more than just mammals now, too." Henry said from off camera.

"Yeah, there's that too."

"Well, that's a terrible problem." Silver said. "Guess we better take care of him soon before he does any major damage, right?"

Red and Blue nodded. "We'll get on it." Blue said. "You two should go to the lab and try to see if there's a cure. It is still paint, it should have some way to take it off."

"Will do." Emily concluded. "Adios."

Blue slipped her phone back into her costume as it hung up. "Alright, sounds like things might get a bit… weird." She started. "We should still head over to the slums, Yellow's hunch sounds like a good place to start."

"Can we make this quick?" Yellow said. "I still have places to be, you know."

"Yeah, we'll make this as quick as possible, don't worry." Red said. "Let's just go make sure this guy doesn't turn anyone else into a reptile."

* * *

"Maybe we should've expected this." Red said as they entered the slums.

Or, what was previously the slums.

The entire place seemed to have been transformed, buildings had become nonsensical, abstract shapes, some even twisting around themselves to create spires. The streets had been turned into shifting masses of colors, while sidewalks had flared up into walls, and lampposts into hanging chains. The place was at least a lot brighter, as everything was a different color, unlike the shades of greys and browns it had been before.

"He did all of THIS!?" Blue yelled, looking at the nightmarish landscape. "I hate to say it, but this might be the strongest monster we've fought so far."

"At least the most confusing monster." Red quickly added. "We had to fight Long, remember?"

"Yeah, and there were those fox and rabbit monsters you guys got turned into." Silver continued.

"Okay, maybe I'm overreacting." She said. "But this guy isn't a joke!"

"So, is this what you guys do every week?" Yellow asked. "Get involved in some bizarre shit involving a monster?"

"Yeah, basically." Red said. "Usually a lot less weird than this."

There were suddenly loud stomping noises, and the Zoorangers glanced down the street. A herd of bizarre looking monsters were running down the street.

"Oh god, the hell are those?!" Yellow yelled, pulling his club out. Silver quickly followed, pulling his blade out as well.

"Whoa, wait!" Blue said, waving her arms. "I think those are just normal mammals!"

"Oh thank god, it's the Zoorangers!" One of the creatures shouted. It looked like a tornado of fire, with several skeletal limbs flying around it. Its head was a bird skull with eyes still in the sockets, and stuck out of the middle of the tornado. It had a completely normal voice, which made the whole thing a lot weirder.

"You need to help us!" Another one said in a female voice, this one resembling a large spider, but with only six legs. "This monster appeared from nowhere and started turning everyone in these… things!"

"We know what happened to all of you." Blue said. "Head to the police station, you'll all be safe there."

The crowd of creatures quickly ran off, leaving the four behind.

"Yeah, this has been a WHOLE lot weirder than most of our adventures." Red continued.

"Okay, yeah, I can see why." Yellow admitted.

"HEY!" A voice suddenly shouted. The four looked back, and watched as Chaos Sprayroid ran down the street. "Get back here, I need to pose you all for my ultimate art piece!" He noticed the Zoorangers. "UGH! You spoilsports again."

"Yeah, and we're feeling pretty critical." Red started. "And we're going to rip your art to shreds!"

"Nice one." Yellow said, quickly fist bumping the fox.

"Hmm, I need to do something… special for you four." The monster said to itself. "I know, why don't you deal with my fans while I ponder over it?"

He snapped his fingers, causing a crowd of Buglers to appear in a burst of data particles. The monster started to spray at the air above them, the cloud clearing to reveal a bunch of weapons, which quickly fell down into most of the Bugler's hands.

The weapons included swords, blasters, spears, any kind of deadly thing you could imagine, and some of the Buglers were even dual wielding.

"My fans love my work so much, they'll defend me from any critics!" Sprayroid said, thrusting his hand forward. "ATTACK!"

The Buglers let out beeps, before charging at the Zoorangers. "You guys take on fifty guys that often?" Yellow asked.

"Yeah, very often." Red said, pulling out his sword. "Happens like, once a week."

"Sounds like a pain."

The four charged into battle with the monsters, swinging their own weapons as they destroyed the Buglers. A Bugler with a spear charged at Yellow, and attempted to jab it into him, but the fennec dodged it fairly easily, before smashing its edge with his club. The spear shattered, leaving the mechanical minion stunned, and letting Yellow jump up and clobber it in the face with his club. Its head flew off, and collided into another Bugler, knocking it out as well.

The fennec jumped up again as another Bugler, this one with a gun, attempted to shoot him from behind. Yellow tossed the club at it, punching directly through the robot's chest.

"Wow, didn't realize just how tough this baby was!" The fennec chuckled as he picked the club back up.

Red and Blue tag teamed the Buglers, the rabbit leaping off the fox's head and firing at the Buglers from midair, taking out a large amount in one motion. Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired several shots into the Buglers as well, taking out more of them.

"Hey, why do you guys get guns!?" Yellow shouted, noticing the two's weapons.

"Oh, we got them really early on!" Blue said. "I think you might have to earn yours!"

"Yeah, you'll get one soon enough!" Red added, firing a shot from the Vickscannon.

Silver sliced through another Bugler as he ran over to Yellow, ducking down to whisper in his ear. "Actually, I never got a gun, so you might just not get one either."

"Oh, come on, seriously?" Yellow said. "Sounds like a buncha bullshit to me."

Meanwhile, Sprayroid continued to think, letting his minions do the fighting. "Ah, I think I got it!" He said, rubbing his hands together. "Time for me to get in there, and deliver my artistic punishment to them!"

He turned to the battle, there were only a few Buglers left, and started to walk into it. He spotted the rabbit and the fox, both having just managed to clear out the monsters near them. "Hah, perfect!"

He prepared his cannon, and shot several balls of paint at them. The two quickly noticed, and both leaped out of the way, letting the paint hit the ground, and fuse with the swirling mass underneath them.

"Stand still!" Sprayroid shouted. "I can't work with moving canvases!"

He rushed in, and quickly attempted to stomp down on Red, who rolled out of the way, and slashed in robot in the back of the leg with his sword. The Metalroid let out a yelp of pain as it started to hop around on one foot.

Blue ran around the monster while it was distracted, leaping up and kicking the canister on its back. The robot tumbled to the ground, unable to get up due to the weight of its back.

"Wow, this guy's kind of a pushover." Blue said, a bit surprised.

"I find its easier to fight when you're not carrying heavy baggage." Red added.

"Grah, stupid animals!" Sprayroid grunted. It slammed its cannon arm into the ground, before firing. The burst of paint caused the monster to be flung up and regain its footing. "I've been trying to think of something suitable for you two." He started, turning to them.

"I don't think any of your 'art' would suit us." Blue said.

"Yeah, we only like GOOD art." Red snarkily followed up.

The monster started to let out a frustrated growl, but quickly calmed itself. "So, I finally came up with something, and you two are REALLY gonna feel the pain now!"

The monster paused for a moment.

"Hm, should've said 'feel the paint'…"

The two looked at each other, and then leaped up, kicking the monster in the stomach and causing it to be pushed back. "Oh, right, fight!" It said, snapped out of its thoughts. It raised the cannon to the sky, and started to spray a stream of paint from it. The paint started to solidify, turning into a large blade.

Yellow looked over as the monster, Red, and Blue started to fight. He glanced around, the robots had been taken care of, so he should probably go help them.

"Yo, wolfy, wanna go help those two?" He asked Silver.

"Uh, obviously, yeah." The wolf replied.

The two quickly rushed in, Silver leaping in front of the two and blocking a swing from the monster's blade with his rapier. Yellow rushed in from behind, jumping onto the monsters back and slamming the club down onto its noggin.

"OWTCH!" It let out, stumbling back. Silver quickly kicked it in the stomach, the Fennec leaping off as the monster stumbled back.

"Alright, Yellow, Silver!" Red cheered, jumping up and giving the wolf a quick high-four, and then fist bumping Yellow.

"That was great, Yellow!" Blue complimented. "With all of us here, there's no way this guy can beat us!"

The monster started to laugh, interrupting their early victory. "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE GENUIS OF AN ARTIST!" It screeched, before slamming its cannon directly into the ground, the nozzle of it seeming to plug into the swirling colors.

"Hell's he doing…?" Yellow asked, before the ground started to shake.

Suddenly, two large, multi-colored hands rose from the ground, consisting of the same swirling colors as the rest of the ground. Before the Zoorangers could react, they lunged at Red and Blue, clutching them in their grasp.

"Hey, let go of them!" Silver shouted, spinning his sword to Sun Mode. He fired a fireball at the hand carrying Red, but it seemed to quickly morph out of the way.

The hands started to slide across the ground, and over to Sprayroid. They then started melting back into the ground, trapping Blue and Red by their feet.

"Ugh, such an ordeal!" The monster said, bringing his cannon up from the ground, which was dripping a bit of paint from the nozzle. "But you know what they say, great art comes through great pain!" He paused for a moment. "Should I have said 'paint' there, or…" He quickly shook it off. "Whatever, just get this done quick!"

The monster started to spray them with his spray can arm. "GUYS, NO!" Silver shouted, he was unable to reach them before the monster started painting.

"So, you guys are playing Sentai, right?" The monster said to its two victims, both of them letting out annoyed grunts from within the clouds. "But you guys sure don't LOOK like Sentai, and I fought a Sentai before! I really need to correct your designs, you know?"

The clouds started to grow bigger, roughly around the same size as Sprayroid himself. "Like, whoever designed you guys, whoever designed this world… like, talk about saccharine Disney crap! Yeesh, no style to it!"

"Viola, behold, the new ZooRed and ZooBlue!" The monster finally cried as it stopped spraying.

The clouds quickly parted, revealing… Well, definitely not a fox and a rabbit.

It was two humans, both wearing costumes that looked exactly like the ones Red and Blue wore, except designed to fit around the human body. The biggest changes were the helmets, and Blue's outfit now having a skirt. The helmets now only sported slight references to the animals, the red one's helmet now having sharp points that curved from the mid point of the helmet, and the blue one having softer, rounded points coming from the same place.

The red one was slightly taller than the blue one, who came up to around his shoulder. The red one was also a lot broader and more muscular than the blue one as well. The blue human was thinner, and had a bit of a curve to her.

"Oh god!" The human dressed it red shouted, staring at itself. He stumbled a bit, both their feet being freed. "The hell did you do to us!?"

"Updated you!" The monster said, clutching its hands together. "Man, the fanartists are gonna FREAK OUT about this!" It laughed.

Blue stumbled a bit, not used to the body she was now in. "Ugh, this feels really weird." She groaned.

"Boop!" Sprayroid raised his hand, and pushed on Blue's helmet. The former rabbit was slightly shorter than the monster, and due to her lack of control, was easily pushed to the ground. "Beep!" The monster let out again, gently kicking Red in the leg, causing him to fall over as well.

"Guess I'll be seeing you two later!" The monster laughed. "I have an entire city to remake in my image, come find me when you're a step above crawling!" The monster started laughing again as it sprayed a cloud in front of itself, which quickly vanished.

"Okay, question." Finnick started, untransforming. "What the hell did he turn them into?"

"Uh, they're called 'Humans', I think?" Max said, also untransforming. "They're the main species in the alternate world the monsters come from."

"Okay, that doesn't make sense, but whatever."

The two quickly ran up to them, Max attempting to help both of them up, due to him being the only one of their size now.

"Easy does it!" Max said as he helped Judy to her now very small feet.

"How do those human guys even use these things!?" She growled, looking down at her feet. She spotted the skirt. "Wait a second, what the heck's this!?" She said, pulling it down.

"It's a skirt, Carrots." Nick added, stretching his arms out. "You know, those things you hate wearing."

"I know what it is!" She shouted. She also quickly noticed small lumps on her chest. "Wait, are these-"

"Okay, now this is just getting awkward." Max quickly interrupted.

"Yeah, I don't really wanna hear about your bodies anymore." Finnick said, obviously fairly grossed out just looking at them. "They're gross enough out here, I don't want to hear about how it feels."

Nick took an unsteady fist step, and nearly tripped over, due to not having his tail anymore. "Yeah, how the heck do those guys walk around like this?" He questioned. "No tails mean no balance, right?"

"Not every mammal uses their tail for balancing, Nick." Judy said, taking her own first step forward. It went over slightly better than Nick's though she still nearly tripped.

"Okay, we're heading back to my place now." Max said. "And we're walking there, because if you guys can't figure out how to walk, then there's no way we can do anything."

"Yeah." Judy said. "Maybe we can find a cure, too! Maybe the water trick just doesn't work on vehicles!"

"Probably getting your hopes up a bit too much, Carrots." Nick said. "But, anything's worth a shot."

"Ugh, just watching you two move around is grossing me out." Finnick sputtered.

* * *

"Okay, maybe we should try salt next." Max suggested, tossing the bottle of cleaner away. It landed in a pile of other cleaning supplies, none of which had worked to clean Nick and Judy up.

"What!?" Judy said. "Why salt?!"

"I dunno, I just have to try it." Max stated. "This could have a really simple weakness that we just haven't found out yet."

"We've tried everything else that removes stains, why would salt work?" Nick asked.

"I just have to try!"

The wolf stormed off into the kitchen, leaving the two alone with Finnick.

"So, can you guys get out of those costumes, or are you just stuck?" The fennec asked.

"Uh, we haven't tried yet." Judy said, looking at her wrist. The Zoolizer hadn't changed, so it should be able to work, right.

"Hey, if this works, maybe we'll find out what humans actually look like, huh?" Nick suggested.

"True, they have only shown up wearing costumes…" Judy noted, putting one of her fingers on the button. "Here goes nothing."

She pressed the button, but nothing happened.

"Well, there goes that plan." Nick said, crossing his legs and leaning back into the couch.

"SALT!"

Max suddenly appeared behind them, sprinkling salt from a shaker down onto the two. "SAAAAAAAALT!" He continued to shout.

"WHY ARE YOU YELLING!?" Judy yelled back, brushing the salt off of her.

"I thought yelling might help." He said, ceasing to shake the shaker any more. "All that did was get salt all over my couch."

"Yeah, and who's idea was that?" Nick replied, a bit agitated.

Finnick let out a small groan. He really needed to get out of here, quick. His three hours were almost up, and work was a half hour away from here. He needed to sneak out without them noticing.

"So, what do your new bodies feel like?" Finnick asked, hoping to distract them.

"What?" Judy quickly said, before looking at herself. "It feels… tight?

"I can feel some of the stuff going on under the suit." Nick added. "Like, ugh, mostly dull teeth. How do prey eat things with these?"

"We don't eat meat, so we don't really have a use for canines." Judy added. She quickly felt around the inside of her mouth with her tongue. "There are canines here, though, they seem really sharp."

"Also, what the hell are these supposed to be?" Nick continued, holding up his hands, and sticking out what looked like somewhat degenerative digits.

"I learned about some of that in school." Max said. "Scientists say those digits were supposed to help grip onto things, but I never really had any trouble grabbing things."

"Yeah, they just seem kind of useless." Judy continued, stretching them up and down.

"Is there any fur under there?" Max asked, curious.

"Ugh, that's the worst part." Judy said. "There's no fur, just skin. It feels weird, like the suit's gripping to me."

"I can feel some fur on the top of my head." Nick said. "But nothing else."

Before they could continue talking about the gross implications of their bodies, Finnick got up from the floor, and started to slowly move towards the door. It seemed nobody had noticed him get up, so he shrugged, leaped up to grab the doorknob, and left.

"Yeah, and whats with these feet?" Judy said, holding her legs up.

"You're really getting upset about the feet, aren't you?" Nick questioned.

"I can't help it when the feet are defining part of my species!" She snapped.

There was a sudden buzzing noise. Judy reached behind her, and pulled out her phone, which was remarkably tiny in her new hands. "It's, uh, Ben, I think?" She said, trying to read the small text. She carefully pressed on the answer button.

It opened the standard call screen, it looked like the phone's camera wasn't working. "Hey, Judy, that you?" Ben asked on the other side.

"Yeah, its me." She said. "Kind of."

"Oh, okay, well we kind of need HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLP!"

He quickly hung up.

"Well, that is not a good sign at all." Nick said, getting up and nearly stumbling over. "Think we can even DO anything in these bodies?"

"We have to at least try." Judy said, also getting up. "Let's get going, guys!"

Nick and Max nodded, the former fox looking down to wear Finnick was. "Ready to go Finn-"

He glanced around.

"Where'd Finnick go?"

The other two looked around as well. He seemed to have vanished.

"Probably ran off." Max suggested. "He might've gone back to work."

"Ugh, we'll have to call him later." Judy said, shaking her head. "Let's just go help out Ben."

The three quickly headed outside, Nick and Judy summoning up their bikes. Thankfully, the ZooTags seemed to still work.

Unfortunately, the bikes were far too small for them now.

"So, its just gonna be like this from now on, huh?" Nick sighed.

"The one part of this body I was enjoying was being tall, but now its just being a nuisance." Judy said, tapping her foot.

"You know, I can just drive you two." Max suggested.

* * *

A few minutes later, Max's car pulled up to the police station. Or, at least, what the police station had been turned into.

"Great, he got here, too." Nick said as they got out of the car. The station had been transformed into another sort of abstract shape, still somewhat resembling the shape of the station itself, but twisted into a featureless blue form.

Judy glanced around at the sky. It looked like the police station wasn't the only part of the city that had been hit while they were trying to sort everything out. The surrounding buildings, and any she could see in the skyline, had been transformed into the abstract shapes as well, and even the sky had started to become an unnatural color.

The sun had also gained a face, which was very uncomfortable.

"So, everyone's in there?" Judy said, turning back to the station. "How are we supposed to get in when there's no entrances?"

"I got an idea!" Max said, transforming into ZooSilver. "I'll use Eclipse Mode to cut through the walls!"

"Can you actually do that?"

"I can sure as hell try!"

The wolf walked up the steps, but seemed to be walking in one place. He glanced down, the stairs were moving along with him. "Oh, come on." He quickly leaped up into the air, and landed in front of the building. "Yeah, that's not gonna work on me." He scoffed.

Silver turned to the transformed building, and spun his sword's guard around, switching it to Eclipse Mode. Everything went still for a moment, and he started to rapidly jab into the sides of the blue building, creating an arch shaped carving. They were slightly deeper than he expected them to be, but there was definitely an inside to it.

Time resumed.

"Well, I managed to make a few cuts through it." Silver said. "But I might need to do some more work before I can make an exit."

"Alright, take your time." Nick said. "We don't really have anywhere to go right now."

"Oh, but time's something you DEFINITELY lack!"

The three turned to face the street. Chaos Sprayroid had appeared out of nowhere. "Are you trying to mess with my art?" It said. "Sorry, not gonna happen! BUGLERS!"

He waved his arms again, causing another swarm of buglers to appear in front of him. "Take care of them!" The robot commanded. "I have more work to do, so see you guys NEVER!"

The monster vanished in a puff of smoke as the Buglers charged forwards.

"Guys, I still need time to work on this!" Silver said, quickly switching to Moon Mode. He straightened the whip out, and jabbed it into one of the holes, and started carving. "I need you to back me up!"

"Not sure we can!" Judy admitted, one of the Buglers running up and hitting her with its shield weapon. She stumbled back awkwardly, before trying to kick one. The odd balance of the new body caused her to start hopping on one foot from the kick, before falling over.

Nick was having about as well of a time, as he attempted to scratch one of the Buglers, only for his hands to just rub across its metal skin. Then monster then pushed him back as well. "Yeah, these bodies aren't particularly good at fighting!" He yelled.

"Then call up Finnick!" Silver shouted.

"Alright, good idea." Nick said. He quickly rolled over onto his stomach, managing to trip over a Bugler, and pulled out his phone. He quickly dialed Finnick's number. Well, as best he could with his new, large fingers.

* * *

Finnick pulled the van up to the Buggaburger, and got out. He had changed into his humiliating looking uniform, and went in the back way. The inside of the "restaurant" smelled like grease and broken dreams.

"The HELL WERE YOU DOING!?"

He glanced down to see his manager, a small shrew. "You're thirty minutes late than what we agreed on, Finnigan!" The shrew yelled, his voice distressingly deep.

"Yeah, I know." Finnick said. "But I was busy doing something."

"I bet you were busy LOAFING AROUND!" The shrew yelled again. "I let you off ONCE, but now you've gone far enough!"

"Mr. McElroy, I'm telling the truth." Finnick said, though he knew it wasn't going to get anywhere. Telling him what he was actually doing would probably just get him fired quicker.

"I was, uh, busy trying to save the city."

The shrew laughed, before turning serious again. "Good one, but I ain't falling for that." He growled.

"But I'm serious, I was!" Finnick said again. "I know it's hard to believe, but-"

"Oooh, no, no, no, NO!" McElroy said. "I'm not letting another excuse pass me by! You're FIRED!"

FInnick felt like screaming, but he knew it wasn't a good idea to. He simply took off his uniform, mostly just coveralls, and dropped it to the ground before heading out.

He stepped back into the van, and started to pound his head into the steering wheel, a loud honk punctuating every slam. He tried to let out a scream, but it just came out as a frustrated sigh. He turned the car on, and drove out of the parking lot.

For a few minutes, he was just driving around aimlessly, before he parked in a back alley. The fennec leaned back in his seat, and let out another annoyed, frustrated sigh.

Then his phone rang.

"WHAT IS IT!?" He finally yelled, after answering it.

"Whoa, hey, Finn!" Nick said on the other side. He dropped the phone down onto the control panel, not wanting to look at the fox's face. He would've done the same if it was just his normal face, too.

"Hey, we could really use your help right now." Nick said. "We're kind of- ugh, kind of in a little trouble!"

"I'm not going to help you." Finnick said, remarkably bluntly.

"Oh, come on, seriously!?" Nick shouted. "There are innocent lives in danger here, and we can't do anything without you!"

Finnick thought for a moment, more conflict going on in his head. It was the "right thing" to do, and he could go and scold Nick and his friends if he went… But he also just felt like wallowing in his misery, and not helping them would make a much better statement… But he could also let out some frustration out on some of the bad guys… And Nick seemed to be in trouble…

"MMMmmmmmmFINE!" He shouted. "I'll be there in a few."

"Oh thank GOD." Nick said, before hanging up.

Finnick quickly pulled out of the alleyway, and drove off.

* * *

The van pulled up next to the transformed station, and Finnick glanced around a bit. He shook off the odd sights, before noticing Nick and Judy fighting the monsters, still a fairly huge crowd. He let out a sigh, and got out of the vehicle, transforming into ZooYellow.

The fennec ran in, club ready to strike, and leaped up, smacking a number of Buglers, which were destroyed instantly by the impacts. "Have you two SERIOUSLY not been able to defeat a SINGLE ONE of these bozos!?" Yellow yelled at the two.

"No, we haven't!" Judy shouted, shielding from an attack by one of the robot monsters.

"Yeah, we don't exactly know how to USE these things!" Nick added, quickly kneeing on of the Buglers in the stomach, which seemed to work as it stumbled off. "These things are the most useless, watered-down mammals I've seen! There's absolutely nothing dangerous about them!"

"Yeah, I can tell!" Yellow said, quickly smacking another Bugler in the legs, knocking them off at the knees. The monster balanced on its stump legs for a moment, before Yellow jumped up and slammed its head in. "Why don't you guys just use your weapons, then?"

"Oh, yeah, good idea!" Judy said. Strange she hadn't thought of it, might've been because of all the weird things going on.

She quickly pulled out her knives… but they were remarkably small in her new hands. She tried to pull out her blasters, but those were way too small as well. "Come ON!"

Nick pulled out his sword, which was now more of a knife, and then pulled out his cannon. The cannon was way too large for his normal body, but in this new one, it seemed to fit moderately well!

"Alright, that's what I'm talking about!" He said, before firing at the monsters, still carrying the Vickscannon in both hands. It was definitely much easier to move around with like that.

Judy glanced over as Nick fired the cannon at the monsters, wiping some of them out. "Hm, if his became MORE proportional, then…"

She quickly pulled out a white ZooTag, it being even tinier between her fingers, and plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The wild axe appeared in her hands, fitting a lot more comfortably into them. She quickly slashed at one of the monsters, chopping it in half.

The three started to work through the monsters as Silver sliced through wall. "Just a bit more!" He said.

"Well, we're almost out of guys to beat up, so take your time!" Yellow said, launching another monster away with his club.

In a moment, the rest of the Buglers had been defeated, and Silver still wasn't through cutting the wall open.

"This is VERY difficult, alright!?" He shouted as the three stared at him, judgementally.

"So, Finn," Nick started, looking down at the fennec. "You sounded a bit, uh, angry when I called you. What's up?"

Finnick quickly untransformed, and started to pace back and forth in front of both of them "What happened?" He said, stopping in place. He scowled at them. "You assholes got me FIRED from my JOB!" He shouted.

"Oh god." Judy quietly said.

Nick was left a bit speechless.

"You know how hard it was to GET that job!?" He continued. "I can barely be employed below minimum wage, thanks to longlegs here!"

"Nick, I'm sorry, I-"

"'Sorry' isn't going to cut it this time, Nicky!" Finnick continued to yell. "For most of my life I've put up with your bullshit, and now I'm in the garbage thanks to it! I should've never agreed to anything you said, I could've been a mechanic or something!"

"Finnick, we didn't realize that-"

"Oh, you fuckin' knew." The fennec interrupted. "You just thought you could work your own lives around mine! Well guess what? Not everyone gets payed to save the world! Not everyone has a house to go back to, or someone they love to see every night! I don't ever want to see you two again, got it!?"

Finnick quickly stormed off, leaving the two of them completely stunned.

Nick fell to the ground, and clutched at his head. "God, what have I done?"

"It wasn't your fault, Nick." Judy said, sitting down next to him. "We all tried to push this on him when we shouldn't have."

"No, not just that." Nick said, solemnly. "He's right about me dragging him down, we did a lot of illegal things over the years, no wonder he couldn't get a decent job."

"Alright, I managed to cut it open!" Silver suddenly shouted, turning back to the two. He glanced around. "Hey, where'd-?"

"Seriously?" Judy said as they got up.

They quickly ran up the stairs, and rammed into the chunk that Silver had carved out, knocking it down to the ground. The inside was a hallow blue box, with everyone that had been in the station before, including the transformed mammals they had sent there earlier, standing in the middle of it.

"Everyone!" Judy shouted, motioning to the hole. "Make your way out through here!"

The mammals, of all shapes and sizes, complied, all heading out through the hole. However, Emily, Henry, and a small mole walked up to them. Henry was carrying the transformed vehicle on his shoulders.

"Thank god you guys showed up-" Emily started, before stopping and glancing at Nick and Judy. "Hell happened to you two?"

"Long story, basically the monster managed to transform us." Judy quickly said.

"Yeesh, really ugly forms he gave you guys." She continued. "But we think we're getting close to something, right?" She said, looking down at the mole.

"Oh, yes!" The mole said, one of the forensic scientists at the station. "Thanks to those poor mammals that you sent here, I was nearly able to figure out a way to cure everyone!"

"Hey, that's great!" Nick said. "What is it?"

"I wasn't able to finish it." The mole continued. "The whole building turned into this before I could."

"Yeah," Henry started. "But we have an idea of what we need, so we're gonna go looking for it."

"You three need to keep the rest of the city safe, got it?" Emily said. "You know, the important stuff."

She gave a quick wave, before the three headed off.

"I don't think we CAN protect the city at this rate…" Judy said. "We don't know how to use these bodies; how can we protect anyone when we have no fine motor control?"

"Obviously, you just gotta get it working!" Max suggested, untransforming. "We'll head back to my place, and you guys can start training!"

"Yeah, not sure we have enough time for that, Max." Nick said.

"Well, we have until another monster alert, so we should get on it quick, right?"

"Ugh, fine." Nick let out.

"Come on, cheer up." Judy said, attempting to gently elbow him, but instead jutting him in the ribs. "A little training never hurt anyone!"

"Yeah, whatever."

* * *

Should he have been that blunt with them?

Finnick paced around the back of his van, thinking about what he had done. It was a gut reaction, he could've probably handle it better… But it was also how he felt. How was he supposed to do anything with Nick tying him down? It was just a big problem he couldn't figure out.

The fennec let out a sigh, and glanced at the device on his wrist. He had to admit that he liked it, but he also didn't feel like he deserved to be a superhero. Nick was a better mammal than he ever was, so why did whatever god deity give it to him, specifically.

"How am I gonna pay for gas?" He said, his thoughts quickly shifting again. Too many things running through his head. He couldn't keep track of all the things going on at once.

He took a deep breath.

He had gotten his feelings off his chest, and he didn't need to worry about it anymore. He probably shouldn't worry about the city either, Nick and Judy would figure it out eventually, right? Then he could just ignore all this and go back to trying to find a job.

He let the breath out.

"Alright, feeling better." He said to himself. "Wonder if there's any places looking for jobs now. Hopefully there's a newspaper stand that hasn't been turned into, I dunno, a tree or some shit."

He hopped back into the front of the van, glancing at the phone still next to his seat. He shook his head, and drove off.

* * *

"So, is this better or worse than being a snake?" Max asked, watching as Nick and Judy stretched their bodies out.

"Well, I had less parts to move around when I was a snake." Nick said, stretching his back out. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, at least."

"Same here." Judy said, the former rabbit performing a few sit-ups. "Maybe we will be ready before the next time the monster attacks!"

"I might not actually hate this." Nick admitted.

"What?" Judy said stopping her sit-ups. "Yeah, we're getting used to this, but I still hate being in here."

"Well, that's you, Carrots." Nick said.

A few minutes passed as they continued trying to adjust to their bodies. "Do you think I should apologize to Finnick?" Nick asked.

"When all this is over, yeah." Judy said. "We have a lot going on right now, and he probably isn't in the mood for an impromptu call."

"Well, I know that." He said. "But I'm a bit worried about the next fight. What if it still goes bad, should I try and call him up when that happens?"

"I don't know, honestly." Judy admitted. "You should let him decide what to do, you know?"

Nick let out a sigh.

Max continued to watch for the next while as they performed their stretches, getting acquainted with their new bodies. Suddenly, his nose picked something up. A familiar smell, something he had been smelling the entire day.

Paint.

"Uh, guys?" He said, starting to panic. "I think we need to get out of here."

"What?" Nick said, getting up from a push-up.

"Yeah, we're in the middle of something, why are you panicking?" Judy asked.

"I think the monster's here."

The two glanced at each other, and then all three ran outside. They were too late.

The entire city had been transformed, the only normal thing remaining being Max's house. As they exited, they saw Sprayroid standing outside.

"Hello, art studies!" It said cheerfully. "How do you like my masterpiece? I call it, 'The Art of Zootopia'!"

"We're going to beat you, you hack fraud." Nick threatened. "We've been working at figuring out our new bodies, and we're ready to take you on!"

"Oh, sure." The monster said, sounding like it was rolling its eyes.

Max quickly transformed into ZooSilver, and the three of them ran at him. Red pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired a few volleys, but the monster quickly transformed the fireballs into bubbles, which floated upwards. The former fox growled, as best he could, anyway, and pulled out his tiny sword. He rushed at the monster, but he effortlessly smacked it out of his hand, before punching him right in the face.

Blue summoned the Wild Axe yet again, and attempted to chop at the monster. She still managed to be slightly unsteady, Sprayroid backing away from every swing with ease. After a few swings, the former bunny started to lose her breath, and let go of the axe. She started to try and kick Sprayroid, but her kicks were a bit choppier than normal, letting it dodge them effortlessly. After a few kicks, the robot grabbed onto her leg, and twisted it, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Alright, you might be able to take them on, but you can't do that to me!" Silver said, weapon drawn.

"Okay, yeah, that's a bit of an error." The monster admitted. "But I still doubt you can take me on by yourself!"

Silver quickly rushed in, and swung his blade at the monster, who blocked it with his cannon. It quickly pushed him back, causing the wolf to stumble, and then take a blast of compressed air to his stomach, launching him off.

"Hah, I can't believe this!" Sprayroid cheered. "I managed to beat the Zoorangers! I'm going to go down as the greatest in history!"

"NO!" Blue shouted, pounding her fist on the multicolored ground. She slowly climbed back up to her feet, and glared at the monster. "WE WON'T GIVE UP! WE'RE GOING TO STOP YOU!"

"Yeah!" Red followed, also getting up. "We aren't going to let you cause any more of this chaos!"

Silver got up as well, shaking off the blast. "We're the Zoorangers, we're here to defeat scum like you!" He said. "And that's what we'll do!"

"Oh my god, you three are so stubborn." The monster muttered. "How can you make good art when you overexert yourselves like this? Maybe you should just relax and let me do my job!"

The three charged in, attempting to strike at the monster with everything they had, all at the same time. Red managed to get in a punch, knocking the robot back, before Blue delivered a few kicks to the monster as well. Silver quickly leaped in and slashed at the monster as well, causing it to fly off and hit the ground.

"Alright, maybe I… underestimated you!" Sprayroid said as it got up. "Now its time to take this a bit more seriously myself!"

He started to fire a stream of paint from his cannon, propelling himself into the air. The spray can monster started to doodle in midair with its other arm, creating a cloud, which cleared to reveal very large missiles.

"FIRE!" he shouted, waving his hand forward. The missiles fired off, and hit the three before they could react. There was a massive explosion, and the three fell to the ground. "Oh, I'm not done yet!" He started to spray his can again, creating a cloud directly above the recovering Zoorangers.

Red quickly pulled out his phone, and started to dial a number. He glanced back up at the cloud. It cleared to reveal a large, iron ball. It fell down on top of them, before vanishing. The phone was flung out of his hand, landing right in front of him.

The monster lowered itself to the ground, and stepped towards them. "See, you can't beat me when I can make whatever I want!" It bragged. "You're just a bunch of worms, I'm like a god!"

He let out a laugh as the phone started to ring. Red started to reach out for it.

* * *

"Ugh, nothing." Finnick said as he drove throughout the twisted world. He'd been driving for around twenty minutes, and hadn't found a single place where he could get a newspaper. He knew they were obsolete, but all he wanted was the wanted ads.

"Maybe I should've done this after all this cleared up." The fennec said to himself as he looked at the abstract buildings and roads. He parked the car along what he hoped was the side of the road. It wasn't like anyone was driving, anyway, every other car he had seen had been turned into some kind of smoke producing device.

Suddenly, there was a ringing from beside him. He picked up the phone, and groaned as he saw it was Nick's number.

He probably wanted to get him to do something. Probably fight the monster. Well, he wasn't going to do that anymore, so there wasn't any point in asking. But the fennec guessed he needed to rub it in just a bit more.

"Yo, Nick, if you're asking me to do something, I'm not going to." He opened, tossing the phone to the other seat. "I don't care what kind of problems you're having, you gotta handle them yourself from now on."

"Finn…" Said a weak voice from the phone. It was fairly faint. "Help…"

Finnick sat up, and looked at the phone.

Suddenly, a voice that wasn't Nick's started talking. "Oooooh, what's this?" The voice said. Finnick looked just in time to see Sprayroid's face. "Aw, you were trying to call for your little friend's help? What'd he do, abandon you?" The monster mocked.

"I didn't abandon them!" Finnick shouted, hopping over to the other seat and picking the phone up. Sprayroid was visibly startled by the sudden action.

"Well, it certainly looks like you abandoned them!" He said, showing the Zoorangers piled up, all of them injured.

"I… I…" Finnick let out. He quickly spotted Max's house in the background. He hopped back to the driver's seat, and placed the phone on his lap as he started it up.

"I doubt there's anything you could do anyway, little guy." The monster continued. "Especially not by yourself! If you were here, maybe they would've stood a chance against me!"

Finnick let out a growl, and tossed the phone into the back of the truck.

* * *

"Hah!" Sprayroid laughed, dropping the phone to the ground. "Looks like your little rat friend couldn't handle being told the truth!" He continued. "Now to finish you three off for good!"

"Finnick…" Red sighed. "He wouldn't abandon us, would he?" He quietly asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Blue admitted. "We should've never asked him to join…"

"We can get out of this without him!" Silver said, helping himself up with his sword. "I'll make sure we save everyone, and that Finnick won't have to worry about us!"

"Oh shut up." The monster said, smacking Silver back to the ground with his cannon. "You positive types are SO annoying! Don't you realize what I've done?"

He postured towards the city behind him. "I've made this city what it TRULY represents! The world is a dark place full of nonsense and chaos, so let everything be that! It's a true appreciation of the world around us, don't you see!?" He turned back to them, all three slightly managing to recover. "This world is better than yours! It IS what the world is! Don't you get it!?"

"Ugh, artists." Red muttered, nearly managing to get up. "You gotta attach meaning to EVERYTHING, don't you?"

"Well yeah, that's what being an artist-"

The monster was quickly interrupted by a honk. He turned to look down the road, a red van coming directly for him.

"Aw, pop art."

The truck smashed into the monster, and came to a halt as Sprayroid was flung out of the way. Finnick quickly hopped out of the truck, and ran over to the injured Zoorangers.

"Finn, you actually came to help?" Red asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, of course I did." He said, like Nick just asked an incredibly dumb question. "I might hate you an incredible amount right now, but I can't just leave you guys to die, right?"

"That's very noble of you, Finnick." Blue said, the three managing to finally get up.

"Yeah, whatever." He said, before transforming into ZooYellow. "Now, we gonna kick this guy's ass, or are we just gonna talk all day!?"

"Hah!" The monster laughed as it got up. "You STILL can't beat me!" It taunted. "I've still got the power to create anything I want; how do you expect to top that!?"

"I dunno, but we have to try!" Red said.

The four dashed into battle. Silver and Yellow took up arms first, going for a direct attack. The monster quickly formed a blade of paint from its cannon, and intercepted Silver's attempted strike. Yellow slid by, whacking the monster in the legs with his club, causing it to trip over.

The Metalroid quickly, but awkwardly, rolled out of the way as Silver went for a slash, and then slashed at the wolf with his own sword.

Blue quickly summoned up the Wild Axe, while Red pulled out a golden ZooTag, and plugged it in.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

The sword appeared in his hand, much more proportional than it usually was. "Hey, check it out, this thing's like an actual sword now!" He said, swinging it about.

"Hope you can use it as an actual sword." Blue said, before the two rushed in.

Silver and Yellow got out of the way as Red and Blue quickly struck the monster with their weapons. He blocked them with his own paint sword, but the two continued to push him backwards. "Ack!" It yelled, before the two stopped pushing, leaving him a bit confused. The two then struck simultaneously with their weapons, causing the monster to fly off and crash into an abstract house shape.

"How!?" The monster yelled, wobbling forward. "You two are supposed to be weaker in those bodies…!"

"Fancy what a little training will get you, huh?" Blue said, spinning her arm.

"GRRRRAH!" The monster shouted. "I WON'T LET THIS MOCKERY CONTINUE! TIME FOR AN UPGRADE!"

The monster started to spray in front of itself, but this time, instead of vanishing, it had changed completely.

It was now mostly grey, with a multicolored V-shaped mark on its chest that resembled that of its forehead crest from before, but with the Chaos Emblem in the middle of it. It also had broader, grey shoulders, that led to larger arms, one equipped with the spray can, the other equipped with the cannon, except with the cannon replacing the entire arm.

It had a broader grey body as well, which continued down from the shoulders. Its upper legs were white, and lead to large armored boots and kneepads. Finally, the head resembled the monster's first form now, being longer and oddly shaped as it jutted out from the V shape, with two canisters coming out of its head. The large canister still remained on its head.

"CHAOS SPRAYROID! MEGA MODE!" It yelled in a much deeper voice. "Prepare to be ERASED!"

Paint started to build up in its cannon, before it pointed it at the Zoorangers. They dodged out of the way as a massive blast of paint fired towards them. It fired out like a beam, striking at Max's house. As it finished firing, large abstract formations started to jut out from the ground it had fired above, and Max's house was quickly overcome by black spikes.

"HEY!" Silver shouted. "You know how much that house COST!?"

"NOT AS MUCH AS YOUR LIFE!" The monster screeched, before painting something with its spray can. A swarm of miniature missiles appeared from the cloud, and fired in random directions, before all of them quickly homed in on the Zoorangers. He quickly made another swipe with the spray can, this time four large orbs of electricity appearing in front of him. They started to home in on the Zoorangers as well.

"Okay, I think he might be getting serious." Red said.

The four attempted to dodge out of the way of the many, many dangerous missiles and the electric orbs, but despite their best efforts, the missiles struck them, and the orbs shocked them.

The monster let out a mechanical laugh as it approached the weakened Zoorangers. "You can't win!" It roared. "I am the master of reality itself! There's no way to defeat me!"

There was another honk.

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me-"

The monster was quickly rammed by a large armored vehicle, which skid to a halt in front of the four injured Rangers. It was the SPD truck!

"Yo, somebody call for an antidote?" Pink said, getting out of the truck alongside Green. She quickly held up a bottle of clear liquid, and shook it around.

"Wait, you guys actually managed to figure something out?" Blue said, shocked.

"Yeah, we thought we were going to have to beat that thing ourselves!" Red added, with a bit of a nervous laugh.

"Turns out, we just needed some solvent to cure you guys." Green explained. "We managed to get it at a store before he transformed it."

"Yeah, turns out his weakness was just laying around the entire time." Pink added with an amused scoff.

"WHAT!?" The monster shouted. "There's NO WAY that will work!"

Pink nonchalantly twisted the lid off, and splashed some of it on Blue. Her body seemed to have started being eaten away at, disappearing rapidly until her normal rabbit self was left hanging in the air. She quickly dropped to the ground.

"NO!" The monster yelled as Pink splashed some on Red, turning him back to normal as well.

"Hey, and watch this." She said, dumping the rest of it onto the ground. The solvent started to eat through the paint rapidly, covering across the street, across hills, across basically everything, even the sky! Everything had been returned to normal!

"HOW DID THAT EVEN WORK!?" The monster yelled, it being the only thing not to be turned to normal. "GRAH, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR MAKING ALL MY EFFORT GO TO WASTE!"

"Wow, I feel great!" Blue said, stretching out her old body. "I don't even feel like I've been hurt at all!"

"Yeah, me neither!" Red said as well, flicking his tail around. "Maybe all the damage he did just hurt those fake bodies, and not our real ones."

"Still hurt us a hell of a lot!" Yellow added.

"Yeah, we are in remarkable amounts of pain." Silver continued.

"Well, I guess you guys won't be joining us in the final fight, then?" Red joked.

"Like HELL I won't!" Yellow said, stepping forward. "I have some serious stress to work off, and that trash artist is perfect."

"I'm not going to miss out on this either!" Silver said enthusiastically. He motioned to the other five. "Look at us, we're a full team now! I'm not gonna miss out on our first full team battle!"

"What's he talking about?" Yellow whispered to Red.

"Nerd things."

The six of them quickly nodded, and rushed in to fight the monster. Silver and Green went in first, followed quickly by Pink and Yellow. The first two attacked, Silver slashing the monster with his sword, and Green heading in with a hefty punch to its shoulder. The punch caused Sprayroid to start spinning around, letting Pink quickly pistol whip him back and fire her lasers at him a few times. Yellow quickly jumped up and leaped off of her, smashing the monster over the head with his club.

Blue and Red ran in after this, both leaping up and slashing the monster with their oversized sword and axe. The slashes came out in an X shape, leaving a scar across the robot's V mark, making it now look like it had six points.

"AUGH!" The monster yelled as it reeled back. "I can still win this!" He said.

"No, you can't." Blue said, bluntly. "Stop lying to yourself."

"Yeah, and you need to accept that your art isn't that great either." Red followed.

"MY ART IS BETTER THAN DAVINCI!" It shouted, before firing several quick blasts of paint at the six. They got out of the way as the paint hit the ground, leaving splotches.

"Guess he's getting a bit out of touch with his artistry!" Silver said, noticing the paint splotches. "I think this is the time to take him out!"

"Alright, team!" Blue said, standing proudly. "One last run, and then we take this sucker out for good!"

The rest of the team nodded, and started the attack.

Green walked up first, and quickly fired several blasts at the monster, explosions rising from the ground around it. The bull motioned towards Yellow, who quickly ran up to him, before Blue, Red, Silver, and Pink made their moves. Pink and Red moved in first, Red pulling out his normal sword, and whipping it at the monster wrapping him around in its wire. Pink started to unload her blasters into the monster as she ran up, before kicking him in the opposite direction the sword had wrapped around it.

The monster span around, and red pulled the sword back, causing it to spin around even faster, becoming a blur. Blue and Silver ran in, Blue pulling out her blades. Silver ran to the other side as she leaped up, the two starting to rapidly slash the monster. It stopped spinning around, standing in place for a moment before its body started to crack.

The two backed off as Green approached. He held Yellow in one of his hooves, and quickly tossed him up into the air. The fennec pulled out his club, and started to spin around in midair. He dropped down onto the monster's head, his club smacking it perfectly on the cranium. The head was crushed by this, before springing back up as Yellow jumped off.

"What? Huh?" It let out, before its body collapsed. The armor it had created dropped to the ground and turned back into paint, revealing the monster's original form.

The monster stumbled back as the six gathered, clearly terrified.

"Let's take this guy out!" Blue said, as her, Red, and Silver tossing their weapons into the air to form the Zookaiser. Pink and Green moved in nex to them, preparing their own weapons to fire alongside them.

"Whoa, hey, what about me?" Yellow asked, tapping Red on the shoulder. "Where the hell's this bulky thing supposed to go?" He continued, pointing at the club.

"Uhhh, Silver is the one who knows about this kind of stuff, ask him." The fox said.

The fennec let out a grunt and shook his head, dragging the club around the front of the Zookaiser. He paused to look at the barrel of the weapon, and then back at the club.

Idea!

He quickly plugged the club into the barrel of the gun, it seeming to fit perfectly, and even with a click. He hopped up onto the weapon. "Alright, FIRE!" He commanded.

The two shrugged, and fired the Zookaiser, Pink and green firing their own weapons alongside them.

The bazooka fired out the club, which was quickly surrounded by red, blue, and silver energies. Green and Pink's blasts quickly combined with it as well, forming a ball of energy that swirled with red, blue, silver, green, pink, and yellow colors.

"So… so many colors!" The monster yelled as the blast hit him. It expanded out, forming a faint outline of what looked like the globe, before in retracted inwards, barely covering the monster, and exploded into a shower of lights.

The club fell down from the sky, alongside an empty spray can, and a Chaos Badge. The six let out a sigh of relief.

"MAN, that was wild, wasn't it?" Red said. "Couldn't have done it without my pal here!" He continued, planting his paw down on Yellow's head and rubbing it.

The fennec swatted it away. "Actually, pretty sure I just made things more difficult for everyone."

"Yeah, but you saved us twice." Red continued.

"Hey, hey!" Blue said, clapping her paws. "Do we have to do this every time? We aren't done yet!"

"Oh. Right. Yeah." Red muttered. He looked down at Yellow, and pulled something out. "So, you got one of these?" He said as he showed him the red ZooTag.

"Uh, no, I don't." He said.

"Well, guess you aren't getting in on the fun today!" Red said.

The three turned as a pulse of energy flew through the air, and they watched as the Chaos Badge flew off into the horizon, forming Chaos Sprayroid in the distance.

"NOW MY ART IS EVEN BIGGER THAN EVER!" It yelled.

"Not exactly what I'd call 'fun'." Yellow said.

"Honestly, it is pretty fun." Blue admitted. She glanced over at Silver. "You ready to go, Silv?"

"Uh, actually, I'll be there in a bit." The wolf said. "Just give me a minute."

"Well, I'm not sure we can take this thing on without you, but we don't have any time to argue, so…"

They quickly summoned up ZooRobo, and stomped towards the monster. "Hah, now you two really are alone!" It shouted, quickly thrusting its spray can at them.

The monster started to spray, causing chains to fly from the cloud. ZooRobo quickly attempted to slash the chains away, but they continued to fly out. After a few slashes, the chains quickly wrapped around ZooRobo, binding it in place.

"Now I can destroy you guys for good!" The monster laughed, paint spraying out of its cannon, and quickly forming a sword. He attempted to jab it directly into the mecha's head, but was interrupted by something tapping him on the back.

"What the-?"

The Metalroid spun around, coming eye to eye with ZooKami.

"Yo." Said a voice from it, very clearly not Silver's.

The mech delivered a solid punch to the monster's face, causing it to become dizzy. ZooKami then stepped over to ZooRobo, and sliced through the chains, freeing ZooRobo.

"Thanks, Silver!" Blue said from inside.

"Not the wolf, bunny." Said the voice.

"Finnick?" Red said, surprised. "How did you-"

"Kid let me borrow it for a bit." The fennec explained. "Test drive thing, I guess. Element of surprise there, too."

"You seem to have to figured out the controls pretty quickly!" Blue said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it's just like driving a car." Yellow said, before pausing. "Except it isn't, at all."

The monster shook its head, but it still seemed to be recovering from the punch. "Quick, we need to take out that canister!" Blue said. "Use ZooKuma, it should be able to cut through it!"

Red nodded, and quickly plugged the yellow ZooTag in.

"BAN BAN BOOM!  
GIRI GIRI!  
CUTTING THROUGH!  
ZOOKUMA!"

The bear mech appeared, and fused with ZooRobo into Kuma Mode. The robot bared its claws, before slashing one of them at the monster's canister, ripping a massive hole in it. The paint inside started to flow out, and the monster finally recovered.

"WHAT!?" It shouted, bending down to look at the ground. "NO! My paint, my glorious paint!"

Zookami quickly walked forwards, and kicked the robot in the face, knocking him up. The mech them slashed at him with his sword, the monster powerless to do anything.

"Alright, you guys finish him off, I'm not really sure how that works." Yellow said.

"Got it." Blue replied.

The mech raised one of its claws into the air. Energy gathered around the claws, before they extended upwards into the sky, higher than even Yellow could see, and he was inside a fourty story tall robot.

ZooRobo brought the claw down, slicing directly through the monster. The claws retracted, causing the monster to spark and stumble forwards.

"Maybe…" The monster started. "Maybe my art wasn't good? Maybe I was just a hack… A hack like BANKSYYYYYYYYY!" It cried, before exploding.

The mechs disappeared, and the three showed back up on in front of Max's house. They untransformed. "You did a good job, Finnick." Blue said, holding out her paw. Reluctantly, Finnick shook it.

"I was just doing what I felt I needed to, y'know?" He replied, a bit bashful.

"So, whaddya say, pal?" Nick asked. "You wanna join us?"

Finnick thought for a moment. "Well, I'm-"

There was a sudden sound, like lightning streaking from the heavens. A red bolt had struck from the sky, and lingered for a moment, casting the area in a red aura.

The six stood there, shocked as it seemed to form into a crack on the air. "Uh, what's going on?" Finnick asked, confused and scared.

"Uh, I'm not really sure." Judy mumbled.

The crack straightened out, before expanding out into a hole. A figure started to walk out from it. A figure clad in red.

"Wait, is that…?" Red started, a bit shocked.

"AkaRed?"

The portal closed, and the sky returned to normal, revealing the red figure of AkaRed. "Holy smokes!" Max said, running up to the deity. "You're so cool looking!"

"Thank you." AKaRed said, remaining stoic.

"Is this that… god guy you mentioned?" Emily asked as she and Henry carefully walked up.

"Yeah, he's a pretty decent guy." Nick said. "How's everything going for you in that void, Reddy?"

"I've been working hard at protecting my universe." He explained. "But I received notification that your third member had been found. I decided to come myself and christen him."

"'Christen me'?" Finnick said, a bit confused. "What does that mean."

"It's like knighting." Nick explained. "Or if you mean the word, it means-"

"I know what the word means!" Finnick shouted.

"All of you stand back." AkaRed said. The other five followed the orders, leaving Finnick standing in front of the imposing red entity.

Finnick started to sweat as AkaRed looked down on him.

"Finnigan Zerdana, are you ready to join Zyumen Sentai Zooranger?"

Finnick paused for a moment. He picked up the sound of laughing from the group. "His name is Finnigan…?" Nick said quietly. Finnick shot him a glare, and returned to looking at AkaRed.

He took a deep breath.

"No."

AkaRed glanced down, a bit shocked. Everyone else reached in surprise as well, Nick specifically being the most confused.

"Listen, I… I don't think I can do this." He continued. "Not with where I'm at. I can't do the two lives thing, it'll just end up bad like it did today." He turned to look at Nick, Judy, and Max. "I enjoyed it, though, don't get me wrong. It was the first time in a while I've felt… alive. But I need to focus on getting myself out of this pit first."

There was a pause. Finnick hoped he hadn't said the wrong thing.

"Very well." AkaRed said. "It is your choice. I only choose those who are willing to join the cause. I understand your reasonings, Finnigan, and respect them. But I must do one thing before I leave…"

AkaRed raised his hand, causing Finnick's paw to move up as well, against his own will. The strap of the Zoolizer came off, and in a flash, returned to its much larger size from before. The Zoolizer floated back to AkaRed's hand, and he walked over to Nick and Judy.

He kneeled down, and held it out. "Take care of this." He said, Judy grabbing it. "Find someone who wishes to become a Zooranger. Someone of both daring bravery and courageous spirit. But make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of anyone dark. The Zoolizers hold great power, and in the wrong hands can be used for malicious things."

"So, you want us to figure out who to make the new ZooYellow?" Judy asked.

AkaRed nodded. "But you only have one chance at this." He stated. "I was able to reverse its genetic coding once, but I will not do so again. Farewell."

AkaRed flicked his cape, and vanished with another flash of red light.

"That was… weird." Emily said. "I feel kinda sick."

"What do you think the sociological implications of both gods and alternate dimensions means?" Henry asked the hyena, who shot him an unamused glance.

"So, guess I'm not joining you guys." Finnick said, walking up to Nick, Judy, and Max.

"It's fine." Judy said. "It was your choice, and I feel you made it well."

"Yeah, I don't really want my best pal getting too stressed out." Nick said, quickly flicking one of the fennec's large ears. "Might get a migraine."

"You know, I might have forgiven you guys slightly…" He started, sounding fairly modest. He quickly glared at Nick. "But you still got me fired."

"Finnigan, can't we let bygones be bygones?" Nick said sarcastically, clutching his paws together.

The fennec's eyes twitched. "Don't call me that again."

"Sorry, Finnigan." The fox continued.

"You know that 'slight forgiveness'?" He said. "Gone now."

He quickly grabbed Nick by the muzzle, and flung him into the ground, before stepping on his back and locking his arm. "Ow, stop it!" Nick cried in pain.

"Listen, Wilde, you're going to help me get a job during the next week, or I'll make sure you never use your yap again." The fennec threatened.

"Alright, alright!" Nick cried, Finnick quickly getting off his back.

"So, can I just say something?" Max started. The three looked up at him. "How are we going to find someone of 'daring bravery' and 'courageous spirit'?"

"Hey, what do you think this city is, a hive of scum and villainy?" Finnick said with a chuckle. "I'm sure you can find someone like that, the city's massive!"

"Finnick's right." Judy started. "We just need to look carefully, and we'll find someone. It might just take time."

"Oooh, maybe we can work out a scheme of some sort!" Nick suggested. "Like… like a talent show! 'Zootopia's Next Top Zooranger'!"

"That's a terrible idea, Nick." Judy said, Max nodding in agreement.

"You guys have no artistic vision!"

"Don't talk to me about art for the next three months." Judy quickly snapped.

"Yo, I'm gonna head out now." Finnick said. "Gonna find some wanted ads, and we can get started on find me a job tomorrow, dig?"

"Fine." Nick sighed.

In a few minutes, the SPD and Finnick had moved on, and the Zoorangers were left back in Max's house. It was starting to get late, and the sun had gone down.

"Nick, can I ask you something?" Judy started, turning to the fox next to her on the couch. They were alone, since Max had gone up to have a shower.

"Sure, what is it?" The fox said as he plopped another blueberry into his mouth.

"I've been around you and Finnick before, but he seemed to be acting… different." She started. "Did you two… have something in the past?"

Nick quickly started choking on the blueberry, before spitting it out. "Whaaat? Are you suggesting that me and Finn were…?"

She nodded.

"No, no, no, it was nothing like that!" He said. "We've just known each other a long time, its nothing."

The fox was heavily blushing at this point, Judy could see right through him.

"Its fine, you know." She said. "Everyone experiments, I just wanted to know."

"I… don't really want to talk about it." Nick said, his tone dropping.

"That's fine too.' She said, before pausing. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

The fox quickly hopped down from the couch without saying anything, and headed to the basement door.

"It's alright."

* * *

"N'est-ce pas merveilleux?" Enter, back in his humanoid form, yelled as he entered the chamber. "The chaos I caused back there was second to none!"

"Indeed, it was." Kyuemon said, with a bit of a sigh.

"I liked that monster!" Yabaiba said, leaning back in his chair. "Reminded me of me!" The chair quickly tipped over, bringing the Org to the ground as well.

Enter walked over to the table, and slammed his hands down on it. "But, unfortunately, we have a new problem."

The villains looked at the table, which flicked on to reveal a picture of ZooYellow.

"They're gained another member." Enter said.

"We saw." Long said, clearly not interested in the conversation. "And I thought five were annoying."

"I hope they don't get any more." Sambash added. "Six is my limit, no more, no less, y'know."

"Hah, I managed to take on seven Rangers!" Yogostein bragged. "Though, I did die a bit after they joined."

"I've handled six before." Kyuemon said with a scoff. He turned to Enter, who had his hand to his chin. "What are your thoughts, Enter?"

"Oh, I just find this simply…"

"Très intéressant."


	36. Beastman Wars

The room was cold, dark, lit only by a few dim candles… and one of the two cretures inside. The armored monster stepped towards the middle of the room, towards a stone altar, another creature laid upon it.

A lion, wearing only a cloth, eyes closed and unresponsive, but unknown whethe or not it was unconscious. Surrounding its body were dozens of small stone statues, the top of each carved into the shape of a creature. An eel, a baboon, a pangolin, angler fish, and even a centipede, alongside many other, all surrounded his body, touching his skin.

"The ritual… begins." The armored creature said. He held his hands over the lion's body, golden energy starting to flow out from him. The lion started to struggle, his body, and the statues, starting to glow as the energy entered him.

The monster stopped releasing the energy, and pulled out a small, red object. He thrust it down into the lion's struggling body, plunging it into his chest. The lion let out a pained shriek as the object absorbed itself into his body, covering him and the statues in a shroud of gold and red energy.

The monster stepped back as electricity crackled from the energy, leaving burn marks across the stone walls. There was a sudden shockwave as the energy cleared, knocking the monster into the wall, and putting out the candles.

He glanced up, watching as his new creation rose to its feet, and let out a roar. He started to laugh.

"Welcome to our world, my ultimate creation."

"My Ultimate Beastman!"

* * *

"I think this is the absolute dumbest idea you've ever come up with." Judy said, tapping a pen against her desk.

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun." Nick replied. He sat in a chair next to her, and Max in a chair next to him. They were sharing a large desk, which in turn was in the middle of a decently sized rehearsal room they had managed to rent out.

The place was fairly bare, mostly because they had cleared up most of the space. It was a simple white room, with a few mirrors at the back.

"Being a Zooranger isn't something you can just… audition for." Judy said. Her and Nick had slightly taller chairs, but they still had to stand in order to be seen over the table. Max just had to sit down. "Its about, you know, justice and doing what's right. And remember, we only have one shot at this."

"It'll be really easy!" Nick declared. He tapped the sheet of paper in front of him. "We just have to ask the questions on these pieces of paper, and if they match the criteria, then they get to be the new ZooYellow!"

"This sounds incredibly unreliable." Max stated.

"Listen, this room cost a LOT of money just to get for today, so we have to do this."

The door creaked open, and Clawhauser popped his head into the room. "How's everything going, guys?" He asked. "Want me to get you some coffee?"

"Yes, please." Judy replied, rubbing her temples.

"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes!" He said, giving a quick wave. He shut the door, but it quickly opened again. "Have you guys seen how many mammals showed up for this?"

"We've been stuck in here for the last hour, Ben, so no, we haven't." Judy answered.

"Alright, because there's at least two to three hundred lined up outside."

Judy's ears popped up, Clawhauser quickly leaving before she could start yelling.

"Nick."

"Yes, Carrots?" Nick replied, a bit smug, despite knowing what was coming.

"Did you advertise this?"

"Of course I did, how were we going to get anyone to show up otherwise?"

"How MUCH did you advertise it?"

"I placed a few fliers around." He said. The rabbit turned to look at him. "And some newspaper ads."

Judy continued to glare at him.

The fox let out a sigh. "And some radio ads. And a TV spot."

"How much is this stunt costing us?" She asked, trying to hold back her anger a bit.

"Us? Nothing." He explained. "I funded it entirely through Bogo and Lionheart."

Judy leaned over the table, placing both of her paws over her face. "You scammed them into this, didn't you?"

"No!" Nick adamantly declared, crossing his arms. "I told them I needed the money to help find the new member, and they both realized how important that was."

"Is it wrong that I don't believe you?" The rabbit muttered.

A bit passed, and Clawhauser returned with the coffee. The three of them got ready as the clock ticked down to when the auditions would begin.

Seven AM.

Clawhauser acted as the doorman, letting each try-hard mammal in. Hours started to pass as they went through them. Some were wannabes, clearly not fit for the task despite having the heart, while most others seemed to have come entirely for a shot at fame. Anyone showing that kind of attitude was kicked out immediately. A good chunk of the others were entirely out of place, mostly mammals trying to show off their rather mundane talents.

"So, your name is…?" Judy asked, barely looking up from her paper. She had run out of coffee hours ago, and was in desperate need of a break.

The current audition was being held by a white tiger. "Daniel Lily." He said. "I've been following you guys ever since you started, and I've always wanted to help others. I've studied a bit of martial arts, so I'm combat ready, too."

Judy popped her head up to look at the tiger. He sounded completely genuine, and looked like he was in shape. In the last hundred or so, they hadn't really found anyone like this. He matched the criteria she needed. The rabbit opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted.

"You're not yellow enough." Max said, a bit rudely.

"What!?" Judy shouted.

"Max has a point." Nick continued. "You sound like what we need, but… the color's not right. If we were looking for ZooWhite, then you'd be perfect."

"Oh, COME ON!" Judy shouted again.

"Oh." The tiger said, clearly disappointed. "Well, I guess I'll just head out now…" He slumped off through the door, as quickly as he had come.

"I can't believe you two." The rabbit grumbled.

"Hey, I'm just trying to keep up with tradition." Nick said. Max remained silent.

The door opened, Clawhauser walking back into the room. "Hey, guys, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." Judy said, still sounding a bit miffed.

"Why can't I just be your new member?" He asked. "I've got, like, everything you need!"

The three remained silent for a moment. Talking about this was a bit awkward. "Ben, we can't just… give you the Zoolizer." Max started, standing up.

"Yeah, it's a bit more… complicated." Judy continued. "We're not doing this for fun, we have to protect lives, and if one of us… isn't capable of that, then…"

Clawhauser's expression started to fall.

"We only have a single chance to do this, Spots." Nick started. "We can't just give it to you, you know? It's a permanent deal."

"So, you're saying I'm too…?"

"Ben, you know we don't mean it like that." Judy said. "We just don't want anyone getting hurt, especially not one of our friends."

The cheetah remained silent for a moment. "You're a member of our team, anyway!" Max said. "You're the most important member, without you, we wouldn't be able to track monsters as efficiently!"

The cheetah smiled a bit, before remembering something. "Oh yeah, there was a monster sighting nearby!" He explained. "The SPD are already on their way; you guys should get there too!"

The rabbit quickly hopped out of her seat, leaping over the table. "Alright team, we have a mission to do!" The three started to run to the exit, but Nick paused at the door and turned back to the cheetah.

"Spots, we need you to cancel the rest of the auditions for today, alright?" Nick said. "Tell them to come back in, I dunno, a week!" He quickly ran back out.

"Got it, Nick!" Clawhauser shouted back.

* * *

Silver landed in the middle of the plaza, Red and Blue quickly following behind him on their bikes. They hopped off, and glanced around.

"So, there was supposed to be a monster attack somewhere around here, right?" Red asked, glancing around the area. The three heard the sound of tires screeching, and turned to see the SPD's truck, Green and Pink getting out of it.

"Alright, where's the monster at?" Pink asked as they approached the three.

"If we knew that, we'd be fighting it." Red said.

There was a sudden scream, and the five quickly rushed off towards it. Passing around a building, they saw an antelope, being approached by a green creature.

The creature didn't look like anything they had seen before, its head seemed to be lizard-like, with bug-red eyes, and a rather erratic red pattern crawling across its face. Its head ended in three points, one in the middle going up, while two others at the sides went downwards. It seemed to have a beak for a mouth, and a small, yellow antenna popping out of its forehead.

It was hard to make out its body shape, but it was definitely a bit hunched over. What was noticeable was the red pattern continuing across its body, legs, and arms, broken up by a yellow chest and a white scarf around its neck. On its right arm was an odd looking, silver armlet, and both arms ended in what looked like black gloves, with sharp claws. On the creature's back was what looked like a small fin, which also seemed to be on its wrists and ankles.

Its legs ended in black boots, and it wore an odd belt around its waist. The belt had the same red bug-eyes, but also had an odd handle, and a red diamond pattern going around the black belt strap. Stuck in the middle of the belt seemed to be a buzzsaw of some kind. As Blue examined it, something felt off, it looks familiar, but she couldn't place where she would've seen something like it before.

The antelope let out another scream as the creature attempted to step towards him, but then stepped back. "You have seen-" The monster attempted to say, before the antelope screamed again, and ran off.

"Well, that looks like a monster to me." Red said, pulling his sword out. The rest of the team, besides Blue, responded in turn, pulling their weapons out, and running at the monster.

"Wait!" Blue shouted, stepping forward. She shook her head, and ran into the fight.

The monster glanced as the five approached. It let out a quizzical noise, and leaped up into the air, landing in front of them and causing them to stop in their tracks. "You… Zoo?" It asked, looking down at the fox.

"I don't know what that means." Red said. "But you better stop terrorizing those civilians, or we're going to have to throw down."

The creature knelt down, and tilted its head, confused, before standing back up, albeit in a hunched position. "Need to find Zoo."

"I think he's been trying to find us?" Silver whispered down. "I mean, what else could he be looking for?"

"Maybe a beauty saloon." Pink joked.

"Guys," Blue started, catching up with them. "I'm not sure that's-"

"Listen, pal." Red started. "I think we're the ones you're looking for, and if you're looking for a fight, you've come to the right place."

"Guys, seriously-"

The four Rangers quickly pulled out their weapons, and attacked the monster. Silver quickly swung at the creature, who seemed to effortlessly block it with his claws, before delivering a quick kick to launch the wolf across the plaza.

Pink and Green moved in next, Green swinging his cannon in an attempt to hit the creature, but it quickly leaned back, the cannon swinging right over it. It then moved to a handstand, kicking the bull back with both of his feet as he flipped back over to his feet.

Pink holstered her blasters, and swayed into a fighting stance, similar to the monster's own hunched stance. She moved in for a hit, but the creature grabbed her paw in one of its claws, before delivering a quick punch to her face, knocking her back.

Red glanced around as the monster turned to him. He clutched his sword, and hopped back, swinging it at the creature. The blade detached from the hilt, swinging towards the lizard-like creature. In response, it quickly pulled at the red handles on its belt, pulling them off and revealing a rope. The creature rapidly swung the rope at the blade, causing it to wrap around the sword's wire. With a quick tug, the monster pulled Red through the air, and then slammed him into the ground.

The four got up, groaning in pain as the monster looked around. "This guy's pretty tough." Red muttered as he climbed back to his feet.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you rush into a fight like an idiot!" Blue shouted, sprinting up to the creature. She glanced up as it looked down at her. She really hoped she wasn't wrong about this.

"Listen, we're so sorry for attacking you." She started. "We've all been a bit on edge for the last few days, and someone like you showing up doesn't really help."

"Carrots, what the hell are you doing!?" Red shouted.

The creature looked down at her, before kneeling. "You… Zoo?" It asked.

"Yes, we're the Zoorangers." She continued. "Do you come from the other timeline?"

The creature shook its head. "Here to help."

"Oh." Red said, dropping back to the ground, alongside Silver, Green, and Pink. All four of them were a bit embarrassed now that they had realized they weren't even attacking a monster.

"What's your name?" Blue asked.

"Me am… Amazon!"

The four other rangers gathered around Blue and Amazon, the five quickly untransforming. "So, this guy's a buddy from the other world?" Max asked.

"Seems like it!" Judy replied. "We should get you to a safer spot, where you won't be yelled at." Amazon gave a quick nod.

* * *

Amazon looked around the house, seemingly in awe of everything around him. The five watched on, silently, as he poked at one of the video game consoles on the TV stand, and recoiled a bit when it turned on. Max quickly got up and started to shoo him away.

"The heck is up with this guy?" Nick whispered to Judy, who was sitting next to him on the couch.

"I dunno." She said with a shrug.

"So, is this one of your friends from the alternate universe, or whatever?" Emily joked from behind the couch, reaching down and tapping Nick on the head.

"Alternate timeline." Henry corrected. The hyena stared at him for a second. "I actually pay attention to what I'm told."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is." The rabbit said. "He's just… a bit… weirder than what we're used to."

"Hey, Amazon Prime!" Nick said, catching the creature's attention. "Care to explain what's up with you?" Judy let out a groan, and facepawed.

Amazon quickly moved to the coffee table, and hopped up on top of it, nearly knocking over a mug. Max was having a panic attack as this happened.

"KAMEN RIDER… AMAZON!" Amazon shouted. "Amazon born in Amazon, given GiGi Armlet," He clutched at the armlet. "Given power to protect world!"

"You were born in Amazon?" Nick said, a bit confused. "You mean, the jungle, or…?"

"Jungle!" Amazon shouted, waving his arms. "Protect jungle!"

"Ooooooh kaaaaaay."

Max walked up to Amazon, and started to examine him. "I really like your suit." The wolf continued, walking around the table to get a better look. "It's very unique."

"Not suit."

"Not suit?" Max repeated, confused.

"Not suit." Amazon pounded at his chest. "Body."

"Oh."

"So, you're one of those… Kamen Riders?" Judy asked, standing up on the couch. "We met a few of those guys before."

"I wish you guys bothered to explain any of this to us." Emily muttered. "You told us we were dealing with 'Sentai', not… Riders."

"From what we've gathered they're very similar." Nick replied. "They're just slightly more… gimmicky."

Amazon nodded. "Amazon is Kamen Rider! Here to help. Red one said bad things coming."

"'Bad things'?" Nick repeated. "Hmm, don't like the sound of that. We already have enough bad things to deal with."

"Did AkaRed give you any details on this 'bad thing', or…?" Judy started, trying to get something out of the Rider's very… stunted information.

"Bad thing."

"Very informative." Emily chuckled. "I don't think we're gonna get any info out of lagarto boy here."

"Usually these guys showing up means something big is going to happen." Judy started. "The last time a Kamen Rider showed up, it ultimately resulted in you guys getting your powers."

"You mean our medals?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, those were used by this guy named Ohs…" She paused. "That's not important now, we have something dangerous coming, and we need to be prepared."

Almost as soon as she finished, their Zoolizers started to go off.

Amazon let out a growl. "Bad! Danger!"

"That enough preparation for you, Carrots?" Nick joked as he hopped down from the couch.

"Not nearly." She said, sounding a bit worried. "We need to head out ASAP."

* * *

The five arrived at the scene downtown, Amazon taking a ride in the SPD's truck, while the Zoorangers rode in on their bikes, Silver riding on Red's. They parked their vehicles, and glanced around.

The place was in ruins, pieces of concrete littered the ground, and a most of the buildings had pices cleaved out of them. It was like a disaster had just hit.

"This doesn't seem… particularly great." Red joked as the three hopped off their bikes. The SPD's truck parked next to them, and the three passengers got out as well.

"This isn't time for jokes, Red, there could be mammals in danger." Blue said.

"I only see five mammals in danger right now." A voice behind the six laughed. They turned around to face whoever it was.

Long.

He was standing amongst the rubble. He must have been the one who caused all of this.

"Long time no see, hmm?" The armored monster cooed. "I've missed having my fun with you all. And I see you brought a pet alongside you."

"He's not a pet, he's an ally!" Blue snapped, before pointing her daggers at the monster. "You caused all this destruction, right?"

Long let out a chuckle. "Me?" He started, raising his hands. "I'd never do such a thing."

"Liar." Silver muttered.

"Guess you decided to take us on yourself now, huh?" Pink started, stepping forward. "Well, you've had this a long time coming, golden boy!"

"Why would I ever face you myself?" Long continued. "You're nowhere near my strength."

Amazon shuffled over to Blue, and whispered something. "Monster… not all danger."

"'Not all danger'?" She whispered back, confused. "Is he not the only one here?"

Suddenly, Blue's ears twitched as she picked up something from behind them. Long wasn't the only one here. There was something else, and it was…

It was coming straight for them.

"GET DOWN!"

Blue ducked to the ground alongside Amazon, but the other Rangers were too late. A creature from behind them, spinning through the air like a drill, rushed towards them. It pierced through them all, and flew over to the Infinite Dragon himself, leaving the Rangers to fall to the ground in pain.

"I didn't cause this destruction, you see." Long started. "Like you, I brought a pet along. Let me introduce you to him.

The creature stopped spinning, revealing itself to the six in full.

The monster, whatever it was, was covered in black, obsidian armor with golden highlights. Bursting from its chest were five carvings of different animal heads, forming a circular pattern consisting of a boar, a rat, an ox, a horse, and a kind of ape. In the middle of the five was the symbol of chaos. Its arms were similarly covered in different animal heads, its shoulders displaying the heads of a crane and a crow, acting as shoulder armor with golden beaks.

Its elbows were marked with pads, one resembling a seashell, and the other the plating of a pangolin. Its upper arms had engravings of the upper half of a crocodile's head on one arm, and the other a carving of a centipede, wrapped around the arm. Its lower arms, directly attached to its wrists, had another scowling ape head, while the other seemed to have what looked like a fairly ordinary fish.

On the creature's upper legs were an eel, wrapped around one of the legs, and a cobra wrapped around the other. Its knees were marked with a pair of slightly different frog heads. On the lower legs were a scorpion and a gecko, hugging onto each of the legs. The creature's feet resembled animals as well, one of the boots resembling an ostrich head, and the other an angler fish, complete with lure. The back of the monster was marked with a line of fur, stretching from its neck, and around the outline of its back, though it was impossible to see if there was anything else on the back.

Even stranger were the monster's proportions, which were unlike any monster they had seen before. Its body matched up with a fairly slim feline, the hands and feet matching up with feline paws. Its head had a similar shape to a feline as well, though it was covered in a helmet, an opaque black visor covering up any face. The helmet was finished off with golden markings resembling a lion on either side, and more of the fur crawling down from the back of the head.

The monster let out a roar and snarled as it stepped forward. "Oh god, what is that?" Silver muttered as he got up.

"It looks like a bad art project." Red joked as he got back up as well.

"This, my friends, is my ultimate creation!" Long declared. "Created using the power of every Beastman at my disposal. He has the power to use of their abilities, a truly unstoppable force! I call him… the ULTIMATE BEASTMAN!"

"Beastman?" Amazon said, jumping back to his feet. "Geddon! Bad!"

"Geddon…?" Long muttered, before laughing. "This creature is better than anything those idiots could have created."

"Alright, so you made a 'super strong' monster." Red said, a bit smugly. "We'll see how long it lasts against all of us!"

Long started to laugh again.

"Ugh, this guy is super creepy." Pink muttered.

"I doubt you'll WANT to kill this monster." He continued. "You see, the power of every Beastman isn't the only thing I threw in… I added someone a few of you might know a bit… intimately."

He glared directly at Red, his visor glowing a deep, threatening red. Red paused for a moment, before quickly realizing what Long was getting at.

"You didn't."

"Didn't what?" Blue asked. "What's he talking about."

"Blue, that's not just a normal monster." Red said, having become incredibly serious in only a brief moment. "It's Clawbick."

Reflexively, Blue, Silver, and Pink's ears jolted up, while Green simply stared at the fox. Amazon didn't entirely understand what was happening.

"Correct, fox." Long replied.

The five glared at the Ultimate Beastman, who hadn't responded, or even talked the entire time they had been talking about him. It seemed it move mindlessly, bestially. It was rather disturbing.

"What did you do to him!?" Pink shouted, stomping forward.

"I found him wandering around that underground bunker, and it took days of cold-blooded torture, but I managed to make him as obedient as a housecat."" Long explained. "Where I come from, we call it… domestication."

A shudder went up Blue's spine. The way he was talking about, well, whatever it was, was more disturbing than she felt it should be. She could tell that Silver, Pink, and Green were disturbed as well, but Red simply seemed angry.

"See, if you decide to destroy my Ultimate Beastman…" Long started, circling around the monster and placing a hand on its shoulder. "…Then you'll have to kill Clawbick as well."

There was hesitation.

Long pointed towards them, causing the Ultimate Beastman to let out a roar, and rush towards them. The eyes on the monkey head on its head started to glow, as he swiped his armored paw forward. The six quickly leaped out of the way as a slash of energy flew at them. There was a burst of dirt, which exploded from the ground as the slash hit. The dust cleared, revealing the concrete had been directly cleaved through.

"Well, that's gonna be a problem." Red muttered. He dashed into the fight, drawing his sword, and leaping up to strike the monster. Red brought the sword down, slicing directly through the monster's body, causing it to stumble back with a grunt.

Long looked on, letting out a sigh.

Blue and Silver rushed in next, each preparing to strike with their weapons. Blue leaped up while Silver remained grounded, and slashed at the monster's sides. It grunted as it stumbled back, and the three ducked out of the way. Pink and Green moved in, and fired their blasters at the monster, knocking it to the ground.

"This guy is supposed to be your strongest monster?" Silver laughed. "He's a chump!"

Long remained silent and continued to observe.

The monster let out a grunt, before the pangolin armor on its elbow started to glow. An obsidian ball quickly enveloped him, and began to roll around the area, knocking into all five of the Zoorangers like a much more violent and controlled game of pinball. They were all flung across the plaza, Red and Green being flung into the sides of buildings, while Blue, Silver, and Pink were tossed to the ground.

The ball cracked, and then exploded, revealing the Ultimate Beastman, who let out a roar.

Blue got up, and glanced around for a moment. She couldn't see Amazon anywhere. Where did he go? She shook it off, maybe he wasn't as helpful as he seemed. And admittedly, he wasn't helpful to begin with.

The monster let out another roar, as the rat head on its chest started to glow. Electricity coursed through its body, and shot out of its arms as it thrust them to its side, causing two massive explosions that didn't seem to be aimed at anyone. The Beastman then began to spin around rapidly, becoming a gold and black tornado, continually shooting off bolts of electricity in random directions.

"The hell is this thing trying to do!?" Pink shouted over the electrical booms.

"I don't think it knows!" Blue shouted back. "I think it's just doing things at random!"

"Well, we need to get it to stop spinning!" Red followed. "Henry, with me!" He said. The bull nodded, and the two grouped together. They both pulled out their cannons, and fired simultaneously fired blasts. The shots met directly in the middle of the monster, but the spinning caused the blasts to be shot back where they came from. The two ducked out of the way as the energy flew past them and exploded.

"You know, I could've told you that would happen." Green said.

"Then why DIDN'T YOU!?"

"Learning experience."

"Nick, you just need to get that thing to stop, and we can try to subdue it!" Blue said, running over. "You and Silver should use your whips to tie him up!"

"Another good idea, Carrots!" Red said, getting up. "Hear that, Wolfsbane?" Red said to Silver, who was on the other side of the monster.

"Yeah, I got it." He said. "We need to do this at the same time, though. If we don't, we could just get caught up in his spin cycle."

"Got it." The fox glanced at the rabbit. "We need someone to give us a countdown simultaneously, think you can do that?"

"You know I can." Blue said. "Alright, on my mark!" She said through the communicator, to both the fox and wolf.

Silver quickly spun the guard of his blade to Moon Mode, and prepared to strike. Pre-emptively, Red removed the blade from his sword, it clinking to the ground to reveal the wire.

"One, two, THREE!"

They swung their blades, hopefully at the same time. The energy whip wrapped around one of the monster's arms, while the wire wrapped around the other. The monster stopped as they tugged, arms pulled out all the way out. It struggled and grunted as it attempted to break free, but to no avail.

"Alright, now we just need to finish it off!" Blue said. "Green, Pink, let's do it!"

The two nodded, and gathered to Blue. "Remember, we don't want to kill him, just knock him out." Blue reiterated.

"I WISH we could kill him." Pink muttered.

The three prepared their blasters, but were interrupted by something.

"GI GI!"

Everyone glanced around.

"What was that?" Blue asked.

"GI GIIIIIIII!"

"It sounds like its coming from…" Green started, looking up at the building behind them. It was a nearly collapsed building, missing most of anything that made it stable.

But somehow, Amazon was standing on top of it.

"GIIII GIIII!" He let out again, everyone looking up to watch him. He flapped his arms in an odd manner, crossing them and then swinging them out rapidly in an odd battle stance.

"AH! MAH! ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!"

He leaped up into the air, pulling his arm back, preparing to perform some form of karate chop.

"GREAT SLICE!"

He fell down as he performed a massive chop, slicing directly through the middle of the Ultimate Beastman. It let out a horrific roar of pain, as black goo burst from where Amazon struck, spraying over the Rider. The five Rangers looked on, fairly horrified at what had just happened.

Red and Silver were so stunned that their whips retracted on their own, leaving the monster free as it stumbled back.

It continued to grunt and clutch at its body in pain as Amazon sprinted back up to him, slashing at the monster's arm with his claws. In a single swipe, Amazon cleaved the arm clean off, causing a burst of the black goo, which started to spray from the stump left behind, and pour from the arm that landed on the ground.

The Beastman struggled as Amazon approached again, but he was quickly interrupted as Long appeared in front of him. The armored monster kicked the surprised Rider back, knocking him to the ground.

"We're getting out of here." Long growled. "I know exactly where I went wrong with you."

The two vanished in a burst of golden mist, leaving the arm behind.

There was stunned silence, everyone looking either at the goo-covered Amazon, or at the severed arm on the ground.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Judy shouted as she untransformed, unable to think of anything else.

Amazon tilted his head in response, confused, as the rabbit ran up to him. "Amazon, we weren't supposed to do… THAT!"

"Amazon… not hurt?" He said, confused. "Hmm, not understand."

"Of course you don't!" She said, exasperated.

The other four untransformed as well, Henry heading to check out the arm.

"That was equal parts incredibly, disturbing, and shocking." Nick said.

"Yeah, that's… I dunno what to call it." Emily said, genuinely not sure what to say.

"That would have been amazingly cool if there wasn't any of that goo." Max said. He carefully reached out, and scraped some off of Amazon's face with his claw. It felt like what a cloud would feel like if you could touch it, it felt both soft like marshmallows, and completely nonexistent.

Before he could examine it any more, the goo started to evaporate, starting with the goo on his claw, and moving on to the goo covering Amazon.

"Guys, check this out!" Henry said.

The five turned to the arm, which seemed to be… melting. It was turning into even more of the goo, before eventually evaporating as well.

"Guess Clawbick's not getting that arm back any time soon." Nick joked.

Judy started to pace around. She was at a loss for what to do. "We need to regroup." She said. "This is a major, MAJOR problem, and we can't just not have a plan."

"But we can't just have TWO psychos running around the city while we try to come up with something." Nick followed. "What are we supposed to do about that/"

She thought for a moment. "Um, Emily, Henry, go search for that thing. It should be weakened, considering… yeah."

"Got it." Emily said, before glancing at Amazon, who was sitting on the ground, still confused. "What are we going to do about him?"

"We'll take him back to base with us." She said. "If we come up with any plans, we'll let you guys know, alright?"

Amazon sat on the ground, mumbling to himself. "Amazon no hurt… Amazon no hurt, or hurt friends. Amazon no hurt anymore."

* * *

"So, we have one of the smartest villains in our rogues' gallery running around with a violent murder, who also has access to a bunch of different powers." Nick started as he leaned back on the couch.

"That's the gist of it, yeah." Judy replied. She was pacing around, trying to think of, well, anything they could possibly do to defeat them. It was starting to get late, and no more reports came up, so it was safe to assume they were done for the day.

"I can't think of anything." She finally admitted. "I don't know how to defeat them WITHOUT killing Clawbick. Long might be the only one who knows how to turn him back to normal, but…"

"Maybe we just need to knock it out of him somehow?" Max suggested.

"He got an entire arm chopped off, and nothing happened." The rabbit replied. "I feel like that would've done something to him."

"True."

Judy turned to Amazon, who was looking out a window at the back of the house. "Amazon, you're here to help us, right? Do you think you can come up with anything?"

"Amazon not good at plans." He admitted, looking back from the window. "Amazon fight."

"Helpful." Nick said, sarcastically.

"Its not like you're coming up with anything, Slick." The rabbit snapped back. "If I'm stumped, then you're even more stumped than I am."

"Yeah, I actually have an idea."

Her ears popped up, and she shook her head while letting out a sigh. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because you won't like it."

"Lay it on me, anyway."

Nick let out a sigh as he sat up. He took a deep breath, and told them his plan.

"We just kill him."

Silence creeped across the room. Max backed off as Judy entered an intense staring match with Nick. Her breathing got a bit more rapid, but the fox remained calm.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No, I'm not." Nick said, dead serious.

"Oh my god, Nick…"

"I don't see why we should let him live at this point." The fox growled. "You know what he's done, right? He's taken so many lives by this point, why should we show him any mercy?"

"Nick, we aren't the ones who decided who lives and dies." Judy said. She was very clearly disgusted by what the fox was saying, which he seemed aware of, but not particularly bothered by. "Something like that is up to the judge, we're just officers."

The fox remained silent for a moment, before hopping down from the couch. He glared at the rabbit for a moment. "Isn't that what we do anyway?" He said. "Isn't deciding who lives and who dies what we've been doing for the last year?"

"Nick, this is different-"

"HOW!?" The fox shouted back, startling the rabbit. "He's more of a danger than some of the monsters we've killed, I'd put him at that level!"

"I'm NOT killing anyone!" She shouted back. "I won't have anything like that happen again, alright!?"

Nick paused, and glared at her. "You weren't that generous with Era, were you?"

He walked off towards the basement door, leaving the rabbit behind.

Thoughts rattled around Judy's head. She knew that Nick and Clawbick had a past together, a bad one at that, but she didn't realize how much… disdain the fox had for him. It was disturbing, and nothing like how he usually was.

Distressingly, he had a point. At what point did they consider something a monster? It was something she had been ignoring since the whole thing had started. And… god, she did kill Era, didn't she? Even if it was out of mercy, she had still killed someone she had considered a friend. And what about that traffic light monster?

She fell to her knees, a sudden weight of horrible, horrible guilt coming over her. Max looked over at her, making sure she was alright. The rabbit took a deep breath, and got back to her feet.

"Max, what should we do?" She said, weakly. "I don't know how to deal with this…"

"I… I don't know." He responded. "I don't want to kill anyone either, but… Clawbick might be too much of a threat at this point…"

"We can defeat him without killing him." Judy said, less a statement, and more of a way to comfort herself. "I'm not going to let anyone else die."

Amazon looked on from the window, and then glanced back out.

* * *

"IDIOT!"

Long slapped the corrupted lion with the back of his armored hand, causing the Beastman to fall to the ground. The two were in an alleyway, hiding out after the utter failure of a fight from earlier. The lion was still missing his arm, and whimpering in pain

"I gave you the power of an entire army, and yet you couldn't figure out how to use ANY OF THEM!" Long shouted. He let out a growl. "Maybe destroying your mind wasn't the best idea… Hmm…"

The dragon warrior raised his hand up, golden energy starting to emanate from it. He thrust his hand forward, firing the energy at the monster. It let out a roar of pain as it hit, but quieted down once the energy was fully integrated.

Before the monster could do anything, the gecko on its leg lit up. Black goo started to spread out of its arm, forming into a new shape. In a moment it had hardened, creating an exact replica of the monster's lost arm, complete with animal carvings intact.

The Ultimate Beastman let out a grunt, as it climbed up the wall of the building behind it, returning to its feet. "I have returned some of your mental faculties." Long explained, as the monster looked at itself.

"Who… am I?" It asked.

"Hm, amnesia." Long muttered to himself. "Must have been a side effect of the torture, his mind recessed…" He glanced over at the monster, who still seemed very confused. "You are my loyal minion, the Ultimate Beastman. You hold the power of many different warriors, and are helping me to conquer this planet."

It stared for a moment, and glanced back down at its paws. "Yes… that makes sense." It said to itself. "I feel the power…" he clutched his paws, and looked up at Long. "What shall we do next, my master?"

"I want to test how well you can handle your powers." He explained. "And I know just who to test them on." The armored creature snapped its fingers, causing both of them to disappear in a cloud of golden mist.

The mist flew up into the sky, searching for its new prey.

Only a few blocks away were the SPD, still searching for Long after many, many hours. "Think we should turn it in soon?" Emily asked, checking her phone. "It's been about, what, five hours?"

"Yeah, I'll take you home in a bit." Henry said. "Just need to be careful."

"After his arm got cut off, Long's probably running for the hills." Emily chuckled.

Henry nodded. "Not really sure how anyone could recover from that-"

The bull's eyes widened as the golden mist appeared in front of them, Long and the Ultimate Beastman appearing from it. He swerved in the middle of the road, and skid to a halt. The two got out, putting on their armor.

"Damn it, I was just ready to go for a coffee!" Pink growled as they confronted the two monsters. The hyena noticed that the Beastman had somehow recovered his arm. "What the…?"

"How did you grow your arm back?" Green asked, equally confused.

"That is the skill of the Gecko Beastman, Moriya." Long explained. "Ultimate Beastman… destroy them."

"Yes, master." The monster growled, stepping forward. The crow and crane heads on his shoulders started to glow, before the monster thrust his paws out. White and black feathers made of energy flew from them, directly at the SPD Officers. They jumped out of the way, the feathers impaling the truck instead.

"Damn it, Dave!" Henry shouted, before firing a shot from his cannon. The frogs on the monster's knees started to glow, as the black goo began to cover his body. The energy blast hit him, but didn't seem to cause any effect, the goon retreating back into the monster's body.

Pink quickly fired her blasters, but the Beastman retaliated by aiming the fish head on his wrist at them. It started to glow, and fired out several shots of water, knocking the lasers out of the air.

He then quickly aimed the fish head at the bull, and fired several more shots. They hit him, but seemed to cause very little damage. The Beastman rushed up to the bull, this time both the centipede and the cobra on his body beginning to glow. His paws started to glow purple, as he began to start rapidly punching the bull at remarkable speeds.

After many, many of the punches, he stopped, causing Green to fall to the ground unconscious.

"Well, this might be a bit of a problem." Pink admitted.

The Ultimate Beastman turned to face Pink. The crocodile head started to glow, before the Beastman jumped into the air, spinning around at remarkable speed. He flew at Pink, sending her flying and crashing into the ground.

The monster approached her, looming over her like a black shadow. "Dave, please, you don't want to work with that guy!" She pleaded.

"He is my master." The Beastman said. "I have no idea who this 'Dave' is."

The cobra started to glow again, as he jabbed a claw down into the hyena's body. She quickly fell unconscious.

"Good work." Long congratulated, walking over to the Beastman. "Though, these two were the weakest of the lot."

"Should I kill them?" The Beastman asked.

"No, not yet." Long said. "We can find some use for them."

He let out a quick laugh, as all four vanished into the golden mist.

* * *

"So, Amazon, what exactly do you… eat?" Max asked from the kitchen. He glanced over at the Rider, who was starting to examine his electronics again.

"Amazon eat meat."

"Oh, so you're a predator?" Max said. This was a bit of a problem. Nick and Judy were both vegetarians, so he had only stocked on predator foods for himself. He glanced in the fridge. "Uh, I only have some fish, but that would take a while to cook…"

"Cook?"

Max glanced back at Amazon, who was curiously looking back at him.

"Uh, you're fine with… raw fish?"

"Fish, yes." Amazon said. "Eat fish."

"Okay, but… you're going to have to eat it outside." Max said, walking over to the back door. "This stuff is messy when raw, I'm not getting it on my carpet."

"Amazon like outside better than inside"

Max opened up the door, letting Amazon out into his back yard. He grabbed the fish, and tossed it out the back, wincing as Amazon started chomping into it.

The basement door opened up, Nick and Judy walking in. "How you guys doing?" He asked. "Got over that fight from last night?"

"Hah, no." Judy said. "I made Nick sleep on the couch down there."

"Not the worst place I've slept, admittedly." Nick said.

"You didn't even talk about it?" Max asked, a bit concerned. The two turned away from each other, and the wolf let out a sigh. "You guys are incredibly stubborn."

"He's the one who's stubborn!" Judy shouted. "How thick headed do you need to be to think that killing someone is acceptable!?"

"When its for the good of everyone!" Nick shouted back. "Do you know what the monster did to… to a whole lot of innocent mammals!?"

"You've told me hundreds of times by this point!" She retaliated. "Just because he's a horrible, absolutely disgusting creature doesn't mean we should kill him!"

"Yeah, and it's not like we don't do that-"

"You guys are starting to repeat your arguments, stop it." Max interrupted. "Now, I got Amazon his breakfast, you guys better get something to eat too. Maybe getting something in your stomachs will put you in a better mood."

"Hmmph." The two let out at the same time, crossing their arms and turning away from each other again.

An hour passed, and the three had eaten their breakfasts. But they were still arguing, of course.

Max watched on from the kitchen table as the two argued. "I get that ideals are a hard thing to change, but I really don't think now's the time for this…" He muttered to himself. The wolf's own ideals were conflicted over this as well. He knew that defeating the monster was the right thing to do… but he also didn't want to kill anyone. He was just as confused as Nick and Judy were, just a lot less hostile.

He glanced out the window, spotting Amazon, who was laying on his back, seeming to just take in the fresh air.

"Wish life was that simple." He muttered again.

There was a sudden buzzing sound from Judy's phone, shocking Max out of his funk, and causing a halt in the two's argument.

The rabbit quickly picked her phone off the table. "It's Clawhauser, he probably has a report on Long!" She said, answering it.

"Heeeey, Judy!" Clawhauser said as he appeared on the phone screen. He looked a bit nervous.

"You have a monster report, right, Ben?" She asked. "This isn't about a meme you saw online again, right?"

"No, this is… very serious." He said, his nervousness becoming more apparent. "So, Emily sent me an email a minute ago…"

"Oh, so the SPD have something to report on?" Nick said. "Makes sense they'd be the first to find Clawbick."

"Well, I got excited, but… all that was in the email was… this."

He fumbled with his phone a bit, before pointing the camera at his computer screen. On it was a very blurry picture, which seemed to show Emily and Henry, gagged and bound to the girders of a construction site.

"Oh god." The rabbit let out as the picture focused in better. "Who sent this…?"

"Not Em, obviously." Nick said. Max came over to get a quick look at the photo as well.

"Then, I got… a voice mail." Ben continued, pointing the phone at a much older looking phone. He pushed a few buttons on it, causing a voice to start speaking.

A very familiar, very distressing voice.

"Hello there, I assume this is the police station." Long said over the message. "In particular, I'm assuming this is the overweight cheetah that seems to love helping out my enemies. If it is, it would be just grand of you to send this message to the Zoorangers."

There some sounds over the phone, sounding like footsteps. There was a slap, and then a cry of pain.

"I have your friends." Long continued. "If you want to see them alive again, then you'll need to come to Skylight Heights construction site downtown. I'll be eagerly waiting."

The message flicked off.

There was silence for a moment.

"You should probably get on that." Ben said. "See you guys. Please go save them." He hung up.

There was more silence from the three.

Nick clutched his paw tight, and then slammed it into the coffee table. "GOD DAMN IT!" He shouted. "We need to go kick that guys ass RIGHT NOW!"

"Nick, this is obviously a trap." Judy replied. "We can't just go in unprepared. And we don't need to defeat them, all we have to do is save them. I can sneak in while you two distract Long and-"

"You really think that'll work!?" Nick shouted back. "He'll probably kill them if we try to do anything like that! We NEED to go defeat them."

Max looked on as the two started arguing again. After a minute, he clapped his paws. "Guys, we don't have time for this." He said. "If we don't head to the site right now, Emily and Henry are good as dead."

The two fell silent. "He's right, we'll figure out something once we get there." Judy said. She thought for a moment. "Do you think we should take Amazon?"

"I personally don't want to see any more gratuitous violence." Max admitted.

Nick nodded. "Besides that, he could end up being a liability." The fox explained. "The guy isn't particularly bright, and could get in the way really easily."

"Right." She said. "Let's head out."

The three rushed out through the front door, unaware that Amazon was looking in at them through the window. "Where they go?" He asked himself. "Hmm, sense bad… go help…"

The Rider slunk around the back of the house, and quickly started to trail behind the motorcycle bound Zoorangers.

* * *

The three arrived at the construction site. It was for a large skyscraper hotel that had been in the works for a few years. It was still nowhere near complete, but seemed to be spacious enough for a large brawl. As they walked into the yard of the site, they spotted Long and the Ultimate Beastman, standing on a raised platform in front of the two SPD Officers, who had been knocked out cold.

"Ah, pleasure to meet your acquaintance, once again." Long said with a laugh.

"Hey, how'd crazy cat up there get his arm back?" Red shouted up. "You do more weird experiments to him?"

"The Ultimate Beastman has truly unlocked his full potential." Long explained. "It was thanks to the technique of one of the many Beastmen residing in his body that he was able to regrow it."

That's weird." Blue said, rather bluntly. "But we showed up! Release our friends!"

"Hmm, I'll release them..." Long started. "…But only if you can defeat my Ultimate Beastman. If you do, somehow, manage to defeat him, then I'll give them back to you."

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." Red said to the rabbit.

She scoffed in response. "I'll think of… something." She stepped forward. "Alright, we'll take him on again! Expect it to go as well as last time!"

"Oh, I doubt that…"

Long motioned towards them, and the monster leaped from the platform it was on, crashing into the ground.

"My master has told me a lot about you. About how you meddled with his plans for so long." The Beastman said, startling the three, but especially Red. It sounded nothing like Clawbick… at least, not the Clawbick he had known for a long while. It almost brought back a flash of nostalgia.

He shook it off, and stepped forward. "So, got your brain back, Clawbick?" He started.

"I don't know who that is." The Beastman said. "Is it related to that 'Dave' those two mentioned?"

"I think he has amnesia." Silver suggested. "Something definitely happened to him, at least."

"Yeah, not that hard to figure out." Red said, pulling out his sword.

"You two fight, I'll sneak off to rescue Emily and Henry, got it?" Blue whispered. "It's the safest bet we have right now."

"Yeah, got it." Red said, Silver giving a quick nod as well.

Red and Silver rushed at the monster, Red leaping up as the wolf continued to run on the ground. The eel on the monster's leg started to glow, as he made a paw-motion towards Silver. A spurt of slime fired out from his paw, directly at the wolf's feet. In a split second, Silver found himself falling over onto his back.

Red continued his leap, and prepared to strike at the Beastman with all his strength. The monster slashed at him, firing out several energy slashes. Red slashed through them, but was met by a bright light, which blinded him for a moment. As he fell to the ground, the monster raised its leg, and quickly slammed the fox into the dirt.

"Weak." It said. "And don't think I've forgotten about you."

Blue paused in her tracks. While Red and Silver were fighting, she had quickly dashed over to the construction site itself. She was just about to go under the first platform, when the Beastman started to talk to her.

He quickly spun around, and fired several shots from the fish head on his arm. She leaped out of the way as the blasts hit a girder behind her, slicing it apart. There was a rumble, and she scrambled to get out from under the construction before it collapsed. She glanced back as she ran out, the unfinished building's frame slightly bending under its own weight.

Guess it wasn't load-bearing.

The monster quickly turned back around as Red and Silver continued their charge, quickly slashing at the monster's chest simultaneously. It stumbled back, before flinging its arms forward, firing out white and black energy feathers from its hands. The two quickly leaped out of the way as the feathers cut through the ground.

The monster spread its arms out, attempting to hit them, but soon felt himself interrupted by a strong kick to his back. He stumbled, and turned back, spotting Blue behind him, blasters ready. The rabbit quickly opened fire on the monster's face, causing it to stumble back even more.

It let out a growl as the three grouped back together. Red let out a chuckle as he turned around to face Long, who was still watching above them. "Looks like he's still got some bugs!" The fox joked. "Maybe you should call customer service!"

Long remained silent.

"Yeesh, that guy does not like jokes." Red grumbled as he turned back to the monster. He pointed his blade at the lion. "Alright, time to finish you!"

"Non-fatally finish you." Blue added in.

Red rolled his eyes from behind his mask.

"You're slightly tougher than I expected." The Beastman said. "But you're still not tough enough to defeat me."

The ape head on his chest started to glow, black goo starting to flow from the monster's body. It flowed into two separate masses on both sides of the monster, and seemed to form into two distinct bodies. The slime hardened, revealing two more of the Ultimate Beastman.

"And you're definitely not strong enough to defeat three of me!"

"This is gonna suck." Silver muttered as the three monsters charged at them.

One of the Beastman seemed to head instinctively for Red, who leaped out of the way as it let out a slash, cleaving a large chunk of the ground in front of it. He pulled out the Vickscannon, and fired it, but the monster backhanded it back, the blast knocking him into a girder.

Silver fought with another one of the Beastmen, attempting to rapidly slash at it, but the monster somehow blocking every slash effortlessly. He stopped striking the monster for a moment, preparing to switch to another mode of his sword, but was soon kicked in the back by another Beastman. He stumbled into the first Beastman's attack, a double handed punch, which slammed the wolf into the ground.

Blue hopped and rapidly slashed at the other Beastman, attempting to avoid his own slashes and kicks. She managed to do well for a moment, before the Beastman landed a lucky blow, knocking her to the ground. The other two clones absorbed themselves back into the monster's body as he stood amongst them, victorious.

"Well done!" Long said, clapping. "You've managed to defeat them, now… kill them."

"Yes, master." The Beastman said. He glanced over at Red, who had gotten up, but was clearly dazed from the impact. Something about him just made the Beastman want to… rip his innards out.

The monster stomped towards him, but was interrupted by a sound.

"GI GI!"

"What the-?"

He turned around, and almost instantly was met by Amazon, who leaped down from the sky, performing a large chop.

His hand slashed through the monster's chest again, causing it to stumble back. The Beastman let out a grunt of pain as the Rider approached, leaping up and kicking him in the chest next.

He clutched at his chest as Amazon continued to attack. He slashed and kicked at the monster's body, black goo flying out of his body with each attack. After a few moments of the attack, the goo seemed to start disappearing, replaced with green electrical crackles.

Amazon quickly hopped back, and prepared to perform his finisher, the fin on his back twitching. He rushed forward, preparing to leap up and perform the attack, but the Beastman let out a scream of pain.

More electricity burst from his body, all three Zoorangers looking on from where the monster had taken them down. There was a sudden burst of green energy, knocking all four of them away. The monster stumbled a bit, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"What!?" Long growled. "GrrAGH, what is it NOW!?"

He glanced at the Zoorangers as they recovered. "We beat your monster!" Blue shouted up. 'Give us back Emily and Henry!"

Long remained silent for a moment. "I said that YOU needed to beat him. Not that ridiculous caveman."

"Rude." Amazon said back to him.

"I will return." Long declared. "Maybe then, you will be able to save your friends!"

He, alongside the Beastman, and the tied-up mammals, vanished into golden mist, which fluttered off through the sky. Blue let out as angry as a growl as a rabbit could manage in response.

"That lying, horrible… SNAKE!" She yelled, untransforming alongside the other two Zoorangers.

"I'm gonna be honest and say that we should have predicted that." Max said, bluntly. "He's a bad guy, they never actually play by the rules unless it benefits them."

"He's right, but this is still a problem." Nick said in response. "We need to do something about this, fast. He probably retreated back to the mountain."

"Nick, don't even think about it." Judy snapped.

"Think about what?" He replied, sarcastically. "Going up to the villain lair and actually doing anything to save our friends!?"

Max let out a sigh, and looked at Amazon, shaking his head. The Rider tilted his head in confusion.

"That's a death sentence, Nick!" Judy shouted. "There's still seven incredibly dangerous villains up there, and we're NOWHERE near prepared to take all of them on at once!"

"We have our Solar and Lunar forms, though!" The fox retorted. "We were strong enough to take on Long with that, I say we can take on all six at once!"

"Are you forgetting that Long is IMMORTAL!?"

"Well, what are we supposed to do, sit around and do nothing!?"

"We wait until Long shows up, and then figure out how to defeat Clawbick." She explained, with a lower voice, but still intensely. "If we do that, we'll save Emily and Henry."

"How exactly are we supposed to defeat him WITHOUT killing him?" Nick asked.

"We have to do what Amazon did, cause… whatever that was to happen." She continued. "If we do that, then we'll have won."

"But that won't get rid of the problem! If we just defeat him like that, we'll STILL have a monster that can take on all of us at once running around!"

"Well, we can't just let Emily and Henry die now, either!"

"Alright, alright, you two!" Max shouted, quickly lifting the two up by their shirts. "This has gone on long enough. We won't come up with anything if you two keep acting like this. We're going back home, and you two are going to talk through your problems, peacefully."

The two groaned as Max carried them out of the construction site, Amazon following close behind.

* * *

"Wow, did you seriously use ALL of your minions to make this guy?" Yabaiba asked, examining the unmoving body of the Ultimate Beastman, who was placed on top of the table in the middle of the chamber.

"Almost all of." Long responded. "I saved one more, just in case."

"He's rather… ornate, isn't he?" Kyuemon said, also examining the body. "Shame he didn't work out that well."

"He worked PERFECTLY." Long growled. "He seemed to have had some sort of… energy flow problem. I can easily fix it."

"You're talking about that thing like it's a machine!" Yogostein said from the far side of the table, sounding a bit offended. "If I was making something like that, and not saying I would, I would make it a perfect machine! With all those organic parts, it just becomes a liability!"

"Qi can only be used by living creatures." Long said. "Qi alone is a force stronger than anything that powers your scrapheaps."

"You said he managed to take out all the Zoorangers, right?" Sambash asked, seated in a chair a bit farther off from the table. "How did he even lose? Seems pretty lame to me."

Long twitched for a moment. "This… creature, that's been following them around managed to catch him by surprise. I suppose that the pain the beast inflicted on him was bad enough to send him into shock."

He looked up, glancing at Enter. The entire time, he had been staring at the Beastman, seemingly fascinated by something. "Take a picture, it'll last longer." Long said.

Enter glanced up, and shot him a sarcastic smile. "No, I think I've seen everything I need everything goes well, mon amie."

Long looked back down at the Beastman. "Everyone back off, I'm going to perform the ritual."

The villains did so, each of them creating enough space between themselves and Long to hopefully not be blasted apart. The Infinite Dragon raised his hand, golden energy starting to form at his finger tips. He then jabbed his hand into the monster, the energy quickly spreading through his body. It let out a pained grunt as Long removed his hand.

The Ultimate Beastman slowly sat up. "Are you feeling any better?" Long asked.

"I'm feeling perfect…" It said, standing up. Its tone had changed somewhat, a lot snider than the obedience he displayed earlier. "Let's go kill those Zoorangers."

Long paused for a moment. "Very direct, but an acceptable plan." Long said. "But I believe we've had enough pressure for a while. We will wait just a bit longer before having our fun."

The Beastman simply let out an annoyed grunt, as the other villains, including Long, left him alone.

He clutched his fist, and let out a laugh.

"Prepare yourself, Long."

* * *

The three had arrived home, and several hours had passed. It was starting to get dark, and neither Nick nor Judy had started to talk about anything. Instead, the two skulked about the place, avoiding each other.

They were acting like children.

Max had been watching this unfold over the entire day, and it was starting to get aggravating. They wouldn't be able to get anything done unless they worked together, which seemed impossible at the moment.

He knew that ideals were a hard thing to really talk through, but they could've at least tried. Him and Delgato had gone through things like this before, but they still worked together. If they couldn't overcome their own differences, their friends would probably…

He shook it off, and let out a sigh. He looked down at the foot of the couch, where Amazon was sitting. "What do you think we should do?" He asked, almost out of the blue. "There's no way we can rescue Em and Henry when they're acting like this…"

"Amazon understand fox." The Rider said. "He afraid, angry."

Max looked at him, a bit confused. "You can tell what he's thinking?"

"Amazon angry at enemies for hurting friends." Amazon tried to explain. "He want to protect friends, but… confused."

Max's ears perked up as the Rider talked. "I have an idea." He started. "You understand where Nick is coming from, right? Why don't you go explain it to Judy? Maybe you can get her to understand him better."

Amazon paused for a moment, and then shook his head. "Go find rabbit, talk to her." He said. The Rider jumped up from the ground, and started to sniff at the air. He jumped over the table, and headed upstairs.

He creeped into the master bedroom, where Judy was. She had come up here to just look at the moon for a bit and gather her thoughts. The moon always seemed to relax her. Unfortunately, she had to stand on a chair in order to look past the windowsill.

"Hello." Amazon said, causing her to let out a small yelp.

"Oh, sorry." She said, turning to Amazon. "Uh, why are you here?"

"Amazon want to talk."

"Well, if you want to talk, maybe you should go take some speech courses…"

Amazon quickly shook his head. "No. Talk you."

"Oh, talk to me." She sighed. "Uh, alright." She muttered, sitting down on the chair as Amazon walked over. He crouched down next to the chair.

"This is about Nick, isn't it?" She asked, Amazon nodding his head.

"Amazon try to… explain how fox feel." He started. "Fox… confused and angry at monster. Very… personal. Rabbit understand that?"

"I guess." She said. "I just… I don't feel like I would go to the levels of hate he has right now."

"What does rabbit know about fox and monster?" Amazon asked. "You know past?"

"Past?" She thought for a quick moment. "Well, I know that Clawbick was… abusive to him and his friends. I suppose that could mean a lot of things."

"Rabbit know where fox come from?"

"Not really." She said. "I was bullied, sure, but never… abused." She paused for a moment. "God, I must've been coming off like an asshole."

"Rabbit not worry." Amazon said. "Fox need to get frustrations out. Only bad people want to kill. Fox not bad, Amazon can tell."

"Maybe you're right." She said, placing her chin on her paw. "I'll talk about it to him in the morning…"

Amazon tilted his head, confused. She still seemed upset about something. "Something bother rabbit?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Judy said, clearly lying.

Amazon continued to stare at her for a moment, before she finally let out a sigh.

"Okay, yes, something's still bothering me. It was what he said earlier… about us killing monsters." She let out another sigh. "Its been haunting me ever since our first day… is it right that we're killing these monsters? They might be evil, but I know its possible for them to change, so… should we keep doing this?"

It went quiet for a moment. Amazon finally spoke up.

"Destroying monsters… good. More be hurt or killed if not." He started. "Every monster has a leader, with black soul. If the leader not destroyed, then whole world in danger."

Judy looked at him. "So, you're just saying what I'm doing is fine? That I shouldn't feel guilty?" She started, getting a bit angry.

"No."

The rabbit's nose twitched.

"Being… hero, means you make tough choice." He said. "Amazon had friend that was monster, but knew that destroying other monsters helped everyone."

"What… what happened to your friend?" She asked.

"Friend helped me fight monsters." Amazon explained. "Killed… by own kind."

"That's terrible." She said, shocked.

"Redemption of monsters, possible." Amazon continued. "But dark heart leads more dark hearts. Some impossible to redeem."

"So, if I want to make the world a better place, then I need to do this?" She asked, still confused.

"Rabbit help monsters who need help, right?" Amazon asked. She nodded in response. "Then you already do right thing. Heroes help, you hero."

She gave a small smile. "That makes me feel a bit better." She said. "Getting called a hero by an actual hero. Thanks, Amazon."

"Amazon, always help!"

* * *

Nick had stayed in the basement for most of the previous day. He had been doing it to mostly just avoid talking to Judy. He knew it was incredibly childish, but she just didn't understand. She didn't understand what had happened between him and Clawbick. She could never really understand that kind of betrayal.

And he'd been through it twice.

As he skulked around the basement, he had lost track of time completely. He had spent the entire time thinking about things. About whether he was right or not. He didn't really want to admit it, but he knew he was wrong. He had especially regretted bringing up Era, that was just a horrible, horrible thing to say.

But it didn't mean that Judy was entirely in the right. She had no right to tell him what to feel.

Eventually, he had completely passed out on the couch, without even unfolding it into the bed.

He woke up, and cleared his bleary eyes, before getting up and going upstairs. He felt in a much better mood.

"Hey, Nick!" Judy said from the dinner table. Seems like she was in a better mood at this point, too. "Come sit down with us!"

The fox shrugged, and got up onto his seat, joining her and Max at the table. "Where's Beast bOy?" He asked. "Outside again?"

"If you think I'm letting a messy eater like him eat in my house, think again." Max said. He quickly glanced at the two. "So, I'll go make some coffee, and you guys can sit here, and… chat."

The wolf got up, leaving the fox and rabbit at the table. "Nick, I wanted to say that I'm, uh, sorry." Judy admitted, rather quickly. "I have no idea what happened with you and Clawbick, so I don't have any reason to judge how you feel."

Nick remained silent for a minute.

"Uh, I'm sorry to." He finally said. "I was kind of acting like a jerk."

"You were acting like an incredible jerk." She followed. "But I know why you were acting like a jerk. It's all fine."

Max walked over, carrying two cups of coffee. Thank god they had managed to work through that. He placed the cups in front of them, and headed back to pour his own.

Judy took a sip of her coffee. "Nick, what exactly DID happen between you and Clawbick?" She asked after placing the cup back down.

"I, uh, don't really want to talk about it." He said.

"That's fine." She replied. "If it makes you feel uncomfortable, then we don't have to talk. It must have been something pretty terrible to say you want to kill him, though."

"I never said I didn't want him to die." The fox quickly said. "I just… wouldn't want either of us to do that. If we did that, I guess we'd end up being just as bad as he is."

Judy nodded as Max sat back down at the table, taking a sip of his coffee. He was interrupted by a phone ringing.

"Hopefully this is Clawhauser." Judy said as she hopped down from her chair. She walked over to the coffee table, and grabbed the phone off it.

She froze as she read the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Nick asked, a bit worried by the sudden silence.

"It's… It's Emily."

Nick and Max got up, and walked over to Judy. She answered it.

The camera came on, revealing both Emily and Henry, tied, bound, and gagged to a pair of trees. They were still unconscious, but were much bloodier than they were before.

"Hello there." A voice on the other side said. It was Long's. The camera spun around to reveal him. "I'm so sorry to intrude on your day again."

"You're pulling the same trick again, Long." Judy said, angrily. "Its not nearly as shocking."

"You know what? I don't care." He said. "Same deal as before. Come meet me at the base of Mount Animalia. See you all soon."

His visor started to glow, and the camera began to glitch out. In a few seconds, the call was terminated.

"Em's gonna be upset when we tell her that her camera got turned into a puddle." Nick joked. "But seriously, we need to head out."

The rabbit nodded. "So, our plan is to get Clawbick to fritz out again, that'll count as a defeat and we can save Emily and Henry."

"Sounds good to me." Max replied. He paused for a moment. "Think we should take Amazon with us this time?"

"No, we shouldn't." Nick said, bluntly. "He's the reason why they got away last time."

"He's also the reason why we didn't die last time."

"I agree with Nick" Judy said. "If we manage to pull this off, we won't need Amazon's help."

Max sighed. "Fine."

The three headed out shortly after that, leaving the Rider behind.

* * *

A short while later, they arrived at the entrance to Mt. Animalia. After talking with the guards for a few minutes, they were allowed through. They walked up the trail, heading up the mountain and into the forest that covered it.

Nick took in the fresh air. The trees, to him, towered above, with blue sky and sunshine piercing through. It made him feel nostalgic for a time he barely remembered, and almost made him forget what they were here for.

"You know, my dad used to come up here every week." He said to Judy.

"He did?" She replied, a bit surprised. "I wouldn't expect your dad to have been a hiker."

"Yeah, every Saturday he'd hike the trail." Nick continued. "Sometimes he'd bring me, but I was a brat and hated it." He let out a sigh as his ears fell. "Kind of regret it, in hindsight."

"Everyone has regrets they can't change, Nick." Judy said, trying to comfort him.

"Man, isn't it nice up here?" Max said, before taking a sniff. "Ahh, smells like trees. Shame we're probably going to end up doing some environmental damage."

"We'll try not to." Judy said with a laugh as they came up to a clearing. It was next to the path, and with a large, rocky cliff hanging above them "I wouldn't want to harm anything up here." She finished.

As soon as the rabbit finished, there was a loud sound. The three leaped out of the way as a fireball flew past them, and exploded, instantly incinerating a tree behind them.

"I, however," Said a voice. The three looked up at the cliff, as Long and the Beastman walked into view. "Have no qualms about destroying everything here." Long finished.

"ZOO ON!" The three yelled, quickly transforming. "Where are our friends!?" Red yelled up.

"They're right behind me." Long said. "You just can't see them over the cliff."

"Liar!" Blue shouted.

"I'm actually not lying." He said. "Ask your wolf friend, he should be able to pick up their scents."

Silver sniffed the air for a second. He definitely picked up their scents… alongside the remnants of burned metal. "Yeah, he's telling the truth."

"Oh." Red said, shocked. "Well, what do you want us to do, fight your monster again?"

"Yes." Long said, simply. "Same rules as last time. If you manage to win, I will give you your friends back."

"Alright, you're on!" Silver said. "Prepare to have your butt kicked!"

Long let out a chuckle, before turning to the Ultimate Beastman. "Kill them."

The Beastman didn't move.

He glared at the Beastman again, before motioning towards the Zoorangers. "KILL THEM!" He shouted.

The Beastman still didn't move.

"Are you disobeying your master!?" Long shouted, grabbing the monster by the shoulder.

Almost instantly, the Beastman reversed the grab, throwing Long off of the cliff. He crashed into the ground with a grunt. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" He yelled as he got up.

The Beastman peered down from the cliff. Suddenly, a pair of threatening green eyes appeared behind its visor.

Then it started to laugh.

The laugh turned to a guffaw, until the monster finally stopped, utterly thrilled at something. "WOO!" It shouted. "It's GREAT to be back!" Its voice had completely changed, and it sounded… familiar, somehow.

"What's going on?" Blue asked her teammates. They both shrugged.

"What kind of joke is this!?" Long shouted.

"Oh come ON, guys!" The Beastman said, seemingly disappointed. "I was hoping to make this the big reveal, and you can't even remember my VOICE!?"

Long thought for a moment. "Wait… no, it can't be!" He shouted. "You were destroyed! I made SURE OF IT!"

"Wait, does he mean…?" Red asked. He glanced back up. "Is that…?"

"Come on, say my name!" The monster said, grandstanding. "You all know it SO well!"

"Savage!" All four shouted.

"Bingo!"

"How are you even here!?" Blue shouted up. "We destroyed you!"

"Wrong!" The monster said. "You only managed to destroy MOST of me! You see, I'm not as dumb as some villains here think I am…" He glanced down at Long, who let out a growl.

"I planned for my eventual destruction, especially after Long betrayed me." He continued to explain. "I put a good chunk of my own energy into Davey-boy here, and Long applying his own energy seemed to have woken me up!"

"Why are you here, Savage!?" Long growled.

"I told you that I would get my revenge on you, Long!" The monster said to him. "Little did I know that you'd end up being the one to bring it upon yourself!"

"Come down here and fight me, then!" Long challenged. "I doubt you can even use that body effectively!"

"Wanna bet?" Savage laughed. Unbeknownst to everyone below him, one of his feet let out a glow.

Savage leaped down from the cliff, a shockwave of energy flying from him as he hit the ground. The unicorn on his chest, and the shell on his elbow, started to glow. Black goo started to flow from his arms, forming spiralling armor on both of them, which both ended in sharp points.

He rushed at Long, jabbing one of the spikes forward. Long quickly grabbed it, but found himself being pushed back as Savage continued to charge on ahead, directly into the Zoorangers. The three leaped out of the way as Long was pushed into a tree.

Savage took a step back, and started to repeatedly slash Long with his weapons. He then pulled both arms back, and thrust them into Long's chest. The force of the blow was strong enough to send Long directly through the tree, the plant splitting in half. He continued to fly, and crashed through several more trees.

He rolled down the mountain grass a bit, before stopping. Savage held up his weapons, which soon turned back into goo and retreated into his body. He spun around to face the Zoorangers, who pulled out their weapons. The monster stood still as the boar head on his chest started to glow.

The three rushed forwards. Blue leaped up, and slashed at Savage with her daggers. Red quickly jumped in, holding up his sword to use as ground for Blue to jump off of. As soon as she finished, Red started to slash at the monster's legs. Silver rushed in next, and slashed more at the monster's chest, sparks flying off. He quickly switched to Sun Mode as Blue and Red pulled out their guns. With Blue still airborne, they fired all of their shots, point blank, at Savage, creating a massive explosion.

But there was something odd.

There was no sound.

As the three backed off from the explosion, they noticed that the entire area had fallen silent. They couldn't hear anything, not even leaves rustling.

The fire from the explosion cleared, revealing Savage, seeming to be completely unharmed. He let out a laugh, which was still somehow audible.

"Boom."

There was a sudden pulse of sound from the monster, completely invisible, but powerful enough to cover most of the ground around them. Trees flew from the ground as the area was reduced to an open patch of grass, dirt, and rocks. The Zoorangers were flung through the air, each of them crashing into the rocks behind them, and crashed to the ground.

Savage cocked his head from side to side, seeming to just have been stretching it out. Sound had returned at this point. "Did you guys get worse than before?" Savage asked, sounding a bit disappointed. "I thought you guys would at least be some trouble…"

The three watched helplessly from the ground as Savage approached them, but he was interrupted as flaming arrows started to strike him in the back.

He turned around, just in time to watch Long leap up from below, landing a punch directly to the monster's face. Savage stumbled back, as Long quickly thrust his arm forward, firing off several fireballs.

"Gah, you're persistent!" Savage retorted.

"I'm immortal." Long said, bluntly. "If you think you can defeat me, then you're dead wrong."

"I'd consider ruining your precious plan beating you!" Savage mocked. "Now, get the hell out of my face!" The pangolin head started to glow, before the goo appeared and started to cover up Savage, turning him into a ball.

He started to roll at Long, who braced himself as the rolling monster crashed into him. "YOU THREE!" Long shouted at the Zoorangers, as they got up. "ATTACK HIM NOW!"

"Why should we!?" Red shouted at Long.

"Because if you don't, this idiot will go and destroy your entire city!"

"Compelling reason." Red muttered.

"We'll use our finisher!" Blue said. "Let's combine all our weapons!"

Red and Silver nodded, and quickly formed the Zookaizer. They charged it, and then fired. Before the beam could hit however, Savage uncurled from his ball, and grabbed onto Long. The beam hit him for a moment, before he let out a laugh. He spun around, making the beam hit Long instead of him.

The Infinite Dragon let out a yell of pain as Savage let go of him, causing Long to fall to the ground. "Looks like you saved my life yet again, Long!" He mocked.

"You…" Long weakly said, reaching up, attempting to grab the monster. His arm fell limp, and the monster vanished, Red noticing a small, golden object sitting on the ground. Before anything could happen, energy started to build around where Long had died. It flew up into the air, and into the mountain.

"Well, well, that was fun!" Savage said, clapping his paws. "I'm gonna go head to the city and destroy it, see you all later!"

"NO!" Blue shouted, stepping forwards. Before she could even finish, Savage leaped off into the city. The forest fell silent as the realization hit them. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Blue continued to shout.

"We need to go stop him!" Red said. "If we let him do anything, then the city is done for."

"You two go and stop him." Silver said. "I'm going to go rescue Em and Henry, take them back to my place."

"Good idea." Blue said. Silver gave a nod, and leaped up onto the cliff. Blue looked back at Red. "You ready to go do this."

"Yeah, but…" He paused for a moment. "I'm not sure we can stop him without killing him now…"

Blue glanced at the ground, and then back up at the fox. "I'm sure we can." She said. "We just have to figure something out."

Red shook his head as the rabbit ran off. He quickly followed behind her.

Up on the cliff, Silver walked over to the still unconscious hyena and bull. He quickly cut them down, and removed their bondage. "Alright, let's get you two back somewhere safe." The wolf said to them. Using all his strength, he lifted the two onto his shoulders, and leaped off into the distance.

* * *

The golden energy emerged into the dark base of the villains, before reforming into Long. He rolled across the ground as the other villains watched on. He was met with mocking laughs as he rose to his feet.

"Brilliant show there, dragonbreath." Sambash mocked. "What is that, the SECOND time you've been betrayed by your own monster?"

"Shut it, worm, or I'll squish you like the bug you are." Long growled.

"I'd be way more scared if I thought you could even touch me." Sambash continued. Long raised his hand, fire starting to spew from it.

"Stop acting like idiots." Kyuemon interjected. Long's fire quickly subsided. Kyuemon glanced at him. "You're just lucky that The Omnipotence isn't awake right now. Who knows what he would do to you if he found out you wasted resources like this."

"Oh, I know what he would do!" Yabaiba said, raising his hand. "He'd kill Long, and probably replace him with that Savage guy!"

"And that's not something any of us want!" Yogostein said, stamping his spear on the ground. "The guy was a real creep the last time he was here, even for one of us!"

Long grunted. "You're saying all this like I would LET him do all this." He went quiet for a moment, thinking. "Yes, I know what I'll do. I know how to work this to my advantage…"

With that, Long disappeared into golden mist, which flew out of the base.

The other villains started to laugh.

"What an idiot." Kyuemon said. "How many times do you think he'll embarrass himself like this?"

"Oh, I hope it's a lot of times!" Sambash replied. "Its really funny."

Unaware to the rest of the villains, Enter stood at the back, having seen the whole thing. He chuckled to himself.

"So, Savage is alive, hm?"

* * *

Red and Blue rushed into the middle of a plaza, the closest one to the Mt. Animalia entrance. The place was in ruins; even worse than the plaza they had fought the Beastman in before. Buildings were wrecked, cars were flipped over and flaming, and the ground had been shattered in places.

"I think he's nearby." Red said, trying to ad some levity. Blue just shook her head.

Before they could move, a figure crashed down in front of them. It was Savage. "Ugh, you guys love following me around, huh?" He groaned.

"Do you seriously expect us to just let you do this!?" Blue asked, incredulous. "Stopping you is kind of our job!"

"Eugh, so touchy!" Savage was clearly uninterested in fighting them, as he lolled his head around. Finally, he stopped. "Why don't you guys show me what you've got?" He asked. "I'd love to see if you could even scratch me!"

"'What we've got'?" Red said. He looked at Blue, and they nodded to each other. "Alright, lets do this!"

The two pulled out a pair of ZooTags, and quickly plugged them into the Zoolizers.

"JAN JA NIN!  
ROCK N ROLL  
DROP N ROLL!  
SOLAR FLARE SABER!"

""LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

Savage started to laugh, as the ostrich head on his foot started to glow.

The massive sword and boxing gloves appeared, and the two rushed into combat. Red jumped up and swung the blade at Savage, who managed to catch it in one paw. Blue rushed in next as Red hit the ground, jabbing at the monster's feet. Red, now on the ground and sword still in paws, pulled back the blade as the monster stumbled. He spun around a full 360 degrees, slashing directly through Savage's midsection.

The monster stumbled back from the blow, with Blue quickly running in and leaping up, performing a powerful uppercut. Savage let out a laugh as they rushed in again. Both the frog heads on his knees started to glow, the goo coming out of them and forming a shield. They both struck the shield with their weapons, to no effect.

The goo retreated back into the Beastman's body, as both the fish and crocodile heads on his body started to glow. He braced himself, before launching forward like a tornado. Water seemed to stream out of the tornado as it moved forward, covering it completely. He rushed at Red, who prepared to strike him down with his blade. As the blade clashed with the tornado of water, it seemed to explode into a burst of liquid.

Red was sent flying from the blast, the Solar Flare Saber vanishing completely as he hit the ground. Savage, however, remained completely unharmed from the blast. He turned his gaze to Blue, who put up her boxing gloves, prepped to fight. The two rushed at each other, Blue leaping up into the air and preparing to unleash a torrent of blows upon the monster.

Savage paused, as the centipede and monkey head started to glow. The claws on his armor started to glow as well. As soon as Blue began to rapidly punch at Savage, he began to slash at her, at an even faster speed. Each of her blows was blocked by the monster, who managed to get in several hits himself. Blue continued to punch as fast as she could, but fatigue was starting to kick in. Savage used this opportunity to speed his slashes up even more, hitting the rabbit with hundreds in only a few seconds. He finished by slashing her directly into the ground, leaving a crack. The Buster Boxers vanished as she got up.

She quickly rolled away before Savage could crush her under his foot, and met up with Red. Savage let out another laugh. "Is that really all you guys've got!?" He asked. "I know you've got more weapons tucked up your tiny behinds, show me them!"

"Not yet, freak!"

He turned around. Silver jumped through the air, and slashed at Savage with his rapier. He quickly rushed past the monster, and met with the other Zoorangers.

"You managed to get them to safety?" Blue asked.

Silver nodded. "I asked Amazon to fill them in when they wake up." He turned back to Savage. "Now let's end this guy!"

"Oh, if it isn't glitter boy!" The monster mocked. "I suppose you want to hit me with all you've got as well, hmmm?"

"Uh, yeah?" Silver said, a bit confused. "Why would you ask that-"

Before he could finish, Savage thrust his arms forwards, firing out black and white energy feathers at the three. Silver quickly spun his blade's guard to Eclipse Mode, time freezing. In a few moments, he slashed through the feathers, and made his way to Savage, quickly slashing at him with his blade.

Time started back up, and the monster stumbled back as the blow connected. What remained of the energy feathers flew over Blue and Red's heads harmlessly. "I think he's planning something." Blue suggested. "He's goading us into using all our weapons."

Well, if he is planning something, then he's not gonna get it!" Red said, pulling out another ZooTag. "Because we'll stop him before that!"

Blue nodded, and pulled out her own ZooTag. They quickly plugged them both in.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The claws and axe appeared, and the two rushed in again. Silver was busy holding Savage back, but he stepped back as Red and Blue joined in. He quickly switched his blade to Moon Mode, whipping it forward and wrapping Savage up. Blue ran in first, leaping up and bringing the axe directly through Savage's middle. Red ran in behind the rabbit, and quickly swerved to the side, turning into a blur as he rapidly slashes at the monster.

The fox stepped back as Savage struggled, and broke through the energy whip. The monkey and rat heads started to glow, and he began to spin around. He turned into a tornado of slashes and lighting, quickly knocking all three back. He stopped, and turned to Blue, arms open.

"Hit me."

The rabbit hesitated for a moment. This was probably a bad idea, but she didn't really have a choice. She made a running start, before leaping up and preparing to strike at Savage once again. The frog heads, as well as the pangolin head, started to glow. The goo slithered out of his body in a moment, covering in several layers as he curled up into a ball.

The axe came down… and shattered. The blade was ripped to shreds by the pure toughness of the armor Savage had formed. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as Savage quickly unfurled, delivering a powerful uppercut to the rabbit's chin, sending her flying.

Red let out a growl, and rushed at super speeds to Savage. The scorpion head started to glow as he did. Red attempted to swipe at Savage's leg, but it gracefully moved out of the way in a sort of dance. The oddness of this caused the fox to stumble, slowing him down and leaving him open to a kick from the monster.

He hit the ground, but wasn't done yet. The fox rushed forward again, but the eel on Savage's body started to glow. He shot out slime from his hand, directly into Red's path. He slipped almost instantly, letting Savage kick him away. Red hit the ground, and the claws vanished.

"Oh, come on!" Savage scoffed. "I know you got better! Use those fancy super forms if you wanna take me out!"

"He's definitely up to something." Blue said as the three regrouped. Red and her pulled out the Solar and Lunar Zootags. "If we use these, we could defeat him… but we'd also have to kill Clawbick." She said.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." Red said. "Sometimes we have to make tough decisions."

"Right. Yeah."

"You guys take him." Silver said. "I'm going to try and figure out what he's up to."

"How exactly are you going to manage that?" Red asked.

"The Ultimate Beastman was used by mixing in all of the monsters from Zoo Rangers Jungle Fury," he explained. "If I can figure out which ones he hasn't used, then I might figure out his plans."

Blue nodded. "Try to figure it out quick, alright?"

Silver nodded back.

Blue and Red turned back to Savage. Blue glanced at the Lunar ZooTag, and sighed.

They quickly plugged them both in.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, their weapons appearing in their paws.

"Lets finish this."

They rushed at the monster, Blue leaping in and slashing with her blades. They fired out energy slashes, but the ox head on Savage's chest started to glow. He waved his hand, causing a mirror to appear. The slashes hit the mirror, and were instantly reflected off. However, Blue spun around, and slashed at the slashes. They turned into crosses, and smashed through the mirror, slicing directly through Savage.

She hit the ground, and rushed up to him, leaping up and rapidly slashing at the monster. He attempted to block, but it didn't seem to be working, the blades simply cut through him. The rabbit performed a cross-cut, breaking through any armor he had left, and sending him flying.

Red leaped in next as savage recovered, extending his pole out to rapidly jab into the monster. The frog heads on his legs started to glow, spewing out a shield of hardened goo. Red continued to jab at the shield, before it eventually cracked, braking through and jabbing back into Savage.

He spun around as Savage stumbled, creating a circle of fireballs around him. The fox motioned at the monster, and the fireballs flew through the air, crashing and exploding into the monster's body. He let out a cry of pain as he was flung across the plaza.

The monster was starting to get weakened, sparks were bursting from him, and he was barely standing.

Meanwhile, Silver was trying to go through all the monsters in his head. "Okay, so, the only ones not there would be the ones we fought, so…" He started to mumble to himself. "No, he just used the mirror guy… has he used the cobra…?" Silver let out a grunt. "What is he planning!?"

The two powered-up Zoorangers looked at the monster. "I say we finish this." Red said. Blue nodded, reluctantly.

They quickly formed their weapons into the crossbow, and aimed it at the monster.

Silver's ears popped up. "Wait, he hasn't used… OH NO!"

He started to run up to the two.

"GUYS, DON'T FIRE, HE'S GOING TO-"

It was too late.

They fired the blast directly at Savage, a massive explosion erupting from him. It quickly cleared, and somehow, Savage was still standing… but only barely.

He was teetering over, but he managed to let out one final laugh before dying.

"We did it." Blue said, somberly.

"No, you didn't." Silver said. "We just made our problem worse."

"What?" Red said, confused. "He's dead, there's not much of a problem there. Aside from the moral implications."

"No, he isn't dead." Silver said, pointing at Savage's body. "Look."

They watched. The corpse suddenly started to glow, and raised into the air like a puppet, its loose body shaking as it rose to its feet.

There was a devastating cracking noise as the monster started to move again. He was alive, and even worse, fully recovered.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Savage laughed. He pointed at the two. "You idiots don't know what you've done, have you!?"

"Nope, but we're not gonna let that get us down!" Red said. Blue and him ran at the monster, both of them leaping up to strike him with their weapons. Savage remained perfectly still.

The weapons collided, with a loud thunk. Nothing happened.

They both hit the ground, and stepped back. "Uh, I feel that should've done something." Red said, worried.

"Oh, no it shouldn't have." Savage growled. They attempted to strike at him again and again, but there was nothing. Nothing was working. "Is this all you're going to do? Lame."

He quickly grabbed them by their weapons, and then flung them off towards Silver. "Gotta thank you all for your contributions!" He said, snidely. "Now if you excuse me, I have more places to destroy." He leaped off immediately after.

The Zoorangers fell silent.

"What just happened?" Blue asked.

"He used the power of one of the monsters." Silver explained. "In jungle Fury, there was a monster that came back to life when it was destroyed, the only difference being that it was immune to any attack that hit it before."

"Wait, so…" Blue said as she got up. "We… we just made him invincible!?"

"Uh, yeah."

"This is JUST GREAT!"

"And it's about to get better!" Red said, pointing off down the plaza.

They turned, seeing, of all creatures, Long. He was walking directly towards them. "Great, another invincible baddie." Blue scoffed.

"Relax." Long said as he approached. "I'm here for… friendly negotiations." He explained, having to choke out the last two words.

"Yeah, we don't exactly believe you." Red said, crossing his arms, which was very hard to do with all the extra armor.

"Well, if you want to save this city, then we'll need to work together." Long explained.

All three glanced at each other, and then back at Long. They were all very confused and startled by the words that had come out of his mouth.

"What did you just say?" Blue asked, holding a paw up to her ear. "I usually have really good hearing, but I think I misheard you."

"No, you didn't." Long said. "I hate to admit it, but only the four of us can stop Savage."

"And how exactly do we do that?" Silver asked. "He's invincible."

"Invincible… to attacks." Long specified. "That is the solution."

They remained silent for a moment.

"Sorry, we don't really get it." Red said.

"I'm getting there." Long continued. "If you three can manage to hold Savage still long enough, I can use my powers to remove the Qi that makes up Savage from Clawbick's body."

"Really?" Blue said, surprised. "You want to get rid of him that badly?"

"Hold it, lightfoot." Red said, putting an arm out in front of her. "If we do that, we'll just be left with you and your monster. You'll probably destroy us, then!"

"Ah, very clever, fox." Long said. "Except, when I remove Savage's Qi, I will also have to remove the Qi I implanted, meaning Clawbick will be returned to normal. Overall, it's a win situation for all of you."

Red grumbled something. "Fine." He blurted out. "If that's the only way, we'll do it."

"And hey, check it out!" Blue said, elbowing the fox. "Non-violent solution! Told you it would come around!"

"Yes, whatever." Long said. "Go find Savage, I'll meet up with you there."

The three nodded, and quickly ran off, leaving Long behind.

"Hmmph. Idiots."

* * *

The hyena rubbed her eyes as she sat up. She glanced around. She was back in Max's place, by the looks of things. She couldn't even remember what had happened over the last few hours… or was it days?

She was seated in a chair, and spotted Henry, laying down on the couch, it barely fitting him. He was still unconscious. She unsteadily got to her feet, and walked over to the kitchen, quickly pouring herself a glass of water. She gulped it down.

She turned around, and let out a scream.

Amazon had suddenly appeared behind her.

"You awake!" He said. "Feel better?"

"No, I feel like shit." Emily said. "How long was I out for?"

Amazon started to count on his fingers. "Two."

"Two… what?"

"Days."

She let out a growl. "Where're Nick and his friends at?" She asked.

"Went to fight monster." Amazon explained. "Bad monster, stronger than before."

So, the monster got stronger…" She said to herself. "Seems accurate, considering what we ran into."

"Wolf say to stay here, wait for you to wake up." Amazon continue. "Now Amazon go fight!"

Amazon prepared to rush out the house, but his scarf was quickly grabbed onto by Emily, halting him. "Oh no, you're not gonna leave us behind! You're going to stay here until Henry wakes up." She explained. "Once he's all ready, THEN we can go fight."

Amazon hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Wait for bull, then fight."

"Right, good… whatever you are." Emily said, letting go of his scarf. She turned to the kitchen again, and clapped her paws together. "Alright, lets see what kinda grub Max has…"

Red, Blue, and Silver ran into the middle of downtown. The Oasis Fountain sprang up from the middle of the park they had entered. Savage was standing right there, gazing at the oasis.

"I don't think he's noticed us yet." Blue whispered. "Tread lightly, maybe we can get the jump on him."

They quickly and quietly approached the monster, who still hadn't seemed to have noticed them. He was continuing to gaze at the oasis. They snuck up behind him, Blue preparing her swords, while Red prepared his staff, and Silver prepped his blade. They edged a bit closer.

With that, they all swung their weapons forward at the same time. They all struck Savage at the exact same moment, but all three weapons delivered the same result, a dull, loud clunk.

Savage let out a laugh, before he quickly spun around, low kicking all three of them. They went flying, and crashed back into the ground several feet away.

"You idiots really think I didn't hear you?" Savage mocked as they got up. "I heard your armor clanking, I just decided to give you a free hit, to show you how invincible I am!"

"Alright, remember!" Blue started. "We only need to hold him down for a bit, then Long will be able to extract Savage from him!"

"What!?" Savage shouted. "That can't possibly work!"

"Won't know until we try, huh?" Red replied.

The three dashed in, Blue and Red leaping up as Silver ran straight forward. The wolf barged right into Savage's body, as Blue and Red landed on his back, attempting to knock the monster off balance.

"Grah, get off!" The monster grunted. Silver rushed in again, this time only going for a simple push. Savage started to fall, and Red and Blue quickly leaped off of him, pushing him into the ground even faster.

As soon as the monster hit the ground, he ducked into a roll, ending on one of his knees. "Alright, now we got you!" Silver shouted as he whipped his blade forward. The energy whip flew from it, and wrapped around the monster's torso. Silver lifted the monster up into the air.

"Long, are you ready!?" Blue shouted. She glanced around, Long was nowhere in sight. "Damn it, he isn't here yet, we need to buy more time!"

"Time YOU DON'T HAVE!" Savage growled, before nearly instantly breaking from the whip. He landed on the ground, and the ape head on his chest started to glow.

In a few seconds, the black goo started to pour out of his body, and spread out in a circle around the Zoorangers, covering a massive area. The goo began to bubble and rise, forming into new shapes. An army of Savages had appeared.

"Oh, this is just great!" Red bemoaned as the monsters all started to laugh. "Now we have to deal with MORE invincible monsters!"

"They might not be invincible!" Blue suggested, rather quickly. "They're just copies, so maybe they don't have the invincibility thing yet!"

"We'll have to test that theory out!" Silver replied as the monsters started to charge in.

Silver jumped in first, and quickly slashed at one of the monsters, hoping that it would cut through. Thankfully, it seemed it did, as goo suddenly spurt from the Savage copy's body. It let out a screech as it melted into more goo, which quickly evaporated.

"Looks like he's spreading himself a bit too thin!" Silver said, quickly slashing through a few more.

Blue stepped back, and quickly slashed her blade, firing off several laser slashes. They cut through the monsters effortlessly, a mass of goo appearing in their wake. "Yeah, with so many copies, he must be using up most of his energy!" Blue suggested.

Red clanked his staff against the ground, fire welling up in the center of its ring. He quickly spun around, firing out multiple fireballs, which quickly burned through the remaining Savage clones. The plaza was covered in the goo, but it quickly vanished.

"Hm, didn't go as well as I planned." Savage said. "Guess I have to do it myself!"

He ran up to Silver, quickly grabbing onto him with a headlock. He brought his other paw to the wolf's stomach, the claws jabbing through his suit and into his skin.

Silver let out a cry of pain as Red and Blue ran at him. "Stop!" Savage yelled, causing the two to come to a halt. "If either of you come closer, then I'll rip his stomach open!" The monster threatened.

"Well, if we can't move, what about somebody else?" Red asked.

Blue shot him a confused look, and then glanced behind the monster. There was definitely someone coming up behind him.

"Who else would be here!?" Savage growled. "Last I checked, you three were the only real problems!"

"Well, looks like you need a bit of a catch-up." Red said, clanking his staff against the ground. "Why don't they introduce themselves to you?"

"What-?"

The monster felt several sharp pains in its back, as it let go of Silver. The wolf fell to the ground, and crawled away as the monster stumbled back.

"Yo, this guy given you trouble?" Pink sounded from the other side of the monster. He turned around to face her, Green, and Amazon.

"YOU TWO!" He growled. "HOW ARE YOU STILL USING THOSE SUITS!?"

Pink and Green fell silent for a moment, and glanced at each other, then back at the monster. "Hey, you guys want to fill us in?" Green yelled over to the other Rangers.

"Its Savage!" Blue shouted over. "He's possessing Clawbick's body now!"

"Well, shit." Pink said.

"Amazon distract!" The Rider said. "Go help team!"

The two nodded at Amazon, who quickly rushed at Savage. The Rider leaped up into the air, and quickly scratched at the monster, cutting holes into him and causing goo to spurt out. Amazon landed on the ground, and quickly kicked the monster in the stomach, causing him to stumble back.

Savage glared at the Rider, and let out a laugh. "You're my kind of enemy!" He said. "You're violent, you cut through me without any hesitation! I'd say there's not many heroes like you."

"Sometimes violence needed." Amazon growled, before leaping t the monster. Savage braced himself as Amazon wrapped himself around his body.

Pink and Green met joined up with the other three. "So, how the hell'd Savage come back?" Pink asked.

"He put his energy inside Clawbick, and something happened and now he's back again." Red quickly explained. "More importantly, we need your help."

"Don't you usually?" Green chuckled.

"What for?" Pink asked. "You guys having some trouble."

"Uh, yeah, actually." Blue said. "He's completely invulnerable to our weapons."

"Excuse me?"

"He used the technique of a monster to read our moves…" Silver grunted as he tried to get up. "And he tricked us into using all our attacks on him. But you guys didn't attack him at all. You can still hurt him."

"We can't destroy him, though." Pink said. "He might be a terrible guy, but Dave doesn't deserve to be completely vaporized!"

"Well, lucky for you guys, all you need to do is hold him down for a bit." Red continued. "Then our 'secret weapon' will show up, and get Savage out of his body."

"So, just hold him down?" Green asked, a bit confused. "For how long?"

"As long as I need."

The two turned, and pointed their guns at the speaker. Long had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Whoa, hold it!" Blue said. "Long's the one who's going to remove Savage from Clawbick, alright?"

"Oh, come on." Pink groaned. "You guys actually believed this… mentiroso montón de mierda de lagarto podrido!?"

"Wow, ouch." Green said.

"I don't know what you just said, but trust me, you all don't have a choice." Long said. "If I can't remove Savage from him, then that will be the end of this city, and I'll have to put up with him for an eternity. Either way, we both get our own rewards."

"Ugh, fine." Pink grumbled. "We'll go try and stop him."

The two quickly rushed back into the fight. Amazon and Savage had been continuing their fight, and were now currently locked hand to hand in a struggle. Savage broke from the lock as the SPD Officers fired their blasters at him, causing the monster to scream in pain.

This left the monster open, letting Amazon scratch directly through the monster's chest. There was a loud cracking sound, as three of the heads on Savage's chest fell to the ground, and shattered.

"What!?" he shouted, confused. "How did you-?!"

Green quickly moved up to the distracted Savage, and slammed him in the side of the head with his cannon. The Beastman went flying, and crashed into the ground. As Savage tried to get up, Pink quickly rolled in, and fired at the now blank spots on the monster's chest, causing him to fall over.

"You see what Amazon did there, Henry?" Pink asked.

"Yeah, he cut off the heads!" He responded. "That might mean he lost some of his powers." The bull turned to Amazon. "Hey, try cutting off more of the monster's heads, we might be able to get him to hold still easier like that!"

Amazon gave a quick nod, and then shouted a loud "GI GI!" before rushing at Savage again. He leaped through the air, gliding past Savage as he got up. The Rider managed to scratch at several of the heads on his arms, all of which fell off and broke apart as they hit the ground.

"NO!" Savage yelled. "HOW CAN YOU BE DOING THIS TO ME!?"

"Amazon strongest!" The Rider boasted. "Amazon stop you now!"

Amazon leaped forward again, rapidly scratching at the monster's body. He leaped back and forth, heads dropping from his body with each leap. In only a mater of moments, the only heads on his armor were the ones on his chest.

Savage stumbled, he was left nearly powerless by the Rider. Amazon let out another "GI GI!" before leaping high up into the air.

"GREAT CHOP!"

The karate chopped directly through the monster's body, sparks flying off. With that chop, he managed to hit the remaining heads, which fell to the ground, destroyed.

"No, NO!" Savage yelled. Before he could do anything, Pink and Green rushed up and grabbed him by the arms. "LET GO, I WON'T GO BACK!"

"Sorry, but it looks like your revenge was a bit short lived, Savage." Long said with a bit of a laugh as he strolled over to the struggling Savage.

"No, keep away!" He grunted, as he continued to struggle.

Long held up his hand, and Savage began to go still. He started to glow with golden energy, which quickly shifted to green energy. The green energy started to flow out of the body and into the air, a faint scream going through the air as it vanished.

The SPD Officers dropped Clawbick's body to the ground, he was completely unconscious. Reb, Blue, and Silver ran up to the inspect the body. Silver rolled him over, and Blue placed a paw on his chest. He was still breathing, much to her relief.

"We need to get him to the station before he wakes up." Blue said. "Put him back in prison, where he belongs."

"Oh, I don't think you'll be doing that any time soon…"

The five turned to face Long.

"See, like I've done with so many… I've tricked you." He said, bluntly.

"Oh, of course!" red said, prepping his staff. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!"

"But… what did he even do?" Pink asked, confused. "We beat the monster and saved Clawbick, so…"

She was interrupted by a burst of energy from Clawbick, which sent everyone besides Long flying. He was lifted into the air by some invisible force, purple energy covering him entirely.

"When I saw what was happening, I decided to go back to an old stand-by of mine…" Long started to explain. "Summoning the God of Destruction."

"WHAT!?" Blue shouted.

"That is probably the worst news I've heard today." Red followed.

"In order to summon the God of Destruction, I required someone who had heavy amounts of Qi, and absolutely zero emotional or physical connections." The Infinite Dragon continued. "And going by his mental issues, this lion seemed to be the perfect candidate. By the removal of Savage from his body, I have severed his final connection…"

"AND UNLEASHED DESTRUCTION!"

Clawbick's body twitched, and let out a scream of pain. He started to enlarge, growing to the size of a giant. He let out another roar, and stomped forward, crashing through a building.

"YOU WILL ALL DIE!" Long roared, triumphantly. "AND NOT JUST YOU, BUT EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET! INCLUDING MY IMBECILE 'TEAMMATES'! I WILL BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, AND BUILD THIS WORLD ANEW! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

With that, Long disappeared into golden mist.

"I think dragon boy's gone off the deep end!" Red said. He watched as the massive Beastman stomped forward, still groaning in pain. He then turned to Blue. "Think we should do something about this?"

Wordlessly, Blue pulled out a ZooTag. Red pulled out his own in response. Silver joined in as well, pulling out a small disc.

The three quickly summoned their mechs, and combined them into ZooRobo Oh Kami. "Be careful where you step, guys!" Blue said as the mech stomped forward and a steady pace. "Don't want to step on any small houses!"

"Bit hard to do." Red replied.

The robot caught up with the monster, who was in the middle of smashing a taller building in half. The mech quickly slashed at the monster's back with both of its swords, causing the Beastman to turn around, backhanding the mech in the face as it did so.

ZooRobo stumbled back, steadying itself before it could hit a building. It stomped forward once more, and brought down both of the blades… to no effect.

The monster let out a roar, and swiped at the robot again, sparks flying off. "Augh, we can't even hurt this thing!" Silver yelled.

Back on the ground, Pink, Green, and Amazon watched ZooRobo repeatedly get attacked by the monster. "God, can't they do anything!?" Pink shouted.

"It looks like he's too powerful." Green said. "I don't know if they CAN defeat him."

"GI GI!" Amazon yelled, startling the two. "Amazon go help! Amazon help friends!" He quickly ran off towards the robot, leaving the two confused.

"How's he gonna help?" Pink asked. Green shrugged in response.

Back in the mech, ZooRobo stumbled back again as the Beastman kicked it away. "Augh, won't anything work!?" Blue shouted, slamming her head into the control panel.

"Long said something about… connections, right?" Red asked. "That this thing only exists when someone doesn't have connections? What if we made a connection with it?"

"How do you think we do that?" Silver said, frustrated. "Talk to it?"

"No, not talk to IT… Talk to HIM."

"Wait, you don't mean…?" Blue said. "There's no way that'll work."

"Get me in close." Red said as he got up from his seat. "I'm gonna see if this WILL work."

He leaped out of the mech, and landed on its hand. He teetered across the edge as it stomped towards the monster. It was just then that Red remembered that he had a horrible fear of heights. He took a deep breath, and slowly edged his way to the edge of the closed fist.

He gripped for dear life as it suddenly swung forward, hitting the monster directly in the shoulder.

"Make a run for it!" Blue shouted through the communicator.

The fox nodded, and quickly dashed across the fist before anything could happen. He hopped up onto the monster's shoulder, before the Beastman pushed the robot's fist away.

Red took a deep breath. He hoped this worked.

"HEY, CLAWBICK!" He shouted. "REMEMBER ME!?"

The monster ignored him, and instead continued to attack ZooRobo. He let out a growl as he was ignored. The fox twirled his staff around, slamming the dull end of it into the monster's shoulder.

"Alright, if you can't hear me, maybe you can FEEL ME!"

He rushed towards the monster's neck, and jabbed the staff forward. The sharp edges on it dug right into it, almost effortlessly, despite the lion seeming to be wearing armor. Still there was no response.

"There should've been something…" Red said to himself as he pulled the staff out. That's when he noticed something odd.

There was still a wound, cut directly through the monster's armor… except, there was only black inside. Goo quickly started to build up, fixing the wound in a few seconds flat.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Red's head.

"This isn't his real body." He said to himself. "It must be some kind of… construct? Maybe if I…"

It was a risky shot, but he had to take it. He jabbed the staff into the monster's neck again, and swept down, creating a bigger wound. This one opened up enough for the fox to fit in, but the goo was quickly building up to fix it.

With only slight hesitation, Red ran and leaped into the black pit. He shut his eyes as he hit.

For a few seconds, there didn't seem to be anything. He was simply floating in… something. He really did not want to open his eyes. After a moment, he hit the ground, which was strangely soft.

He finally opened his eyes, and looked around. He was in a black void, which seemed to stretch out endlessly. But there was one single thing besides him there.

Clawbick.

His lifeless body was hanging in the air, a single light shining on him from what seemed like nowhere. The light still did nothing to brighten up the rest of the void.

Nick untransformed, and sprinted up to the lion. He gulped, and leaped up, grabbing onto the lion's leg.

The two fell to the ground almost instantly, Clawbick finally showing some form of life as he groaned and got up. Nick quickly backed away as the lion got to his feet.

"Ugh, where am I?" He muttered, sounding nothing like his usual self. "Wait, who am I?"

"Your name's Dave, remember?" Nick said.

The lion shook his head, as if remembering something. "That… that is my name, isn't it?" He looked down at the fox. "I feel like I know you from somewhere…"

"My name's, uh, Nick." The fox started. "Nick Wilde, remember?"

The lion grunted again. "Nick… Yeah, Nick!" He said, sounding very… happy. "You and I are… friends, right?"

A sudden, strange feeling ripped through Nick's body. It was a burst of… nostalgia? For some reason, he had felt like he just met up with an old friend. Someone he hadn't seen in ages. It was like he had met up with Dave, the old Dave, before he went psycho.

"Oh god, Dave…"

Back in the outside world, the monster let out a massive roar, before charging at the mecha. It quickly grabbed onto the robot's wrists, as the two struggled.

"Ugh, hope whatever Nick's doing works!" Silver shouted. "Because if it doesn't, it's the end of the line!"

"I'm sure whatever he's going to do will work!" Blue responded. "The only reason we're struggling is because we don't have a third pilot! We just need to overcome that!"

ZooRobo quickly broke from the monster's grasp, and slashed at its chest, causing it to stumble backwards. The mecha stomped forward, and kicked the God of Destruction in the stomach. It let out another roar, and leaped forward, slashing at the mech.

There was an explosion, creating an open wound in the mecha's chest, revealing wires and other machinery. "Oh god, that's not good!" Blue let out.

"Has that ever happened to us before!?" Silver shouted back.

The monster quickly slapped at the robot's head, causing the seating inside to spin around. Lights were going off at this point, the thing was nearly falling apart. They were almost definitely screwed.

Then, there was a shout from below them.

"GI GI!"

The two looked at the center pillar of their control room, and watched as Amazon climbed up it. "Amazon here to help!" He said, hopping into Red's empty seat.

"Oh, great!" Blue said, a bit relieved. "You ever pilot a robot before, Amazon?"

"Amazon ride bike, that same thing?"

"Oh, great." She let out, now disappointed.

"You at least have some sort of… trinket, right?" Silver asked. "Something you can use to help us out?"

Amazon let out a confused noise.

"We're dead."

Back inside the monster's body, Nick continued to glare up at the lion for a moment. They were friends again.

But it was only for a brief moment.

He let out a sigh as he realized what he had to do. It was something he truly, truly did not want to do.

"Nick, are you feeling alright?" Dave asked. "Are you trying to think of a way to get us out of here?"

"Yeah, I am." He said, with another sigh. "But if we want to get out of here, I need you to remember what happened. What happened between you and me."

"We're just friends, right?" He chuckled. "Sorry, I… I can't remember anything."

"Dave, do you remember what happened a month and a half ago?" Nick asked. The lion shook his head, and the fox placed his paw to his chin. "Well, try to remember what happened a bit after we first met, alright?"

"I can't." The lion said.

Nick started to pace around. He was going to have to do this directly. It wouldn't be nice, but it was the only way they could get out of here.

"Remember what you thought of me?" Nick said.

"Uh, not reall-"

"You thought I was a freak, someone who didn't belong." Nick continued. "Remember that? Remember how much you hated me?"

The lion stared at Nick in confusion for a moment, before he let out a grunt of pain, and started to clutch at his head. "I… I can't…"

"Remember how much you hate me, Clawbick!" Nick shouted. "Remember what you did, remember how I betrayed you!"

"AUUUGH!"

He fell to his knees, still clutching at his head. "No, I won't let him… I just got back…"

"What?"

Clawbick fell silent, his paws hitting the ground. There was a sudden flash of light, and the two were now… somewhere else. A dirty looking apartment building, it looked like it had either been abandoned, or left in disrepair.

The lion climbed back to his feet, and let out a small laugh. "Thank you for reminding me, Nick." He said. His voice sounded more like the snide tone of the Clawbick he had known.

This was both a very good thing, and a very, very bad thing.

He turned around to face the fox. "Looks like we're aaaaallll alone here… wherever this is." He said. "How about we finish this for good?"

He unsheathed his claws.

Outside, ZooRobo was trying to hold its own against the monster. More damage had been caused, chunks of metal ripped directly out of the monster's arms and torso. Things weren't looking good, even with Amazon's help.

"We're reaching critical amounts of 'lots of damage'!" Silver shouted, the lights inside still blinking on and off.

"Very scientific!" Blue shouted, as she moved the robot in for another sword swing. Like the rest, both blades simply bounced off the monster.

"Amazon need to help." The Rider said to himself. He looked down at the control panel. There was a slot in it. He gazed at his hand "Hmmm."

The Rider raised his hand, and quickly jabbed his claws into the slot. "Whhhat the hell are you doing!?" Silver shouted as he watched Amazon so this. "We're taking enough damage as is!"

Before Amazon could say anything, a green light started to glow from the slot. The flashing lights quickly shut off, replaced by a soft, green one. Suddenly, jungle tones were heard, and there was a flash of light.

"AAAAAH! MAAAAAAH! ZOOOOOOOOOOON!"

From the sky fell a mech, rather small compared to their other mechs, around as big as ZooRobo's forearm. It was shaped like a chameleon, and landed on top of a building next to them.

"Did Amazon just summon a mech with his claws?" Blue asked.

"Looks like it!" Silver said. "Sorry for yelling at you, dude!"

The mech opened its mouth, a long pink steel tongue flying out and jabbing directly through the God of Destruction's body. It rapidly pierced through the monster's body with several more strikes, leaving large holes behind as it did so. The holes seemed to fill themselves in quickly, but the attack seemed to actually be causing the monster pain!

The mech leaped up from the building, ZooRobo raising its arm up into the air. The chameleon robot landed on the arm, and wrapped its feet around it, a loud click signifying that they had fully combined together.

"Maybe we can do something with this!" Blue suggested.

"Well, we know this thing can't be hurt," Silver added. "So how are we supposed to buy Nick any more time when we're running low on… working robot parts?"

"Amazon suggest plan!" The Rider shouted. "Wrap up! No move!"

"Good idea!" Blue said. "We'll use this new mech's tongue to do that!"

ZooRobo thrust its arm forward, the chameleon's mouth opening up and flinging forwards. It quickly went past the giant Beastman, and began to wrap itself around him, leaving him completely tied up. It struggled, but couldn't seem to break free.

"Alright!" Silver cheered. "Now we just have to wait for Nick to finish up!"

Clawbick leaped forward, attempting to slash at Nick. He leaped out of the way. The fox was a lot less capable when he wasn't transformed, but he felt it might not be the time to do that.

The fox noticed a beer bottle next to the incredibly old TV in the corner of the room. He rushed over to it, and grabbed it. As he turned around, he saw that Clawbick had picked up an entire wooden chair, and was preparing to throw it.

Nick leaped out of the way as the chair crashed into the TV, causing it to erupt. Nick barely hesitated, throwing the bottle directly at Clawbick's stomach. It shattered on impact, and the lion let out a pained wail.

There was another flash, and the two were suddenly in a very old classroom. It was in disrepair as well, with a broken window, and several missing desks. Clawbick picked up one of the desks, and looked around, trying to find Nick.

The fox was hiding under the desks, sneaking by Clawbick as he looked around. The only thing Nick could assume was going on was that these were places from Clawbick's memories… maybe places that had bad memories associated with them?

He didn't have time to ask, as he snuck up to Clawbick and slashed at his leg with one of his own claws. The lion let out a scream, as he dropped the desk to the ground, barely missing the fox. He ran off, Clawbick quickly following behind, tossing desks that were in his way.

Nick headed into a corner, and then leaped up onto one of the desks. He leaped off it, and then off of Clawbick's head. "I JUST NEED YOU TO SAY IT!" The fox shouted as he landed on another desk behind the lion.

"Say WHAT!?" Clawbick shouted.

"Something we both know!" The fox said. "We need to form that connection again!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, you freak!" The lion shouted. There was suddenly another flash.

Nick fell the desk he was standing on disappear under him, as he hit a hard wooden floor. He glanced around.

It was the house he had stayed at when he was living with Clawbick. It looked more run down than before, visible mold growing on the walls. As he examined it, he realized he was in the basement, the place where…

Oh, god.

The fox got to his feet, starting to breath heavily. "Looks like we've come full circle." He said, sounding a bit unsteady.

"Oh yeah, this is the place where your life was ruined." Clawbick said, with a chuckle. The laugh made Nick's stomach tighten up.

"I just want you to say three words, Dave." Nick said.

"Don't call me that." The lion interrupted. "The only mammals that get to call me 'Dave' are ones I trust."

"Which is nobody."

Nick turned to the lion. "Listen, Dave. We won't get out of here unless you tell me what you think of me, got it?"

"Leave? Leave WHERE!?"

"Wherever this void is!" Nick shouted. "And if we don't get out of here, then the world will be destroyed! Can you at least TRY to work with me on this!?"

Clawbick looked at the fox. "I don't trust you one bit."

"Jesus Christ, can you just STOP being a useless piece of shit for ONE MINUTE!?" Nick shouted, absolutely furious at the lion.

"Sorry for thinking of you as a lying, scum-sucking piece of dirt, Nicky!" Clawbick yelled back.

"Just say THREE WORDS!" Nick shouted back. "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF ME!"

"You want to know what I think about you!?" Clawbick shouted, stomping towards the fox. He raised his claw into the air, and prepared to slam it down on the fox. "I HATE YOU, AND I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Nick grinned.

"That's what I wanted to hear."

"What-?"

The entire place began to shake. The building around them began to collapse, the walls and floor starting to crumble into nothing. The both looked up, and shielded themselves as the ceiling above them started to fall.

Outside, the God of Destruction let out a pained whine, as it started to glow purple. It struggled and yelled for a good few seconds.

"What the heck's going on?" Silver asked.

"I think… I think Nick beat him!" Blue said, ecstatic.

There was a flash of purple light from the monster, and it was suddenly gone. The tongue retracted into the chameleon mech's mouth, before it leaped off of the mech, and then vanished in a flash of light.

"Aw, didn't even get to name that guy." Silver muttered.

The mech disappeared, and Judy, Max, and Amazon arrived back on the ground. Waiting for them were Emily and Henry, alongside Nick and an unconscious Clawbick, the suit gone from his body.

"What happened to him?" Max asked.

"I dunno, must've been drained when he turned back." Nick said, tapping the lion with his foot. "But check it out, I managed to beat the monster, and not kill Clawbick!"

"Good on you!" Judy said, punching him lightly on the side. "How did you do it?"

"I went into some metaphysical space inside the monster's body that represented Clawbick's mind, and got him to reconnect with me… by making him hate me again."

"Oh"

"And, I think I learned something while I was doing that." Nick said, his voice lowering a bit. "I learned that… that the Clawbick that I first met is still somewhere in him. Something happened, but he's still in there."

"Really?" Emily asked, a bit shocked. "How do you know?"

"When I first talked to him in there, he sounded like he did when we first met." Nick said. "I dunno, maybe it was just because he had amnesia."

"Doesn't matter much anyway." Max said. "He's still a criminal, which means…"

"Gotta arrest him now, yeah." Nick said.

Judy quickly hopped up onto the lion's back, and pulled out a pair of large pawcuffs. Henry and Max lifted Clawbick's arms up so she could clap the cuffs across his wrists.

"Think you guys can take him to the station?" Judy asked the hyena and bull. "We have a guest to see off."

"Sure." Emily said, with a shrug. "Almost like we're real officers now!"

Nick watched as they dragged him off. He let out a sigh.

Maybe, one day, they could help out their former friend.

* * *

Hours later, the three, plus Amazon, were waiting outside the city. It was the usual field where the Rainbow Line showed up. It didn't seem to be showing up, however.

"Its been an hour." Max said. "The train's supposed to be here soon, right?"

"Yeah, it usually comes at around this time…" Judy said, a bit confused. "Maybe there's a hold-up?"

Nick remained silent, and strolled off through the field. Amazon watched, and then followed. "Fox feeling okay?" The Rider asked.

"Yeah, I'm just…" He stumbled over his words for a moment. "I just feel a bit… wrong."

"Amazon know what fox thinking."

The fox glanced up at the Rider. "Wait, you know that I'm-?"

Amazon nodded. "Amazon know you feel out of place." He continued. "Amazon felt out of place. Grow up in jungle most of life… but had to go to city. Felt out of place, but… Amazon managed to find… family."

"Family…" The fox said to himself. "I've heard that before."

"Amazon never fit in." The Rider continued. "But it alright. Amazon is Amazon, and Nick is Nick."

Nick smiled a bit.

"Thanks. That makes me feel better."

"Glad Amazon could help."

There was a sudden loud noise, like a train pulling into a station. Both of them looked up as the Rainbow Line zoomed out of the sky and onto the plains.

"Amazon have to go now." Amazon said. He ran over to the train. The door slid open, and he quickly got in. The three mammals waved farewell, as he started to do the chopping pose from earlier.

"GI GI!" he shouted as the train door closed. The Rainbow Line quickly took off back into the sky.

The three watched on.

"That guy was weird." Max said. "I liked him."

"A bit too violent for my taste, you know?" Judy said. "But his heart was in the right place."

Nick just let out a sigh. "So, do you guys think that's the last we've seen of Savage?" He asked, abruptly.

"Well, he doesn't have a body anymore." Judy said. "I imagine that he won't be able to do anything without one."

"Yeah, and he'd need help getting a body back, and who would want to team up with him after that?" Max laughed. "Even the villains don't like him."

"I guess you'd have to be crazy to want to do anything with him." Nick said. He let out a large yawn. "Ugh, I'm exhausted, let's head home."

The three promptly did so.

* * *

There was a crackle of red light, alongside screams of pain. Long was flung across the room, and crashed into the wall. " **YOU BETRAYED ME, LONG** " The Omnipotence roared. " **YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THIS** "

"Punish me all you want!" Long retorted as he got up. "I can handle anything you throw at me! I AM IMMORTAL!"

The Omnipotence fired another blast of red lightning at the monster. The blast pushed him into the wall behind him, and then started to drag him up to the ceiling. Long watched, helplessly, as the wall started to move. Rocks started to come out, and wrapped around his limbs. He was stuck, trapped to the wall for however long The Omnipotence wanted.

"You think this is a punishment!?" Long shouted. "I'll get my revenge on you! I'll kill you all! I'll-"

Long felt a tug. He was being pulled… into the wall. "What!? NO!" His body was being absorbed into the wall. "I can destroy the Zoorangers!" He shouted. "I CAN DESTROY ALL FIVE OF THEM! JUST DON'T LET ME-"

With a final scream, Long was fused into the wall, only an outline of his body remaining.

"Yikes." Sambash let out. "Guess that's why we don't mess with the boss."

"'Five Zoorangers…'" Kyuemon said to himself. "Does that sound wrong to anyone else?"

"Yeah, aren't there six of them now?" Yabaiba asked.

"Exactly." Kyuemon continued. "The yellow one didn't even show up during Long's escapades either."

"Isn't that mysterious?" Enter said, walking in front of the yokai. "We should… investigate, hmm?"

"Ah, you want me to do it…" Kyuemon said. "Hm… I suppose I could go out during the next plan… would be a good distraction…"

"Oh, I wanna do it!" Yabaiba said. "I liked working with you before, Kyu, even if it didn't go well."

"Ugh." Kyuemon grunted. "Fine, I'll work with you again."

Enter walked off down one of the halls as the villains began discussing their plans. "Tres magnifique!" he said to himself. "Savage is still alive, and one of the Zoorangers is missing…"

"I think I have a plan forming."


	37. The Lion's Hunt

The sharply dressed polar bear stepped out into the frozen night of Tundra Town. The sky was pitch black, clouds seeming to block out the stars. He plodded through the snow covered courtyard of the mansion, heading towards one of the limos parked out in the front.

He reached the limo, and pulled out his keys. Before he could unlock it, his ears picked something up. Someone running through the yard.

He turned around, and briefly managed to catch someone running behind the mansion. It was too large to be any of the residents, but too small to be any of the other "employees".

"HEY!" He shouted. "THIS IS PRIVAATE PROPERTY!"

There wasn't any response. The bear let out a grunt, and slipped the keys back into his pockets, before trailing the intruder. He rounded the corner, expecting to see someone.

But there was nothing.

The polar bear squinted, and then continued around to the back of the mansion, He entered the back garden, but there was still nothing. He looked around, confused.

"Hey, you looking for something?"

The bear looked behind him, and jumped as he saw an odd, clown like monster.

"Yeesh, don't have to be THAT scared." The monster said, shaking its head. "You know, I was looking for someone who came back here too!"

"A runaway circus member, perhaps?" The polar bear retorted.

"Well, less a 'member' and more a… volunteer."

The monster snapped his fingers.

"GET HIM, BOYS!"

The bear looked back, as suddenly more monsters had appeared. Around five odd green ones with horns, and they were all carrying a rather oversized tarp.

Before the bear could say anything, the monsters tossed the tarp over him, and quickly scooped him up into the bag. He let out a roar as he tried to get out, but even his claws couldn't seem to break through it.

"Alright, that's the last one." Yabaiba said to himself as the Orgettes dragged the bear off. "You're still going to help out, right?" He asked, looking over at someone.

Kyuemon appeared in a puff of purple smoke. "Yes, I am." He said. "I'm the only one who can figure out what's going on with those Zoorangers, but you need to follow my plan as well."

"That's why we're capturing these guys!" The Org continued. "I just have to write something down, and we can head back to the hideout."

Kyuemon shook his head. "You and your games. But I suppose this will be good enough."

"You know it!" Yabaiba said. "We'll have them all beat no problem!

"They'll NEVER see this coming!"

* * *

"Isn't it nice to be working on a Monday again?" Judy said as the two got comfortable on their shared, oversized seat.

"I'd usually be opposed to that, but this is much easier." Nick replied. "Usually we would've heard something by now, right?"

The rabbit nodded. "Maybe the monsters are just taking a break." She suggested. "Either way, we can relax for a bit."

Max was sitting several rows behind them, right next to Officer Delgato. He had his paw placed against his chin, and was scraping at the table with his claws.

"Max, don't do that." Delgato said, elbowing him.

"Oh, sorry." The wolf replied, stopping. "I kinda just do that when I'm bored."

"Why are you bored?" The tiger asked. "It's your first Monday here in months, you should be happy to get a break from fighting monsters."

"Yeah, I guess…" He sighed.

Bogo stomped through the door with little warning, and then up to the podium. "Alright, assignments." He said. The buffalo seemed to want to get this done quickly. "First up, Officers Hopps and Wilde."

The two sprang to attention almost immediately. Them getting called on first must have meant something big.

"Last night we received reports of four different mammals having gone missing." The Chief continued. "A black bear, a giraffe, an elephant, and a polar bear, all from different parts of the city." He pulled out a folder as the two hopped down from their chair.

He handed it to them, and they quickly headed out. "Wow, wow, WOW!" Judy let out. "Can you believe this? This is something BIG!"

"I wouldn't get that excited yet, lightfoot." The fox said, grabbing the folder from her. "Could just be a coincidence. Besides, how could someone go to every district in the city in one night?"

"That's what makes it suspicious!" She replied, as they headed outside.

Back in the bull pen, Max had gotten slightly excited. If Nick and Judy had gotten something big like that, that would mean Bogo trusted them, and by extension, trusted him. Maybe he'd get a big case too!

Minutes passed, and the wolf waited for him to be assigned to something. Most of the room had cleared out when he finally said his name.

"Wolford, Delgato," Bogo started. Max's ears popped up. "You two are assigned to…"

Max held his breath.

"Patrol."

The wolf let his breath out as a sigh, and the two officers quickly headed out as well.

"You seemed… disappointed, back there." Delgato said as they headed for their car.

"Man, I think I'm just too used to exciting things happening on Monday." Max said as they got into their seats. "I know that's weird, but, you know what I mean. I was just hoping for something… bigger."

"Think about it this way," Delgato said as he started up the car. "At least this job is easy."

"Right. Good point.

Back in Nick and Judy's cruiser, the two were going over the files.

"So, who are we looking for?" Nick asked as Judy sifted through them.

"Uh, hmmm." She muttered as she glanced over them. "An elephant who lives in Savannah Central, by himself, a giraffe who lives in Sahara Square for some reason, lives in an apartment by herself, a black bear who lives in the Rainforest District, only lives with his wife, and a polar bear from Tundra Town who lives with his son."

Nick quickly gave her a glance, and she shrugged in response. "So, we go talk to the wife, right?"

"That's already a dead end." Judy said. "She's the one who made the call when he didn't show up from work last night."

"What about the polar bear's son?"

"Same story." The rabbit said. "He just didn't show up at home, didn't come back from work."

"Alright, let me see those." Nick said, grabbing the folders from her. He started to flip through the files. "Lets see, who are their employers-"

Nick paused for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Judy asked.

"I know this polar bear."

The rabbit's eyes widened. "Who is he?"

"Koslov, one of the bears that works for Mr. Big." He explained, shutting the file. "He's the guy who carried Mr. Big around, remember?"

"Oh, so he's like, the head honcho of the goons?" She said.

"Yeah, basically." Nick replied. "We should go ask Big if he saw anything. Would be a good place to start."

Judy nodded, and started up the car.

* * *

A few minutes later, Wolford and Delgato were patrolling the city. It was almost as boring as Max had thought it was going to be, but at least he had someone to talk to. The two had parked the car in order to eat some donuts they had bought earlier, and that had quickly evolved in Max rambling.

"Seriously?" Delgato said, a bit shocked. "You guys fought a god last week?"

"Well, they just called him a god." The wolf continued. "I doubt he was actually a god. Just liked to destroy things. Besides, that wasn't even the weirdest part of that whole thing."

"How can it get weirder than fighting a god?" The tiger asked, with a bit of a laugh.

"Well, there was this weird lizard guy…"

As Max continued the tiger looked down at an alleyway, some kind of… creature, running into it. It was green, and hard to make out.

"Speaking of your monster fighting," He interrupted. "I think you might have to do some of that."

"What are you-"

The tiger pointed to the alleyway, the wolf glancing over at it. "Alright, let's go check out what's happening."

He quickly transformed into ZooSilver, while still inside the car, and got out. He looked back at the car, as Delgato got out while rubbing his eyes.

"Can you at least warn me the next time you do that?" The tiger said, annoyed.

"Oh, sorry." Silver apologized.

The two quickly headed over to the building next to the alley, and glanced around the corner of it. Down the alley was a gang of Orgettes, each holding a club, as well as a monster. But at the back of the alley was a small mammal, a yellow fox. The gang was closing in on the terrified fox.

"Kyle…?" Silver whispered to himself. "Alright, time to get to work."

"I'll just hang out back here." Delgato said, giving a quick thumbs-up and backing away.

Silver stepped into the mouth of the alley. "HEY!" He shouted out, pointing his blade at the monsters. "Get away from him!"

The main monster turned around, revealing its horrible visage.

It was bizarrely shaped, and seemed to be a mix of various different animals. The monster's head was stumpy, and seemed to be marked with a giraffe-like pattern of spots. These seemed to continue down the monster's back, down its legs, and covered most of its waist. The giraffe markings also crawled up a large spike in the middle of the beast's head, which curved forwards. The creature's face, while surrounded by the spots, was entirely purple, which formed into a stripe of purple, wrinkly skin that went from its head all the way to its crotch.

The face itself was marked with six different eyes, two sets of large, red ones on its actual face, and a much smaller pair located on a small giraffe head directly above them. It also carried two purple, devilish horns. Beneath the eyes was what looked like a mouth, though it didn't seem to have an opening. There were four small fang-shaped protrusions, closed in on either side by much larger yellow tusks, which also seemed to be growing out of its back. Even stranger, the tusks seemed to be coming out of a pair of elephant ears.

Its arms were strange as well. Both of its shoulders were marked with busts of a black bear and polar bear head. The polar bear head turned into some sort of whip-like appendage, silver and metallic blue, ending with a large spike. The other arm seemed much more organic, with white and black fur swirling around the upper arm to form into a half-white, half-black bear arm. Finally, its legs were shaped like a giraffe's, but much shorter, and were even complete with the peculiar hooves. However, purple spikes were bursting out of its knees.

Silver stepped back, shocked at the monster. He quickly shook it off, and stepped back forward. "Alright, monsters!" He shouted. "Prepare to have your eve of terror… ended!"

"It's nine in the morning!" Delgato shouted.

"I'm just trying to look cool, alright!?"

Silver growled, and then dashed into the fight. He quickly chopped at a few of the Orgettes, causing them to start spilling green ooze across the alleyway. Silver continued cutting through them as he reached Kyle.

"Oh, ZooSilver!" He said, sounding a bit surprised, but thankful.

"Don't worry, kid, I'll save you!" Silver said back. The Orgettes and the monster stomped forward as the wolf raised his sword, primed to protect the fox.

The chimera monster let out a roar as energy started to build up in its horns. Several lasers shot out of them, which Silver quickly blocked with his blade. He dashed forward, cutting through several more or Orgettes, before clashing with the monster's metal arm.

"What the heck are you supposed to be anyway!?" Silver asked as he pushed the arm back.

"CHIMERA… ORRRRRG!" It growled.

The monster was remarkably strong, pushing Silver back almost effortlessly. As Silver stumbled, the monster swung its arm, and knocked the wolf into the wall.

"Maybe you should call in for help!" Kyle yelled over to the struggling wolf. "This guy seems too strong for you to take care of on your own!"

"NO!" Silver shouted as he got up. "I can take this… thing!"

While Silver wasn't looking, Kyle gave a snide smile.

Silver quickly spun the guard of his sword around, causing it to yell out "HOT HOT SUN!". He then flung his blade at the monster, and a few of the remaining Orgettes. The minions were incinerated immediately, but before the fireball could even hit the Chimera Org, it held its bear paw up, causing a storm of ice to fly out from it.

The fireball froze almost instantly, and crashed to the ground, shattering into many, many pieces.

"That's, uh, that's not good." Silver said to himself. He quickly glanced over at the fox, who shot him a look of confusion. He then glanced back at the monster, which was raising its trunk arm, preparing to do something.

Probably not something good.

Silver leaped out of the way as the monster's arm extended, smashing into the brick wall behind the wolf. Silver ran over to Kyle, and quickly picked him up, and then dashed towards the exit of the alley. He ran out into the street, and spotted Delgato, who was sitting in the cruiser.

"RICH, START THE CAR!" Silver yelled as he ran towards it.

Delgato rolled down his window. "WHAT!?"

"START THE CAR, GODDAMN IT!"

He swung the door open as Delgato started the car, and quickly tossed Kyle into the backseat. The car quickly drove off as the Chimera Org stomped out of the alley. It let out a roar of frustration as the car drove off into the distance.

Max was breathing heavily as he untransformed, and started to slink down into his seat. "Max, what the hell happened?"

"The thing was strong." He said. "I had to get Kyle out of there somehow."

"Kyle?" Delgato said, a bit surprised. He glanced at the fox through the rear-view mirror. The fox seemed to be a bit dazed from all this himself. "You know this kid?"

"Yeah, he's our biggest fan." Max explained.

"that's technically true, I guess!" Kyle said, making himself comfortable.

"Why were those monsters attacking you?" Max asked, looking back at the fox.

He shrugged in reply. "I was just walking home, and they attacked out of nowhere!" He explained. "I don't know why, they just did!"

"Hmmm." Max muttered to himself. He let out a sigh, and continued. "Well, if you were heading home, we might as well take you back, right?"

"W-what?" Kyle said, suddenly sounding very nervous.

Max's ears twitched at that. If he was trying to go home, why would he sound like that? "So, you don't want us to take you home?"

"No!" The fox blurted out. He quickly seemed to try and cover it up. "I mean, yes, I mean…"

"Is there something you can't tell us?" Delgato asked, very softly.

"No! I'm… Uh…"

"If there's anything you need help with, then we can call protective services." The tiger continued.

"Oh, uh…" Kyle paused again for a moment. "I was… getting groceries, but the monsters attacked me before I could get to the store."

"I thought you said the monsters attacked you when you were trying to go home?" Max asked, skeptically.

"Uh, I forgot my wallet."

Max shook his head. "We're still taking you home. Where do you live, anyway?"

"Oh, it's a few blocks from here." He said.

"Like, a whole lot of blocks away from here."

* * *

The rabbit pulled the cruiser up to the snow covered mansion. They quickly got out, and stepped out into the snow. "Shame this place snows every few hours." Nick said as they walked through the yard. "Maybe we could've gotten some footprints."

"Footprints would be helpful, but I think asking the big cheese himself might be aa bit more helpful." Judy said as they walked up to the oversized door.

She knocked on it, not exactly lightly. The door suddenly creaked a tiny bit open, a polar bear looking through the crack between the doors.

"Hello!" Judy started. "We're here to talk to-"

The door quickly slammed shut.

"Mr. Big." She finished, ears drooping. However, before she could say anything, a smaller door at the base of the larger one opened up.

"We've been waiting." The polar bear on the other side said.

"That's not ominous at all." Nick muttered as they walked into the building.

They were very quickly lead to Mr. Big's office. Unlike the last two times, it was a… less violent trip. No grasping at throats, just one bear leading them down the hall.

Eventually, they were stood in front of the large desk, the portrait of Big's grandmama looking down over them. They made sure to stand slightly away from the desk, trying not to stand on the massive trap door.

Another polar bear, one that was definitely not the one that carried Mr. Big around the previous times they had met him, walked into the room, and placed Big down onto the desk.

"I keep tellin' you Kevin, you need to wash your hands more." Big said, as the bear looked down in shame. Big glanced over at the two officers. "Nice to meet your acquaintance once more, Mrs. Hopps."

Nick let out a quick cough.

"Not you, Nicky." Mr. Big said quickly. "I believe you two are here to investigate the disappearance of my right-hand man, Koslov?"

"Uh, yeah, we are." Judy said, slightly confused. "How did you-?"

"You really think I wouldn't expect the cops to show up after we reported it?" The shrew chuckled. "We specifically requested you two, as well."

"Uh, why?" Judy asked.

"Because of this." Mr. Big snapped his digits, causing the polar bear to step forward, and toss something to the ground, directly at the two's feet.

"I found this note last night." Big continued as Judy picked it up. "Its hard to say for sure, but it might be related to the missing bear."

The two officers examined it. It was a note of some kind, shaped like a rather normal piece of paper… except two of the corners curved up and inwards, forming paper horns. The note was mate of an odd material, rather disturbingly feeling like skin. Holding it felt wrong.

Being a note, there was a message written on it. The words seemed to be pressed into the paper, rather than written.

"Animal Fact: A polar bear can survive in ridiculously low temperatures! This part of the city doesn't even reach that limit, but what would happen if you broke past it? You better come and find this bear before he EATS IT!"

The end of the note was signed with a small face, sticking its tongue out at them.

It resembled Yabaiba's face.

"I don't really see what this has to do with the missing mammals." Nick joked.

Judy rolled her eyes, and elbowed him.

"Please find Koslov." Mr. Big said. "He's like family to me, and his family is like family to me."

"Don't worry, we'll find him ASAP." Judy said.

The started to head out, but were interrupted as Big spoke up again. "Oh yeah, and thanks for cleaning up my spare room! I can actually use that thing now!"

Nick and Judy looked at each other, and shook their heads.

The two quickly headed outside, back into the snowy courtyard. "So, what do you think this card… thing, means?" Nick asked as they stopped to look at it again. "Just gonna guess and say this is a monster plan."

"A rather small scale one." Judy said. She quickly read the note again. "Temperature… how low can a polar bear survive?"

Nick shrugged. "I'm not a polar bear. How would I know?"

"The only temperature stuff I know is that my cousins up north can somehow stand living in temperatures colder than it is now." Judy said.

"You have cousins up north?"

"My family tree isn't important right now." The rabbit quickly said. "This is definitely some kind of clue, but I don't really know what it means…"

"Maybe I can help you with that!"

The two turned around, looking up at the mansion's roof as a figure leaped down from it. There was a loud roar as he hit the ground.

The figure was another human, and definitely a Sentai Ranger. This one dressed up in an almost entirely red outfit, with golden highlights on rims of his white boots and gloves. A gold sash-like design ran down his chest, and next to it was a symbol with a stylized lion head on it. He also wore a golden belt, which was decorated with various different animals.

His helmet was almost definitely designed after a feline creature, presumably a lion judging by the symbol on his chest. The visor was rounded out, but had four small fangs pointing inwards. The sides of the helmet streaked back, most likely to resemble a mane, and left orange eyes at the top of the helmet open. There was also a grey marking at the bottom of the helmet, most likely a mouthpiece.

"Whoa, another one of these guys?" Nick said, surprised. "We just went through one of these things last week!"

"Nick, seriously!" Judy said, elbowing him again. She looked back up at the ranger. "Sorry for my friend, sir. You're a… Sentai Ranger, right?"

"Yep!" The Ranger said, pounding at his chest. "Name's Kakeru Shishi, but right now you can call me… GAORED!"

There was another lion roar as he said his name, which seemed to come from nowhere.

"Uh, alrighty." Nick said, a bit uncomfortable.

"AkaRed told me you guys were going to have to deal with an Org problem." He continued. "My team was called Hundred-Beast Sentai Gaoranger, and we fought against the Orgs."

"Great!" Judy said, excited. "So, you have some kind of special, secret way to track the Orgs, right?"

"Uh, sorry, I don't." He said. "At least, not right now I don't."

"Oh." Judy said, her ears dropping.

"But!" Kakeru started. "I can help you figure out this riddle!"

Her ears perked up again, as she quickly handed him the note. He read it out for a moment. "Hmm, well, the lowest temperature a polar bear can survive in is minus ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit…"

"Wow, you just know that offhand?" Nick said, genuinely impressed.

GaoRed nodded. "I'm a vet, so I know a lot about animals."

"I, uh, don't see the connection there." Judy said, confused.

"Oh, sorry, I'm a veterinarian." He corrected. The two looked at him weirdly. "You guys still don't know what that is, do you?"

They shook their heads.

"In my world, it basically means… animal doctor." He explained.

"Why didn't you just say that?" Nick asked.

"Its been my job for almost two decades, its weird not calling it by its title." He explained. "But that's not important, this note is the important thing."

"Right!" Judy said. "So, we know that polar bears can survive at… ridiculously low temperatures, but there has to be something else to this, right?"

"Yeah, all that helps us with figuring out is that he's somewhere in Tundra Town… which we already knew."

"Well, this part at the end is in capital letters." GaoRed Said. "So, maybe that has some relation? Something about the food polar bears eat, maybe?"

"Good thinking!" Judy said. "That must mean that Koslov was taken to some kind of… food place."

"Well, in my world, polar bears eat any other animals they can get their teeth on." GaoRed explained. "I'm assuming that they mostly eat fish here, right?"

"Yeah, they do." Nick said. He quickly glared at the Ranger. "What kind of hell world do you guys come from, anyway?"

"You two should know that already." Kakeru said. "But, like I said, that's not a big deal. If this Koslov guy is being captured somewhere, it's a place that's cold and has fish."

"Would that be the lake?" Judy asked. "There's lots of fish there, but you aren't really supposed to eat them."

"I'd be more willing to bet he's in a cold storage place." Nick suggested. "There's a few of them around town, but only one of them has exclusively fish."

"Good thinking, Nick!" Judy said. "Where is it?"

"The Barely Brother's Fish Storage, around Bank Street I think." He said.

"Alright, let's head out then!" Judy cheered.

"I'm coming with you guys!" Kakeru said, stepping through the snow. "I feel like I'll be a massive help."

"You guys usually are." The rabbit said, before the three headed out.

* * *

The cruiser was driving down the street, it had been for quite a while. "How far away is your house?" Delgato asked the fox seated in the back.

"Its an apartment at the edge of this district." He explained.

"We're only halfway there." Max sighed. "What if that monster attacks again?"

"I doubt that thing can move that quickly, Max." Delgato said.

"Right, I guess now." The wolf said as he slunk back into his chair.

"Hey, Max?" Kyle asked from the backseat. "Can I, uh, ask you a question?"

Max's ears twitched at this, and he looked back. "What kind of question?"

"Well, I don't know if this is too personal, but…" He took a deep breath. "I thought I heard about you guys getting a new member, but he didn't seem to be in any of the reports for last week."

Max thought for a moment. "Yeah, we did have a new member, but he quit." The wolf explained. "It was his choice, so I can't really fault him for it."

"Oh, alright." Kyle said with a sigh. "Does he still have the cool arm gadget on him?"

"Oh, no." Max continued. "We've actually been trying to find someone who can become our new member. It hasn't really been… successful."

"That sounds like an understatement from what you've told me." Delgato added.

"Yeah, it's been… difficult."

"So, you need someone to join?" Kyle asked, his ears perking up.

Max let out a sigh. "Listen, Kyle, I know what you're getting at. You're too young for this kind of stuff."

"Wasn't there a Zoo Rangers series with a kid in it?" Delgato quickly said.

"Yeah, but that's fiction." Max said. "It's not real."

"So, I can't join?" Kyle said, a bit disappointed.

"No, you can't." Max said. "We only have one shot at this, and you don't have any of the skills we need."

"Oh."

"Max, you're being a bit mean, are you alright?" Delgato asked, glancing over at the wolf.

Max seemed to be very angry, surprisingly. It wasn't a mood he usually saw the wolf in, and it was definitely odd. "I'm fine." Max quickly said, sitting up straight in his seat. "I'm just doing what I think is best-"

There was a sudden crash in front of the cruiser, and it quickly skidded to a halt, flinging all three passengers forward. The pavement in front of them had suddenly exploded, causing a massive cloud of dust to surround the car.

"What the HELL was that!?" Max yelled, his heart racing.

The dust quickly cleared, revealing the visage of the Chimera Org. It let out a roar, audible from even inside the completely closed off car, and started to stomp towards it.

"Back it up." Max ordered.

"Way ahead of you." Delgato said as he flicked the sirens on, and shifted the vehicle into reverse.

The cruiser sped off as the monster let out another roar, and thrusted its bear claw forward, firing out several purple bolts of energy. The tiger swerved the car around the blasts as best he could, several of the shots completely missing, but one managed to strike the side of the car.

"Shit!" Delgato yelled. "Did he hit the gas tank!?"

"Looks like it!" Kyle said, looking through the window. Max looked back as best he could, definitely seeing some oil trailing down the side of the cruiser.

"At least he didn't hit it directly." Max said. "Or else we'd all be dead."

"Well, there's at least that bright side!" Delgato said as he pulled the car back in the middle of an intersection, interrupting a few other vehicles. "We're taking a detour! It'll be longer, but hopefully we won't run into that goddamn thing!"

It quickly sped off down the road, the monster far behind it. The three relaxed for a moment, before Max spoke up again.

"If that thing's chasing us, then we'll definitely be seeing it again." The wolf said with a sigh. "I'll be on more alert, don't worry."

"Well, I doubt it'll be chasing the car that long." Delgato said. "That hit blasted a hole into the car, we're losing fuel really, really fast."

"How far do you think we can get?" Kyle asked, sounding worried.

"Maybe about… five, six blocks from here?" The tiger said. "We won't be able to make it to your house, and the monster might..."

"Don't worry," Max started, quickly transforming into ZooSilver. "I'll protect you guys."

"Hmm, sure you will." Kyle whispered, a sly grin growing across his muzzle.

* * *

The cruiser pulled up to the large cold storage warehouse, a massive steel building with a rather tacky sign showing two bears on it. "So, taking it that this is the place?" Judy said as Nick, Kakeru, and her got out of the cruiser.

"Yeah, this is it." Nick said.

"You know, that cruiser is surprisingly spacious." GaoRed said, lolling his head around as they headed for the entrance. "How exactly do you reach the pedals, anyway?"

"Oh, they're boosted up." Judy explained. "Little steel bits push the pedals up, so my feet can reach them."

"If only we could do that for cars in my world." GaoRed said.

The three stopped at the large steel doors. "How are we supposed to get in here?" Judy asked, pressing her paws against the doors. As soon as she touched them, a quick, cold pain went through them, and she stepped back in pain. "What the hell…?"

"What's wrong?" Nick asked.

"The door is… really, REALLY cold." She said. "Colder than it is out here."

"That's slightly disconcerting." Kakeru said. He thought for a moment. "Maybe that's what the note meant by going beyond the limit? Maybe Yabaiba lowered the temperature down to ridiculous levels!"

"But, that would mean if we went in there…" Judy started. "…We'd all die almost instantly!"

"Well, that's a problem." Nick said, nonchalantly. "Good thing I have a personal heater."

He quickly transformed into ZooRed, and pulled out the Vickscannon, before pointing it directly at the door. He quickly fired a blast, a massive fireball firing out and blasting the doors open. They were nearly knocked off their hinges by the projectile.

"Oh, wonderful." Judy said with a sigh. "You just caused property damage, you know."

"Wouldn't be the first time!"

The fox quickly strolled into the warehouse, and glanced around it for a moment. It was lined with shelves and shelves of different kinds of fish. A rather terrible smell broke through his mask, causing him to retch.

"OH GOD, I FORGOT ABOUT THE FISH SMELL!" He shouted.

"Idiot." Judy muttered.

The two quickly followed Red into the building, and were instantly hit with the cold. It was still absolutely freezing, more than it probably should have. "I c-can't move." Judy murmured.

"Oh, poop." Red said, walking over to her. "I forgot you don't have fire powers, sorry!"

"Don't worry, I can heat things up a bit." GaoRed said. He quickly pulled out a small dagger, with a white and golden handle. The middle of the dagger, before the blade, was a golden, sun like design that rounded a large hole. The dagger itself didn't even seem to be complete, having two very large holes in it.

GaoRed then pulled out a small, red orb, with something inside it. It looked like a figurine of a lion. He placed the orb in the dagger, causing it to glow for a moment.

"BEAST KING SWORD!" He shouted, raising it into the air. "GAO FLAME!"

The dagger lit up for a moment, before spewing out a wave of fire throughout the building. The place instantly warmed up, ice starting to melt down and flood across the floor.

"Well, that's one way to do that." Judy said, feeling herself warming up quickly. "We probably just ruined a lot of product, though."

"Not a big deal." The fox said. "Plenty of fish in the sea."

The three of them headed to the back of the cold storage, and were met with a rather odd sight as they reached the back wall. A rather old TV, sitting on a stand. Next to the stand was another one of the cards.

"Oh, great." Nick said, untransforming. "I was actually kind of hoping for a fight." He walked up to the card, and picked it up. Suddenly, the TV flickered on, surprising them.

Yabaiba appeared on the screen, standing in the middle of the cold storage the Rangers were currently in. "Is it on?" He asked, looking off-screen. "It is? Can you edit this out later? Alright."

He cleared his throat, and let out a laugh. "Greetings, Zoorangers!" He shouted. "I suppose you're wondering where that polar bear I said was here is! Well, the truth is, he isn't here!"

"Oh, great!" Judy shouted. "A dead end."

"But this isn't a dead end, in fact, its just the start of our little game!" Yabaiba continued. "If you continue to follow my clues, then you will eventually find out where the captive animals are being held! I've given you your first clue, so work on that! Toodles!"

He paused for a moment.

"Was that good? It was? Alright, time to go-"

The TV quickly flicked off.

"Was that… Yabaiba?" Kakeru asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, we've been dealing with him for the last few months." Nick explained. "He's… and idiot."

"Not gonna disagree with that!" GaoRed replied. "He was around that stupid when my team fought him, too."

"Don't worry, you'll get to see him later." Judy said. She quickly turned to Nick. "What does the card say?"

The fox started to read it aloud.

"A giraffe's neck can reach incredible lengths, but this place reaches even farther than that. She'll never be able to get a nibble in this hot and sweaty city."

"Pff, who's he trying to fool?" Judy said, grabbing the card. "This is way easier than the first one! Its obviously somewhere in Sahara Square!"

"Yeah, and there's another food reference." Kakeru stated. "Giraffes eat trees, so it has to be at a really tall tree, right?"

"We knocked down the only tall tree I can think of." Nick said. His ears perked up. "Unless you count the Palm-Tree Casino!"

"Alright, solved it in three minutes!" Judy said. "Let's get going!"

The three quickly ran out of the building, but were left unaware of Yabaiba, who had poked his head out from behind one of the many shelves.

"What the heck is GaoRed doing here?" He muttered to himself as he stepped fully out from behind the shelf. He quickly shook his head. "Doesn't matter, he can't help stop my super great plan! Better go check out how Kyuemon's doing."

He took a step forward, and slipped on some water, falling onto his back.

* * *

The cruiser continued to drive through the roads, rather recklessly, as oil and fuel continued to drip out of the back of it.

"We're almost out of fuel." Delgato said, taking a quick glance at the fuel gauge. "We're only three blocks away, that thing could be on our tails still."

"That's a problem." Silver said. "But you guys don't have anything to worry about, I'll keep you safe, no matter what."

There was a sputtering noise as the car came to a halt. The tiger let out a long sigh. "At least this is property of the city and I don't have to worry about it." He said with a slight laugh.

There was a sudden crash again, and the three looked out their windows. The Chimera Org had crashed through the wall of a building next to them, and stomped closer. A crowd of Orgettes were trailing behind it.

"You guys stay here." Silver said, getting out of the car. He pointed his blade at the monsters, and dashed into the fight.

The wolf leaped over the monster itself, and landed in the middle of the crowd of Orgettes. They started to swarm on him, preparing to bash him with their clubs. Silver quickly spun around, slashing through a several of them. The force of the slash caused the rest of the Orgettes to be knocked over, with them all scrambling to get back up.

Silver turned back to the monster, which quickly raised its trunk arm into the air. It stretched upwards as the monster prepared to swing it downwards. As it did, Silver leaped out of the way, leaving the trunk to cleave through the building behind him.

The monster's arm started to retract slowly, leaving it open for Silver to attack. He dashed in and started to slash at the monster with his blade. After several slashes, the monster blocked a slash with his paw, and then backhanded the wolf away. Its arm finished retracting, and it turned to the wolf as he got back up.

Suddenly, the Orgettes started to swarm onto him, dropping their clubs as they did so. Silver slashed at a few of them, causing them to burst into goo, but several managed to latch onto him, holding his arms back. Silver struggled, but the Orgs wouldn't let go.

The monster stomper forward, energy gathering at its claw. It quickly fired a purple energy ball at Silver, who used all his strength to flick the Orgettes grabbing onto his arm in front of him. The blast hit them instead, causing them to explode. Silver pulled his other arm from the Orgs, and slashed at the ones on his legs. He stumbled back as the monster stepped forward and swung its trunk arm at him. He barely managed to dodge.

"MAX, YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM!" Delgato yelled. Silver looked over, and saw that him and Kyle had gotten out of the car.

"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Kyle shouted.

Silver glanced back at the monster, who quickly swept at him. It was a direct hit, sending the wolf flying directly into the car. The vehicle caved in as Silver hit it, and he fell to his knees as he hit the ground.

Delgato ran over, and lifted him up, before quickly running off, Kyle following behind.

"I… could've taken them…" Max mumbled as the three ducked into an alley.

"No, you couldn't." Delgato said. "You were trying to take on a monster by yourself, that was crazy!"

"I'VE DONE IT BEFORE!" Silver shouted, pushing himself off of the tiger. "I CAN DO IT AGAIN!"

"Christ, calm down!" Delgato said. "What's up with you!?"

Silver fell silent for a moment, letting out heavy breaths. "I'm fine. Don't worry."

"So, those guys are still coming after us!" Kyle said. "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

Silver looked back at the alleyway. There was a fence, which none of them could get over.

Except for him.

"Hold on." Silver said, holding his arms out. Delgato grabbed on, and Kyle leaped up to hang from the wolf's arm. Using all his strength, Silver leaped up into the air, at least two stories high, and crashed down at the other side of the fence.

"That was easy, wasn't it?" Silver said with a laugh as the two let go.

"Yeah, we overcame a simple obstacle." Kyle said, almost mockingly.

"Excuse me?" Silver retorted, glaring down at the fox.

"I bet if Nick and Judy were here, they'd have been able to defeat that monster no problem." Kyle continued.

"Yeah, what makes you say that!?" Silver said. "I've saved their asses MULTIPLE times by now!"

"How many times have you done it recently?" Kyle question.

"Are you two seriously doing this right now?" Delgato said, facepawing.

"Well, I… uh…" Silver hesitated for a moment. "I still help them out all the time, I'm strong enough to take care of a single monster!"

"Didn't look like it to me."

"Can you two just stop it!?" Delgato growled. "We're STILL being chased, and with you two bickering we aren't getting anywhere! We need a plan!"

"Right. Plan." Silver said. He thought for a second. "Alright, if we can get to the station, we should bee fine. Isn't that far from here, either!"

"Guess that's a decent plan." Kyle said. "Wouldn't stop the monster from chasing us there, but…"

"Shut it, that's what we're doing." Delgato said. There was a sudden clanging noise as he finished. The three looked over their shoulders to spot the Chimera Org and the Orgettes at the fence.

Several of the Orgettes were starting to climb the fence.

"Alright, we're out of here!" Silver shouted, and the three ran off.

* * *

"Wow, look at how big that thing is!" Kakeru shouted as the three approached the massive pal-tree shaped building.

It was a regular tourist attraction, housing a massive casino and a hotel, alongside many restaurants. The unique shape of the building helped as well, and its size made it one of the easiest to spot buildings in the whole city.

"If you think its impressive," Nick started, "You should see it from down here!"

They walked up to the doors, a rhino bouncer blocking the way.

"Licenses?" He said, looking down at the three

"I think I have it somewhere in here…" Nick said, pulling out his wallet.

"Nick, seriously?" Judy said, baffled.

"What?"

She pulled out her own wallet, and flashed her police badge at him.

"Oh, right."

"We're here on police business." Judy said to the rhino.

"Oh, alright." The rhino said, before looking up at GaoRed. "What about you? You have a license?"

"Me?" Kakeru said, pointing at himself. "I don't, uh…"

"He's with us." Judy said. "Now, if you please…"

The rhino stepped out of the way, and the three headed into the ground floor, the casino area. It was a cacophony of noise, and a barrage of lights, as mammals of all kinds spun slot machines and machines went off. The place was lined with hundreds of slot machines, and an entire restaurant's worth of poker tables. In the back was a small restaurant itself, which had even less seating than the gambling area did. The entire area was particularly garish.

The noise was too much for the rabbit, who pulled her ears down as soon as they entered.

"Too loud for you, Carrots?" Nick joked.

"There's a reason I don't go to casinos!" She yelled.

"There should be somewhere quiet, right?" Kakeru asked. "Maybe we should head up a few floors!"

Nick nodded, and the three ran towards the elevator, located past rows of slot machines. The out of place steel doors slid open. Kakeru hit the button for floor three, and it started to move.

"Better?" Nick asked as the rabbit let go of her ears.

"Still ringing, but otherwise fine." She said. "So, where are we supposed to look for this clue here? I hope its not back down there…"

GaoRed thought for a moment. "The card said something about a giraffe's neck length…" He started. "The longest recorded reach is around… six feet."

"And that means what?" Nick asked.

"The sixth floor!" Judy responded. She quickly ran over to the elevator controls, and jumped up to press the button for the sixth floor.

The elevator continued to go up, at a distressingly slow pace. After a brief stop at the third floor, the elevator continued.

"Hey can I ask you something?" Nick started, turning to Kakeru.

"Sure, ask me anything."

"What's that weird orb you had?" He asked. "With the little lion in it."

"Oh, that's a Gao Jewel." He started, pulling it out. "This lets me connect my spirit to my Power Animal, and gives me my powers."

"And, what exactly is a Power Animal?" The fox continued to ask.

"A Power Animal is…" He thought for a moment. "A spirit of the Earth, a protector of nature that defends all from evil threats. They look like giant robot animals."

"Cool."

The elevator finally stopped, and they got out, continuing down the hall.

"The next clue is probably in a room." Nick said. "The question is which one…"

"Uh, pretty obvious." Judy said, pointing towards an open door.

The three walked up to it, and read the number. Room number six-zero-six.

"Of course." Nick said with a sigh.

They went into the room. It was a fairly standard looking hotel room, but there was one definitely odd thing. The window was wide open, the curtains blowing in the wind.

"It looks like they were here recently." Judy said.

"Now we just have to find the clue!" Kakeru said. "And I bet I know where it is…"

The lion Ranger quickly ran at the window, and much to the shock of the two mammals, he performed a flip and jumped out the window.

"KAKERU!" Judy yelled, as the two ran to the window.

As they reached it, GaoRed poked his head over the window sill. "Hey, sorry for surprising you there."

"That was TERRIFYING!" Judy blurted out, before the two paused. "… How are you doing that?"

GaoRed held up one of his hands, revealing golden claws at their tips. "My claws let me climb any surface!" he explained. "I'll be back in a second, the clue should be somewhere around here."

His head popped back down, and they heard the sound of scraping against the building. This went of for a few minutes, before Kakeru slipped in through the window, holding the clue card.

"It was under one of the panels." He said. "Let's see what we have here…"

He started to read the card.

"Elephants are some of the heaviest creatures on the planet. They're said to have good memories as well, but not only will this bit of history stick around in the city even longer than one, it's even heavier too! Maybe this trip will help you get some WEIGHTS off your minds!"

"So, that has something to do with the city's history, definitely." Nick said. "Where do you think that means?"

"Not sure," Judy started. "There's a lot of historical places around the city, but… Hm…" She shook her head, and shrugged.

"Not sure this will help, but an elephant can weigh up to six thousand pounds." Kakeru stated. "With that weight, the only thing it could be is some kind of monument."

"Still doesn't limit it." Judy stated. "But… if there's anywhere that's historical in the city, its in the museum in Savannah Central."

"That's as good as any place to start." Nick said. "Let's get going-"

There was a sudden loud noise, and screaming from outside the window. "Oh great, what is it now?" The fox sighed.

"Probably trouble." GaoRed said. "I can sense… something downstairs."

The three quickly headed back to the elevator, and headed down to the first floor. As the door slid open, they were met with disaster.

The slit machines and tables had been knocked over, some destroyed, and a number of mammals, large ones included, were laying across the ground. In the center of the mess was a horrible monster, the Chimera Org.

It turned towards them, and let out a roar.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Nick shouted.

"The Chimera Org!?" GaoRed said, surprised. "That monster was created from four of our stolen Gao Jewels years ago, how is it-?"

The monster let out an even louder roar, and thrust its trunk arm forward. It extended out and towards them at ludicrous speeds. The three quickly leaped out of the elevator as the arm impaled right through the steel of the elevator. It quickly retracted back as the elevator fell down the shaft.

"This might be some trouble." Judy said.

The two quickly transformed, and pulled out their melee weapons. GaoRed pulled out his dagger, and the three rushed at the monster.

Red leaped up at the chimera, preparing to swing his sword at it, but the monster swiftly knocked him down with its trunk. Blue attempted to follow up the blow by slashing the monster's legs, but it flung the trunk directly in her path before she could. The monster swung it again, knocking her away.

GaoRed ran in next, and actually managed to get several slashes through the monster's defences. He quickly stopped with the dagger slashes, and then started to slash at the monster's face with his claws. The beast stumbled back, allowing Blue and Red to recuperate themselves and go in for another attack.

They both leaped and slashed at the monster's middle, causing sparks to shoot off as it stumbled back. The monster quickly got up, and started to spin the trunk arm around, causing it to spread out. GaoRed ducked down as it swung over his head.

"Alright, lets rush him!" GaoRed suggested. "If we attack his legs all at once, we can knock him down and finish him.

"You sure you can do that?" Blue asked. "It looks like it'd be a bit… awkward?"

"Yeah, I can do it." GaoRed said. "Trust me on that!"

Blue glanced at Red, and they both shrugged. The two braced themselves, and then ran at the monster. GaoRed rushed past both of them, running on all fours and with his dagger attached to the mouth of his helmet, somehow. He stopped at the monster's feet, just as it seemed to notice him, and the Gaoranger started to slash at his legs with his dagger.

The Org roared again, but was interrupted as Red and Blue ran to the sides of the monster, and slashed at its legs as well. The pain caused it to stop spinning its trunk arm, and quickly fall over onto its back.

It struggled as GaoRed got up, and glanced over at the two Zoorangers. "Time to finish this!" He said. "Strike at the same time as me!"

The two nodded, and raised their blades alongside GaoRed. They quickly brought them down, through the monster's body. It let out one more roar as it vanished into a burst of purple mist startling the three.

"The heck was that?" Red asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, it should've exploded." Blue said. "Not… vanished."

"There's definitely something strange going on." Kakeru said. "Maybe we'll figure out more if we find the next clue?"

"Good idea." Blue said. "I feel like there's more to this than just a kidnapping."

"Hey, why don't we call up Max?" Red suggested. "It says he's transformed right now, so we can probably call him. More mammal-power would be good."

"I'll radio him up." Blue said, placing her paw next to her helmet. She let out a screech as she clutched her head and stumbled.

"Whoa, what happened?" Red asked, trying to help the rabbit back up.

"There was horrible static!" She said. "Something's blocking our communicators."

"Hmm." GaoRed let out, thinking. "That's definitely strange."

"We'll figure out what's happening later." Blue said. "Let's just head out before there's another monster attack."

* * *

The three runaway mammals were currently heading through an industrial section of the city, surrounded by rusted pipes and empty steel buildings. They quickly ducked into the corner, behind a loose sheet of tin.

"I didn't even know we had an industrial section." Delgato said as they sidled up next to the tin.

"I didn't either, to be honest." Silver said. "Guess I never really explored it that much."

The three quickly ducked down as the sound of mumbling became audible, alongside loud stomps. The monsters were starting to get closer.

"Hey, Max," Kyle started, whispering. "Why don't you try to call the other Zoorangers?"

"Because I can do this myself." He angrily whispered back.

"No, Kyle has a point." Delgato said. "If you don't stop being stubborn, then we'll all be dead."

The wolf fell silent for a moment, and then placed his paw to his helmet. "Guys, I could really-" Before the wolf could finish, he let out a screech of pain. The mumbling and stomping started to get louder, the monsters knew where they were now.

"Oh god!" Delgato shouted, quickly helping the wolf up. "What the hell just happened!?"

"Horrible… static." He mumbled. "It didn't sound like anything I'd heard before."

"Uh, guys?" Kyle said.

Silver looked over as a few Orgettes jumped into his view. Despite his head ringing, Silver pulled out his sword, and leaped forward, slashing the Orgettes until they were goo on the floor.

He ran out, directly into the sights of the rest of the monsters, including the Chimera Org, and quickly switched his sword to Moon Mode. He lashed it forward multiple time, whipping the Orgettes surrounding the Org, causing them to fly back.

The whip quickly retracted, and the wolf backed away as the monster stomped forwards while letting out another roar. Silver quickly spun the blade around again, this time to Sun Mode, and slashed to forwards a few times. Fireballs flew out, and homed in on the monster.

However, the Chimera Org held its bear paw up, causing a flurry of ice to surround it. The fireballs froze again, and crashed to the ground. Silver hesitated for a moment, before dashing in to attack the Org directly. He slashed and slashed at the monster, but it seemed to keep blocking him with its steel arm or paw. After one more failed strike, the monster knocked the sword back, and punched Silver.

The wolf stumbled back, as the Org quickly smacked him in the face with his trunk arm before he could even react. This was quickly followed by a knee to his stomach, and then a slash to his chest. The monster then whacked him over the head with his trunk arm, causing the wolf to fall to the ground. He was almost instantly met with a powerful kick to his jaw.

The force of the kick caused the wolf to fly through the air, crashing into a pipe. Steam burst from it as he climbed back to his feet and stumbled forward. He raised his blade again, preparing to continue to confrontation.

"Max, stop!" Delgato yelled. "You can't take him yourself, idiot!"

The wolf fell silent, before letting out a grunt of pain. The monster stepped forward one more time, before the wolf bolted off, the tiger and fox quickly following behind him. The monster let out another roar, and started to chase after them.

The three continued to run, quickly climbing up a set of rickety, rusted stairs attached to a long abandoned warehouse. Silver quickly opened the door, and the three went in.

"Just stay quiet for a bit." Delgato said to the young fox. Kyle gave a quick nod.

The tiger looked over at Silver, who was huddled up to an old mattress. "Max, are you alright?" He asked, sitting down next to him. The wolf didn't respond, but there was a faint sound.

He was crying.

Before the tiger could say anything, Kyle spoke up. "Guys, we're actually farther away from the police station now." He said, looking at his phone. "What are we going to do."

Delgato looked at Silver, and then back at the fox.

"I don't know."

* * *

The three Rangers arrived at the museum. As they walked through the entrance, Judy got a chill as they passed the large pit in the middle. It reminded her of how close her and Nick had come close to being killed.

She took a deep breath as they walked by, and looked around. There were a few mammals scattered about, enjoying the exhibits.

"So, the clues are pointing to it being around here." GaoRed said. "I mean, maybe."

Nick started to pace around, and let out a shrug. "I swear, there's something here that make me want to say this is where we need to be."

"Me too." Judy continued. "There's just… something. If we had come here more often, maybe we would know."

"Wait, you guys haven't been to your city's own museum?" Kakeru asked, slightly surprised. "Think about all the culture you're missing!"

"Yeah, we almost got killed her a few years back." Nick said, rather bluntly. "Made it kind of a sore spot."

"Oh, that's… Sorry."

"No, no, it's fine." Judy assured him.

GaoRed looked around. "You know; I could stay here for a long time." He said. "All this stuff about the evolution of mammals in this world, the history, I really want to learn about it."

"I'd love to do the same with your world." Judy admitted. "But we don't really have time for that, every moment we waste is us getting farther away from the kidnapped mammals."

"Yeah, and I'd like this to not last a week." Nick said.

"You guys say you saw something that might match the clue right?" GaoRed asked. "Which parts of the museum did you see when you were chased?"

Judy thought for a moment. "We were in here, and in a back hall with a…" her ears popped up. "THAT'S IT!"

She quickly dashed off, the others quickly following behind.

They ran into a hallway near the back of the museum. Right by the subway tunnel entrance. Sitting right in the middle was a massive statue of a stone-age mammoth, a direct ancestor of an elephant.

"It's a stone statue of an elephant, so it's way heavier than a real one!" Judy said as the three ran up to it.

They stared for a moment.

"So, where is it?" Nick asked.

"Uhhhh…" She glanced around for a moment. "Let's try at the base."

The three walked down the stairs, and stared at the square stand the mammoth was standing on. Still, there was nothing.

Judy let out a sigh as her ears dropped down. "Sorry, I thought this would be the right place."

"It's alright." Nick said, patting her on the head. "Maybe we need to look somewhere more open, like a park…"

The three started back up the stairs, Judy trailing behind. She was sure that this would be it, it matched the clue even. She let out another sigh, and stepped forward.

And stepped on something.

It jabbed into her paw, causing her to let out a squeak of pain. "You alright?" Kakeru said, looking down at her from mid-way up the stairs.

"Yeah, I just stepped on this…" She lifted her foot, and glanced down at what she had stepped on. It was a piece of white stone, matching up with the statue in front of her. As she looked at it, she noticed a trail of the stones, trailing behind the statue's base.

"…This chunk of the statue!"

"Excuse me?" Nick said, before she bolted towards the statue's base. Nick jumped up and grabbed onto the stone railing, and glanced down at the rabbit. GaoRed quickly followed.

They watched as she ran across the base, and headed around to the back. She let out a loud "AHA!", before somehow disappearing into the base. A moment later, she came out, carrying the card.

"THERE WAS A HOLE IN IT!" She shouted up. "THEY DUG A HOLE, AND HID THE CLUE THERE!"

"Nice detectiving, Carrots!" Nick said, after letting himself down from the railing.

Judy quickly dashed up the stairs, Nick and Kakeru quickly following behind. They stopped at the top of the stairs, and Judy started to read the message.

"Ugh, so you actually managed to get this far? Oh well, you still have one more clue, so don't get wet! Bears can hold their breath for quite a while, but you'll need to hold it for even longer than that to find this clue!"

"I feel this one is pretty easy." She said, tossing the card away. "Judging by how each of the clues has been hidden in each of the four districts, this last one is probably in the Rainforest District!"

"Yeah, and the references to water help that theory." Nick added.

"Bears can hold their breath for two minutes." Kakeru said. "Which means the clue has to be hidden somewhere with a lot of water."

"There is a lake in the Rainforest District." Judy said. "That's probably where it is."

"There's actually, like, a dozen lakes there." Nick corrected. "But if we're going with landmarks, I'd say Lake Okukhulu. It's the largest one, has a few restaurants near it. Nice place, actually."

"So, tourist attraction, yeah." Judy said.

The three quickly ran out back to the main entrance of the museum. As they headed for the exit, Judy noticed something strange. All the mammals who were there previously had just suddenly vanished.

"Uh, where did everyone go?" Judy hesitantly asked as the three approached the exit.

"What?" Nick said, turning around and looking around. "Oh yeah, there were visitors here, weren't there?"

"Wait…" Kakeru said. "I'm sensing something again. It's…"

There was a very familiar roar, as the Chimera org leaped out of the pit in the middle of the room, and crashed down in front of the three.

"What the-!?" Nick shouted. "Didn't we beat this guy already!?"

"There's definitely something up!" Judy said, before her and Nick transformed into ZooRed and ZooBlue. "Let's deal with this thing quickly so we can find out just what's exactly happening sooner than later!"

The three rangers pulled out their weapons, and rushed at the monster, who seemed to just be standing still. Blue leaped through the air first, slashing at the chimera with her daggers rapidly as she leaped by. Red followed up with a heavy slash from his blade. GaoRed came in last, and rapidly slashed at the monster's face with his own blade.

None of these attacks seemed to have any effect on the beast.

It let out a grunt, before thrusting its bear paw forward, launching GaoRed away. It then jumped up and slammed both of its feet into the ground. The impact left a massive crack around the beast, and launched Red and Blue away.

The fox and rabbit crashed into the ground, and Red quickly sat up, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure those worked last time."

"Did he get… upgraded, kinda?" Blue asked as she got up.

"I think I know what's going on." GaoRed said, stepping forward. "He's using the power of whatever animal the clue was based around. Last time he was stretching his arm out like a giraffe's neck, and he's as strong as an elephant!"

"So, how exactly are we supposed to beat him like this?" Red asked.

"Pretty simple, actually." GaoRed continued. "We just need to hit him harder!"

He quickly held his hand up, revealing that he was holding a strange gauntlet. It was shaped like a feline head, streaked back and smooth, and most likely modeled after a lion. It had similar black markings to GaoRed's helmet, and a golden wing-like design on the sides. His hand seemed to fit well into it, as he moved the jaw of the gauntlet in and out, creating a chomping effect.

"Lion Fang!" He shouted, before leaping forward.

The lion ranger delivered a swift punch to the monster's face, causing it to stumble back. The monster's feet plodded off the edge of the pit, causing it to fall back in.

He glanced at Red and Blue. "You guys have hard-hitting weapons, right?" He asked.

"I got something like that!" Blue said, pulling out a ZooTag. She quickly plugged it in to her Zoolizer.

"LET'S MORPHIN'!  
GET FIGHTIN'!  
DON DON BAM!  
BUSTER BOXERS!"

The two boxing gloves appeared on her paws, right before the monster leaped back up. Before it could even hit the ground. Blue used all of her speed to run and jump, landing on top of GaoRed, before launching herself up and delivering a swift uppercut to the monster.

The blow knocked it off course, causing the beast to fall back to the ground. Blue landed back on the ground, GaoRed meeting up with her.

"You wanna join in?" The rabbit asked the fox.

"No thanks, I think you guys can handle this." He said, giving a quick double thumbs-up. "Besides, I don't have anything like those."

Blue looked back at the monster, watching as it unsteadily got back to its feet. "Let's finish this sucker off, shall we, Kakeru?"

"Yeah, I've been ready this whole time!"

The two raised their punching weapons up as far as they could, before dashing at the monster. Both of them leaped into the air at the same time, and struck at the exact same time. They seemed to punch directly through the chimera's body, as they skid to a halt behind it.

The beast started to spark, and it let out another grunt as it disappeared into more of the purple mist.

"I feel like I've SEEN that somewhere." Judy said as she untransformed. "That mist is something one of the bad guys use, right?"

"Yeah, I think so." Nick said, also as he untransformed. "Wasn't it, like, that Kyuemon guy's thing?"

"Kyuemon?" Kakeru asked, putting away the Lion Fang. "So, you're saying that Yabaiba is working with another villain?"

"I mean; we can't exactly confirm that." Judy said, crossing her arms. "But right now, it definitely seems likely."

"When was the last time we actually SAW Kyuemon?" Nick asked, genuinely wondering. "I feel like it's been ages."

Judy thought for a moment. "You're right, that is weird. Usually these villains love to make themselves obvious." She shook her head. "Let's head to the Rainforest District, maybe the last clue will lead us to some answers."

The other rangers nodded, and they quickly headed out of the museum.

* * *

Back in the abandoned warehouse, Silver, Delgato, and Kyle were still hiding from the monsters. It had been a while since they had hidden in the place, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the monster's knowing where they were.

"You feeling alright, Max." Delgato said. He was still sitting next to the wolf, who seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"Yeah, I'm… fine." He said. "I was just a bit… frustrated back there."

"It's alright." The tiger said.

"I feel like this is all my fault, though." Silver said. "I have to protect you guys, but I just… I can't. Not without help, at least."

"Shame about your radio not working." Delgato said with a sigh. He thought for a moment, and then looked back at the wolf. "Hey, don't you have the numbers for those SPD guys?"

Max's ears popped up as he untransformed. The wolf quickly pulled out his phone, and called up Emily.

"Yo, Max!" The hyena said as the screen flicked on. It looked like she was at an outdoor diner. "How's it going?"

"Oh, pretty well, how are you?" He asked, somewhat obliviously.

"Taking my break day off, y'know?" She said. "Nice to not have to fight monsters for a while."

"Oh, yeah, I'd love to not be doing that right now!"

She glared at him through the phone. "…Where ARE you?" She stared at him for a moment. He was beaten and bruised, several blood clots lining his fur. He even had a slightly swelled eye.

"Hiding out in an abandoned warehouse, trying to avoid being killed by a monster."

"Jesus Christ, Max, that's not something to be casual about!" She shouted. "Where the hell are you, I'll get Henry and we'll come and help."

"Uh, industrial district, somewhere near-"

"Industrial district by Hill Street, right?" She said. "I know where that is, I'll come get you in a second."

"Wait, did you know that we had an industrial district?" Max asked, a bit surprised.

"You didn't?" She said, confused. "Whatever, just hold on for a bit."

She hung up.

"Well, now we just need to… not die for the next however long." Max said.

"We've been doing well for the last bit." Delgato stated. "The monster's are probably long gone by-"

There was a loud banging at the door of the warehouse, and the three mammals quickly got up. They started to back away as there was another bang. Max held out his arm, signalling Delgato and Kyle to get behind him. The wolf transformed, and pulled out his sword.

He was a bit unsteady, however. Max himself knew he wouldn't be able to put up much more of a fight against the monster, but he had to hold out as long as he could.

There was one last bang, which quickly turned into a crash as the doors of the warehouse flew off their hinges and smashed into the ground. The Chimera Org stomped in, and let out another roar. Another gang of Orgettes were following it.

Silver took a deep breath, and dashed forward. He quickly switched his blade to Eclipse Mode, causing time to freeze for a moment. He quickly stepped around the monster, and started to slash through the Orgettes. If video games had taught him anything, it was best to take out the small fries first.

Having slashed through the minions, and with one moment left before time restarted, Silver spun around, and jabbed his blade into the back of the Chimera Org.

Time quickly resumed, an explosion of slime bursting from behind the Org. The chimera itself was flung forwards by Silver's blow, and started to writhe on the ground.

"Maybe you're not as tough as I thought!" Silver taunted, though he knew he had just gotten lucky. "I'll deal with you no problem!"

The monster got back up, and let out a much, MUCH louder roar, causing all three mammals to have to cover their ears. The chimera then held its bear paw into the air, causing a purple ball of energy to form. This was much larger than the previous energy orbs it had thrown… but it didn't seem keen on actually throwing the projectile.

Instead, it placed the ball on the tip of its trunk arm, the curvature of it fitting precisely around the orb. It then hardened, and dropped to the ground with a loud thud. The Chimera Org let out another roar, before it started to whip its trunk arm above its head, like a ball and chain.

Or rather, a wrecking ball.

The monster's arm stretched out, beyond the confines of the warehouse as it crashed and tore through the flimsy walls. As the ball swung around, it continued to shred the warehouse's walls, until there was nothing left above them. It seemed to be preparing for something, something that Silver didn't want to find out.

The wolf quickly rushed at the monster as it continued to spin the ball around. He thrust his rapier forward, clashing right through the monster's skin, to zero effect. He pulled his sword out, causing the monster to let out a gruff laugh. Silver caught a quick glance of its arm. It had stopped moving.

Silver looked up, right as the wrecking ball came down on him.

The ball crushed him under its weight, leaving the wolf twitching in a crushed pit of pavement.

"MAX!" Delagto shouted. The monster quickly spun around, and launched its arm at the tiger. Knocking him out instantly.

"Oh no!" Kyle shouted. "Now I'm the only one left, whatever will an innocent child like me do?"

He started to laugh, as purple smoke covered his body. In a few seconds, Kyuemon had replaced the fox. "Excellent job, Chimera Org." He complimented, the monster simply grunting in response.

The fox yokai walked over to the body of Silver, and placed his hand on the wolf's chest. "Good, still alive." He said. "We don't want him dead just quite yet. He'll make excellent bait."

Kyuemon performed several quick hand motions, as Silver's body began to rise up into the air. He glanced over at Delgato's body, and performed the same motion. "Actually, both these two will make fine bait."

"Come," The yokai said, swishing his arm and creating a dark portal. "Yabaiba is waiting for us."

The yokai and the Org, followed by the floating, but unconscious, bodies of the wolf ranger and the tiger officer, walked into the portal, which quickly vanished.

* * *

"So, this is the place he said?" The bull asked as he and the hyena walked through the industrial district.

"Well, he said the industrial district," Emily started. "And this is the only one of those in the city, so probably!"

They wandered around for a moment, before coming across a rather distressing sight. A warehouse… or rather, half of one. The entire top half of it had just completely vanished somehow, like it had been torn up by a shredder.

"So, you think that's where Max was?" Henry asked as they approached the ruined building.

They stepped inside, and noticed a large imprint on the ground. The ground was pushed upwards, but there was the vague shape of a mammal in the middle of it.

"Uh, yeah, probably." Emily guessed. "This is… pretty bad, isn't it?"

"Oh, definitely." Henry said. He quickly pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call up Nick and Judy, see if they know anything."

He quickly dialed Nick's number. He quickly answered, his camera turning on. It looked like he was on the sky train. "Henry?" He said, confused. "What are you-"

"We have some probably really terrible news." Henry said. "Em got a call from Max saying he was in danger, and when we got to where he was supposed to be, he wasn't there."

"WHAT!?" Judy yelled from off camera. She quickly snatched the phone from the camera, panic showing in her face. "What happened to him!?"

"We don't know." Henry said. "We just found what is almost definitely a battle site, and an imprint in the ground that looks like him."

"Yeah, definitely him." The hyena said, examining ground a bit more closely. "Did you guys get a call from him?" She asked, turning to the phone.

"No, we didn't." Nick said through the speaker. "Judy tried to, but there was some sort of interference."

"It REALLY hurt."

"Maybe it was a two-way interference?" Henry suggested. "There could have been something blocking your radios."

"What would be blocking them?" Nick asked.

"Considering he somehow ended up in the industrial district, he had to have been running around." Emily said. "Which means whatever was blocking the transmission was following him around."

"Wait, we have an industrial district?" Judy said over the phone. "Why do we even have one of those?"

"It's stuff they haven't paved over yet." Nick explained. "Thanks for letting us know, guys. There's something weird going on, we'll let you in on anything we find out."

The bull nodded, and hung up. He glanced at the hyena. "We probably have some time to kill, anything you want to do?"

"Man, I haven't had lunch yet." Emily said. "Let's get something to eat."

* * *

The three rangers arrived at the edge of the massive lake. It definitely was large, and with roughly a pear shape to it. There were several buildings lining the lake, and the ones on the opposite side of the lake seemed remarkably tiny. Massive trees hung over the lake, giving it a nice shade.

"So, we got work to do." Judy said. "If we find this next clue, we can figure out where the missing mammals are, and hopefully figure out what's going on with Max."

"Max, huh?" Kakeru said as they approached the edge of the lake. "He's your friend? What's he like?"

"A bit nerdy." Nick said. "But, you know, nice."

"God, I hope he's alright." Judy muttered to herself. She shook it off, and clapped her paws together. "Alright, judging by the water and swimming references in the clue, that means that the next one is IN the lake."

"Yeah, simple enough."

The three paused as they looked at the water. It was murky, they could barely see past the green surface.

There was silence.

"So, uh, who wants to go get it?" Nick asked, placing his paws to his hips.

"Uh, not me!" Judy said. "Rabbits are terrible swimmers."

"Seemed like a pretty good swimmer the last time we went in the water." Nick said, rolling his eyes.

"What about you, Kakeru?" Judy quickly asked, turning to the Gaoranger.

"I'm not particularly a good swimmer myself." He admitted.

Both of them looked at Nick, who let out a sigh. "Come on, do I really have to?" He asked, desperately.

"Just go in with your suit on!" Judy said, slapping the fox on the back. The fox quickly fell over, and he quickly transformed into ZooRed.

He stood up from the shallow water. His suit was dripping wet… but the fox inside it wasn't. "Wow, guess these things are water resistant!" He said, a bit cheerfully.

"You should have some air while you're down there." The lion ranger said. "Just don't take too long."

The fox gave a nod, and took a deep breath. He leaped into the air, and splashed down into the water. The fox swam down into the harsh, murky lake. It didn't seem to actually ever end. A sudden thought crossed his head as he floated for a moment.

The lake was massive. Where the hell would that clue even be?

He continued to dive down, and finally hit the bottom of the lake. He tapped at the side of his helmet, causing the visor to suddenly change to a view that let him see through the murkiness. There was a lot of garbage strewn about, unfortunately, and even a few cars.

He floated about the bottom of the lake for a minute, taking a quick gulp of air from his helmet. After a moment, he spotted something very conspicuous sticking out of the dirt. There was a pedestal, which looked like it clearly did not belong. On top of it was the clue.

He quickly grabbed it, and swam back up as fast as he could. It took a moment, but he broke through the surface, gasping for air. He waved the card in the air, catching Judy and GaoRed's attention, and swam back to shore.

"I'm just gonna… lay here for a bit…" He mumbled as he climbed to shore, almost instantly falling prone as he gasped for air.

Judy took the card from the fox, but before she could read it, there was a sudden mighty crashing noise behind them. "Oh come on." She muttered, turning to face the Chimera Org.

"Can't I just rest for ONE MINUTE!?" Red shouted as he got back up. Judy quickly transformed into ZooBlue, and the three rangers prepared to take on the monster.

The monster let out a growl as it stomped one foot forward. It jutted its bear claw out, suddenly firing off a cloud of ice and snow. The three braced themselves as the cloud flew past them.

They glanced back at the lake, which was now partially frozen. The grass around them was frozen as well, and the air had suddenly gotten a lot colder.

The monster roared again, this time raising its paw into the air, several purple balls of energy appearing. It flicked its paw forward, sending the orbs flying at the Zoorangers and their guest. The three leaped out of the way as the energy balls ate directly through the ice.

"Okay, this guy is seriously starting to get on my nerves." Blue said. "Let's finish him off quickly!"

The three pulled out their melee weapons, and rushed at the monster. They went in for an all out barrage, but this plan was quickly foiled as the monster shot out another burst of ice, causing all three to stumble back in surprise.

GaoRed quickly regained his equilibrium, just in time to watch the beast leap into the air. It landed on the ice it had created previously, somehow not cracking right through it.

"It's playing keep away now." He said.

"Guess he realized we can take him on alone, huh?" Red said.

"So, you're suggesting we blast the sucker?" Blue said, pulling out her blasters.

"Actually, I have a better idea." GaoRed said. He pulled out the lion-shaped gauntlet again, but he quickly grabbed it with his hand, seemingly trying to pull it off.

Suddenly, the entire weapon had changed. It was now a large gun, mostly red and black, with the same golden logo that was on GaoRed's belt. The head of the gun was a lion head, with a round of barrels forming the mane of the head itself. He cocked the gun, causing the mouth to open and reveal another barrel.

"Gao Mane Buster!" He shouted.

"Ooh, nice!" Red said. He quickly pulled out the Vickscannon. "I got something like that!"

"I know," GaoRed started. "Both our blasters are fire based, if we fire them both at the same time, we'll be able to melt the ice, and maybe get rid of that thing."

"Sounds like a plan!"

"I'll just stay out of the way of your… arson." Blue said, backing away.

The two quickly took aim at the monster, who let out a gutter utterance. They both pulled the triggers, both cannons firing out massive fireballs. They merged together into an even larger fireball, which crashed into the ice.

The ice instantly melted down, causing the monster that was standing on it to fall into the lake. It let out a roar as it thrashed in the water, before sinking down.

"Think that's it?" Red asked.

"No."

The monster burst out of the water, hanging in air for a moment. It held its paw out, creating a steel ball from it. "Now we can finish it!" GaoRed shouted, as they aimed the guns at the monster again.

They fired another round of fireballs, which combined together again. The Org then quickly tossed the steel ball at the fire, and the two forces clashed. It was brief, as the fire was strong enough to launch the ball back before it evaporated. The steel ball flew back towards the monster, which let out another grunt as it crashed through him, nearly instantly causing the beast to burst into purple mist.

"Well, that's that." Nick said, sweeping his hands as he and Judy untransformed. "Now, what's that clue say?"

Judy pulled it back out, and stared at it for a moment, her eyes going wide. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

"What's it say?" GaoRed asked.

"Sorry for hounding you, but it looks like you'll have to claw it back to where you started." She read, dryly.

"Wait, 'where we started'?" Nick said, confused. "Does he mean we have to go back to that cold storage place?"

"Either that or Mr. Big's." She said. "Considering what we know, probably the former."

"Wait, Yabaiba's just been having us running a circle?" Kakeru said, surprised. "This sounds far too clever for him."

"We'll see how clever he is when I knock that horn off his head." Judy growled, crumbling the note up.

"I'll call up Em and Henry." Nick said, pulling out his phone. "Let them know to meet us there."

GaoRed thought for a moment as Nick dialed up his friends. "Wait, what species is Max?" He asked Judy.

"Uh, a wolf." She said. Her ears popped up almost instantly after she said the words.

"You don't think…?"

"Nick, tell them to meet us at the warehouse or whatever it is ASAP!" Judy commanded. "This is a bigger problem than we thought."

"Uh, alright." Nick said, a bit weirded out by the rabbit's sudden burst of anger.

"I knew something was up." Judy muttered to herself. "I just didn't think it would be something like this."

* * *

Nick, Judy, and Kakeru arrived back in front of the old cold storage building. Parked directly outside was the SPD's cruiser, with Emily and Henry standing nearby.

"Que pasa, why did you tell us to meet at this dumpy fish place?" She asked as the three approached. She quickly noticed Kakeru. "This guys a, uh, friend of yours?"

"My name's Kakeru Shishi." He greeted, holding out his hand. Emily gave him a quick, confused glance, before he pulled his hand back. "I, uh, came here from another universe to help with the investigation."

"Oh, you're one of those guys." She said. "You seem a lot more… intelligent than the last guy."

"A lot more intelligent." Henry noted. "So, why exactly are we here?"

Judy took a deep breath. "So, we were sent to investigate missing mammals, which lead to us going on wild goose chase for clues to their location, and they lead us here, which probably means the missing mammals are inside and also we think Max was taken here."

She caught her breath after the ramble, and cleared her throat. "That's why we're here."

"So, Max should be in there?" Emily asked. "Well, let's bust in and save him!"

"I'm right with you!" Red said.

The four quickly transformed, and alongside GaoRed, ran into the cold storage.

However, it wasn't nearly cold anymore. In fact, it was positively warm. The place's layout seemed to have changed as well, at least the shelves had, as they were now pushed to the sides, creating a large space, like an arena.

Hanging by a hook from the ceiling was a rope, which was tied around what looked like an unconscious Max and Delgato. Directly underneath that was Yabaiba, and next to him, the Chimera Org.

"Hey, took you guys long enough!" Yabaiba said. "It's almost dark out, and I had better things to do than sit in the back room waiting for you guys."

"Yabaiba!" GaoRed shouted, stepping forward.

The Duke Org let out a girlish shriek as he stumbled back and fell to the ground. "G-G-GaoRed!? What are you-!?"

"Your evil will not be tolerated any more!" The lion ranger shouted dramatically. "Prepare to have whatever you're planning completely foiled!"

Yabaiba got back to his feet, and regained what little composure he had. "Sorry, but I'm not going to be fighting this round!" He said. "You have to fight my little pet here first!"

"Ugh, enough games, you clown college dropout!" Blue shouted. "Where are the mammals you kidnapped, and what did you do to Max… and Delgato!?"

"Calm down there, cottontail!" The Org joked, side stepping over to the Org monster. "You followed the notes, right? Then you found the missing mammals! All TWO of them!" He pointed up to the tied up wolf and tiger.

"Can you talk sense for once!?" Red shouted back. "Where are the other mammals you kidnapped!? Your stupid clues didn't lead us to them!"

"Um, excuse me?" Yabaiba said. "While I did totally kidnap them, they'd have to be mammals in order to be 'missing mammals'!"

The five stared at him, all of them confused.

"Wait, have none of you figured it out yet?" Yabaiba said, genuinely surprised. "I thought this was like, so obvious!" He motioned towards the Chimera Org. "Giraffe, elephant, black bear, and polar bear!" He shouted. "Get it!?"

"Wait, so that monster is…" Red started.

"That monster is the missing mammals!?" Blue shouted. "How did you even DO that!?"

"It caused a lot of pain, I can tell you that!" Yabaiba said with a chuckle, tapping the tip of his horn.

"So, all we have to do is beat that thing, and we save everyone." Red said. "Easy, we did that three times already!"

"I'm completely lost right now." Pink said, looking at Green. The bull shrugged in agreement.

"Oh, right, those guys!" Yabaiba said. "Well, those weren't real! They were illusions my good friend Kyuemon whipped up, around a third as strong as the real thing!"

"Oh yeah, and one more thing!" Yabaiba continued. He pulled out a large shell, full of green goo. "I have some more playmates for our game!" he thrust the shell upwards, causing the slime to fly out of it. It crashed into the ground, and quickly formed into a cadre of Orgettes.

The monster let out a roar, and stomped forwards, the ground slightly shaking as it did so. "Prepare to have your final fight, Zoorangers!" Yabaiba said, as he started to back off. "I'll just be… over here."

The Duke Org quickly ran over to a door at the back of the room, and stepped inside. There was a window next to it, which the Org quickly started peeking out of.

"Well, this might be… difficult." Red said as the monster stomped forward.

"I'm going to go fight Yabaiba." GaoRed declared. "Don't want him trying anything sneaky."

"Good idea, we'll take on the beasty bruiser and his buds here." Blue said.

GaoRed gave a nod, and then ran towards the crowd of monsters. He leaped into the air, claws prepared, and slashed at one of the Orgettes. He continued to run as he slashed through more of them, knocking them all away.

"That guy's got some guts!" Pink said with a chuckle. "Don't want him stealing the show, let's give 'em a show, Horns!"

Green gave a nod, and the two quickly ran in front of the two Zoorangers, and pulled out their blasters. They started to fire at the Orgettes and the Chimera Org. Pink shot several of the slimy ogres down, but more seemed to spring back up in their place. The bull fired at the Chimera Org itself, causing it to stumble back.

The monster gave a threatening roar as it stompe forward, causing the SPD officers to recoil for a moment.

"Let's get in there ourselves and make sure nothing bad happens!" Blue said to the fox. He gave a nod, and they quickly dashed in.

Before the monster could do anything, Red and Blue leaped in, performing a double kick directly into the monster's face. It flew backwards, crushing several of the Orgettes underneath it.

Red turned back to the SPD Officers. "Think you guys can take care of the small fries for a bit?" He asked.

"Only if we get to help finish this guy off." Pink said. Red chuckled for a moment, and nodded his head.

The Chimera Org got back up, and let out a roar. "Alright, I have a plan." Blue said as the monster stomped towards them. "Get your claws ready."

"Which ones?"

"The fast ones."

Red quickly pulled out a yellow ZooTag, and plugged it into his Zoolizer. In turn, Blue pulled out a white ZooTag, and plugged that in as well.

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The clawed gauntlets appeared on Red's paws, while the massive ax appeared in Blue's. "Think you can guess what I'm planning?" Blue asked the fox.

"I think I get it."

The fox dashed at the monster, and started to circle around it. He continued to rapidly slash the beast, but it seemed to be causing little actual damage to it. The org seemed slightly confused at what was happening, but quickly let out another roar, before kicking the fox away.

The beast started to stomp over to the grounded fox, preparing to crush him under its giraffe foot.

"HEY, UGLY!"

The beast looked up, watching as Blue flew towards him, ax prepped to strike. She slashed directly through its midsection, sparks flying as it was flung backwards.

"Good to see we're on the same wavelength." Blue said as she helped the fox up.

"Yeah, I totally didn't just guess what you were thinking." He said. The rabbit rolled her eyes.

GaoRed slashed through several more of the Orgettes, before reaching the door at the back of the room. He attempted to open it, but it was locked. He quickly glanced through the window, catching a glimpse of Yabaiba taunting him.

The lion ranger started to back up. He paused, and let out an animalistic roar, before dashing forward, slightly hunched over. He leaped up, and delivered a devastating dropkick to the door, practically blasting it off its hinges.

Yabaiba let out a shriek as GaoRed rolled into the room.

"Why can't you Gao freaks just let me be!?" He shouted.

"Because you're evil!" GaoRed responded. "We can't really trust you to play fair!"

"Okay, yeah, fair enough." Yabaiba admitted. "I was gonna come out and knife one of you guys while you weren't paying attention, so…"

GaoRed quickly pulled out his blade, and rushed at Yabaiba. The Duke Org quickly drew his own blades, and swiftly blocked GaoRed's strike. GaoRed quickly scraped his blade downwards, causing sparks to fly from the two blades, and disorient Yabaiba for a moment.

He quickly slashed at the Org's chest, and the two quickly began exchanging knife blows. They struck at each others blades for a few moments, before GaoRed kicked Yabaiba into the wall. He lunged at him, Yabaiba putting his blades back up in defense. The lion ranger slashed his own blade between the knives, and started to drag the Org across the wall.

In a swift movement, GaoRed quickly tossed Yabaiba directly through the window. It shattered, glass flying across the warehouse's cold grounds, and the Org skidding across it as well. GaoRed walked through the door, prepared to confront Yabaiba again.

"Oh, this is getting bad." The monster muttered to himself as he got up. He quickly pulled out his blades, looking prepared to fight the ranger… and then quickly ran off into the crowd of Orgettes.

GaoRed shook his head, before running in as well.

"Alright, guys!" Yabaiba started, talking to the monsters. "Get ready for this!"

The Orgettes let out excited grunts as they began to huddle together. "Chimera Org, get over here!" Yabaiba yelled to the monster, who was currently tussling with Red and Blue.

He glanced over to his master, and leaped out of the fight. The five Rangers looked as Yabaiba and the monster watched the Orgettes continue to swarm together. All of the Orgettes started to run towards the huddled mass, and begin fusing into it. In a few moments, they had all combined together into a horrid green ball covered in small spikes. It was roughly twice the size of the two monsters, and towered over the smaller mammals.

"Time for the ultimate weapon!" Yabaiba shouted, before giving a bow to the Chimera Org. The monster grunted, and jabbed its trunk arm into the massive ball.

It let out a massive roar, before somehow managing to lift the orb into the air. Its arm bended as it attempted to lift the massive weapon into the air, but it somehow managed. The ball hung in the air for a moment, before slamming into the ground, creating a massive crater where it landed.

"You know; I have a feeling that might not be good." Red said, sarcastically.

The Chimera Org started to spin around, pulling the massive spiked ball out of the crater, but crushing the ground beneath it as it moved. The beast dragged it for a moment, before flinging it towards Green and Pink, who barely dodged out of the way as it flung past them.

Green quickly glanced back, just in time to see the ball retract, with him directly in its way. The weapon smacked into the bull, launching him into one of the shelves.

The ball stopped partway to Chimera Org, but it then started to whip its arm back and forth. The weapon followed, rolling back and forth as well, at a bizarrely fast pace.

GaoRed, being on the other side of this, quickly rushed at the monsters, leaping into the air and slashing at the Chimera Org. It grunted as it fell to the ground, the lion ranger then turning directly to Yabaiba.

"Whatever you were planning, failed!" GaoRed declared.

"Not yet it hasn't!" Yabaiba retorted.

GaoRed glanced back at the monster, just before the beast's trunk arm slammed right into his gut, launching him off.

The beast let out another roar, and thrust its trunk arm back into the green ball. He pulled it back, and then quickly launched it forwards. The massive weapon crashed through the cold storage, sending the Rangers flying as it smashed through the front of the building.

"Wow, I might actually win this!" Yabaiba said, clapping his hands together.

Meanwhile, directly above the two monsters, an unconscious wolf has hanging. However, he blinked his eyes a few times, having been fully awoken by the crashing of the weapon.

"What the-?" Silver muttered to himself. "Where am I?" He looked back, seeing the unconscious body of Delgato.

He looked down as he heard laughing, spotting Yabaiba. He then turned to what the Duke Org was laughing at, seeing the bodies of the Rangers littering the ground.

They were all still alive, but whatever had hit them seemed to have caused major damage. He needed to help them. He had been kidnapped, and obviously they were trying to save him. He needed to return the favor! That was just what heroes do, right?

He struggled for a moment, but couldn't seem to get anything to loosen. This was a lot tougher than it looked in movies. He struggled a bit more, watching as the monster pulled back its arm from the massive green orb, and started to stomp forwards. Yabaiba soon followed it.

"Gah, I can't break free!" Silver said to himself. "My friends are gonna die, and I can't do anything!"

He let out another growl, before spotting something. In the corner, there was a door, presumably an emergency exit. It creaked open a bit, revealing a small, yellow mammal.

Was that… Kyle?

The fox quietly snuck up to Yabaiba, who somehow hadn't managed to notice him at all. Before either of the monsters could do anything, the young fox leaped up onto the Duke Org's back.

"Hey! Get off!" Yabaiba screeched as he stumbled around. Kyle promptly flipped over Yabaiba's head, and drop kicked him as he came down, knocking him back.

"What the heck…?" Blue said as she and the other Rangers got back up.

The Zoorangers and SPD Officers watched on as Kyle dashed up to Yabaiba, before he could even get up, and chopped him directly in the face. The Org fell back to the ground, but quickly started to get up, pulling out his knives.

The fox leaped up and body checked the Org in his stomach, causing him to drop them. Deftly, Kyle picked the daggers up, and quickly threw one at the rope hanging from the ceiling. It slashed directly through it, causing Silver and Delgato to fall to the ground.

Silver struggled with the rope for a moment after they hit the ground, quickly untangling it. "Rich!" He said to the tiger, who had been jarred awake by the fall. He quickly knelt down to check on him. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said as he slowly got up. He looked around. "What the hell is happening?"

"Monster fight." Silver said. "You should probably get out of here."

The tiger nodded, and quickly made a run for the hole the ball had knocked out of the building.

"Silver, thank god you're alright!" Blue said as she and the other three Rangers ran up to him.

"In a manner of speaking, yeah, I'm alright." He said, sounding slightly angry.

GaoRed quickly ran up to Silver as well. "Hey, you're Max, right?" He asked.

"O-oh, yeah!" He said, suddenly nervous. "Are… are you a Red Ranger?"

"Yep!" GaoRed said. "Kakeru Shishi, GaoRed, leader of Gaoranger. We can talk later."

The six looked back at Kyle and Yabaiba. The fox was using the knife as a slightly, for his body shape, too small sword, and the Duke Org was frantically avoiding the strikes.

"I didn't know Kyle could use a sword." Red said, shocked.

"Is he another friend of yours?" GaoRed asked. "Another member?"

"No, he's not a member." Blue explained. "Just a fan."

"Looks like he's doing a pretty good job keeping Yabaiba busy." Pink said. "Let's take out the quimera!"

"Now that all of us are together, we'll have no problem taking this guy out!" Silver declared. "Let's do this!"

Blue and red readied their special weapons, while Silver pulled out his blade, and the Officers preparing their blasters. GaoRed pulled out the Lion Fang, and the six dashed at the monster.

The chimera let out a roar of its own as it charged in. Blue and red opened first, the fox leaping up and rapidly slashing at the monster's face. The rabbit followed up by slashing her ax at the monster's legs. Red pushed himself off the monster as it started to tip over, with a final push coming from Pink and Green's blasters.

The monster tipped over, and started to roll on its side. Its trunk arm quickly extended, pushing it into the air and back to its feet. It then quickly lashed towards the giant wrecking ball, its arm impaling it. Mustering up all its strength, it pulled the ball back into the arena, faster than it had before.

The ball rolled across the ground, preparing to run over the SPD Officers, but GaoRed quickly leaped over them, and delivered a swift punch with the Lion Fang. The attack struck the ball directly, causing it to explode into a burst of slime, which quickly evaporated.

The monster growled as its arm started to retract back to its body, but before it could, Silver leaped in. He slashed at the monster's arm, the blade going directly through it. The monster, for the first time, let out a cry of pain as its trunk arm limply fell to the ground.

Silver quickly moved in, wanting to finish the monster off himself, but Blue, Red, and GaoRed moved in instead, them all now using their normal weapons.

They slashed at the beast rapidly, and from every angle, with GaoRed delivering a final blow that pierced its skin, and sent the beast flying.

Silver's ears twitched a bit as he watched this.

"Oh, this is BAD!" Yabaiba said, dodging another swing from the young fox. He quickly glanced down at him, the fox giving a quick, nearly unnoticeable nod. Yabaiba gave back a nod as well. "And honestly, I've had enough of this!" Yabaiba finished.

He quickly kicked the fox in the face, causing him to let go of his dagger and knocking him across the room.

"KYLE!" Blue shouted. "Emily, Henry, help him out!"

The two nodded, and quickly ran over to the fox's body. They quickly started to run him out of the place.

While that was happening, Yabaiba gingerly picked his dagger back up. "Ugh, you know, I was really hopeful about this!" The Duke Org whined. "I thought that maybe all this would actually be able to defeat you! Guess not!"

"Face it, Yabaiba, nothing you've ever done works out!" GaoRed yelled. "Maybe you should just give up!"

"Nah, I like doing this stuff." Yabaiba said. He quickly pulled out a red object, and tossed it at the heavily wounded Chimera Org, hitting it directly in the face.

The monster began to glow, and was then suddenly covered in an orb of purple energy, blocking out view of it. "That's a new one!" Red said, before the orb exploded, knocking everyone back.

"Oh, wow, this thing is AMAZING!" Yabaiba shouted as the smoke cleared.

The beat had changed its shape completely, and was now considerably more humanoid. For one, it now had a head, featuring the same four red eyes, but how with an actual mouth, still with only four fangs. Its face was now also red, and had several, large, golden horns awkwardly jutting out of its head, forming a sort of mane.

Its body had a large, organic looking lion head sticking out of it, complete with mane, though large, yellow feathers jutted out from the mane as well. It was a mix of dull red and yellows, but one of its arms was now almost entirely blue, and seemed to be covered in fish scales. In fact, its arm seemed to be an entire shark, twisted into the shape of an arm, with the head forming a hand.

The other arm was white and black, and considerably more mammalian. This one appeared to be most of a tiger, and like the other arm, was contorted into an arm, the head of the tiger still forming a hand. Its waist was entirely black and brown, and seemed to be a bull head, with the horns fusing into the side of its body. Its legs were simply oversized bull's legs as well.

The monster let out a roar, sounding like a mix of bird call, mammalian roar, teeth chomping, and painful groaning.

"Is that thing even the same monster!?" Blue asked, repulsed by the monster's horrible appearance.

"No!" GaoRed shouted, before turning to Yabaiba. "This thing is a mockery!"

"What?" Yabaiba said, a bit confused. He examined the monster for a bit. "Oh yeah, it does look like that big robot! Weird!"

"I won't have my friends be… be mocked like this!" The lion Ranger roared, before dashing at the monster.

"Wow, he's a bit hot-headed, isn't he?" Red said.

They watched as GaoRed rushed into the fight, leaping up and preparing to slash at the monster with his claws. The chimera let out a roar, before quickly grabbing one of GaoRed's arms with its shark hand. The teeth pierced through the ranger's suit, causing him to let out a grunt of pain.

The monster quickly followed by punching the Ranger in the gut with his other arm, and then quickly flung him away.

"Wow, this thing is great!" Yabaiba said, skipping up to the monster. "I'm going to let you deal with this guys, alright? Alright. Ciao!"

The Duke Org gave a quick wave, before melting into goop, which quickly vanished.

The other Rangers helped GaoRed up to his feet. "Care to tell us what's going on with this thing?" Blue asked.

"Well-"

"Its some kind of horrible mockery of your mech, right?" Silver quickly interrupted.

"Yeah, how did you-?"

"I have the toy, its pretty easy to see it." Silver explained.

"Toy…?"

"So, we're basically fighting a mini-mecha right now, huh?" Red said. "Okay, nothing we can't handle, just gotta do this like we usually do!"

The monster quickly let out another horrible roar, before its shark arm started to pulsate. Something started to slide out of the mouth. It looked like a sword made out of bones, ridged with teeth. The beast somehow managed to grip it in its mouth-hand.

The monster quickly slashed its blade forwards, launching out energy waves that sliced through the air. The six leaped out of the way as the slashes flew, and sliced through the shelves and wall behind them.

The Rangers prepared themselves, and then rushed at the monster, launching an all-out assault against it. Red leaped in first, alongside Pink, who leaped into the air and slashed at the monster while the hyena rapidly shot at it. Green charged in soon after, body checking it and knocking the monster back, letting Blue and GaoRed leap in with their blades, and strike the monster right down its middle.

Silver went in last, attempting to leap over the previous two, but the monster quickly slashed at him with its sword, sending him flying back. He crashed into Pink and Green, knocking them both to the ground as well.

The Chimera Org let out a roar, before stomping forwards, causing a slight earthquake with every step. It then dashed at GaoRed and Blue, using its tiger hand to quickly punch the lion Ranger away, before lashing at the rabbit with its sword. A lucky shot knocked Blue away, before it started to lash its blade more at the recovering Rangers.

The three of them weren't able to escape from the laser slash in time, but were saved when Red jumped in and blocked it with his sword. The slash broke in two, and the three Rangers quickly got back to their feet.

"How are we supposed to beat this guy?" blue asked. "He doesn't even look like he was phased by our attacks!"

"Oh, I know!" Red said. "How about we pull out a deus ex machina to get us out of this jam?"

"What does that mean?" Blue asked, confused.

"Yo, maneman, hold your weapon out for a second.

"Uh, alright." GaoRed held his sword aloft, ZooRed doing the same thing.

All of the sudden, the two weapons started to glow, and lifted up into the air. They collided in a burst of light, forming into a new weapon… or rather, a pair of new weapons.

Two swords, around the size of the Foxfire Blade itself, but were shaped like fangs, alongside being as white as teeth as well. The blades were marked with a golden sun-shaped marking in the middle, similar to what GaoRed's sword had, but without a large hole in it and spreading out slightly farther. These seemed to act as the sword's guards, and connected the hilt to the rest of the blade.

The swords dropped down from the air, and the fox caught both of them in his pawss. "Hah, nice, two weapons!" He said, tossing one up into the air and than catching it.

"How come I never get any weapons?" Silver quietly muttered to himself.

"Alright, now we need a name for these things…" Red said to himself. "How about… the Brave King Blades!"

"That's pretty good!" GaoRed said.

"A bit corny." Pink followed.

"Time to see what these babies can do!" The fox chuckled, twirling the swords around.

He dashed at the monster, leaping up and rapidly swinging the blades at the beast's chest. They seemed to actually be affecting the monster, as it stumbled back with each strike. Sparks flew as Red hit the ground, using the momentum of his leap to slide under the monster's legs. He quickly chucked one of the daggers into the beast's back, before using the other to stop himself.

He spun around and skidded to a halt, before holding one of his paws out. The sword that had impaled itself in the monster was somehow pulled out, and flung back into the fox's hands.

"These things are great!" He said, rapidly twirling the blades. He quickly threw both of them at the monster, which attempted to block with its own sword. However, the swords skimmed past the monster's torso and under its arms, and then circled back around and struck the beast in its shoulders. With that strike, the swords flew back to the fox, who caught them effortlessly.

"I'm gonna join in too!" GaoRed shouted, pulling out the Lion Fang. He dashed in, and struck the monster directly in its side with the gauntlet, knocking it away.

"Time for you to see red, buddy!" Zoored joked, leaping up onto GaoRed's head. He quickly leaped off, and started to fling the blades at the monster, which zoomed back and forth quickly with each strike.

GaoRed quickly shifted his gauntlet into its blaster form, and unloaded fire on the monster. It let out a shriek of pain as the two weapons continued to strike at it. Red finally pulled his blades back in one final time, and landed back on GaoRed's head, before leaping off. He performed a quick cross clash through the monster's body, landing on the other side of it.

The Chimera stumbled for a bit, before glancing up and seeing GaoRed rushing at him. The Lion fang had been turned back into its gauntlet mode, and the lion Ranger performed a quick uppercut, launching the beast into the air. ZooRed then quickly tossed both of the blades at the monster, with enough force to send it flying.

The monster crashed into one of the shelves, and bounced off, hitting the floor shortly after. It stumbled back to its feet, as ZooRed and GaoRed approached him. "Alright, let's finish this sucker off!" The fox said, spinning his blades around rapidly. Gaored quickly nodded, and pulled back his fist.

"BRAVE SOUL DOUBLE STRIKE, GAO VERSION!"

ZooRed quickly tossed the blades at the monster, but instead of flying at the Org, they instead hung in the air. GaoRed ran in next, punching one of the daggers with the Lion Fang, before kicking the other one. They flew into the monster, slashing through his body. ZooRed then ran up and leaped off of GaoRed, as the blades curved back towards him. The fox caught them as GaoRed switched the gauntlet to its blaster mode. At the exact same moment, ZooRed slashed through the back of the monster, while GaoRed blasted at it from the front.

The beast let out another pained yell, before exploding into a massive burst of fire. Out of the fire came the four mammals, a giraffe, a black bear, an elephant, and Koslov the polar bear. They were unconscious.

"I think we can let them be for now." Red said, skipping back over to the others.

He paused as the daggers started to glow and float upwards, before splitting back into the two blades, alongside a red ZooTag. ZooRed caught his weapon and the ZooTag, while GaoRed caught his sword.

"So, is that just like, a thing that happens every time one of these guys shows up?" Green asked.

"Uh, yeah, kind of just a thing." Blue said. "That's how I got the ax and boxing gloves."

"An now we have to finish things up for good!" Silver stated.

The six turned to the small glowing object on the ground as it floated up into the air. It zoomed upwards, smashing through the ceiling and flying off. The group ran outside, and watched as the Chaos Chimera Org appeared in a burst of red light, completely revived.

It let out a roar as it stomped towards the city.

"Let's fly in there and take him out!" Blue said, as she, Red, and Silver quickly pulled out their summoning objects.

They quickly summoned up ZooRobo and ZooKami, which crashed into the ground. They pulled out their blades, and stomped towards the monster, which was also brandishing its sword blade.

The two mechs lunged in at the same time, slashing at the beast, but it quickly blocked the strikes with its sword. It pushed the mechs back, before rapidly slashing at the mechs. Sparks flew as they stumbled backwards, nearly hitting the edge of the city.

"This thing's strong." Red said. "How 'bout we mix things up?"

The other two Rangers nodded, before the two mechs leaped into the air and combined into ZooRobo Oh Kami. The combined mech crashed back into the ground, and started to slash at the monster rapidly. The monster continued to block the attacks, but they seemed to be putting strain on the sword at least.

The beast let out another roar, before pulling its sword back and quickly punching the super robot in the chest with its tiger hand. ZooRobo was pushed back a bit, but the monster quickly fired out white shots of energy from the mouth of the tiger, which exploded as they struck ZooRobo. As the robot was stunned, the chimera let out another roar, before slashing at its chest several more times.

"This thing might be…" There was another strike, causing the rabbit to be thrust back in her chair. "…Too strong!"

The monster thrust its sword into ZooRobo's chest, causing a massive explosion. The force of the strike was strong enough to completely separate the mech, the mechanical fox, bunny, and wolf flying back into the city and crashing into the snowy streets.

"Well, that's new." Red said, shaking the landing off.

The fox mech wriggled around for a moment, before getting back to its feet. The rabbit and wolf mech quickly did the same, but there was hesitation as the monster stomped towards the city.

"That thing defeated ZooRobo Oh Kami!" Silver said, panicked. "That god thing wasn't even able to do that, how the hell are we supposed to beat this thing!?"

"I… I don't know." Blue said.

Back in front of the cold storage building, the SPD officers and GaoRed watched as the Zoorangers had been defeated. "Well, looks like we're in a lot of shit." Emily said.

"Not yet." GaoRed said, stepping forward. "Maybe I can help them out!"

He held the Beast King Sword into the air, the jewel in the middle of it lighting up. In a flash of red light, a massive, mechanical looking lion had appeared in front of them. Emily nearly fell down from the shock, while Henry just looked on, awestruck.

GaoRed leaped up into the air, and landed on the lion's head. "GaoLion, let's go!" GaoRed commanded. The lion let out a roar, and rushed down the street.

"That's the second scariest lion I've seen." Emily said as they watched on.

The lion mech stomped through the city, before leaping out of it and tackling the monster. It latched onto it, and started to scratch and bite, before leaping off and knocking the Org back to the ground.

"Alright guys!" GaoRed yelled. "I'll give you enough time to combine back up!"

"Got it!" Blue replied. She paused for a moment. "How can I even hear him from in here…?" She shook it off, and the mechs quickly started to regroup.

The three giant mechanical animals leaped out into the outer city, just as the chimera started to get back up. It let out a roar, and started to stomp towards them, but GaoLion leaped in the way.

"If you wanna get them, you gotta go through me!" GaoRed shouted from on top of the lion.

Suddenly, GaoLion started to glow. "What the-?" Gaored said, watching as the light overtook him and his mech. The mechanical lion let out a roar before it was completely covered.

"Alright, time for a new mech!" Red said, excited.

"Wait, I think something different is happening!" Silver said, pointing as the light suddenly turned red.

There was a burst of red light, and from that appeared something completely new.

While it still resembled a mechanical lion, it was now colored gold and red, and was more in line with how the rest of the Zooranger's mechs looked. It was also much larger than the other mechs, barring ZooOkami, and its mane was large and spiked out more, like a sun, while its wire-like tail ended in a golden crescent. Most of the creature was gold, with only select parts of its body, its claws, and face being red. A large, thin piece seemed to go right through the mech's torso, connected from the tail to the head.

"ZOOSHISHI!" A voice yelled.

It let out a roar, before scraping its paws against the ground. "W-what the!?" GaoRed said from inside. The cockpit was entirely golden. "What happened to GaoLion?"

"He should be fine after we beat this guy!" Blue assured him.

"That thing is… big." Red said, shocked by what had just happened.

"Guys!" Silver started. "I think this might be our SUPER mech! We just have to combine all of them together!"

"Good idea, let's try it out!" Blue ordered.

The four mechs leaped into the air, and started to combine. ZooSagi split apart, forming into the arms, similar to how it had done with ZooRobo Oh Kami. ZooOkami, however, folded up, and split into the legs and torso, halves of the wolf heads forming into the feet, and the rear of the mech forming into the upper legs. It split in half, the tail folding back in.

ZooKitsune quickly folded out, the head appearing, and the legs folding out into a sort of backback. ZooShishi curled its body inwards, forming a full torso, with the lion's head sticking out of the chest. All the parts connected, legs connecting to the bottom of the torso, and arms connecting to the side. ZooKitsune attached to the top, and its backpack suddenly transformed into a golden split cape.

The large piece of ZooShishi slid out from its back, revealing a massive, cleaver-like sword, its tail forming into the handle of it. The final change was made, a helmet springing up from the lion's body and onto ZooKitsune's robot face. It was shaped like a sun, but with a crescent visor. The visor lit up for a moment, before the mech grabbed onto the sword.

"ZOOROBO, BRAVE OH KAMI!" A voice yelled as they crashed into the ground.

"Wow, this is… incredible!" Blue said as they looked around the cockpit. It looked mostly the same, the four seats connected by a large pole in the middle of it, but it was now entirely golden inside.

"Does this happen often?" GaoRed asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, it happens a bit." Red said. "Not usually to this level, though."

"…Why am I the legs?" Silver muttered to himself.

The new and improved ZooRobo stomped towards the monster, dust raising up as it did so. The chimera instinctively stepped backwards, and brandished its sword in defense. ZooRobo raised its MUCH larger blade, and swing it into the bone one, cleaving it in half. The monster dropped the smoking blade, and glanced up at the mech.

In a last ditch effort, it started to grabble with the massive robot, but ZooRobo quickly managed to break free from it. The robot quickly kicked the monster back, before raising its blade into the air.

The golden sword started to glow blue, as ZooRobo slashed it downwards, forming a crescent shape mirage of energy. It then pulled the sword back as the lion head opened its mouth and started to glow as well. A mirage of red energy, shaped like the sun, appeared, and hung in the air fro a moment.

"FULL LUNAR ECLIPSE SOLAR STRIKE!"

The sun-shaped energy fired forward, catching the moon-shaped energy. The crescent stated to swirl around clockwise, while the sun began to spin counter-clockwise. The blast fired right through the monster, causing it to let out a roar of pain.

It quickly exploded with one final horrible roar.

ZooRobo stomped its foot down, and slashed its sword a few times.

The mech vanished, and the four reappeared back on the ground. GaoRed quickly checked his sword. The GaoJewel was still there, causing him to let out a sigh of relief. He felt something else however, and pulled out a red ZooTag.

"Here, I think you guys'll need this." He said, tossing the tag over to Nick, who had untransformed.

"Well, we got that finished… surprisingly quickly." Nick said, slipping the tag into his pocket. "Guess you'll be heading back home soon?"

"I have a bit." Kakeru said. He turned to Max, who was pacing around the front of the warehouse. The lion Ranger ran up to him, and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, Max, think I can talk to you for a bit?" He asked.

"Uh, about what?" The wolf replied, rather grumpily.

"I just wanted to say that you reminded me of someone…" Kakeru started.

Suddenly, Max flicked his hand off his shoulder. "If that someone is like me, then I can't see he'd be worth remembering." The wolf said, before stomping off.

Kakeru watched as the wolf walked away, and then shook his head.

* * *

Around an hour later, Nick and Judy had helped Kakeru out of the city and into the outer limits, where they were waiting for the Rainbow Line. The sun had gone down by that point.

"Max was acting a bit weird back there, huh?" Judy said, a bit worried. "What did you say to him?"

Kakeru sighed. "I just wanted to tell him that he reminded me of an old friend." He explained. "Dependable, loyal. Didn't even give me a chance to say who."

"He's a bit stubborn sometimes." Nick said. "A lot of times."

"We'll ask him what's up when we get home." Judy said. "I'm a bit worried about him. He should've been able to take on that monster himself…"

Kakeru fell silent for a moment. "I have a special power, you know." He started, out of nowhere. "I can read the hearts of any animal. I can tell how they're feeling. It's why I'm such a good vet… doctor."

"So, you read Max's heart?" Nick asked. "Shouldn't he consent to that?"

"I wouldn't have told you, but there's definitely something going on with him." The lion Ranger explained. "He felt… upset about something. There was a storm raging in his heart, a whirlwind of regret and hatred."

"That doesn't really sound like him." Judy said, confused. "Could you tell why he was feeling that way?"

"Kakeru shook his head. "Sorry, I can only read the emotions. He's bottling… something, up, at least." He continued. "Make sure nothing happens to him, alright?"

With that, there was a flash in the sky, as the Rainbow Line landed in front of them. The door slid open, and GaoRed stepped towards it. He turned back to the two, and gave a quick nod, before stepping onto the train. Iit quickly took off into the air, and then vanished.

"That was a long day." Nick said with a sigh, his ears and tail dropping in exhaustion.

"I don't think we'll be able to keep this up with just the five of us." Judy admitted. "I think we need to figure out who ZooYellow should be, and fast."

"Yeah." Nick said. "Guess that means no more auditions."

* * *

The two arrived back at the house a few hours later. The rabbit was looking through the front window, at the car parked in the driveway. Max was sitting in it. He had been there ever since they had arrived back, which meant he had been in it for at least three to four hours.

It was definitely… strange.

"You think I should go out there and talk to him?" Judy asked.

"I think you should just let him be, and talk about it in the morning." Nick said with a yawn. The fox was in his pajamas, and ready for bed. "We're all exhausted, maybe some sleep will put him in a better mood."

"Alright." Judy said. She was in her sleepwear too, and the two headed down into the basement.

"I think I have an idea about who should be ZooYellow." She said as they hit the bottom of the stairs.

"Lay it on me." Nick said as he walked towards the bed.

"It's Kyle."

The fox paused, and looked back at her. "You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm serious." She said. "You saw him take on Yabaiba, better than even we've done! I think he's qualified, as much as I wish he wasn't."

Nick sighed. "Alright." He started, climbing into bed. "We'll figure out what to do about it tomorrow."

"Right." Judy said, quickly hopping into the bed as well.

She really hoped this wasn't a terrible idea.

Meanwhile, outside, Max was sitting in the car, by himself. His muzzle was pressed against the steering wheel, slightly tilting it back and forth. He was starting to get tired. He was thinking about the day, and how terrible it had been for him.

Suddenly, someone began to speak.

"You really botched this mission, didn't you?" The voice said. It was deep, electronic.

"No, I didn't." Max said. "If I didn't have to protect Rich and Kyle, I could've beaten it…"

"Hah." The voice laughed. "Yeah right. You know you need their help. You're worthless without them."

The wolf raised up, and slammed his fist into the dashboard. "I AM NOT WORTHLESS!" He shouted. "I'm the sixth ranger! I'm supposed to be the cool one!"

"Doesn't seem it to me."

Max tilted the rear-view mirror, to get a better look in the backseat. Despite what was sitting there, he wasn't surprised.

It was ZooSilver.

"You should go and tell them about how you feel." ZooSilver said. "Oh wait, if you do that, they'll think you're a bigger wimp than you are now!"

Max let out a sigh. "Can you just… shut up for a bit?" he said, slumping back down into the seat.

"You can't shut up the voices in your head, Max."

* * *

"Wow, I can't believe how well that plan went!" Yabaiba said, skipping through the base.

"'Well'?" Sambash said with a chuckle. "Your monster got busted, and the Zoorangers got a better robot, I wouldn't call that 'well'!"

"Actually," Kyuemon said, suddenly appearing behind the bike monster. "As the one who came up with the plan, I can say it did indeed do 'well'."

The yokai walked around the table, all of the villains, besides Yabaiba, were sitting at it. "The goal of this mission was to get information, with destroying them as a secondary." Kyuemon continued to explain.

"Well, did you learn anything?" Yogostein asked.

"I learned what happened to the yellow one." He continued. "It turns out that he gave up his power, and the Zoorangers are currently looking for a replacement."

Enter's eyebrow raised at this comment.

"Yeah, real helpful." Sambash said. "Now we just have to wait for ANOTHER one to show up."

"Wrong!" Yabaiba shouted, quickly grabbing onto a chair. "Kyuemon's disguise is someone they think is a friend! After Kyu told me, we set up an act where I'd get defeated by him!"

"And with one of their allies currently a bit… indisposed." Kyuemon said, pausing to chuckle. "They'll need all the help they can get. And once they come for my help, I'll take the Zoolizer… and destroy it."

"Renard à tête épaisse!" Enter shouted, slamming his hands on the table. "Do you know what kind of power we could get if we got our hands on one of those things!?"

"Yes, but none of us could use it even if we wanted." Kyuemon said. "Destroying it is the best option."

"Tch." Enter let out as he started to walk out of the room.

"Anyway, the plan is in motion, and we just need one more step." The yokai continued. He turned to the large robot. "Yogostein, you've been working on something, correct?"

"What?" He let out. "Me? Working on something? Something secret? No I wouldn't… Fine, I have."

"Excellent." Kyuemon said, slowly walking up to the massive cylinder at the back of the room. "Oh Omnipotence, may this humble servant have a small request?"

The cylinder boomed to life.

" **WHAT IS IT** "

"I request that me and Yogostein head out tomorrow for the next part of my plan." He started. "If we can pull it off, the Zoorangers, and the city, will be in our grasp!"

Surprisingly, The Omnipotence fell silent.

" **VERY WELL** " It suddenly boomed. " **YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION THIS ONE TIME, BUT DO NOT MESS IT UP** "

"I won't, my Master." Kyuemon said, bowing.

"Ugh, what have I gotten myself into?" Yogostein muttered.


	38. Toxic Thoughts

The metallic monster stomped down the walkways of the sewers. Dark, dank, the pipes lining the walls reminded him of his home. Following behind him was the fox yokai, whose foot steps were much lighter.

"Why are we going down here?" Kyuemon asked. "I'm assuming you have a reason."

"Oh, I do." Yogostein said, stopping for a moment. He turned to one of the pipes on the walls, and started to examine it. "Hm, not good enough." He muttered, before beginning to walk again.

"That's the fifth time you've done that." Kyuemon said, starting to get a bit frustrated.

"I need to find the perfect pipe for my new monster." Yogostein explained. "Once I create him, I can give him my new invention to play with!"

"Your new invention, what exactly is it?"

The robot turned to the fox, giving him a confused glare. "You knew I had a new invention, but didn't know what it was?"

"I'm a magic kind of guy, your science is rather abstract to me." Kyuemon said.

Yogostein grunted, and pulled out a small test tube of purple liquid. "This is my Coma Liquid." He said. "If any living being touches it, they'll be put into an indefinite coma. I'm going to have my monster spread it around and contaminate the water supplies!"

"That's incredibly devious." Kyuemon said, slightly surprised. "I didn't know you had it in you."

"Hah, you don't know how evil I can really be!" Yogostein said, slapping his chest. He quickly turned to one of the pipes. It was rusted, leaking, utterly useless for its original purpose.

It was exactly what he needed.

He grabbed onto the pipe, and pulled it from the rest of the pipes, causing water to start pouring out of it. He pulled out a gear, and jabbed it into the pipe, which started to glow.

The robot tossed it forwards, the pipe bursting into a flash of light before it could hit the ground. It had formed into a new monster right in front of their eyes.

The Banki let out a roar, or perhaps a yawn, and stomped forwards. "Yo, boss, what's up?"

"I need you to take this." Yogostein said, pulling the tube of dangerous water out again. He pulled the cork from it, and held it forward. "Drink up, you'll need all of it!"

"Oooh, looks yummy!" The monster said. It lifted a metallic tentacle into the air, which creeped into the tube. It began to suck up the water, which was gone in only a few seconds flat. The monster started to glow purple in the darkness of the sewers, illuminating it slightly.

"Go to the water filtration plant." Yogostein ordered. "Then infect the water with my tonic! Just follow this sewer path, and you should be able to get there."

"Aye, sir!" The monster said, before running down the walkway.

"Do you think this will work?' Kyuemon asked.

"Well, the plan comes down to you, doesn't it?" Yogostein asked.

"I suppose you're right." The fox yokai said with a chuckle.

* * *

The door creaked open, and the wolf stepped back into the house. He rubbed his eyes, he had just woken up, after falling asleep in the car.

"Yo, wolfsbane." Nick said from the couch. "Have a good sleep?"

"Noooo." The wolf moaned as he walked into the house. How could he have had a good sleep when he was being insulted the entire time? He walked into the kitchen, preparing to get something to eat, but then he spotted something.

Standing in the corner of the kitchen, right behind the table, was ZooSilver. The figure was standing completely still, arms crossed, and staring directly at him.

Max hesitated for a moment, but quickly headed back to pouring a bowl of cereal.

Judy was sitting at the table, and was watching as Max unsteadily prepared the breakfast. He was jittery, shaking as he poured the cereal from the box, and breathing very heavily.

"You feeling alright?" Judy said, a bit concerned.

"I'm fine." He said, flatly, as he placed the box on the counter. A deep, electronic voice spoke up, saying a single word.

"Liar."

The wolf's eye twitched as he grabbed the cereal, and brought it over to the table. ZooSilver was still standing there, looking at him, not doing anything else.

"Seriously, are you feeling alright?" Judy said, taking a sip of her coffee. "You really don't look alright."

"No, really, I'm fine." He said, letting out a weak laugh. "You don't need to worry."

"You really think they'll fall for that?" ZooSilver said. "Nobody ever does. Just admit it to them."

Max opened his mouth, preparing to say something.

"Wait, if you say what's wrong, they'll think you're even more pathetic than you are now." ZooSilver mocked. "Don't want them to think that, do you?"

Instead of saying anything, Max's jaw quivered, before he brought a spoonful of cereal up to his mouth.

"Well, if you're feeling fine," Nick started, walking to the table. "That means you're up to talking about some important business, right?" He finished, hopping up onto one of the highchairs.

"Uh," He muttered, before clearing his throat. "Sure."

"You know where this is going, don't you?" ZooSilver said, his voice scratchy.

"Is this about ZooYellow?" The wolf asked.

"Yeah, it is." Judy said. "After what happened yesterday, we were kind of thinking we should make him a member."

"Why?" Max asked. "You don't know him that well, and what makes him so capable?"

"He managed to fight off a general on his own, I'd say that's something." Nick said.

"And we barely knew you when you joined." Judy said. "I don't see a problem with letting him join."

The wolf paused for a moment, and let out a sigh. "Alright, you guys have points." He admitted. "I just…"

He let out another big sigh, and went quiet.

Judy glanced over at Nick, who glanced back at him. This entire thing was getting a bit awkward. The fox hopped down from the chair. "We're probably going to go get him today." He said. "Good thing we decided it after a monster attack, right?"

"Yeah, that means he'll be able to train without worrying about any weird nonsense going on." Judy said.

"Yeah, we'll all be able to get buddy-buddy with each other for the next week." Nick said. "With absolutely nothing to worry about-"

There was a sudden loud beeping noise from their Zoolizers. A monster was attacking? Today?

"Haven't heard that one in a long time." Nick said, shaking his wrist. "Guess that kind of ruins our plans for today, huh?"

"If a monster is attacking today, that must mean something's going on." The rabbit guessed. "We should probably head out before anything terrible happens."

"Oh, I'll follow you guys in a sec." Max said. "Just go on without me for now."

"Uh, okay." Judy said, hopping down from her seat. "Seriously, is there something wrong, Max?"

"Nope, perfectly fine." He said, leaning back in his chair.

The rabbit looked at him for a moment, before rushing off alongside Nick, both out the front door. Max slumped down in his chair a bit, and glared at ZooSilver, who was still standing in the corner.

"You knew this day was going to come." It said. "You've known it for a month."

"Yeah, I know." Max said. "I just…"

"I didn't realize it would be this soon."

* * *

Blue and Red pulled their bikes up to the water filtration facility. It was a massive, grey building, very obviously designed purely for function rather than looking decent. Thankfully, this eyesore was located in a fielded area where not a lot of mammals lived.

"Gotta love industrialization." Red said as the two hopped off their bikes.

There was a sudden crash behind them, shocking them both. They turned to see Silver, who seemed slightly unsteady as he walked towards them.

"Ugh, could've stuck that landing better." He muttered, shaking his head. He steadied himself and placed his paws on his hips. "Alright, lets go fight that monster!"

"Right." Blue said. "But we need to be careful, there could be workers inside."

"Whatever's in there could be playing hostages with us." Red continued for her. "We gotta play it safe."

Silver nodded, before the three ran into the building.

They emerged on a series of catwalks, overlooking three massive tanks full of water. Besides them, there were a bunch of Ugutz wandering the catwalks, none of them seeming to have noticed the Rangers yet. Max gripped onto the railing, and looked down. He quickly spotted a group of mammals, knocked unconscious, located in a corner.

"Yep, definitely hostages." He whispered.

"What's wrong with the water?" Blue asked.

The wolf looked over at one of the tanks. The water had turned a deep purple, and was now almost completely solid in color.

"Maybe they put food coloring in it." Red joked.

"We should get those mammals out of here." Blue said. "Hopefully before-"

An Ugutz lifted its head up and pointed towards the Zoorangers, letting out a series of angry beeps.

"-We get spotted."

The robots started beeping loudly, and rushed down the catwalks towards them. Without hesitation, Blue and Silver leaped down. Red did hesitate a bit, but quickly made the leap down before any of the monsters could reach him

The three ran towards the group of mixed mammals, Silver getting on his knees to shake a pig. "Hey, wake up!" He said, before slapping the pig on the cheek. "He's not waking up."

"That's not good." Blue said.

"I'll tell you what's not good!" A screechy voice yelled from behind them. They turned to where it was coming from, directly between two of the tanks.

It was a monster, as they were expecting. It was mostly bronze, mostly due to the fact that almost its entire body was covered in brown tubes, most likely pipes of some kind. Most of the pipes were coming directly out of the torso, and leading upwards, curving like a neck. The pipes seemed to meet at one place, behind the beast's face. Its face was more like a hockey mask, several holes poking out of it, but several chunks seemed to be missing. It had slanted yellow eyes with beady pupils, and a mouth full of sharp fangs behind two strands of the metallic mask.

The beast's body, in turn, was a greyish-blue color, marked with several brown pieces and more tubes. Larger pipes were sprouting out of the monster's shoulders, both of which opened at the end. The monster's upper body also had the end of two more pipes poking out of it. Its shoulders also had three other pipes poking out of them, a large one forming the arm, and two smaller ones connecting to the forearms. The forearms themselves were rather bulky, and had several bolts and ridges on them. Both ended in a different appendage, the left arm ending in a serrated blade, and the right ending in a whip made of pipes.

More pipes extended down from the monster's torso, forming the legs, which both ended in pointed, metal feet. The monster let out another groan as it stomped forwards.

"What isn't good is you guys showing up so soon!" It growled. "How's the mighty Pipe Banki supposed to work like this?"

"Well, guess we shouldn't have been something threatening." Red mocked.

"Are you saying I'm not a threat!?" Pipe Banki yelled.

"You don't really look that threatening, no." Blue followed. She quickly shook her head, and stomped forward. "What are you planning? What have you done to this mammals?"

"I gave them some of THIS!"

The monster whipped its pipe whip forwards, shooting out a burst of purple water. It sprayed all over the three, causing sparks to burst from their suits.

"Ugh, wet!" Red shouted, before shaking his body off. Silver quickly shook the water off, and Blue shook the liquid off her foot.

"Hmm, guess it doesn't work on you when you're in your suits." The monster said, a bit disappointed. He quickly raised his blade up. "Guess I have to do this the violent way!"

The pipe monster dashed forwards, and slashed at the Zoorangers. Red and Blue leaped out of the way, as Silver pulled out his blade and locked it with the monster's. He pushed back, and then quickly delivered a punch to the monster's chest, knocking it back.

Red and Blue leaped back in with their bladed weapons, slashing at the monster again and pushing it back. The Banki Beast quickly started to spin around, shooting the purple liquid out of the pipes on his chest. The impact of the water pushed all three of the rangers back, Red taking an unlucky hit and being sent flying into one of the tanks.

The fox slid to the ground after taking the hard blow, which Pipe Banki decided to take advantage of. It brandished its blade, and stomped forward, preparing to strike down the vulnerable ZooRed.

Silver watched on as he regained his bearings. He watched as the monster prepared to slice its blade through the fox. With a growl, he rushed forwards, slashing at the monster with his own blade. This gave Red enough time to run over to Blue, and the two watched as Silver slammed his blade into the monster's repeatedly.

"What's with him?" Red asked.

"Uh, not sure." Blue replied. She quickly pulled out her blasters. "But I'm gonna go help him."

"Cool does that mean I can use my cannon?"

"What? No!"

"How come you get to use guns inside!?" Red shouted as the bunny dashed into the fight. He pulled out his blade, and dashed in as well.

The rabbit leaped up, landing on Silver's head and stunning the two. She bounced off the wolf and kicked the pipe monster in the face, kicking off of it again and flipping through the air. She rapidly fired her blasters at the monster's feet, causing it to stumble back.

Red quickly followed up by leaping up and slashing at the monster with his sword, before hitting the ground and whipping it at him. The cord extended as Red lashed the handle back and forth, slicing through the monster.

"Alright, Silver!" Blue said. "Finish him off!"

Silver paused for a moment as Red leaped away. He gave a quick nod, and spun the guard of his blade around, switching it to Sun Mode.

"HOT HOT SUN"

He thrust the blade forwards, firing off a flurry of fireballs at the monster. They crashed into its body rapidly, causing it to be pushed back. However, instead of the Banki Beast flying off, it did something else.

It laughed.

"Seriously?" It shouted, the fireballs continuing to hit its body, with seemingly no effect. "What are you, an idiot?"

Before Silver could realize what had happened, the monster whacked one of the fireballs out of the way with its whip, causing it to fly into the tank beside it. Water flowed out onto the floor, as Silver realized what had happened.

"Oh, god damn it-"

Pipe Banki shot a stream of the purple water out of its chest, extinguishing the fire almost instantly. It quickly pushed to Silver, and sent him flying across the room.

"Hah, lame!" The monster shouted. He glanced at the tank, and then at the other two tanks. "Two is good enough!" it laughed. "Not like the water there's going where it needs to anymore!"

The monster leaped through the air, crashing through a window. It had managed to escape.

"Max, you okay?" Judy asked as he and Nick ran up to help him out. He quickly untransformed, and slammed his fist on the concrete ground.

"Water beats fire." He muttered, standing up.

"Why did you use the fire attack, then?" Nick asked, confused. "You have like, two other things on there."

"I…" He paused for a moment. "I got nervous."

As he finished speaking, he glanced up, spotting ZooSilver once again. The suit shook its head. "No, you just weren't thinking." It said.

Judy quickly checked up on the unconscious mammals. None of them were awake, even after all that racket. She hopped up onto a bear, and felt at his chest. He was breathing slowly, slower than bears normally breathed.

She turned back to the two, and hopped over to the spilled water. It covered most of the ground, but thankfully there was enough room to get close without stepping in it. If she was correct, stepping in it would only mean bad things.

She quickly pulled out some rubber gloves from her pocket, and a small cup. She scooped it through the water, collecting a tiny amount of it.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked, confused. "And why do you have those?"

"I'm taking a sample." She said, walking over to him. She quickly put a lid on the glass container. "I think this water has something to do with those mammals. And I have this test tube and rubber gloves because I carry extra equipment with me just in case."

"You know that's weird, right?" Nick said.

"Yeah, but its helpful sometimes."

They both turned to Max, who was staring into the distance, distracted by something. "Max, we're going to make a detour over to the station." Judy said.

He didn't respond.

"Max?"

"Hey, you awake?" Nick shouted, snapping the wolf out of his daze.

"Oh, sorry, I was just… thinking." He said. "What did you guys say?"

"We're dropping this sample at the station." The rabbit repeated. "Come on."

Judy and Nick quickly ran off, Max trailing behind them. As they exited the building, he found that someone else was walking next to him.

"Now you're just becoming a nuisance." ZooSilver said, marching in lockstep with the wolf, copying his motions exactly. "You let the monster get away. Who knows what kind of trouble will happen because of you?"

"Just… shut up."

"Did you say something?" Judy asked, turning around to face the wolf.

"No, just… talking to myself."

* * *

"He should be finishing right about now." Yogostein said as he stomped around the cavern. Kyuemon waited at the other end of the table, while Sambash sat between them.

"What exactly are you guys planning?" The biker asked, putting his feet up on the table.

"Something big." Kyuemon replied, with a slight chuckle.

"Big, huh?" Sambash said, dismissively. "How exactly is attacking a water plant that big?"

"This is just the first step of the plan!" Yogostein declared. "Once the plan gets going we'll have the Zoorangers, and the entire city, in the palm of our hands!"

"yeah, sure, whatever." The biker monster asked, getting up from his seat. "If you guys'll excuse me; I have my own 'big' plans to focus on…"

He walked off down one of the tunnels, leaving the two monsters alone. Almost as soon as he left, something stumbled through the main entrance. The two looked to see Pipe Banki, the purple water in him lighting the cave up slightly.

"Phase one of the plan complete!" He declared, though he seemed rather unsteady. "Though, I wasn't able to infect all the water, the Zoorangers showed up and wrecked one of the tanks."

"Hah, who cares?" Yogostein laughed. "By the time they got there, it was too late!"

"But won't the poison take a while to get to where it needs to?" Kyuemon asked. "It seems rather too soon to move on to the last phase."

"You're right." Yogostein said, slamming his spear against the ground. "It will take approximately thirty hours for the poison to meld with the water completely." He continued. "I was hoping to get it done by the morning, but luckily, I considered this possibility…"

He slammed his spear on the ground again, causing two Ugutz to run from one of the tunnels. They were carrying multiple… things. They were rounded on one end, but flat on the other. Purple liquid seemed to be sloshing about in them. Both Ugutz were carrying two each.

"What are those supposed to be?" Kyuemon asked.

Without a word, Yogostein pulled out a remote control, and pressed a button on it. Instantly, the objects exploded into bursts of liquid, instantly destroying the Ugutz and soaking a large part of the base in water.

"They're bombs!" Yogostein said, proudly. "Me and Pipe Banki are going to plant them around the city, and then threat to blow them up. That should buy us enough time."

"And meanwhile, I can start to mingle with the Zoorangers, correct?" Kyuemon asked, the robot nodding.

"This plan is completely, one-hundred percent perfect!" He declared. "I'll whip up a few more bombs, and the plan can really start!"

"I'll head out now." Kyuemon said. "Better to get this… connecting, done with quickly."

He quickly waved his arm, causing a burst of purple energy to swarm around him. It cleared in a flash, leaving nothing behind. Yogostein started to stomp off to his lab, but was distracted by a voice speaking up.

"Um, sir?" Pipe Banki said.

"What is it?" Yogostein growled. "We have important stuff to get started on!"

"Well, I was just wondering… how am I supposed to plant bombs without hands?"

* * *

The three walked up to the driveway of the house, making a quick shortcut through the lawn. "Hopefully the lab boys can work out what that stuff is soon." Nick said as they climbed up the stairs.

"Might take a few hours." Judy said. "But I wouldn't expect anything more than that."

"Think if we payed them, they'd speed it up a bit?"

Max unlocked the door, and the three walked in. "I just need to grab my phone." Judy said, hopping over to the table.

"Oh, you guys are gonna go pick up Kyle now?" Max said, sitting down.

She gave a quick nod. "We just need to figure out where he lives." She continued. "I'll give you a call if anything comes up, alright?"

"Yeah, good luck." The wolf said, a bit dour. He leaned back into the couch as the two headed back out, the door shutting behind them.

"Too scared to face him yourself, huh?"

Max looked across the couch. Sitting across from him was ZooSilver, one leg crossed over the other, and elbow resting on the arm rest.

"I'm not scared." Max said. "I just didn't want to go pick that kid up. This whole thing was their idea, not mine."

"Hm, and I wonder who caused them to make that decision?" The copy said. "Oh yeah, you."

"It wasn't because of me; it was because of…" Max paused for a moment. "It was because of the monsters. We need more help."

"Weren't you supposed to be the one helping them?" ZooSilver asked. "That was why you were given this job, wasn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but things were different back then." Max said. "They weren't as strong."

"You don't even need the extra help, do you?" ZooSilver continued. "Nick and Judy could just use their super forms, and take all of the monsters down."

"That's not true."

"How do you know it isn't?"

The doppelganger continued, as Max closed his eyes, party because he was tired, and partly because he wanted to ignore the words streaming through his head. In a few minutes, he had fallen asleep.

* * *

_"Max, put that away and get to work."_

_The wolf pup looked up, way up, at his teacher, a giraffe. He glanced down at the paper. He was doodling something, a crude robot. "Sorry." He muttered, grabbing the paper and putting in the desk's storage._

_The teacher walked away with a huff, as the pup looked at the other sheet of paper. It was a math sheet, basic multiplication. Multiplication had been gone over for the last month, and it made his head spin._

_He understood how it worked, but writing down the equations seemed like nonsense to him. Still, he started to write it all down, as the teacher wanted._

_He couldn't wait to go home._

_A while later, the bell rang. Recess time._

_The other kits ran out the door, excited for the quick bastion of freedom they were granted every day. Max walked out last, and sat right down next to the door as it closed._

_This is what he did every day. He was too shy to try and make friends. For all he knew, they all hated him, and thought he was a loser. That's what he thought, at least._

_"What're you doing, wolfy?" Said a brutish voice. The wolf glanced up to see a rhino, nearly twice his size, though still around his age. It was the schoolyard bully. He was bigger than nearly every other kit at the school, which he took advantage of._

_"I'm just sitting." Max said, coming out as a slight mumble._

_"Don't you have anything better to do?" The rhino asked_

_The wolf shook his head._

_"Loser." The rhino snorted. "No wonder you have no friends, you just sit around and do nothing, like a weirdo."_

_"Can't you just leave me alone today?" Max asked._

_Without a word, the rhino stepped forwards, and kicked the wolf in the side, knocking him to the ground. "Freak." The rhino said, stomping off._

_There was no one around, everyone was off playing. Max rubbed his arm as tears started to stream down his face. By the time recess was done, he had recovered, but his arm still hurt._

_He didn't tell anyone._

* * *

Max opened his eyes, them almost seeming to open automatically. All he could see was white.

He rubbed his eyes with his paws, and blinked a few times. Nope, he wasn't blind, wherever he was, it was just… pure white. He glanced around, getting a slightly better look at his surroundings. It seemed to stretch on forever, but he could see glimpses of broken pillars and columns.

He started to walk forwards, though, he couldn't really tell if he was actually walking. The entire thing felt like a dream. A lucid dream.

He walked for what felt like a few minutes, not getting anywhere. He paused, but a voice from behind him said something.

"Hello there, Wolford."

He spun around, and saw…

"Mikoto?"

It was the white figure that had helped him train before. Abarekiller. He was sitting on a broken pillar that Max swore hadn't been there a moment ago.

The Legendary Ranger got up from the pillar, and started to walk over to the wolf. "I hear you're having a bit of trouble right now." He said. "Maybe you could use a bit of a hand."

"I don't need any help, sorry." Max said, almost reflexively. "I can work out things for myself, and-"

"Don't be an idiot, we both know how you feel." Mikoto said. The wolf's ears drooped in response. "I've been working on something for you for the last while."

His ears popped right back up. "Really?" The wolf said, excited. "What… what is it?"

"You'll find out when you get it." AbareKiller responded. "I can't just give you something like this. You'll have to work for it."

The Ranger raised his arm, and pointed off into the distance. Max looked over to where he was pointing. It was a pedestal of some kind, only a few feet away, and it was marked with an odd claw symbol.

Before Max's eyes, distance seemed to grow between both him and the pedestal. In a matter of seconds, it had gone from being a few feet away, to easily one-hundred feet away.

"You must reach that pedestal without being injured." AbareKiller said, lowering his arm. "That is your test."

"Wait, really?" Max said, surprised. There wasn't anything between him and the pedestal besides the… loose concept of the ground he couldn't really see. He glanced back at Mikoto, and then started to walk.

He walked for a few seconds, expecting something to pop up and try to hurt him, but nothing happened. He continued to walk, confidence starting to grow in his body. But he froze as a familiar, mechanical voice spoke to him.

"It can't be anything that special."

Max turned his head, coming face to face with the masked ZooSilver. He nearly jumped in shock at it.

"Especially not when its this easy." The doppelganger said. "If it is something worthwhile, then you definitely don't deserve it." It finished with a chuckle.

"How do you know I don't deserve it!?" Max shouted at the copy. "I deserve this as much as I deserve anything."

"And what do you think you deserve?" ZooSilver laughed.

Max opened his mouth to speak again, but there was a sudden jolt of pain through his arm. He lifted it up, staring at it as his digits started to move on their own.

They were moving backwards, away from his face. He felt a sharp crack and a burst of pain as they bent fully back, something that shouldn't have been physically possible for him to do. He tried to brace himself for the pain, grapping onto his wrist with his other paw.

There was another crack as his digits started to bend backwards even more, the middle joints bending in the complete reverse direction. Max let out a yell of pain as he fell to his knees. He glanced up, ZooSilver was still watching him, looking down on him.

There was a final crack, the tips of his digits bending backwards. He let out a full scream, as AbareKiller walked up to him.

He shook his head.

"You failed."

* * *

The wolf woke up with a yell, shocking the rabbit and foxes in the living room. He gripped onto his paw as he continued to yell.

"Oh god, what happened?!" Judy shouted, jumping up onto the couch. She grabbed onto him, trying to calm him down.

Max fell silent for a moment. He gazed at his paw, and moved it around. It was back to normal. He couldn't even feel any pain in it.

But it felt so real, he…

"I, uh, just had a bad dream." He said, clenching his paw. He looked around the room, realizing that Kyle was here.

"Must've been really bad for you to wake up like… that." Nick said, a bit concerned.

"Yeah, maybe this was a bad time for me to come…" Kyle said, tapping his claws together.

"No, it was nothing." Max said, getting up. He looked outside, the sky was still blue. "What time is it?"

"Its been like, twenty minutes since we left." Nick said. "We ran into Kyle… really quickly."

"Yeah, weird, huh?" The younger fox said, a bit nervously. "I was just walking to the store, and I happened to run into you guys when you wanted to talk to me! Coincidences, am I right?"

"Yeah, really… coincidental." Max said, giving the fox a side glance. He could swear that something weird was going on but…

He gazed over, ZooSilver suddenly appeared by the TV.

"So, now you're trying to make up conspiracy theories to discredit someone you don't like." It said. "How petty."

Max walked up to the window, and sat on the sill, silent.

"So, why did you guys want me over anyway?" Kyle asked. "By the way, this house is very nice. I only live in an apartment with my parents, its not that great."

"Kyle, this is something incredibly important." Judy started. "We've considered it for a while-"

"A day." Nick corrected.

The rabbit shot the older fox a glare.

"…We've considered it for a while, and we think that you should be the last member of the Zoorangers." She finished, quickly.

"Wait, seriously?" Kyle said, surprised. "Is this because I helped you guys out yesterday?"

"Yes, actually." Nick said. "We saw how you handled that clown creep, and you did it better even we could, so, hey, why not."

"We need some extra mammal-power to deal with all of this." The rabbit continued. "So, do you want to join us, or…?"

"Um, sure?" Kyle said, not sure what to make of this. "I just wanted to help when I fought that monster yesterday, you know." He said. "I didn't even realize that guy was supposed to be more of a threat."

Max squinted a bit, glaring at the fox. Didn't he say he couldn't fight monsters yesterday? Wasn't that the entire reason he needed help being saved? The wolf placed a claw to his lip, and started tapping his leg against the wall.

"So, does that mean I get one of those cool wrist devices?" Kyle asked, holding his wrist up.

"Not yet, tiger." Nick said. "We're in the middle of something right now, and it might be too dangerous to put you into harm's way when you don't have any training."

Judy nodded. "Plus, we need to give you our rules, so you don't get hurt or cause any damage."

"Oh, alright." He said, a bit disappointed. "So, next week then?"

"Yeah, probably." The red fox replied.

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise, shocking all four of them.

"What the!?" Judy said, looking at her wrist. "Another monster attack, already?"

"Obviously." Nick replied. "Hey, how bout we bring little boy yellow along with us?" He suggested. "He can see how we do things up close!"

"Ooh, yes please!" Kyle said.

"Mmm, I dunno." Judy said. "Might be too dangerous."

"I can just sit on the sidelines and watch you guys!" Kyle suggested.

"bring him along." Max said, walking away from the window. "It might be good experience for him."

"Fine." Judy said. She looked the fox in the eye. "But if you get hurt, just know that we're not responsible."

"Oh, I won't!" Kyle said.

"Alright, good." Judy replied. "Oh, one more thing before we head out."

"What is it?" Kyle asked.

"Do you have a bike helmet?"

* * *

The four arrived to a nearby sewage plant at the outskirts of Savannah Central. It was much larger than the water filtration plant, and was almost entirely outdoors. They drove in on their motorbikes, Kyle riding on Blue's, and Silver riding on the back of Red's.

They parked in the middle of an open lot, a field of pools sitting in front of them. They quickly got off the bikes, and started to look around.

"Alright, Kyle," Blue started, turning to the young fox and pointing towards a small building. "Go wait over there. It should be safer." She continued. The fox nodded, and ran off, hiding behind the building.

Red, Blue, and Silver headed down the lot, preparing to head into the main pool areas in order to look for the monster. However, they didn't have to look very far, as the monster quickly leaped from behind one of the pools landing right in front of them.

"Alright, that's one down, time to move on to the next." It muttered to itself as it started to walk away.

Though, it didn't seem to notice them.

"Hey, drain brain!" Red shouted, catching the monster's attention.

"Gah!" It yelped, stumbling back a bit. It quickly pointed its blade forwards. "I don't have time to deal with you freaks, I have places to be!"

"Yeah, like we'll actually let you go." Silver joked.

The three pulled out their melee weapons, and rushed at the monster. Red and Blue leaped up to strike at the monster, while Silver rushed in from the ground. All three of them struck the monster at the same time with their weapons, causing sparks to burst from its body and sending it flying.

The monster crashed into the ground, but quickly got up. It brought its whip arm to its chest, and then thrust it forwards, causing water to fire out of the pipes on its chest. This time, the water was normal colored, but still managed to push Red and Blue back a bit, but Silver was knocked to the ground.

"I seriously don't have time to deal with this." The monster said, surprisingly candidly. "Now if you excuse me…"

Suddenly, something caught the monster's eye. It glanced over at a small building. Standing by the corner of it was a fox, eyes glowing purple.

"Oh, now he knew what to do.

"Actually, I think I'll leave you with some friends of mine!" The monster said, before whipping its pipe whip forwards.

A stream of nuts and bolts flew from it, and landed on the ground. They started to glow, and in a few seconds, a small group of Ugutz had been formed.

They cilicked and buzzed for a moment, before rushing at the Zoorangers. "Now, I'm outta here!" The monster said, before leaping off.

"Oh, come on!" Red yelled. "He can't just do that, can he?"

"I'm pretty sure he can." Silver said as he got back up. "Didn't that seem weird to you guys, though?" He continued, quickly slashing at one of the Ugutz, sending it stumbling back. "He seemed to change his mind about something…"

"Yeah, that was pretty weird." Blue said, leaping up and kicking an Ugutz away. "Maybe he just didn't want to deal with us himself?" She guessed, slashing at the legs of another Ugutz.

"I think you're just, you know," Red started, leaping up and slashing through the middle of a Ugutz, before landing back on the ground. "Overthinking it a little? The guy doesn't seem that smart."

"I've just had this weird feeling all day." Silver admitted, slicing through another of the robot minions. He glanced around for a moment. "Hey, weren't there a few more of those guys…?"

"Oh no!" Blue shouted, pointing one of her daggers at the building where Kyle was. Five of the robots had swarmed in on it, and were preparing to strike, presumably at Kyle.

"Oh god, we need to go help him!" Red said, the three quickly starting to run towards him.

Before they could even reach there, the yellow fox leaped out from behind the building, delivering a diving kick to one of the Ugutz, knocking it out. He landed back on the ground, but then leaped back up, punching another of the robots in the head, strong enough to knock it completely off. He continued by tripping two more of them as they approached, and then finishing by grabbing one of their weapons and throwing it at the last one.

"Uh, wow." Blue said. "That was something."

"Oh, did you guys see me?" Kyle said, scampering up to them, excited. "Bet you guys didn't know I was that good at fighting, huh?"

"Well, we had an idea." Nick said, the three untransforming. "Just… not a very clear one."

"I didn't realize you were that good." Judy said. "How'd you get those… skills?"

"Oh, my dad made me take them as 'extracurricular'." He explained. "He's a bit… stern, about me going out and doing things."

"Sounds like he's a tightwad." Nick replied.

"He kind of is, but he's my dad, you know?" Kyle finished, giving a quick nervous chuckle. "He's a CEO at a car manufacturer, you know."

"Interesting." Max said, dryly. "What do you guys think the monster was even here for?" He continued, quickly changing subjects to something more… important.

"Good question." Judy responded. "It doesn't look like anyone's here to attack, even."

"Water didn't change color, either." Nick added. "But he had to have been here for a reason, right?"

"M-maybe he was just on his way back to… wherever he lives?" Kyle quickly suggested. "He seemed to be off in a hurry, so, maybe he just wanted to get home?"

Max rolled his eyes at the young fox's guess.

"Might be possible." Judy said. "I say we still look around."

"Actually, I think I'm going to head home." Max quickly interjected. "I have some things I need to think about."

"That's alright." Kyle said. "I can help instead, right?"

Max gave the fox a quick look, and started to walk off.

"Yeesh, he's in a mood, isn't he?" Nick said, shocked at how the wolf was acting. "Wonder what's got his tail in a twist?"

Judy shrugged. "Let's just let him be for a bit." She said. "We have a… something, to find, after all."

Nick nodded, and the two headed into the field of pools. Kyle slowly followed behind, silently performing a series of gestures with his paws.

"Concealment jutsu." He whispered to himself.

Only a few yards away, behind one of the large pools, was a bomb full of toxic water. In a burst of purple energy, it completely vanished.

The fox gave a quick smirk.

* * *

"if you think there's something up with him, you should just say it to them." ZooSilver said. The double relaxed on the couch as the real Max paced back and forth in front of the TV.

"I know I should." He said to the copy. "But I just… I don't want to…"

"You don't want to tell them because they'll think you're crazy, right?" The copy guessed. It gave a quick laugh. "If you keep that up, you'll all be dead in no time."

"I know it'll make me sound crazy, but I just don't want to hurt anyone." Max continued. "Like, I could be wrong, and there could be nothing up with Kyle, I could just be some kind of weird asshole."

"You probably are." The double said. "You knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later. It always does, and it always will."

Max opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

There was a sudden knock at the door, knocking the wolf out of his thoughts. He opened it up, letting Nick, Judy, and Kyle into the house. They had been gone for a few hours, and the sun was starting to go down.

"Find anything?" He asked the rabbit as she walked by.

Judy gave an exasperated shrug. "There was nothing." She said, matter-of-factly. "We looked over that entire place, we couldn't even find any workers."

"Kyle was right; it was probably just some kind of fluke." Nick followed. "We did get to have some nice talks during all of it though."

"Yeah!" Judy said, quickly hopping up and elbowing Max in his arm. "We came up with some team bonding exercises!"

"Excuse me?" Max said, sounding a bit worried. The last "team building exercises" that Judy had come up with was locking him and Nick in a house together. It worked, but the thought of something like that left him nervous.

"So," Kyle started, nervously as he walked up to the couch. "I saw that you were kind of reacting… badly to me." He continued, addressing Max. "So, we came up with the idea that I'd stay here for the night so we can get to know each other."

Max glared at him for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

"Won't your parents be worried?" Max asked. "You said your dad was a tightwad."

"Oh, I called them already to let them know I was 'hanging out with friends'." He explained. "I'll be perfectly fine."

There went that excuse.

"Fine, whatever." The wolf said. "But you have to sleep on the couch. Mostly because I don't have any more beds."

"It's a pretty good couch." Nick said. "Very comfy."

Kyle took a glance at the couch, and hopped up, planting his butt right onto it. "Oh, yeah, this is pretty good."

"So, me and Nick have to do… things." Judy said. "Things that involve leaving you two alone."

"What?" Nick said, before realizing what she was getting at. "Oh, right, those things." They quickly went down into the basement.

The wolf leaned his head down. "Make sure you clean the sheets once you're done!" Max quickly said.

"SHUT IT!" They both yelled up.

He quickly shut the door, and turned to look at Kyle.

"So, what kind of things are you into?" Kyle asked. "You have a video game console there, do you like video games?"

"I do like video games." He said.

"Oh, what else do you like?"

Max paused for a moment.

"I like sleeping." He said, with an exasperated sigh. "I'm going to bed."

The wolf gave a quick wave, and headed upstairs, leaving the young fox alone.

"Hm." The fox said, his voice getting slightly deeper. "This might be easier than I thought."

* * *

_It was a new school year. Normally, this would be a terrible thing, but things had seemed to be getting better. The wolf's previous year had been fantastic, and he even managed to make a few friends, with similar interests._

_High-school was still a nightmare for him. Walking down the halls, with hundreds of other mammals surrounding him, occasionally looking at him even… it made him anxious. He really just wanted to sit in a room for the whole day and do his work._

_He had to dress in an uncomfortable grey uniform too. It made him feel constrained._

_But, it would be fine. He could hang out with his friends now. He hadn't seen them since the previous schoolyear, he couldn't wait to talk to them, see what they were up to._

_The wolf shut his locker, and took a deep breath, before heading down the hall as fast as he could, ignoring any stares._

_He arrived outside his first class, which was, fortunately enough, right next to the class one of his friends was in. He spotted him, an antelope, dressed in the school's grey uniform._

_"Hey, Greg!" Max said, walking up to him. "H-how's everything?"_

_"Uh, hi, Max." He replied, not turning to look at him directly. He sounded a lot… stonier than usual. "What do you want?"_

_"I-I just wanted to say hi." Max replied. "Did you catch the Zoo Rangers finale?"_

_"Uh, no, I didn't." The antelope said. "I stopped watching it a while ago."_

_"Oh."_

_Max felt his heart drop a bit. It was something the two had bonded over across the last year._

_"Max, I kind of… don't want to be seen with you anymore." He continued. The wolf's ears drooped. "You're just kind of… embarrassing."_

_Max just… listened. He had nothing else to say._

_"Like the time you brought that toy that made noise into class." The antelope continued, talking like he didn't even know what Morphers were called. "It was just… super uncomfortable. I'll… see you later, maybe."_

_"Oh. Alright." Max said, quietly._

_The wolf would proceed to sit through the class, before it finally hit him. He was distracted for the rest of the day. He had just lost a friend._

_It hurt._

_The same would repeat with his other friend. And it would repeat for the next few years. No matter what he did, everyone seemed to forget about him, leave him behind, no matter how close their bond had been._

_He blamed himself, every time._

* * *

Max opened his eyes, blearily sitting up in his bed. It was the dead of night, the moon shining through his window.

Something had just woken him up. It sounded like... rummaging? Someone was downstairs, he could tell that. Was it a burglar? Why would a burglar come and rob him when he's publically known as a super-hero?

Kind of seemed stupid to head directly into enemy territory.

He quietly stepped down the stairs, making sure he was absolutely silent. The rummaging got louder as he got closer. He huddled next to the basement door, and heard someone talking.

"It's not here. Maybe I should try the basement."

He waited there for a moment, paw primed to activate the Zoolizer.

Whoever it was walked around the corner.

It was Kyle.

The fox leaped into the air, flailing about. Oddly enough, Kyle seemed far more surprised than Max himself was.

"Kyle, what are you doing?" Max said, walking into the living room. His eyes widened as he looked around.

The place was… well, not trashed, but definitely messed up. Objects from the TV stand had been taken down or removed from shelves. The furniture itself had been moved around, so that someone could reach underneath them. It was definitely a strange sight. There was also an odd, familiar smell that made his nose itch a bit.

"Did you do this?" Max asked, confused. He quickly scratched at his nose

"Uhhh, yes." Kyle admitted. "I was going to put it all back, I swear-"

"What were you looking for?" Max asked quickly.

"A-a charger." The fox sputtered. "A charger for my phone."

"We…" max shook his head, and went over to a pile of wires on the ground. He grabbed them and held them up, showing them to Kyle. "We have chargers right here."

"Oh, those are chargers?" Kyle responded with a laugh. "I… couldn't tell… in the dark."

"You're nocturnal." Max quickly said.

"Just because I'm nocturnal doesn't mean I have good night vision."

Max continued to stare at the fox for a moment, placing the cables back on the ground. He was fairly certain he was lying, but he couldn't be entirely sure just yet.

"Put all this stuff back, and then go back to sleep." Max said, sternly. "If you want to find something, just come and wake me up, alright?"

"Uh, yes, Max." The fox said as he quickly started to put the chargers back in the drawer.

Max quickly headed down the hall, and back up the stairs, quickly pausing the scratch his nose. That was certainly, absolutely suspicious. That smell was definitely the strangest part. He's smelled it before, and it wasn't a very pleasant stench.

Back in the living room, the fox's eyes narrowed as he heard the wolf's bedroom door shut. He quickly placed a video game controller back onto the TV stand, and performed a series of gestures.

A large sphere of energy appeared before him, showing a window into a dark cavern. With a yawn, Yogostein walked into view.

"Kyuemon, why are you calling me at two in the morning?" He asked. "I had a pretty long day planting bombs, you know!"

"The wolf showed up while I was looking for the Zoolizer." Kyuemon explained. "I think he knows what's going on… or at least, thinks I'm up to something."

"That's not good!" Yogostein said. "That could jeopardize the whole plan!"

"When you prepare the bombs tomorrow, make sure you send Pipe Banki to attack him." Kyuemon instructed. "We need him out of the way, at once."

"Normally I'd get angry at you trying to order me around, but I also agree with you." Yogostein said, surprisingly candidly. "I'll just steal credit for your idea later!"

"Fine, whatever." Kyuemon said.

"Also, I know you hate this entire thing, but stop trying to speed the plan along." Yogostein said. "You'll have the Zoolizer by the end of the plan, I can guarantee it."

"Fine." The fox said, snapping his claws and breaking the connection. He hopped back up onto the couch, and layed down.

It was actually a pretty nice couch.

* * *

Morning came sooner, and Max headed back downstairs. As was the norm, Judy was up before anyone else, though this time she was alongside Kyle and Nick. The duo was having their morning coffee, while Kyle was seated on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning, grumpus." Nick chimed, without turning to look at the wolf. "Heard you didn't wanna play nice with the new kid."

"Don't treat him like a child, Nick." Judy said.

"Well, he's acting like one." Nick said. "Aren't you supposed to treat guests nicely?"

"You guys got it all wrong." Max said as he walked into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. "I just had a rough day, I needed some rest. Didn't really mean any offense."

"I didn't mean to make it sound like I was upset, either." Kyle chimed in. "I just wanted to tell you guys what happened."

Max sat down at the table, and leaned in. "Did he tell you about how I found him messing up the room, looking for something?" He whispered

"What?" Judy said surprised.

"What was he looking for?" Nick whispered back.

"He said he was looking for a charger, but he had already found the drawer they were in." Max continued. "Listen, I think we might need to talk about-"

There was a sudden buzzing noise. Judy's phone was ringing. She reached over and grabbed it, reading the ID. "Oh, it's Clawhauser!" She said. "He might be calling about the water we sent in!"

She quickly answered, Ben's chubby face appearing on the screen. "Hey guys!" he greeted. "Listen, this is super important, and we need you to come into work, like, right now."

"Water finished being analyzed?" Nick guessed.

"Well, actually I need you to sign Rhinowitz's birthday card, but the water got finished too!"

Judy gave a quick chuckle. "Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes." She said. She took a quick glance over at the couch. "Mind if we bring someone in?"

"Uh, sure, as long as its not a criminal like last time!"

"Alright, see ya!" She finished, hanging up.

"Are you seriously suggesting we take Kyle to the police station?" Max asked.

"Well, if he is up to something, its better to keep him around." She whispered back. "And if he isn't he gets some experience."

"Good point." He said.

Meanwhile, on the couch, the fox could hear everything they were talking about. He smirked a little bit. "Maybe its time to get everything started…"

* * *

The four made it to the police station, and after a quick card signing, were told to go to the lab. Kyle, due to not being an officer, was told to go wait in the break room.

The three made it into the lab, where Bogo, Emily, Henry, and a mole scientist were waiting for them. The mole was carrying a tube of the purple water, but had his claw stretched out so it wasn't close to his face.

"Yo." Emily quickly said, giving a quick wave to them. Max waved back at her.

"Took you three long enough." Bogo snorted.

"Hey, I had to figure out the best 'happy birthday' pun." Nick said. "That kind of effort takes a while."

Judy rolled her eyes. "So, what did you find out about the water?" She asked.

"Nothing good." The hyena quickly spit out, causing the rabbit to cringe a bit.

"This stuff is… inexplicable." The mole said, quickly hopping up a set of steps to reach the counter in the middle of the room. She poured the contents into a cup, and carefully placed a cap on it, before hopping back down the steps.

"What exactly does that mean?" Max asked.

"Its… completely unlike anything I've seen before." She said.

"Not much of a stretch." Nick quietly joked, receiving an elbow from the rabbit next to him.

"It somehow keeps the same consistency of water," She continued, jostling the cup around. "But it has elements of chloroform, quinuclidinyl benzilate, and dimethylheptylpyran."

The three looked at her, blankly.

"Those are incapacitating agents." Henry quickly explained. "Chemicals that are used to knock others unconscious."

"Oh, okay." Judy said. "Well, what's so inexplicable about it?"

"Well, for one, the color," The mole started. "But those chemicals shouldn't be able to mix together, let alone with water. I've never seen anything like this, whoever made this must be an expert with chemicals."

"So, if it mixes all those chemicals into it, that means it must be pretty dangerous, right?" Nick guessed.

The mole nodded in response. "If I'm right, the liquid would be absorbed into skin if it touches someone, and that will almost instantly knock them out cold." She continued to explain. "A drop of it could knock a rhino out for hours, a full dose could potentially result in months."

"Oh, that is definitely not good." Judy quickly said. "When we saw the water, it was in-"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing Clawhauser, out of breath. "GUYS THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!" He shouted.

"We already signed the cards, and we're in the middle of something!" Bogo shouted back.

"No, this is ACTUALLY important!"

The six headed out, Clawhauser leading them to his computer. Nick and Judy hopped up to see the monitor, while Max and Emily stood next to the cheetah, and Henry and Bogo watched from the front of the desk. The screen, instead of actually showing a computer screen, showed a flickering image, like a TV interruption. It showed a logo, round, and with a character written on it, though none of them could read it. Judy was sure she recognized it, however.

"Got a new screen saver?" Nick joked.

"No, but I have been meaning to." Ben said. "This thing just kind of popped up while I was working! And look at this!" He held his phone up, showing that it had the same image on it. "It happened on my phone at the exact time!"

"Hold on…" Judy said, pulling out her own phone. She turned it on, revealing the same image.

"It's not just me and you!" Clawhauser continued. He pointed outside, towards a large screen on the opposite side of the station. It was displaying the same image.

"Must be some kind of broadcast hijacking." Henry said. "But I don't think it's possible to hijack every device in the city…"

"Maybe it's the same guy who mixed a bunch of disparate chemicals and somehow got it to work!" Emily said, sarcastically. "I kind of see a connection!"

"This symbol was on some of the monsters we fought." Judy noted. "I think I know who's doing this."

Her suspicions were confirmed almost instantly after she finished, as the screens suddenly flickered black, before cutting to a camera shot. It showed Yogostein, standing in the middle of what looked like a cavern.

"Greetings, pathetic organic creatures of this world, and the Zoorangers!" He introduced. "If you don't know by now, I am Earth Pollution Minister Yogostein, master of machines and… other technology related things."

"Sir, are you going to-?" A voice from off camera said.

"I'm getting to it!" The robot said, slamming his spear into the ground. "Now, Zoorangers, and I know you're watching, you've learned of the effects of my wonderful Knockout Water, correct? Well, boy do I have a surprise for you!"

The camera cut to another shot, most likely another camera recording. It was back in the sewage plant that they had fought the pipe monster in. The camera zoomed in on a small, purple device, before Yogostein started to speak over the footage.

"While you idiots were doing… whatever it was, I was busy planting bombs across the entire city!" He declared. "These bombs are filled with my knockout water, so if they go off, the city will be flooded in the water!"

"How did we not notice that!?" Judy shouted, bewildered by the footage. "We looked all over that place!"

"Oh yeah, there will also be untold destruction across the entire city due to the explosions." The robot general continued. "I've set one hundred of them across the city, and you have seven hours to find them all, starting…"

He pulled out a remote control, which only had a big, red button on it, and dramatically pressed it down with his thumb.

"NOW!"

The screens flicked off, before cutting to a timer, which started to count down from seven hours.

"Well, this is bad." Nick said, flatly.

"OH MY GOD!" Shouted someone coming out from the side room. It was Kyle, everyone turning to face him, aside from Judy, who's eyes were locked to the timer. "Did you guys see that!? What are we going to do!?"

"Why did you bring the kid here?" Emily asked, confused.

"Oh, we're thinking of making him our new teammate." Nick said, matter-of-factly.

"What?"

The rabbit let out a quick scream, and then leaped into the air, transforming into ZooBlue before hitting the ground. "WE'RE WASTING TIME, WE NEED TO HEAD OUT NOW!" She ordered.

Nick hopped down and transformed, alongside Max. "Red, Silver, you two split up and check out Tundra Town and the Rainforest district," She said, before Emily and Henry stepped forward. "Em, Henry, you guys check out Savannah Central," The two gave quick nods in response. Judy turned to Kyle before finishing. "Kyle and I will check out the downtown area, alright?"

"Sounds like a plan." Red said, stretching his arms out.

"Good, now let's GET MOVING!"

* * *

"Hmm, do you think I looked good during that?" Yogostein asked, having just finished the broadcast. He was speaking directly to Pipe Banki, who was standing next to an Ugutz operating a camera. "I didn't overdo it, right?"

"No, sir, you were fantastic!" Pipe Banki replied. "This whole plan of yours is completely brilliant! You're such a genius!"

"Okay, now you're overdoing the complements." Yogostein said, quickly smacking him in the face with his spear. "You did plant the bombs where I told you to, correct?"

"Yep!" Pipe Banki said, trying to perform a salute with his whip hand. Instead, it smacked the Ugutz next to him, knocking it down.

"Good, they should be able to find all of them before they explode!" Yogostein said, cheerily.

"Yeah, there's no way they will wait, what?" The monster said, confused. "Don't we want the bombs to go off?"

"This is just a distraction, pipebrain." Yogostein explained. "We're still waiting for my Knockout Water to reach our REAL goal! We need them to give Kyuemon the Zoolizer before we kill them! And if they don't clear out all the bombs, then that's just even more of a win for us!"

"Oh, I get it!" The monster said. "You're so smart, boss!"

"I know I am!" He said, before spinning around and revealing a red object. "And here's another brilliant idea I had! The wolf seems to be catching on to Kyuemon, which could jeopardize the entire plan! I need you to… deal with him."

"Okay then." Pipe Banki said. "And what's that read thing for?"

Without a word, Yogostein tossed the Chaos Badge directly into the monster's chest.

The Banki Beast let out a yelp as its body started to transform. The Gaiark logo on its chest transformed into the symbol of chaos, before its arm started to twitch. It suddenly burst open, three more identical pipe whips flying out. The monster stretched them out, the whips forming a new hand for him. Its sword arm remained the same, though the sword grew longer, with an added third edge to it. The pieces of its face seemed to fuse back together, giving it a completely smooth face, barring a few holes across it. Its eyes turned dark red.

Its neck stretched out a bit, a top layer of pipes breaking in half and starting to wave around like hair. The halves of the pipes that didn't break off crawled back up and patched the hole in the neck. The pipes that formed its legs suddenly broke off of their feet, forming into new tentacle legs for the monster. The pipes on its shoulders grew out slightly longer, and wrapped around the arms, folding over the shoulders to form cannons, while the pipes on its chest extended out slightly as well.

The monster let out a furious roar, its many legs thrashing on the ground. "Well, that's definitely a transformation." Yogostein muttered. "Uh, go and attack that wolf, Chaos Pipe Banki!"

"Yes sir!" The monster growled, before lifting itself off the ground and walking out on its tentacles.

"Not gonna lie, that's pretty creepy." The robot said to himself.

* * *

The seven were quickly rushing around the city, as fast as they could. Finding one hundred bombs in a city as large as Zootopia would be an almost impossible feat. Blue had stopped at the sewage plant from earlier, prepared to disarm the bomb.

It took only a short moment to find, considering she had already seen where it was during the broadcast. It was located on the back of one of the pools.

"How did we miss this thing?" She said to Kyle as they walked up to it. It was even glowing and making a beeping noise. Maybe they'd be easier to find than she thought.

"Guess we just… didn't see it." He replied, slightly nervous.

"You alright?"

"I just… don't really want to be standing right next to a bomb."

Blue turned back to the bomb, which was luckily just slightly above her height. She gripped onto the sides of it, and started to pull it off.

It came off almost effortlessly, the beeping and lights shutting off. That must have meant it had turned off.

"That was… really easy." She said, surprised. She looked around for a moment. Wasn't this supposed to be the time the bad guys came and fought her?

"What are we supposed to do with the bomb?" Kyle asked.

"Uhhh…" The rabbit let out, taking a glance at the device. "Maybe we just… leave it here?" She suggested. "We'll come collect it after all this."

She pulled out her phone, opening the calculator app, and quickly jotted down a ninety-nine. "This'll help keep track of how many bombs are left." She said to Kyle, who slowly nodded.

As soon as she finished, her commlink started to ring. "Red?" She said, placing her paw to her head. "You find any bombs yet?"

"Yeah, I did." He replied. The fox was sitting at the base of a large tree in the middle of the Rainforest District. "And by 'any' I mean A LOT."

"What?" Blue said, surprised. "How many?"

The fox looked up at the tree. It had a ring of the bombs planted around the trunk, right before the branches started. "I dunno, maybe like, eight?"

"EIGHT!?" She shouted surprised.

"Yeah, they're all just lumped together on this big tree." Red continued. "Seems kinda weird. Anyway, you know how to disarm these things?" He asked.

"You just need to pull them off. It's insanely easy." Blue said. There was another buzzing noise. "Oh, I'm getting a call on my cell, talk to you in a bit."

She hung up, leaving Red alone. "Alright, time to make this work." He muttered to himself.

He leaped up into the air, jabbing his claws directly into the bark of the tree. Normally, something like this would've worked, and he'd be climbing his way up to the bombs, but this was a rainforest tree. Those things are slippery.

He almost instantly slid back to the ground.

"Guess I'll have to be a bit more… creative." He said, pulling out a red ZooTag, and quickly plugging it in.

"GAO, RAWR!  
BEAT THE BEAST  
KING OF THE JUNGLE  
BRAVE, GAO!"

The Brave King Blades appeared in Red's paws, before he quickly spun them around. He leaped up, and jabbed the blades into the sides of the trunk, which they sliced through almost effortlessly. He climbed up, jabbing one blade in, pulling the other out, and then repeating.

He reached the first bomb, and slashed at the back of it with his free sword. The beeping stopped as it was sliced off the tree, falling down into the mud below.

A few minutes later, and all the bombs were stuck in the mud. "Hmm, that felt too easy." He said. "There has to be something more to this…" He quickly shook his head. "No time, gotta find the rest of them."

Back with Blue, the rabbit quickly answered her cellphone. It was from Pink and Green. "Yo, so, we evacuated the area…" The hyena started up from the other end. She moved her phone to show around a plaza of some kind. She couldn't really make anything out, though. It moved back to Emily's face. "But there's like, fifteen bombs in this plaza."

"Oh my god, seriously?" Judy said, flabbergasted.

"There are a few on a fountain, a few on the sides of building, and just some on the ground." Henry said. "We're going to try and disarm them."

"Alright, good luck with that." Blue responded. "I have my own bombs to look out for."

There was another buzzing noise in her ear piece. "Ack, another commlink call! Talk later!"

She quickly hung up, leaving the armored bull and hyena standing in the middle of a bomb riddled plaza. "Well, this is something." The armored bull said, approaching one of the bombs that was attached to the ground. He leaned down, and effortlessly pulled it off.

"Hm."

The two quickly got to work, removing each and every bomb they could find. They piled all of them at the base of the fountain. "One, two…" Pink said, counting the bombs. "I think that's all of them."

There was a sudden metallic clanging behind them. They turned around to see a sudden group of Ugutz, clanking and stomping towards them.

"Oh, good, we haven't had any action today!" Pink said, pulling out and twirling her guns. Green nodded, and bulled out his cannon.

They quickly rushed in, green smacking one of the monsters over the head with his cannon, causing it to cave in. He quickly spun it over his shoulder, and launched several blasts from it. The shots hit the ground, causing massive explosions that reduced the Ugutz to rubble in almost an instant.

Pink quickly ducked under a swing from a Ugutz' weapon, and then quickly knee'd it in the stomach, before a shooting one behind her directly in the forehead. She spun around, firing shots out and striking the last remaining robots down.

"Underwhelming." Green sighed. "But it's nice to get any action, I suppose."

"I really want to fight a big guy by myself someday." Pink said. "Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Uh, sure."

Back with Blue and Kyle, the rabbit had just answered her commlink. "Lemme guess, Silver?" She guessed.

"Yeah." The wolf said over the speaker. "You get calls from everyone else?"

"Yeah, I did." She replied. "Let me guess, you also found a cache of bombs?"

"Actually, no." The wolf said. He was walking down the street, keeping an ear out for any bombs. "I've only found three so far, and they were pretty spread out."

"Then why did you call?"

"Because being by myself right now is a nightmare."

"What?"

"I just wanted to talk to someone, kay?" He sighed as he stopped on the frozen sidewalk. The place had seemingly been abandoned, most likely because of the announcement. "Listen, you have your own bombs to look for." He continued. "I'll keep looking for the ones here, call me if everyone but me finishes."

"Got it." She said, before hanging up.

"Guess we're not just gonna get to stay here, huh?" Kyle said, with a nervous chuckle.

"Nope." Blue said. "We have bombs to find."

* * *

A few more hours had passed by, and Silver had still only found a few of them. He was sure that his partners had been finding them a lot faster than him.

Was he just bad at it? Did he just get unlucky?

Maybe it was both.

He walked down the street, still searching. The area of Tundra Town was still abandoned, leaving only the wolf and his thoughts. That wasn't exactly a pleasant experience with his current mindset.

He tried to keep his mind off of what was happening, and just treat this like it was a walk… but he also had to pay attention for anything odd. The whole thing was a lot tougher than he had thought, the thoughts from himself climbing back into his brain repeatedly.

After a few minutes, he got a call through his commlink. "Hello?"

"Hey, Max!" Blue said from the other side. "We've managed to get ninety-three bombs, just calling to see if you had the rest."

"I found six." He said. "That equals ninety-nine. I just need to find one more."

"Great!" She said, chipper. "You have like, three hours left, so you can take your time."

"Really comforting." He sarcastically said. "See you guys in a bit."

He hung up, and continued to walk down the frozen streets. Occasional blasts of snow hit him in his visor, blinding him for a moment. He rubbed the snow off, and started to run for a nearby park.

It was a snowy field, with a few benches and things scattered around. In the middle of it was a large statue of a wolf. The wolf headed towards it, noticing something odd on its nose.

It was one of the bombs!

He pumped his fist, silently, and prepared to leap up and grab it.

"Not so fast, there!" A scratchy voice growled from behind him.

Silver looked over his shoulder, seeing Chaos Pipe Banki. It was holding itself up in the air via its many tentacles, and made several slow, awkward stomps towards him. "You're not pulling that bomb!" It threatened, lowering itself down slightly.

"Wow, you got a lot uglier." Silver mocked.

The monster let out a growl, before thrusting its four pipe tentacle fingers at Silver. The wolf leaped out of the way as they struck through the ground. The beast retracted them, before lashing its blade forwards. The blade came out of its arm, extending via another tentacle pipe.

Silver pulled his own sword out, and started to clash with the monster's blade. He pushed it back up into the air, and stepped back as the pipe monster slashed it back towards the ground. The force of the slash trapped the blade in the ground, the beast struggling to retract it.

The wolf leaped up, landing on the stuck pipe, before bounding off, and delivering a direct strike to the monster's face. The beast stumbled back on its many tentacles as Silver landed back on the ground.

"I've had enough of this!" The monster shouted, retracting its blade and turning to Silver. "Time to finish you off!"

"You know that's just a pipe dream!" Silver joked, readying his blade.

The cannons on the monster's shoulders quickly shot bursts of water out of them. The bursts almost instantly froze into large spheres of ice, and flew towards Silver. He jumped out of the way as they crashed into the ground and shattered.

The monster continued to fire at Silver, who leaped out fo the way rapidly. He quickly switched his blade to Sun Mode, and started to fling fireballs at the ice, melting them back into water. This didn't do much, but it distracted the monster from its attack for a brief moment, enough to give him an idea.

The pipe robot tentacle beast fired two more of the ice balls at Silver. Without hesitating, he switched to Moon Mode, and whipped the laser whip forwards. It lashed around the two ice balls, and pulled them together.

"What are you trying to do!?" The monster said.

"Get you out of the way for a bit!" Silver shouted back. He whipped the ice balls around his head for a few seconds, before flinging them back into the monster's chest.

The balls exploded into ice, causing the monster to yelp in pain. A rather sizable hole had been carved into the monster's chest, and one of its chest pipes had been bent completely.

"AUGH!" The monster yelled again, lowering himself to the ground. "You'll pay for this!"

"The only person who'll pay is you." Silver said. "To a plumber."

"What?"

"You'll have to pay a plumber to fix you." He explained. "Sorry, that one didn't work out that we-"

Before Silver could even finish, a large burst of snow smacked him right in the visor. "SHIT!" He yelped, trying to get the snow off.

"CHANCE!" Pipe Banki shouted in response, firing two more ice balls at the wolf. They struck him before he could clear the snow off, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

The monster tried to raise itself back into the air, but let out a groan of pain. "Ouugh, this huuurts." It grumbled, feeling at its chest with its tentacle fingers. "I can't do anything with this much pain… I'll just kill him later."

The monster uneasily stretched out its tentacles, and plodded forwards through the snow. "Yeck, I think my joints are starting to freeze over…"

* * *

_The wolf sat on his bed. The past few years had been… trying._

_He had attempted to go to college, but found that the whole thing was far, far too overwhelming for him. It was either stay there and have a metal breakdown, or head back home._

_He decided to go back home._

_He was back, living with his mother because he had nowhere else left. The house would be his in a few years anyway, after she moved out._

_He let out a sigh. For the past week he had just been trying to figure out his life. He didn't know what to do, he felt a lot like a failure. His mom had assured him that he wasn't, but he felt like a failure to himself._

_The wolf got up, and went downstairs. His mother was sitting on the couch, watching TV. She wasn't elderly, but getting on in the years. She was very kind, and the two were extremely alike… aside from their taste in TV._

_"Hey, uh, mom?" Max said, as he sat down on a chair next to the couch._

_"What is it, Max?" His mom said back, quickly muting the TV._

_"I wanted to talk about… my future." He said, struggling to get it out._

_She simply looked at him, waiting for him to continue._

_"I just… I feel like I'm not amounting to anything." He said. "I don't know what to do with my life."_

_"Well, what DO you want to do?" She asked._

_He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Surprisingly, he hadn't thought about that. He had just been going to school because that was what he was supposed to be doing. He never really thought about having an actual goal._

_He sat there for a few minutes, trying to think. His mother just waited._

_What had shaped him throughout his life? What had made him who he is? He thought for a long while, going over his memories. How he was mistreated by others, and his own views on the world._

_"I think I want to help others."_

_"Very noble of you." She replied with a laugh. "Well, how can you help other mammals?"_

_"Uh…" Max let out. "I don't know. That's just how I… feel. I know I can't just become a super hero."_

_"What's the closest thing to a super hero in real life?" His mom asked. "Who helps the weak?"_

_"Uh, police officers?" He guessed. "But… I dunno, I've seen some awful stuff from officers over the years, why would I want to join them?"_

_"You can just be you." She said. "If you want to make a difference, you have to do it yourself. Isn't that right?"_

_"Yeah, I… I guess it is."_

* * *

He opened his eyes again, and let out a groan.

He was back in that… void. The one he had been in looked back down at his arm, it wasn't broken, which he was definitely thankful for. He quickly glanced around, trying to see anything in the piercing white void.

"Mikoto?" He said, trying to figure out where his host was. "Doctor?"

"I see you've come back."

Max jumped up in fright as the legendary ranger suddenly appeared directly behind him. "Don't scare me like that, christ!" He said, catching his breath.

"Are you ready to perform the challenge once more?" AbareKiller asked. "You know what to do now, so it should be… easier."

Max took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm ready."

He turned back around, seeing the pillar, a few yards away from him. He took another deep breath, and then started to walk towards it. He knew what to do. He just had to ignore him.

"Look at you, think you can do this when you got beaten by a piece of snow." A metallic voice from behind him mocked.

Max continued to walk. It wasn't that far away, he just had to make it without responding to the double.

"You managed to get a lucky hit on that monster." ZooSilver continued from behind him. "You don't even know if it did anything. For all you know, it could still be running around causing trouble, hurting others, all because of you."

Max flinched for a moment, briefly pausing and clenching his fist. He breathed out, and then continued to walk on.

Just… ignore it.

"Look at you!" The double shouted with a laugh. "You think yourself a hero… that bomb is going to go off, and someone will die."

"What would your poor, old mother think?"

Max instantly stopped, and clenched both his fists, an audible crack echoing throughout the void as he did so. "You… leave my mother out of this."

He spun around, preparing to deliver a punch to the double before anything could happen.

As he spun around, he realized something.

ZooSilver was gone.

AbareKiller was standing in its stead.

The white ranger caught the punch effortlessly, and started to squeeze the wolf's paw. There was a crunching sound as a spark of pain went through Max's body. He started to fall over as the ranger looked him directly in the eyes.

He simply shook his head, before delivering a punch to the wolf's stomach.

Max felt a few of his ribs shatter.

AbareKiller let go of the wolf's paw, causing him to drop to the ground. "You failed." He said, solemnly. "But… you did better."

Max let out a wheeze in response. It was hard to breath. Hopefully all this would be gone once he returned to reality.

"For that improvement, I'll give you a bit of a tip." The ranger continued, looking down on the wolf's ruined body. "There's only one true 'fox' on your team. Keep an eye out."

"What does that mean…?" Max wheezed, before everything went white.

* * *

"Max! Wake up!"

The wolf took a deep breath through his mask, bursting up and quickly hyperventilating. He felt at his chest. No ribs were broken. He quickly calmed down.

He looked next to him. Emily was kneeling there. "Thank god you're okay, you idiota."

She helped Max to his feet, before he untransformed out of his Zooranger form. "What happened?" He asked. "The last thing I remember was being hit by some… a monster attack."

"Yeah, we can tell." Nick said. Max looked around. There were quite a few tentacle-like tracks pounded into the snow.

"we found you laying in the snow, completely unconscious." Henry said. "Luckily, you were right next to a bomb. I'm assuming a monster managed to knock you out before you could defuse it."

The wolf nodded, before glancing up and watching as Judy pulled the bomb off the head of the statue. "This is the second time we've had to deal with bombs, and this statue." She said as she hopped down. "Maybe its cursed."

"How did you guys find me?" Max asked. "I was knocked out for… a while."

"Forty minutes." Judy said. "We tracked you using some tracking stuff in the suits."

"Very specific." Nick joked.

"Glad to see you're okay, man!" Kyle said, quickly running up to Max. The wolf stared at him for a moment.

A few thoughts quickly ran through max's head. The hint, Mikoto's emphasis of the word fox… fox, when not referred to the species itself, meant "trickster". In that case, a real fox would be someone tricking them, potentially for personal gain.

Was he right about Kyle? Did he just get vindicated by a dinosaur ghost super hero from another dimension?

"W-well, we got rid of the bombs, right? That means we can go take a break!" Kyle quickly said, backing away from max.

"Right, yeah." Max quickly said. "We foiled their plans, we just have to wait for something else to happen now."

"After all that running around, I think we deserve a bit of a lie down." Nick said,s tretching out one of his arms. "Why don't we all head home?"

"Oh, I should probably go home." Kyle said, a bit nervously. "My parents are probably worried about me after all this…"

"You need a ride?" Max asked.

"Uh, n-no." Kyle said, still nervous. "I can head there myself, I do it all the time!"

"Oh, alright." Max said. "You go on ahead."

The young fox gave a quick nod, before rushing off through the snow, leaving the five behind. Max quickly turned to Emily. "Hey, you think you can do me a favor?"

"Uh, w-what?" Emily asked, a bit surprised by the question.

"Can you drive Nick and Judy back to my place?" He finished. "I want to go check on some things."

"We can do that." Henry said.

"What are you going to check?" Judy asked, a bit skeptical. "Is this about Kyle?"

"No, no it isn't." Max said, confidently. "Listen, I just… need to do this, alright?"

"I don't see any issues." Nick said. "I kind of just really want to go relax for a bit, though."

"Fine." Judy said with a sigh. She stared at Max as she continued. "But if you do anything weird, I'll make sure you get a punishment."

"Uh, alright, mom." Max said with a chuckle. He quickly started to scamper off, his car parked at the other end of Tundra Town.

"You probably feel really guilty about lying to them." ZooSilver said, suddenly appearing next to him.

"I don't." Max said.

"Because that isn't Kyle."

* * *

"Took you a while!" The robot said as the yokai appeared in a burst of smoke. The two were standing outside of a large, stone structure, somewhere in the mountains.

"They took a bit longer than I thought." Kyuemon said as he walked across the gravel. "And it seems your monster didn't finish ZooSilver off."

"Yeah, I know." Yogostein muttered. "He came back, crying about his pain, and I had to patch him up."

"Where is he, anyway?" Kyuemon asked. The pipe monster wasn't anywhere around the mountainous region, by the looks of things.

"He's inside, waiting for us to show up." Yogostein said. "Best not keep him waiting, hmm?"

Kyuemon quickly nodded, and then flicked his hand forwards. Shadowy fox heads formed around him, and then fired forwards into the stone wall, bursting it open. They quickly ran inside, entering a rather industrial, stone room.

There were a few catwalks, connected to humongous generators. As soon as they entered, they dropped down onto the catwalks, several employees, all beavers, running off in terror.

"Oh, of course they're all beavers." Yogostein muttered. "This world loves its jokes, doesn't it?"

Yogostein raised his spear, causing lightning to fire all around. The beavers ran as explosions rocked the stone walls. They all headed for the exit, but were quickly interrupted as Chaos Pipe Banki climbed down from the ceiling.

"Surprise!"

It hovered above the door, before shooting a torrent of purple water at the beavers. In a few moments, all the employees had been knocked unconscious.

"Hah, the dam is ours now!" Yogostein shouted, pounding his chest. "Quick, to the top!"

The three headed for the top of the dam. A massive path of white stone, seemingly indestructible. They looked upon the water, sparkling blue in the midday sun.

"I thought you said the tonic would have mixed with it by now?" Kyuemon asked, starting to become a bit frustrated.

"Give it a second…" Yogostein said.

They waited for a moment, before something started to kick in. Slowly, the water started to shift colors, going from blue to a still rather clear violet. In a few moments, it was colored a full, opaque purple.

"The dam is completely infected!" Chaos Pipe Banki said. "Should I plant the big bomb now?"

"Big bomb?" Kyuemon said, intrigued.

"Yes, plant it now!" Yogostein laughed.

Pipe Banki used its tentacles to pull out a large, black bomb. It was nearly as large as the monster's body itself. It started to climb over the side of the dam, and planted the bomb directly in the middle of it. Four claws detached from the bottom of the bomb, before clinging onto the rock wall of the dam itself.

The monster climbed back up, meeting with its masters. "You know, I was thinking…" Kyuemon said, stepping towards the monster. "We may need something a bit… stronger."

"My monster is plenty strong enough, thank you." Yogostein replied, offended.

"Strong enough for those powered up forms?"

"...Okay, so how do we get something stronger?"

Kyuemon raised up a golden hammer, and thrust it at the monster. A dark aura suddenly surrounded the pipe robot. It let out grunts as it suddenly started to grow, to the point where it was towering over the both of them.

"Well, that should do it." Yogostein said. "Everything's ready, I just need to prepare the message."

"I'll head back and… 'warn' them." Kyuemon said. He quickly vanished in a burst of purple energy.

Yogostein laughed to himself. The plan was almost nearing completion. Soon, the Zoorangers, the city, and any chance of retaliation would be crushed underneath HIS iron foot!

"'Allo."

Yogostein quickly turned around to see the visage of Enter. He was in his human form, most likely because nobody was around, and walked towards the robot.

"Enter?" Yogostein said, confused. "What are you doing here, you creep?"

"Offering my services." He said. "I don't know if you know this, but that wolf is getting dangerously close to figuring out whats going on with your little ruse."

"Yes, I know." The robot replied, rather annoyed. "So what? Not like he can do anything!"

"It could still be a problem." Enter said. "So, why don't I go and deal with him?"

Yogostein paused for a moment. "You're up to something, aren't you?"

"Non non, simply offering my help to make sure your plan goes as smooth… as possible."

The robot let out a grunt, before turning away from Enter. "Fine, do what you want, no steel off my back!"

"Excellent."

* * *

Max had stopped at the police station to get some info. The location of the Izamashi family. They were located in an apartment, strange for what he had assumed was a decently wealthy family, in the middle of Downtown

This was odd, because Kyle had said his family was located on the edge of the city. In fact, they were remarkably close to the apartment when they were running away from the monster the other day.

Things were starting to add up towards Kyle not being who he said he was. There were too many holes and oddities with him.

Max got out of his car, and looked up at the building. It wasn't a low rent apartment, above middle class, probably. The building was designed for larger mammals, but they were foxes, they probably made use of the extra space.

He headed inside, and up to the floor they were supposed to be living on. Fifth floor.

As he stepped out of the elevator, he nervously walked towards their door. He gazed at it for a moment, and cleared his throat. This was the moment of truth, the moment where he finally figured out what was going on.

He knocked, and held his breath. As he heard the door start to unlock, he took up a straighter, more serious stance. He was an officer after all.

The door opened. A female yellow furred fox popped her head out of the door. She was middle aged, maybe approaching forty.

"H-hello?" She said.

"Uh, hello ma'am." Max said. He quickly pulled out his wallet, showing her his badge. "I'm Officer Wolford, ZPD. I came here to ask you a few… questions." He decided to leave the super hero stuff out of this conversation, though she would probably recognize him if he told her.

"What?" She said, nervously. "What for?"

"I need to ask about your son." Max said. "About Kyle."

She went wide-eyed for a moment, and went back inside, the door shutting behind her. Max let out a sigh. "Try to be a bit more tactful…" He muttered to himself. Before he gave up hope, there was the sound of chains rattling. The door unlocked again, and opened.

The fox walked in from the other side of the door frame. She was dressed in casual clothes. She seemed like a stay-at-home mother, definitely… but Kyle was a bit too old for something like that. "Come in." She said.

As Max walked in, he noticed they had a small set of stairs for reaching the doorknob. Maybe he should get one of those.

He walked farther into the apartment. It was a cozy, modern apartment, a lot less run down than Nick and Judy's apartment had been, no matter how nice it was. Most of the furniture was small, specifically small enough for a family of a few foxes.

Mrs. Izanami sat down on a small couch, Max towering over her by a bit. "Um, where's your husband?" The wolf quickly asked. The place seemed empty, even for an apartment.

"He's at work." She said.

"He's a CEO, right?"

"He… was." She continued. "He quit after…"

"After what?"

"After our son died."

Max felt his heart sink for a moment. He quickly sat down on the floor, legs crossed. "Kyle's… dead?"

The fox nodded, she looked like she was on the verge of sobbing. "He was killed by… some members of a predator hate group." She explained. "It was during the pred-scare, years ago… After that, my husband had a breakdown, and lost his job. He's working at an office right now."

"I'm… sorry." Max said, not sure what else to do. He didn't mean to accidentally brings those memories back to her. It just made him feel worse.

"Why are you asking about Kyle?" She asked, now sobbing.

He needed to spin this without lying. "Someone is… pretending to be him." He explained. "I'm on a case related to it." One truth, one half truth, good enough.

"Why would someone do that…?" She asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." max explained, standing back up. "I'm sorry, I didn't know about your son."

Mrs. Izanami sniffed. "It's alright, I know you didn't mean any harm."

Before the conversation could continue, there was crying from another room. A kit's cries. "You… have another son?" Max asked.

"He's only a year old." Mrs. Izanami said. "I should probably go see what he wants."

"Good idea. I'll let you be." Max said, falling silent for a moment. He quickly bowed. "Thank you for the help."

A few seconds later, he was back outside the apartment, thinking about what was happening. It seemed his suspicion had been correct. He just had to figure out who it was. It was probably a monster, but who could be using that kind of power?

He walked back to the elevator, and entered it. ZooSilver was waiting for him.

"Do you feel good?" The copy asked as Max pushed the button for the main floor. "You made her cry because of your ignorance. Despicable."

Max didn't pay attention. His mind was too wrapped up in trying to figure out who it could be.

"Hello?" the copy said. "Don't you feel the slightest bit guilty about this?!"

He did. But that wasn't important right now. The elevator came to a stop, and the wolf ran back out. He was still trying to piece this together as he ran out of the building. He needed to get back to the duo before anything happened.

But he froze as he walked into the parking lot. Waiting by his car was someone.

A tan cheetah in a longcoat, with goggles above his eyes. He turned to face the wolf, and let out a laugh.

"Bonjour, ZooSilver."

* * *

"How long do you think until something happens?" Judy asked. Her and Nick were sitting on the couch, taking as much time as they could to relax.

"If everything goes well, then maybe never." He said, the rabbit rolling her eyes in response.

"You think it was right for me to tell Em and Henry to spy on Max for a bit?" The rabbit asked, sounding a bit guilty. "I just wanted to make sure nothing bad happened…"

"Honestly, probably not." Nick said. "But it was probably good, in case something bad does happen."

There was a sudden knock at the door. Judy looked at the fox, who let out a sigh. He slid down from the couch, and walked over to the door. He jumped up and grabbed the handle, doing his best to turn it. After a brief moment of struggling, the door slid open a bit, and he landed back on the ground.

"We need to get one of those stair things for this." Nick said, before opening the door fully.

It was Kyle, and he seemed to be out of breath. "Guys!" He shouted, pushing past Nick and running straight into the house. "Guys, turn on the TV! There's something bad going on!"

"This whole thing again?" Judy said, flicking the TV on.

"Greetings, Zoorangers!" Yogostein yelled from the TV screen. He was standing in front of a large pool of water. "You might have thought you won, but that would be incorrect! You have instead walked right into my plan!"

Nick quickly rushed to the living room to catch what was happening on the screen. The camera zoomed in on the purple water. "While you idiots were running around trying to find my bombs, the dam's water supply was infected by my genius Knockout Water!"

"I knew something was up!" Judy shouted, hopping to her feet. "We were being played by him!"

"And to add an even better cherry bomb on top," Yogostein continued. The camera quickly switched to a view from the front of the dam itself, showing a large round object. "I've planted an even bigger bomb on the dam! In two hours, this thing will go off and cover the entirety of the city in my Knockout Water!"

He started to laugh, before the camera switched back to the robot.

"I expect you all to be here VERY soon!"

The TV flicked off, and the three fell silent.

"...We have a dam?" Judy asked, her ears drooping down.

"Seriously?" Nick said, surprised. "Its been up in the Mountain District for decades!"

"Guys, that doesn't matter!" Kyle said. "This is a super duper big problem!"

"And Max isn't back yet…" Judy said, placing her paw to her chin. She quickly let out a sigh, letting her arm fall back to her side. "Guess I don't have much of a choice right now, though."

She hopped down from the couch, and headed into the basement. A moment later, she came back up, carrying a silver box. She walked right up to Kyle, and looked up at him.

"I wanted to wait a while, until you were ready, before we gave this to you, but…" She opened the box up, revealing the Yellow Zoolizer. "Here it is, you're officially part of the team."

Kyle fell silent for a moment, and gently took the Zoolizer out of the box. "Thank you." He said. "I'm not going to put it on until something really bad happens, though." He continued.

"Uh, sure." Nick said. "Let's just get going before we're covered in purple drank."

* * *

Max looked on as the cheetah started to approach him. "I see you've figured out what's happening with Kyle, hm?" Enter said. "Pretty surprising, isn't it?"

"I'm not going to let you monsters get away with… whatever you're planning." Max said, quickly transforming into ZooSilver. He pulled out his blade, and prepared to attack the cheetah, but was quickly interrupted by a buzzing noise.

"Uh… can you excuse me for a second?" Silver said.

"Tch." Enter let out. "Fine."

Silver placed his paw to his helmet. "What's happening? Another monster attack?"

"Yogostein is threatening to blow up the dam!" Blue said over the commlink. "We didn't really have any choice but to give Kyle the Zoolizer, we need you there ASAP!"

"Alright, I'll be there in a minute, I just have to…" He paused for a moment. "You did WHAT!? You need to take that away from him right now!"

"Listen, Max, we don't exactly have a choice!" She repeated. "I know you think there's something weird with him, but, being honest, I think you're just being paranoid. Just get to the dam as soon as you can."

"I'm not paranoid, he's-"

The rabbit hung up on him.

"Shit."

"Looks like eeeeverything is going according to their plan." Enter said, rabbing his claws together. "they really thought this one out thoroughly."

"So, I think this is the first time you and I have met." Silver said. "What exactly are you, uh, capable of?"

"I'm capable of destroying you."

Enter held out his paw, as a stream of red pixels flew from it. They quickly formed into a silver fencing sword, marked with an odd black and orange pattern on it. "As you can see, I am also well-versed in escrime."

"Uh, I don't know what-"

Enter quickly thrust the blade forwards, Silver barely managing to pull out a block. He pushed Enter away quickly, before thrusting forwards. The cheetah quickly side-stepped out of the way, seemingly with little effort, and then thrust his blade directly into Silver's arm.

The blade pierced through it, causing Silver to let out a yelp of pain. He shook it off, before jabbing at the cheetah once more, but Enter quickly blocked it, and then effortlessly pushed him back.

"This isn't exactly fair, you know." Max said, clutching at his arm. "We're not even in the same size class."

"You say that like I care in any way."

Enter jabbed his blade forwards again, this time shooting off several lasers. The lasers exploded around Silver, causing him to fall to the ground. The wolf tried to get up from the blow, but fell back to the ground. Silver glanced up, and quickly rolled out of the way as Enter jabbed into the ground.

The cheetah's blade carved through the ground, and he effortlessly pulled it back out. He then prepared to strike again, this time Silver being aware enough to block it with his own blade. The wolf managed to push him back, before rolling away and getting back to his feet.

"You're no match for me, you know that?" Enter said. "Its really obvious. Just let me kill you."

"Yeah, but what about us?"

Enter turned around to face whoever was talking, and was quickly met with blasts to the chest from Officers Pink and Green.

He clutched at his chest as he stumbled back. "Ugh, surprise attack." He muttered as they ran in to the fight.

"Yo, Max, you okay?" Pink asked.

"Not really!"

"I'll distract the cheetah, you go help him." Green quickly said, the hyena giving a quick nod.

The bull rushed up to Enter, and quickly delivered a punch to the cheetah's stomach. It only seemed to phase him for a moment, but that let Pink run in and quickly help Silver back to his feet.

The cheetah turned to her and growled, but she quickly retaliated by firing several shots directly at him. With each shot, parts of his skin flew off, revealing red, digital space underneath. It seemed to cause him pain, but the chunks recovered quickly.

"Well, I guess things turned quickly." He chuckled, quickly changing moods. "I'll have to deal with you all… later. But, since it won't matter, I guess I can let you all in on something…"

They three stood there, silent as the cheetah looked around.

"That friend of yours, Kyle, he's actually Kyuemon Izayoi, one of my… teammates." Enter said, a noticeable amount of bile in his voice. "Him and Yogostein set this whole thing up so they could kill all five of you, and take the Yellow Zoolizer."

"What?" Pink said, surprised. "You gotta be lying."

"He's not lying." Silver said, letting go of the hyena and standing on his own. "I just learned from Kyle's mother that he died years ago. It has to be that Kyuemon guy."

"Yes, and if you want to save your pathetic friends, you'll need to get to the dam quickly." Enter continued. "They should be arriving very, very soon."

"Why would you tell us this?" Green asked.

"Oh, I have my own reasons." Enter said. "Now, I bid you all… adieu." He gave a bow, and vanished in a burst of red pixels.

"That creep's up to something." Pink guessed. "No other reason why he'd undermine his own team like that."

"Doesn't really matter." Silver said. "We just need to get to the dam, quickly. Or else…"

"Or else we'll all be dead." Henry finished.

* * *

Blue, Red, and Kyle arrived at the side of the dam, next to part of the cliff. A massive hole had been carved into the side of the stone structure.

"Alright, that's probably bad." Red said as they approached the hole. They looked down, noticing a squad of Ugutz patrolling the catwalks and ground floor. There had to be at least fifty to sixty of them.

"They really don't want us getting up there." Blue said. "But that's not gonna stop us!"

Red quickly grabbed onto Kyle's paw, and then leaped up alongside Blue. They fell down, landing safely, but clanging on the metal hard enough for the Ugutz to notice them. The robots beeped as theys tarted to rush towards them.

"Alright, you ready to go?" Blue asked, pulling out a moon shaped ZooTag.

"Actually, I wanna try out my new swords." Red responded. He quickly plugged in a red ZooTag as the rabbit shook her head.

"GAO, RAWR!  
BEAT THE BEAST  
KING OF THE JUNGLE  
BRAVE, GAO!"

The twin swords appeared in the fox's paws. "Listen, we'll do the super form thing when we get to the actual bad guys, these guys are just grunts!"

"Alright." She said. "We just haven't really done it in a while…"

The Ugutz quickly closed in on them. Red readied his blades, and leaped forwards, slashing through several of them effortlessly. Blue quickly followed, leaping down from the rafters to attack the Ugutz that were on the floor. As she hit the ground she blasted at them with her Rabblasters.

"Guys, I'll help too!" Kyle said, rushing over to one of the Uguts that Red had left behind. He quickly swept his leg at the robot's feet, causing it to lose balance and tumble over the railing.

Blue quickly blasted at the falling Ugutz, which quickly exploded.

Red rushed into another group of Ugutz, and leaped up into the air. He started to spin around, blades outstretched, turning him into a bladed tornado. He cleave through the group of robots quickly, spare parts flying off everywhere.

"See?" he started, twirling his swords around. "These things are great!"

Unbeknownst to the fox, a Ugutz had survived, and was creeping up on him while his back was turned. Kyle noticed, however, and ran over, quickly delivering a drop kick to the robot, sending it flying off the ledge.

Red caught notice, and gave a thumbs-up to the fox.

"Alright, I think that's all of them!" Bluesaid, leaping up onto the catwalk.

"Great, then lets head up to the top!" Red said.

"Hold it, there's supposed to be workers here." She said. "We have to make sure they're alright, first."

"Oh, I think I saw some in the corner!" Kyle said, pointing over towards the corner near the elevator.

They quickly ran over, seeing a massive pile of knocked out beaver workers. Blue went up and felt at one of their hearts. "Still beating, so they should be alive… for a while."

"If we don't beat that monster, nobody will wake up!" Kyle said. "We need to destroy the monster!"

"I'm with you on that one." Red said.

The three headed up to the elevator, which in turn lead to the top of the dam. A harsh wind blew as they walked across it. On the other side was Yogostein, who seemed to be waiting for them.

"Alright, you bucket of bolts!" Red shouted, pointing one of his blades at the general. "Time to get scrapped!"

"Hah, sure, yeah!" Yogostein said, dismissively. "CHAOS PIPE BANKI! GET THEM!"

The water started to bubble, before the monster leaped out of it, crashing into the walkway. It cling onto it with its many tentacles, towering over the three.

"Prepare to be drained!" The monster shouted, before lashing its four tentacle fingers forwards. Blue and Red leaped out of the way, Blue grabbing onto Kyle as she did so. The tentacles pierced right through the concrete, and then quickly retracted back.

"You deal with them, I have some other business to attend to!" Yogostein commanded. He slammed his spear on the ground, causing smoke to envelop him. It quickly vanished, leaving nothing behind.

"I think now might be a good time to do that whole… super mode thing." Red said, pulling out the sun shaped ZooTag. Blue nodded, and she pulled out her moon shaped ZooTag.

They quickly plugged them both in.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two quickly transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, and prepared to fight against the monster.

* * *

"Alright, we're here!" Silver said as he crashed down onto the mountainside. He let of Pink and Green, who were a bit shaken up by his jumping.

"Couldn't we have just driven?" Green asked, clutching at his stomach.

"Yeah, but that was faster." Silver said.

"Idiota." Pink mumbled.

"Should we head in through that massive hole," Silver started, pointing towards the hole in the side of the dam. "Or should we just jump up there?" He continued, pointing up to the giant mechanical monster fighting on top of the dam.

"I don't know if I can take another jump, but that's the fastest way." Green said.

"Actually, how about you all take the SCENIC ROUTE!?"

Before they could figure out who said that, the three were hit by a bolt of energy, knocking them down the hole. The fell, and crashed right through the catwalks, breaking them.

"I see Enter failed to finish you off, you meddlesome little mutt!" The three looked up at the hole, seeing Yogostein standing there. "You're the only thing that can ruin this perfect plan, so I'll have to take care of this myself!"

The three got up, and quickly rushed out of the way as the robot leaped down. He crashed with a deafening clang, the Rangers barely being able to make it away in time.

"Your friends are doomed." The robot said, turning to Silver. The wolf raised his blade, before Yogostein shot out a stream of thunder from his spear.

The electricity wracked through his body, volts upon volts nearly shocking him into submission. With a final push, Silver was thrust backwards, slamming right into a metal pole.

"Time to finish you." The robot grunted as it stepped forwards. Yogostein raised his staff, preparing for a final strike…

Two shots suddenly flew in from behind, striking the robot on the back. He turned around, coming face to face with the SPD officers.

"Max, go on ahead!" Pink shouted. "We'll hold this montón de óxido off!"

Silver got to his knees, and then nodded. Using his remaining strength, he leaped up into the air, crashing right next to the elevator. He stumbled in watching as his friends fought against the monster.

He tried to keep himself steady, gripping onto his weakened arm as the elevator went up.

Hopefully, he wasn't too late.

* * *

Things weren't going well for the duo.

The monster lashed its tentacles, wrapping around Red's staff. It quickly pulled back, flicking the fox through the air. It slashed at the rabbit with its massive blade. She attempted to block with her own swords, but the sword pressed down hard enough to break through her defenses and slice into the ground, barely missing her.

The pipe monster slammed the fox back into the ground, before firing its cannons at the two. The bursts of water launched them back into the walls of the dam.

"So, should we be struggling with this right now?" Red asked, as they both got up.

"Something's weird." Blue said. "Its a lot stronger than it should be. And… bigger."

They drew their weapons, and rushed back at the beast. With a single swipe of its tentacles, it lashed them into the railings, bending the metal.

"Guys, I'll help!" Kyle said, rushing up from the corner of the dam. He was holding up the Zoolizer.

"Great, get to it so we don't all die here!" Red shouted.

"No, don't let him!"

Red and Blue turned to the exit. Silver stumbled through the door, gripping his arm. "Max, thank god you're here!" Blue shouted back. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"You can't let him use the Zoolizer!" The wolf shouted.

"Alright, I know you don't like the guy, but c'mon!" Red said.

"No, you don't get it!" Silver continued. "Kyle is actually that Kyuemon monster! He's been tricking you guys since day one!"

"What?" Kyle said, dumbfounded. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, indeed, what are you talking about?"

The four looked up to see… Kyuemon?

"What?" Silver muttered, confused.

The yokai was floating in midair, covered in a dark aura. "As you can see, I'm here." He said. "So that can't possibly be me. Why would I want to disguise myself as a creature like you all anyway?"

"But… but…" The wolf stuttered. His heart was racing. What was happening? He knew that the actual Kyle was dead, and Enter told him that it was Kyuemon… who else could it be?

"But, your friend there does have something I've had my eyes on." Kyuemon continued, glaring down at the young fox. Kyle stepped back, in fear.

"What?" Blue said, turning back to Kyle. She looked back up. The monster's aura was building. He was about to do something.

"KYLE!" She shouted. "GET OUT OF THE-"

"Too late!" Kyuemon interrupted, before thrusting his hand forward. He fired a blast of dark energy, covering the fox in it for a few second.

He let out a deafening screech of pain, before a massive explosion rocked the entire dam.

The Zoolizer clattered to the ground. It was the only thing left.

Blue tensed up for a moment, before letting out a scream of her own. Red ran over, and wrapped his arms around her, trying to get her to calm down.

"Judy, Judy, calm down!" He said to the struggling rabbit.

"I LET SOMEONE ELSE DIE AGAIN!" She screamed. "IT HAPPENED AGAIN!"

"Chaos Pipe Banki." Kyuemon ordered. The monster grunted in response.

It quickly lashed at the two. Both of them only caught a brief glimpse as the tentacles wrapped around them, lifting them into the air. The Banki Beast then lashes the whips at the stone wall above the elevator, and then pulled them back, flinging them into the air. The monster quickly followed by shooting its blade hand up and slashing at the two, before quickly grabbing them again, and slamming them down into the ground.

The force of the strikes, and the stress of the situation, caused Nick and Judy to untransform. They attempted to get back up, uneasily getting to their knees.

The monster let out a roar, before firing a torrent of purple water from its cannons. The two passed out instantly.

Silver was frozen in fear. He had no idea what to do. His friends were practically dead.

And things got even worse.

The door behind him opened, causing the wolf to turn around. He was hoping to see Pink and Green. And he did.

He saw their unconscious bodies being flung through the door, followed by Yogostein stomping out of it.

"You really thought those two weaklings could beat me on their own?" The robot laughed. He quickly glanced up at Kyuemon. "I see you improvised a bit, but everything worked out!"

"Yes, it did." Kyuemon replied, floating down. "I can't believe they managed to fall for it for that long."

"It was you!" Silver shouted. "You were disguised as Kyle!"

"Correct." The yokai said. "I used an energy projection ninjutsu to help with my little… trick."

"And now, you're the only one left." Yogostein said. "Is this what it feels like to win a fight? It feels GOOD!"

Silver tensed up for a moment. He felt his entire body locking up for a brief moment. The pressure of everything was starting to cave in on him. He was the last one. If he didn't beat these monsters, not only would his friends die, but the entire planet would be in danger.

The stress crashed down on him at once, causing him to untransform as well. Everything seemed to go silent for a moment, but he was knocked out of his stress-induced trance by a sound.

The sound of rushing water.

There was a brief flash of purple, before he blacked out.

* * *

His eyes opened up again. He was back in the white void.

"MIKOTO!" He shouted. "I NEED TO TAKE THAT TEST AGAIN!"

"Very well." The ranger said, suddenly appearing in front of him. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I don't have a choice right now." Max growled.

AbareKiller let out a brief chuckle, before the podium appeared. It was still several yards away from the wolf. Almost instantly, the copy of ZooSilver, of himself, appeared.

"Why are you even trying?" It said. "Its not like you can do anything."

Max stood silent for a moment, before walking forwards. The ZooSilver double followed him across the path.

It started to talk, and didn't seem to stop.

"It's all your fault."

"You let them all down."

"You should just die with the rest of them."

"You're a failure in every way."

"A walking piece of garbage."

The words stung. But he kept walking, ignoring the copy's insults. As he continued to walk, without any reaction, the copy started to get… worried.

"Are you listening to me?" It said, almost desperately. "Just give it up! Nothing you can do will help them!"

The wolf continued to walk.

"I'm talking to you!" It shouted. "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!"

Finally, Max reached the pedestal. Floating in it was a coin, similar to the one he used to transform… only this one had the same claw symbol as the pedestal forming a bump in the middle of it.

"Wait!" The copy said, suddenly appearing on the opposite end of the pedestal. "You don't even know if this will help. Do you really want to risk it?"

Max glared at the copy's… no, his eyes. He looked down at the coin.

He scooped it up into his paw.

"Excellent job."

Max looked back up, AbareKiller replacing the copy.

"Thank you." Max said.

"But I'm sorry to say, you aren't done yet."

"What?"

"There is another challenge you must complete." AbareKiller continued, the podium sinking into the ground. "You've proved that you can ignore your own baggage when in danger…"

Max felt a breathing on his shoulder.

"But can you defeat yourself?"

The wolf dodged out of the way as the ZooSilver phantom slashed down with his claw tipped gloves. Max gulped, and reached for his wrist, preparing to transform.

His Zoolizer wasn't there.

The copy of himself rushed at him, Max only barely being able to avoid it in time. "You know how this will all end!" The copy growled, its metallic voice growing more distorted. "No matter what you do, you'll be left behind again!"

Max got back to his feet. How was he supposed to defeat himself without any defenses? All he could do was avoid it. Eventually it would overtake him…

Wait, he think he understood.

"So what?"

The copy froze for a moment.

"So what if they end up leaving me?" Max asked, solemnly. "Even if it does happen, I have good memories of them… And that's no reason to just give up either. This isn't just some personal stake, this is bigger than that. Bigger than myself."

"But doesn't that weight feel crushing!?" The copy asked. "There's no way a single mammal like you could do anything!"

"That's true." Max admitted. "But if I don't do anything, then nobody might. Doing something is better than nothing, even if it doesn't work, right?"

The copy stumbled back a bit. It seemed to be confused. "But… you can't… They'll replace you! If you bring them back, they'll replace you with someone else!"

Max sighed. "Well, maybe that's my fault, isn't it?"

The monster recoiled, seemingly in pain.

"If I get abandoned, then there's something wrong with me, isn't there?" The wolf continued. "If someone doesn't want to be my friend, or a teammate, or a partner… I'll just say its alright. Its not like it's the end of the world."

"I'll always feel bad about it…" He continued. "But I can't always just blame others for my shortcomings."

The copy let out a screechy, metallic wail. "NO!" It shouted, its body starting to vanish. "You can't do this! I am you! You can't get rid of me!"

"I'm not planning to." Max continued. "I'll never be able to get rid of you. And I just have to accept that."

"But for right now, you're gonna stay quiet."

The phantom let out a final metallic gurgle before vanishing completely.

"That was exhausting." Max admitted, his ears folding down.

"But you did a good job." AbareKiller said. "You managed to admit your own faults. That's the first step to overcoming any personal issue."

"Did you ever go through something like that?" Max asked the legendary Ranger.

"You could say I went through a bit of a… personal battle."

Max held out his paw, the coin still laying in it. "So, what is this?"

"That is the key to the ultimate power." AbareKiller explained. "It taps into the infinite potential of an energy called Dino Guts. Using it, you'll become more powerful than you ever imagined."

He gazed at it again, and then gripped it in his paw, tightly. "Thank you, Doctor."

"You only have to thank yourself."

* * *

Kyuemon floated down to the dam, and walked over to the Yellow Zoolizer, which sat on the ground. He reached down and picked it up, raising it to his fox-like face.

"This is the last opposition against us." He said. "Once we destroy this, we will be victorious!"

"Man, I never thought I'd ever get this close to winning!" Yogostein said. "It feels almost unreal!"

There was a sudden grunting noise from one of the unconscious bodies. They both turned to look at the wolf as his body started to move.

"What!?" Kyuemon let out.

"That's impossible!" Yogostein followed, as the wolf got back up to his feet. "No one could have taken that much Knockout Water and still be conscious!"

"Well, guess I'm the first!" Max said. "And now, I'm going to stop you all for good."

Kyuemon let out a laugh. "Please, how can a single, pathetic mammal like you defeat us?"

"Like this!"

He punched back on his Zoolizer, opening the mouth of it, and then closed it. He transformed into ZooSilver, and the repeated the action.

This time, he pulled out a coin. The one he had gotten from AbareKiller.

He plugged it into the Zoolizer, and then closed the mouth.

Almost instantly, an aura of silver energy burst from him as he let out a yell. The monsters were pushed back by the pure force of the aura, before there was a blinding flash of light.

"RAMPAGE"

It cleared, revealing ZooSilver… but he had changed.

While his helmet remained the same, there was now a large armor-piece strapped to his chest. It was shaped like a stylized wolf's head, the snout pointing downwards slightly, yellow markings resembling eyes on both sides, and jagged slits forming the teeth. The ears of the head were sharp points going off of his shoulders. The upper half of the armor was silver, while the bottom half was a dark purple-blue mix.

He had also gained armor on both of his arms and legs. His leg armor was the same blue-purple mix, and was noticeably bulkier, enhancing his feet with large claws. His upper arms were now covered in armor as well. Both arms started with similar bulky silver armor, but at the ends of each paw were completely different weapons.

On his right was a large U-shaped device, resembling a tuning fork. It was connected directly to the armor, leaving his paw revealed underneath it, and the device stretching out slightly past it. Between the device's two points crackled a large amount of energy.

The other arm simply had a massive claw paw. It resembled a normal paw, but much larger, and with much larger claws. The actual claws were the same color as the lower half of the armor, while the paw itself was colored silver.

Smoke was drifting from his body as he started to pant heavily, hunching down slightly. He let out a massive, savage howl, rocking the ground they were standing on and even causing the water to shake.

Before any of the villains could react, Silver raised his right arm up, and fired several shots from the device directly at Kyuemon. They rapidly struck his hand, causing the Yellow Zoolizer to hit the ground.

Kyuemon looked at his hand, which was smoking, and in pain. He glanced back up, just in time to dodge out of the way as Silver leaped through the air, slamming his claw down into the concrete.

He let out another howl, before looking Chaos Pipe Banki right in the eyes. The monster let out a grunt, and lashed its pipe tentacles at the wolf. Silver slashed at the pipes as they approached, cleaving right through them. The beast let out a roar of pain as its tentacles tumbled off the sides of the dam.

Silver planted his feet firmly on the ground, before letting out another howl. The ears of his armor started to light up, and then fired out a stream of fire. The wolf was lifted into the air by the jetpack, grabbing onto Chaos Pipe Banki's neck with his massive claw as he continued.

In seconds the two were high above the dam, Silver still gripping onto the monster. He stopped, and threw the monster upwards. Hovering there, he then unleashed a torrent of fire from his gun arm, large explosions visible from below as the blasts struck at the monster.

The robot continued to fall, and was about to pass directly in front of the wolf. As it fell, Silver slashed upwards with his claw, slashing right through most of the monster's body.

The body continued to fall towards the purple water, and splashed down into it with a heavy burst of water. A second later, there was another burst of water, this one much larger.

"He managed to beat Pipe Banki by himself!?" Yogostein shouted, astonished and a bit afraid. "That thing is… terrifying!"

"But there's no way it can defeat the giant form." Kyuemon stated, confidently.

The water suddenly started to glow, before the upper half of a massive Chaos Pipe Banki burst from it. It let out a roar at Silver, who was still hovering there silently.

The monster used its sword to slash at the wolf, but he deftly dodged out of the way. With a growl, Silver prepared to let out another howl.

This one was loud enough to even cause the giant monster to stumble a bit. Silver then let out a yell.

"HOWLING ECLIPSE CANNON!"

The armor piece suddenly flicked open, like a mouth, revealing a large cannon inside of it. The tip of the cannon started to glow, before firing out a massive silver laser. It sliced directly through the monster's body, causing it to let out a massive wail of pain.

Silver started to tilt his body upwards, bringing the massive beast up alongside the laser. Soon, the giant monster was high up in the air, the beam still piercing through its torso.

It gave out one final cry of pain, before it exploded.

The two villains were stunned silent.

"Well, I'm outta here!" Yogostein said, quickly disappearing in a burst of black smoke.

As soon as the robot vanished, the two unconscious mammals laying on the ground in front of where he was started to get up. Pink shook her head, before looking up.

She saw Silver land back on the ground, in his new, powerful form. The wolf locked eyes with Kyuemon, who cautiously stepped back.

"Fine, you win this round." Kyuemon said, frustrated. "But I WILL get revenge." he quickly vanished ina burst of dark energy.

"I feel like we missed something." Emily said as she got up, her suit retracting. Henry nodded alongside her comment as he retracted his suit as well.

They looked out into the dam. The water started to turn crystal clear again. They then looked up to the body of the fox and rabbit, still laying there. They started to twitch, and regain consciousness.

"What happened?" Judy said as she climbed to her feet.

"I feel like I just got hit by a freight liner." Nick groaned, clutching his head. He looked at the dam, and noticed the water was clean. "Hey, how'd the-?"

"Oh my god, is that Max?" Judy said.

Nick turned to face the wolf. He was facing towards them, his new armor dazzling in the midday sun. "Max, did you defeat all the monsters yourself…?" Nick asked, confused. "How did you…?"

The wolf didn't respond, only breathed heavily.

He suddenly untransformed back into normal, still breathing heavily. "You two alright?" He asked, sounding a bit weak.

"Yeah, we're fine." Judy said, a bit concerned. "Are… are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine." The wolf said stumbling forwards.

Suddenly, he started to cough, which quickly turned into a hack. He could feel something come up during one of the coughs.

"Oh god."

He looked at his paws, vision blurred. There was blood on him. It was on the ground.

The wolf started to pant heavier, and heavier, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell over, unconscious.

"OH GOD!"

* * *

_He had only barely managed to pass through the exam. He didn't have an amazing time at the police academy either, but it was better than any "normal" schools he had been to._

_He sat at the near back of the bullpen, waiting for the chief to show up and give the first assignment. It was nerve-wracking. He had no idea what he could be thrown into on his first day on the force._

_"Hey, sit up straight, the chief will get mad if you don't." Whispered a tiger sitting next to him._

_"Oh, alright." Max said, sitting up straight. "Uh, can I ask you a question?"_

_"Sure."_

_"What was your first day here like?"_

_The tiger chuckled. "You don't have anything to worry about, kid." He said. "It should be something easy. Just go with the flow, and you'll get the hang of it all eventually."_

_"Oh, alright." The wolf said. "Hey, what's your name?"_

_"Richard Delgato, been here for a few years." He said. "You are?"_

_"Maxwell Wolford." He introduced._

_"Well, Max, hope you enjoy your time here."_

* * *

Max opened his eyes, and looked around. He was… in a hospital, it looked like. Nick, Judy, Emily, and Henry were there, looking over him as he laid down in bed. It looked like Nick and Judy were standing on a platform of some kind. There was also a doctor there, an antelope.

"Ugh, what happened?" he muttered weakly, trying to get up.

"No, keep laying down!" Judy said, hopping up onto the bed to push him back down.

""yeah, its best for you to keep still." The doctor said.

"What's happening?" Max repeated. "I can't remember anything after…"

"You started bleeding from the mouth, and passed out." Nick said, bluntly. "We had to rush you to the hospital."

"You have heavy internal damages, Mr. Wolford." The doctor said. "We only barely managed to keep you alive."

The wolf layed back down fully. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days." Henry said.

"We're just glad you're alive." Emily followed.

"Don't think you'll be able to get back to crime fighting anytime soon, though." The doctor continued. "With your injuries, it'll take a few weeks for you to fully recover."

The wolf let out a groan, and then a sigh. "Can you leave me and my friends alone for a bit?" He asked.

The antelope nodded, and headed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"I need to tell you guys about Kyle." He said. "I went to his home, and spoke to his mother. He died a few years back."

"So, that means we were being played the entire time?" Judy said. "That's… somewhat of a relief."

"It was that Kyuemon guy. He set up a trap for you guys months ago, and this was the culmination o fit." Max continued. "I don't really know what to say. I'm sorry."

"We'll figure that all out later." Nick growled, before clearing his throat. "Uh, I mean, after we figure out what to do about this." He held up the Yellow Zoolizer.

Max was silent for a second. "Hey, can you guys leave me and Nick alone for a bit?" He asked.

"Uh, sure?" Judy said, shrugging.

"Why do you want to talk to me?" Nick asked.

"I dunno." The wolf said. "Just want to."

Judy turned to Emily and Henry, and shrugged. The three quickly headed out of the room.

"I think I just need to get this out to someone I can trust." Max said with a sigh. "You can keep a bit of a secret, right?"

"I'm great at keeping secrets." He said, with a wink.

"So, when you guys were trying to find a new ZooYellow, I kind of started thinking about myself." The wolf continued. "About how much weaker I was than you guys, you know?"

"How are you weaker?" Nick said with a chuckle.

"You got those cool super forms, new weapons, new robots…" Max sighed. "I wanted something like that. But I never got it until just right now. I guess I just felt a bit… useless. And when ZooYellow started coming up, I thought you were going to… replace me."

"Max, that's stupid." Nick said. "Why would we replace you? You're invaluable."

"I know it's stupid!" The wolf shouted. "But its just… its how my brain works some times. I just hated who I was for a while."

"Why didn't you tell us?" The fox asked.

"Because… I thought you guys would think I was even lamer than I was before." He admitted.

Nick took a deep breath. "Listen, Wolfsbane, if there's one thing I know about, its self-loathing."

Max's ears perked up at the statement.

"I spent most of my life hating myself for the choices I made." The fox started. "I made some choices I've considered over the years, and even after all this time, I've still had horrible doubts about them."

"Like becoming friends with a mafioso?"

"Yeah, sure, that one."

"My point is, you should've told us." The fox finished. "We're friends, you can come and talk to us about stuff like that."

The wolf sighed. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"What?"

"You need to find someone to be ZooYellow." Max said. "If I'm like this right now, I'll be useless when the next monster attack happens. Think you can try and find someone for the role?"

He held his paw out.

Nick quickly gripped it.

"You got it, pal."


	39. The Perfect Candidate

The biker sat on his chopper, right next to the entrance of the cavern. He was holding up a notepad, and flipping through some of the pages. He examined one, and then nodded to himself.

"What are you looking at?"

Sambash glanced up, it was Enter. He had seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere.

"Did you do that just to try and scare me?" Sambash said as he closed his notepad and stood up from his bike. "'Cause it didn't work."

"Why would I want to scare such a trusted colleague?" Enter said in a bizarrely charming manner.

Sambash glared at Enter for a moment. "Are you trying to butter me up or something?" He asked. "Some kind of scheme you want to do that I need to be involved with?"

"Well, its less a scheme and more… a deal."

Sambash tilted his head, and let out a laugh. "Alright, what kind of 'deal' are you trying to make?" He asked.

"I want you to get me the inactive Zoolizer those three have been running around with." Enter continued. "If you get that for me, then I'll help you with your next plan."

The biker monster thought for a moment, pulling out his pistol and tapping it against his head. "Alright, I guess I could use your help for something I've been thinking of."

"Excellent." Enter said. "I suppose you have some sort of a plan to deal with those three?"

"Well, let's just say… I know a guy." Sambash said with a chuckle, getting back on his bike. He started to rev it up, the machine propelling itself into the air.

"By the way, what exactly is this plan you have?" Enter asked over the revving of the engine, entirely out of curiosity.

"Why would I tell you it right now?" The biker said. "I can tell you this, though… it's gonna be big."

"Really, REALLY big."

* * *

The hospital door slid open a bit, a hyena quickly poking her head in. She glanced at the bed, the wolf was there, laying down. "Hey, Max?" She said, opening the door a bit more. "You doing alright?"

The wolf glared at her for a second, before letting out a sigh and rolling onto his side. "I'm doing okay." he muttered.

She walked into the room in full, letting out a sigh. "Yikes, you being melodramatic or what?"

It had been two full weeks since Max had been hospitalized. He was getting better, and the doctors were saying that he would be out in a few days.

"I'm not being melodramatic." The wolf whined. "I just hate not doing anything for so long. I feel antsy, you know?"

"Eh, I get it." Emily replied. "But that doesn't mean you got nothing to do, right?" She walked up to his bed, and sat down at the edge. "We brought your electronics here the day after you were admitted, how is that not enough to do?"

"I mean like… moving around." Max said, rolling onto his back, and edging a bit away from Emily. "I just want to go out and do something, being stuck in a bed is painful by itself."

"Well, you're here because we don't want you to die." She continued. "And you probably don't want to die either. So you'll keep resting up until the doctors say you're ready to go."

Max let out another sigh. "Yeah, I will, but… I'm a bit worried."

"'Bout what?" Emily asked.

"I just have a feeling something bad will happen while I'm here, and I won't be around to help." He continued.

"Is this related to that depression thing?"

"What?" Max blurted out. "Who told you about that?"

"Nick told us all the moment he was finished talking with you." Emily said. "Like, do you really think that's something he would've kept secret?"

The wolf let out a small, annoyed growl. "Well, this isn't about my self-loathing issues, I'm just worried there might be a monster attack, and I won't really be able to do anything to help."

Emily thought for a moment. "That is an issue, yeah."

"Like, what am I supposed to do when we need to fight a giant monster?" He continued. "We're at the point where the original one's kind of worthless, so they need my robot."

"Can't you just take your thing off?" Emily asked.

"My Zoolizer? Yeah, I can take it off." He said, raising his wrist. The device was still attached.

"...Do you sleep with that thing on?"

"Uh, nooo?"

She quickly rolled her eyes. "No, what I mean is, have you checked to see if you can summon your big robot while you're not wearing it?"

"Oooooh." the wolf let out. "I never thought about that. Hang on…"

He quickly sat up, and unbuckled the Zoolizer, handing it and a small coin to the hyena. "If I'm not out of the hospital when a giant monster shows up, just give this to Nick and Judy." He said.

"Uh, alright." Emily said, with a quick, surprised chuckle. "I thought you were going to test it out right now."

"That'd be incredibly stupid." Max said. He paused for a moment. "Do you know what Nick and Judy are doing right now?"

"I dunno, some kind of talent show thing?"

"Oh, wonderful."

* * *

"Why are we doing this again?" Nick asked as he leaned on his paw out of boredom. The two were sitting at a white table, neither of them taking up that much space due to the size of it.

"Because we have to find someone who can be ZooYellow." Judy replied with a sigh. "You made a promise to Max that you'd do this, remember?"

"No, I didn't mean 'why are we trying to find ZooYellow', I meant why are we doing this talent show thing again?" He said.

"Because this is the last method we have, sorry. And also we have this place rented for the next few months." Judy said, before one of her ears popped up. "Wait, you're the one who came up with this idea, why do you hate it?"

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty."

There wasn't a whole lot they could really do besides this. They had tried to do online ads, but those didn't turn out well… at all. They tried asking mammals in the street, but that just went awkwardly. This was all that was left, and it was going… about as well as you'd expect.

Judy looked at a clipboard, with the list of mammals who had come to try out. "Have we even gotten one that matches any criteria?" Nick asked, leaning over to look at the paper.

"Well, yeah." She said. "But none that have all the criteria at the same time."

There were around thirty names on the list, a lot less than the turnout from before, which was probably a good thing. Most of them were really just not suited for the job. It was less of a disaster than it was before, however… but only by a little bit.

"I don't think this is going to work out." Judy said with a sigh, placing the clipboard back down on the table. "I'm starting to think that maybe Finnick was the only real choice."

"Even if he is, that doesn't mean we have to force him to be on our team." Nick said. "He made his choice."

"I get that, but… you know." She sighed. "I'm just getting really frustrated at all this."

"Don't worry, I'm sure something will come along!" Nick said, quickly patting the rabbit between her ears. "Maybe we'll end up getting lucky, and find that… perfect candidate!"

"You're being pretty optimistic today." Judy said with a chuckle. "You sure you're feeling alright?"

"I just really want to get out of this room."

"Well, we aren't leaving unless-"

Before she could finish, the Zoolizers started to buzz.

"Unless something like that happens?" The fox finished.

"Yes, unless something like that happens." She said with a sigh.

* * *

"Alright boys, line 'em up!" Sambash shouted. The crew of Yartots under his command dragged over a few mammals, an elephant, a tiger, a rabbit, and an elk. The four were tried up at the wrists, and each had a Yartot blade next to their stomach.

Sambash was attacking a market place, at a rather busy time. Dozens of other mammals were scurrying away from the attack, and these four just happened to be unlucky enough to get caught.

The biker monster stepped forwards, as the Yartots pressed the four mammals into the front of a building behind them. The general pulled out his gun, and started to twirl it around.

"Lessee…" He muttered, still spinning the gun on his finger. "Which one of you would be the most fun to take out?"

He quickly stopped the gun, pointing it at the tiger. "Hm, tiger hunting. Might be too easy." he quickly moved the gun to the rabbit. "No point in this when you aren't running in fear." He then pointed it at the elk. "Ooh, those horns would look nice on my wall… but there's no real challenge to that."

Finally, he pointed the gun at the elephant. "Could use you to see how tough my bullets are." Sambash said, pulling his gun back and walking towards the pachyderm. "Maybe I could sell your tusks on the black market, make a bit of indecent cash off this."

"Alright, that's enough of that!"

Several laser shots fired at Sambash and his Yartots, causing them to scatter. Red leaped into the battle, shortly before Blue leaped in as well. She fired at the monsters again as Red lead the four mammals to safety.

"Alright, I was wondering when you two would show up!" Sambash said, twirling his gun around again.

"Shut it, helmet head." Blue snapped. "I'm not going to let you or your monster hurt anyone!"

"Uh, Blue?" Red said, jogging up next to her.

"What?"

"I don't think he HAS a monster right now."

Blue glanced around. There were only the weird pirate minions, not a single unique monster in sight. "What the heck…?"

"Oh, you two caught me at a bad time, see?" Sambash started. "I was JUST looking for someone to turn into a monster! Shame you had to interrupt me."

"Yeah, like we'd just let you go and make one." Red said, drawing his blade.

Sambash shrugged. "Oh well, guess you guys are itching for a bit of a challenge, huh?" He quickly snapped his fingers. "Yartots, get them."

The pirate monsters let out a cry of gibberish, before rushing at the two Rangers. Red quickly leaped up and slashed through one of the pirates, turning it back into dust. Blue followed up by jumping and kicking at one of them, before leaping off and kicking another Yartot in the face.

"I thought you said this would be a challenge!" Red chuckled, before he slashed at another Yartot's legs with his claws.

"You might want to pay better attention." The monster replied.

The two turned around, coming face to face with two large cannons, each with a Yartot manning one. They both tugged at the strings, and fired out cannonballs from them. The two leaped out of the way as the cannonballs crashed into the pavement.

Sambash quickly readied his pistol, and fired it at Blue as soon as she landed. The rabbit was knocked across the road by the shot.

"Oh yeah, you also have to deal with me!"

She quickly got up, shaking the blast off. Without a word, she pulled her blasters out. "Red, take care of those cannon guys, I'm going to handle Sambash." She ordered.

The fox nodded, and pulled out a red ZooTag. He quickly plugged it into his Zoolizer.

"GAO, RAWR!  
BEAT THE BEAST  
KING OF THE JUNGLE  
BRAVE, GAO!"

The twin blades appeared in his paws, as he quickly started to spin them around. Red leaped at the two Yartots, who pulled at the strings on the cannons again, firing another pair of cannonballs at him. The fox slashed his blades forward, cutting directly through the cannonballs as he landed in front of the two cannons.

The Yartots started to freak out as Red leaped up onto one of the cannons, one of the pirates leaping into the other's arms. "Yeesh, you guys are pathetic." Red said, shaking his head. He quickly sliced the two in half, the sand falling to the ground.

Blue faced Sambash, her blasters pointing directly at him, and him pointing his gun at her. "Man, a good, old fashioned stand-off." Sambash said with a chuckle. "You wanna take some paces?"

"Ugh, shut it."

She quickly fired both her blasters at the monster, who in turn quickly fired his own gun at the blasts, causing the lasers to disperse. As Blue reacted in shock, he quickly moved to firing at her feet, causing the rabbit to leap back.

"Face it, rabbit," Sambash started, twirling his gun around. "You'll never be as good of a gunslinger as I am. There's a reason why I'm called 'Gun Boss'!"

"Well, when you put it that way…" Blue said, quickly crossing her arms. "Maybe I should try something different!" She quickly pulled out her daggers, and rushed towards the monster.

He quickly shot at her, but the rabbit leaped out of the way of the bullets, leaping up and slashing at Sambash's midsection. He stumbled back a bit as the rabbit landed back on the ground.

"Red, hit him now!" Blue shouted over to the fox.

Red was standing on top of one of the cannons, both of which were pointed at the monster. He pulled both the strings, causing two more cannonballs to fly out. Sambash let out a grunt as the balls flew at him, but he quickly backhanded one of them, causing it to whiz right over Blue's head and smash into a nearby building.

He instantly followed up by shooting the other cannonball with his gun, causing it to halt its momentum and fall back to the ground.

"You really thought that would work-"

"Heads up!" Red shouted. At some point during the attack, he had pulled out the Vickscannon, and aimed it directly at Sambash. He fired a shot from it, which struck the monster directly in the face, causing him to let out a growl.

"You just got lucky, mutt!" Sambash growled, before unleashing a flurry of bullets in the fox's direction. He leaped out of the way as the bullets crashed into the cannons, reducing them to scrap in only a few shots.

"You ever think about quality testing your cannons?" Red joked. "They seem a bit flimsy to me!"

"The only flimsy thing here is going to be your dead bodies!" Sambash growled.

He quickly pointed his gun at Blue, who stepped back, before pointing it back to Red. The biker monster stepped forwards, but was suddenly interrupted by something.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?"

The three looked up at a nearby rooftop. Crouching down on it was a yellow furred jaguar, dressed in a long black jacket, yellow shirt, and jeans. He also wore sunglasses, which he tilted up to get a better look. His fur was a bit scuzzy looking, and he overall gave a sense of… aloofness.

"The hell are you?" Sambash asked, lowering his gun.

"A jaguar, obviously." He laughed, before jumping down from the roof. He stretched his limbs out a bit, before pacing up to the monster, who in turn backed away. "Looks like you're attacking these two. That's not really a nice thing to do."

"Shut it, cat." Sambash snapped, quickly pointing his gun at the jaguar's face. "Or else I'll blow your head off, too."

"Oh, nice, what kinda gun is that?" The jaguar said, grabbing it from Sambash's hand.

"Hey, give that-"

"Revolver pistol, nice wooden handle." He continued ignoring the monster.

"Uh, what's going on?" Red whispered to Blue. She shrugged in response.

"Wonder how this baby shoots…" The jaguar said, quickly pointing the pistol down towards Sambash's feet and firing.

"Be careful with that thing, holy shit!" Sambash shouted.

"You can have it back." The jaguar said, tossing it over to Sambash.

The monster caught it in both his hands, and then glanced up, just in time to see the jungle cat sock him directly in the face. He stumbled back a bit, clutching at his helmeted head.

"Now's our chance!" Blue shouted. Red and her quickly pulled out their bladed weapons, before leaping at Sambash. They struck at his body, causing him to tumble to the ground.

Sambash quickly got back up, but the jaguar leaped forwards. The monster attempted to block, but was blind-sighted as the feline hit the ground, and swept at his leg. As Sambash started to fall, the jaguar then performed an uppercut, knocking Sambash right back onto his feet.

The biker gave out a quick grunt as he attempted to swing his pistol at the jaguar, who dodged out of the way. He quickly followed up by smacking Sambash in the shoulder with his palm, and then delivered a knee to his gut.

"Ugh, I've had enough of this!" The monster growled as he stumbled back. He snapped his fingers, causing his flying motorcycle to swoop in. He quickly hopped on, and drove off into the sky.

Judy and Nick quickly untransformed. "So, what do you think his plan actually was?" Nick asked. "Seems like he just wanted to make some trouble. Didn't even have a monster."

"Yeah, that's a bit concerning." Judy said. She started to turn around, presumably to face the jaguar. "Hey, thanks for…"

He was gone.

"...Helping us?"

"That's also very, very weird." Nick said. "Who do you think he was?"

"I dunno, but I have a weird feeling…" She started. "Courageous, active, heroic, yellow…"

"Oh, please don't tell me…"

"I think that guy might be our new ZooYellow."

* * *

The motorcycle skid to a halt as it re-entered the cave. Sambash quickly got off it, and cracked his neck as he walked towards the table in the center.

"Well, that was humiliating." Enter said from behind him. Sambash turned around, noticing that he was in his cheetah form. He was also holding… something. It was a hexagonal, black device, with a ring of teeth in the middle of it.

"I don't entirely see how a random attack was supposed to help get the Zoolizer." He asked. "Seems to me you were just sort of… messing around."

"Relax, data boy." Sambash said as he sat down. He quickly cracked his neck again. "Sweet Daitanix, that was a good punch. Anyway, everything's going fine. I just need a bit of time for this to get going. Can't rush along plans, right?"

The fake cheetah let out a quick "tch" before walking off.

"Yo, where you heading off to?" Sambash asked. "You usually don't put on the furs unless you have someplace to be."

"I have my own plans to follow right now." Enter said, almost dismissively.

"It has something to do with that device, don't it?"

Enter let out a growl.

"Just because I'm not as smart as you, doesn't mean I'm blind." Sambash continued, without actually looking at Enter. "And just for the record, I don't actually care, its just you trying to be secretive all the time is getting annoying."

"Fine, I am going to be using this device." Enter blurted out. "That make you happy?"

"Yeah, go on your way, man."

The cheetah let out a small growl again, before walking out of the cavern. He exited on the outside of the mountain. "Let's see, where would be a good place to start…" He glanced across the field, before spotting a rather large hole in the ground.

"There we go."

* * *

There was another knock at the hospital door. Max quickly closed his laptop, and placed it to his bedside as the visitors came in. It was Judy and Nick, who quickly hopped up onto a small metal platform next to the bed.

"How's it going, wolfsbane?" Nick asked.

"Oh, you know, still restless." Max said. "This is kind of a surprise visit from you two, what's up?"

"The WEIRDEST thing just happened!" Judy said. "We got a monster alert, and went to see who it was, and it was Sambash, without any monster."

"No monster?" Max said, a bit surprised. "That's definitely a bit off."

"But that's not even the weirdest part!" She continued. When we were trying to fight him off, this jaguar guy showed up and started to fight him!"

Max's eyebrow raised as he sat up. "Jaguar guy? What was he like?"

"He looked homeless." Nick said. "But he did actually manage to beat Sambash, which is impressive, I guess."

"Oh, I see where this is going." Max said. "You guys want to make him ZooYellow, right?"

"Well, one of us does." Nick said.

"Yeah, I do." Judy said, putting her thumb to her chest. "I'm the leader, remember? Besides, he was… pretty incredible. He wasn't even scared of him."

"So, you know who this guy is?" Max asked. "Like, you have a name or anything?"

"Uhhhh, not really." Judy admitted. "He kinda vanished before we could ask him anything."

The wolf let out a sigh, and laid back down. "Alright, I don't really want to be rude, but we did just kind of go through this whole… thing." He said. "It might be best to be a bit cautious, you know?"

"That's what I was thinking." Nick said. "What if this guy is some kind of criminal, or just, dangerous, or… you know what I mean?"

The rabbit looked at him for a moment, and then let out a sigh. "I mean, you're right." She said, hopping down from the platform. "But, we don't have a lot of choices left. I want to assume the best of everyone, you know?"

"I know that, but we're in the middle of something, you know, serious here." Nick said. "I just… I don't want anyone else to be hurt because of a dumb decision we made."

"Right." She said. "We'll go over this very, very carefully. If we run into him again, we'll make sure to get some information before he decides to run off."

"You two just… be careful, alright." Max said. "Don't want all of us incapacitated."

Judy nodded, and prepared to say something, but was distracted by a buzz. She pulled her phone out of her jean pocket, and answered it.

"Uh, hello?" She said as Clawhauser appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Judy, Nick, we have a… visitor?" The chubby cheetah said, looking a bit concerned about something. "He says he's looking for you guys, but he won't tell us why, so, uh, can you get over here ASAP?"

"Well, that's strange." Judy muttered. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

"Hey Ben!" Max said, sitting up.

"Hey Max! Sorry that you're stuck in the hospital!" Clawhauser said. "Hope you get better soon!"

Judy quickly hung up, and brushed her ears back. "Uh, you gonna be fine here, Max?" She asked.

"I'm fine." He said, laying back down. "Everything's fine, you guys have more important stuff to deal with now."

"Alrighty." Nick said, a bit unsure, as he hopped down from the platform. The two quickly headed out, and back to the station.

Max remained silent for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

"I really want to get out of here." He muttered as he rolled over.

* * *

The fox and rabbit walked into the lobby of the station, and were instantly greeted with a strange sight.

It was the jaguar from earlier, leaning on Clawhauser's desk. "So, that's when I went to the cabana and beat the snot out of that punk." He said to Clawhauser.

"Wow, that's incredible!" Clawhauser said, in awe. He quickly noticed Nick and Judy, who were looking on in confusion. "Oh, hey guys, this guy wanted to meet you! He was just telling me a story about how he stopped a crime lord while vacationing in the tropics!"

"'Ello there!" The jaguar said. He had a bit of an accent that they hadn't noticed before. "You two were the ones runnin' around in the superhero costumes, right?"

"Yeah, we are." Nick said. "Name's Nick, that's Judy, and who exactly are you supposed to be?"

"Oh, didn't get to give you my name before I had to run off, sorry 'bout that!" The jaguar said. He quickly pulled out a rolled up sheet of paper, and unrolled it. It was one of the fliers for the ZooYellow tryouts. "See, I saw one of these fliers and wanted to see what it was all about, so I zipped off, but wouldn't you know it, I realized you two were the ones I was supposed to meet!"

Judy hopped up and grabbed the flier from him. "Wait, you actually wanted to come to the tryouts?"

"You know it!" He said. "Fancy myself a bit of a hero," He said, kneeling down and holding his paw out. "Name's Spike."

Judy quickly shook his paw, which he then held in front of Nick. The fox crossed his arms and glared at him. "Yipes, don't have to be such a stick in the mud." Spike said.

"So, you're a 'hero'?" Nick asked, a bit curious. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Means I go around helpin' people." He said, bluntly. "Took out a number of crime lords, stopped a few mob attacks, you know the drill."

"That's amazing." Judy said.

"Amazingly unbelievable." Nick followed. "If you did those kind of things, how come we haven't heard about you before?"

"Uh, 'cause I've never been here before?" Spike said with chuckle. "See, I've been travellin' around the world most of my life, takin' in the sights and such. Been through a lot of stuff, including several martial arts training regiments, and I've even mastered a few weapons in my time."

"Right." Nick said, still not convinced.

"I came 'round to Zootopia 'cause I heard about you two." Spike continued.

"Seriously?" Judy said, shocked.

"Yeah, the monster fightin' stuff's been heading around the world, y'know?" The jaguar continued. "You guys are big shot heroes, and I wanted to see how well I measured up."

"Well, I personally, think you measure up perfectly fine." Judy said. "And, wait, if you were heading to the tryouts, does that mean that you wanted to become ZooYellow?"

"Yep, I wanted to at least give it a shot."

"Well, you managed to fight off a monster mostly on your own, which is more than anyone else we've seen can say…" She said. "I think you're perfect, but I know that Nick here… isn't."

The fox still had his arms crossed, and was still glaring at the jaguar.

"Well, maybe I can show him I gots what it takes!" Spike said. "You guys got a training spot 'round here right?"

"We have a gym!" Clawhauser said. "It's somewhere at the back."

"Right, perfect!" Spike said. "Think you guys can let me in there so I can show my stuff?"

Nick let out a small growl, causing Judy to, in turn, let out a sigh. "Nick, you can at least give him a chance to show us what he's got."

"Yeah, fine." The fox muttered. "We'll be back there in a second, you go on ahead."

The jaguar gave a nod, and ran off to the back of the station.

"I know we have to be cautious, but we have absolutely no reason not to trust him at this point." Judy said. "And we especially have no reason to act like jerks to him."

Nick seemed to ignore her. "Ben, can you look to see if there's a file on him?" he asked the cheetah.

"Uh, I can't really, sorry." Clawhauser replied. "If he's from out of state, then the database won't have anything on him. Sorry."

"Oh."

The fox kicked at the ground, before the rabbit grabbed his arm and dragged him off. They headed down the hall to the gym, Nick shuffling and pouting as they walked.

"Seriously, Nick, you do this every time someone tries to come into our lives." Judy said, sounding a bit annoyed and slightly worried. "Are you worried that something will happen to me?"

"Well, no, but…" Nick paused as he caught up to her. "I'm just worried, alright?"

"I get that, but I don't think we have anything TO worry about." She replied. "Spike seems like a really nice guy, even if he's a bit… showoff-y."

"That's the thing that gets me, he just acts really arrogant." Nick said as they reached the entrance.

"We've known him for like, seven minutes." Judy said.

"Whatever, its just how he's coming off to me." The fox said as they walked into the gym.

The gym was outfitted with most things that were needed. Weights, punching bags, treadmills, there was even a boxing arena for sparring matches. Spike was sitting on one of the weightlifting benches, still dressed in the same outfit.

"You might want to change out of that before you start training." Judy suggested. "It might get in the way."

Spike laughed. "What you think is a detriment, I think of as a handicap. Watch this."

The fox and rabbit glanced at each other in confusion as the jaguar started to stretch. After a few moments, he readied himself, and made a running leap. He somersaulted in the air, landing on his paws, and then boosted back into the air, landing in the boxing ring, right on his feet.

Spike held his arms out, and the two started to clap. What else were they supposed to do?

"Like I said, I've been through a lot of training." Spike reiterated. "I know about five different martial arts, and am an expert gymnast. I even know gymkata!"

"That's impressive, I guess." Nick said, reluctantly. He didn't even know ONE martial art.

Spike flipped out of the arena, and landed on his paws again, this time walking on them over to a punching bag. He quickly hopped to his feet, and stretched his arms out. He hopped on his feet a few times, before kicking the bag, causing it to swing off.

As it swung back, the jaguar quickly smacked at it with his palm, causing it to be pushed back a bit more. He then kicked it again, even harder by the looks of how the bag was swinging. Spike dropped to the ground as the bag swung over him, and he quickly jolted up, kicking the bag with both his feet, and flipping back to a standing position.

"How's that?" He asked, a bit smug.

Judy started to clap, as the fox just stood there, a bit annoyed.

"You're fantastic!" The rabbit said. "I've never seen a mammal with that kind of athletic prowess before!"

"I've seen YOU pull off more impressive stuff." Nick said.

"I mean a NORMAL mammal." She corrected. "You're not an acrobat or fighter for a living, are you?"

"Nope, don't even have me a job." Spike said. "Just drift from place to place, makin' cash wherever I can."

"Yo, what's going on in here?"

The three turned to see Emily and Henry entering the gym. "Em, Henry, what are you two doing here?" Judy asked.

"Uh, Clawhauser told us you were back here?" Emily said. "Not really that big a deal." She looked at Spike for a moment. "Is this the guy you want to be our new team member…?"

"Indeed I am, name's Spike." He said, holding his paw out. The hyena looked at it for a second, and then walked off.

"He looks a bit rough." She said, sitting down on a nearby bench.

"Very… homeless looking." Henry said, examining him.

"You're saying that like the three of you weren't homeless at one point." Judy said.

"She has a point." Nick said, begrudgingly.

"Just because I'm homeless doesn't mean I'm not capable." Spike said. "Want me to show you guys what I'm capable of?"

"I think you've shown off enough for today." Nick said.

"Oh, righty then." Spike said, a bit disappointed. He glanced around for a second. "Hey, I thought there were supposed to be five of you guys."

"There are five of us." Judy said. "One of our teammates, Max, got in an… accident the other day. He's in the hospital."

"Well, why don't we go and visit him?" Spike suggested, clasping his paws together. "If I'm going to join you guys, I need to get to know you all, right?"

"We've already visited him today." Nick said. "It might be rude to go in there for a second time."

"I haven't visited him yet." Henry said.

"You haven't visited him at all." Emily said.

"Okay, true."

"Let's just all go as one big, happy team, right?" Spike said. "It'll be fun, we can take a group picture!"

"I like how… enthusiastic you are, but…" Judy started.

"We're going to wait on the group pictures." Nick finished.

Before they could leave, Judy's phone started to ring. "Hello?" She asked as she answered it.

"Oh gosh!" Clawhauser said on the other side. "We have monster attack reports down in the Rainforest District! You need to head down there quick!"

"Ben, we're just down the hall, you could have come and told us that." Judy said.

"I could've, but then I would've had to have gotten up! Say bye to me on your way out!"

Judy sighed as she hung up. "Alright, we have monster stuff to deal with." She started, turning to Spike. "Wanna come along for the ride?"

"Oh, one hundred percent yes." He said. "I get to fight, right?"

"Uh, we'll see." Nick said. "Let's just head out before anything bad happens."

* * *

"Hopefully those idiots show up soon." Sambash said. He sat upon an oversized tree root, watching as his army of Yartots ran through the muddy field, chasing a variety of mammals. He crossed his legs, and spun his gun around as the plaza was cleared.

His head perked up as the sound of engines started to come closer. "Ugh, finally." Sambash said, not moving from his position.

The two motorcycles, along with the large armored truck, pulled in to the field, mud spraying as they skidded to a halt.

Blue and Red hopped off their bikes, and the sides of the truck flipped open, Pink, Green, and Spike walking out.

"Oh hey, it's that guy again!" Spike said as he caught Sambash sitting on the root. "This should be easy, then!"

"I wouldn't bet on that." Blue said. "You just hold back for a bit, don't want you getting hurt."

"Alrighty." Spike said, slightly disappointed.

"The bunny is giving you some good advice." Sambash said, standing up. "You probably want to hang back, or else you'll get your skull caved in."

"Come on, I beat you last time!" Spike said with a chuckle. "I can do it again!"

"You got lucky!" Sambash said, before firing his gun in the direction of the five. Mud burst up under their feet as they scattered. Yartots quickly tromped through the mud towards them, waving their swords.

Red, Blue, Pink, and Green quickly leaped into the fight. Red sliced through a few off the Yartots, while Blue fired at a few more, reducing them to sand. Pink and Green fired at the pirate monsters with their own blasters, causing more of them to be turned to dust in an instant.

"I got more where those came from!" Sambash shouted, pulling out two handfuls of golden coins. He tossed them up into the air, and another army of Yartots fell from the sky, adding to the remaining crew.

"Okay, there's a lot of them now!" Red shouted as the pirates started to swarm in on him. He slashed the legs of a few of them, causing the pirates to stumble back for a moment.

Blue was surrounded as well, but she quickly leaped up and landed on the head of one of them, preparing to take a vantage point. She leaped in fear as she heard a gunshot, the Yartot she was previously standing on suddenly bursting into sand.

She landed on the head of another one, and looked up to see Sambash, aiming at her with his gun.

"Oh boy." She let out.

Pink and Green were having slightly less troubles with their groups of Yartots. Emily clawed a few of them, causing clouds of sand to burst into the air, while Green simply smacked the small-fries away with his cannon.

"This is gonna start getting annoying." Green grunted as he punted a few more pirates through the mud.

"Question, why does this guy even use pirate minions?" Pink asked, shooting a few of the monsters in the head. "Isn't he supposed to be a biker?"

"Heyo!" A voice shouted, causing the two to look up. Spike crashed into the ground, and started to punch the pirates away. "I think that guy was part of a pirate crew or something, that's why he uses pirate minions!" He explained, still punching the monsters away.

"How do you even know that?" Emily asked.

"Intuition!" He said, before he jumped up and kicked off the back of a Yartot, launching the jaguar across the field.

"That was… weird." Green said, before quickly blasting at a few more of the monsters.

Spike quickly landed in the middle of the circle the Yartots had formed around Red. In a swift move, he kicked the circle away, completely knocking the crowd away from the fox.

"I didn't need help!" Red yelled, before Spike quickly darted off towards Sambash.

He leaped up into the air, high enough to reach Sambash, and attempted to kick the gun out of his hand. Sambash quickly pulled his gun back, and grabbed the jaguar by his foot. He dangled Spike above the mud, and let out a quick yell of "HEY!" to get the rest of the Zoorangers' attention.

"Looks like this guy got too cocky!" Sambash said as the Zoorangers and Officers looked up at him. Most of the Yartots had been cleared out at this point, and the four watched as the jaguar struggled in the grip of the monster.

Sambash aimed his gun at Spike's head, prepped to fire. "Let him go!" Blue shouted.

"Don't think so." Sambash said, rather bluntly.

"Jude, I think I might need some extra support, y'know?" Spike shouted down to her.

"I don't know what that means!"

"I need the super changer thing you guys use!" He shouted back down. "If I get that, I can beat this guy up right good!"

"Why would I have it on me right now!?" Blue shouted back up.

"Oh, cripes."

"Don't worry, we'll get you down from there!" Blue shouted back up. Her and Red quickly leaped up onto the root, and drew their weapons.

Sambash looked back and forth at them for a moment, before shaking his head. "Idiots." He muttered, before letting go of Spike. The jaguar dropped from the air, and splashed into the mud. Sambash quickly pointed his gun at Blue, who stepped back for a moment.

He just let out a quick growl, and then snapped his fingers. His motorcycle came flying in, and he jumped up on it. The bike quickly vanished into the treetops.

"What was that about?" Red asked.

"Uh, I guess we just made him mad?" Blue said.

They quickly leaped down, back into the mud, where Spike was reorienting himself. "Ugh, great, all my clothes are ruined." He muttered. He quickly shook it all off, spraying the mud everywhere. "There we go."

The four untransformed, and Judy started to pace through the mud. "He didn't have a monster here, either." She said. "He didn't even seem to have a plan…"

"Maybe he's just getting sloppy?" Spike suggested. "The way he ran off like that makes me think he's just scared of all'a you."

"Doesn't seem a lot like him…" Judy said.

"Hey, question," Spike started, snapping Judy out of her thought. "You said you don't have the wrist device on ya, so where is it?"

"I had to hide it." She said. "Someone could break in and try to steal it, that would be a problem."

"Especially considering what happened last time." Nick said.

"Alright, makes sense." Spike said.

"I just want to say you did pretty great out there." Judy continued.

"Until you got dropped in mud." Nick followed up.

"Well, everyone makes mistakes!" He chuckled, before clasping his paws together. "We gonna head to see your mate now? Seems like some fun!"

"Right, we should introduce you." Judy said. "Come on!"

As the five walked to the truck, Emily trailed back to talk with Henry. "I think there's something weird with that guy." She whispered. "That whole thing seemed a bit too convenient."

Henry nodded. "I'm with you, but I feel we should hang it out for a bit." He said. "Wait for something more damning to happen."

"Good idea, don't want to make asses of ourselves."

* * *

Enter placed the device on the roof of the building. He was in the middle of the city, almost exactly, only a few blocks away from the fountain, which seemed to be an important landmark. He quickly tapped the top of the device, causing the teeth to open up.

The false cheetah stood back up, and waited around for a moment. His ears quickly twitched as he heard an engine roaring… above him.

He looked up, it was Sambash, riding on his flying motorcycle. It quickly landed on the roof of the building. The biker monster didn't seem to be in a particularly decent mood.

"I take it you haven't managed to get the Zoolizer?" Enter said, a bit mockingly.

"There's been a bit of a…" Sambash paused, and pounded his fist against the bike handle. "…A delay."

"I take it something went wrong?" The cheetah asked.

"Nothing has gone wrong so far." Sambash said. "But it just might take a bit longer for me to get through my part of the deal. I just wanted to get this done with quickly, but I guess those dumb animals keep getting in my way no matter what."

"Shame in that." Enter said, nonchalantly.

Sambash glanced down at the device. "That thing again." He said. "Knew you were doing something with it. What is it?"

"An energy collection device." Enter said, kneeling down and picking it back up. "It absorbs residual energy in a nearby area."

"What kind of energy?"

"Any kind." Enter continued. "Including kinds you can't see."

"Uh, alright." Sambash said, a bit confused. "I'm going to head back to base and wait for my next chance. See you later."

The motorcycle hovered into the air, and then zoomed off towards the mountain. Enter let out a sigh, and looked around.

"That should've been enough time to collect everything from around here…" He said to himself. "Where should I go next?"

* * *

Max was typing something down on his laptop. It wasn't like he had much else to do. When he was feeling restless, he wrote down lists of things. It wasn't productive, but it was something to keep his mind busy.

He let out a yelp as the door to his hospital room slammed open. He quickly shut his laptop and sat up.

"'Ello, you're Max, I presume?" Said an oddly dressed jaguar.

"Uhhhh…"

"Sorry!" Judy said, stepping around him. Nick, Emily, and Henry quickly followed into the room. "Max, this is Spike, he's our…"

"Potential." Nick quickly interrupted.

"...new member." Judy finished, before striking a glare at the fox.

"'Spike'?" Max said with a chuckle. "Weird name."

"It's what I was born with." He said, walking over to the bed and sitting down on it.

"Spike's kind of incredible." Judy said. "He's good at martial arts, is incredibly acrobatic, and he even says he's already stopped a number of crimes on his own."

"Shucks, you flatter me."

"Really, huh?" Max said, a bit skeptical. "And you just kind of showed up out of nowhere?"

"Not out of nowhere," Spike corrected. "Out of town. Big difference."

Max stared at him for a moment, and took a quick sniff. He didn't smell anything off about him, at least nothing as noticeable as it was with Kyuemon.

"He says he's a wandering vagabond." Nick said. "That he's been around the world."

"It's true!" Spike said, standing up. "Been from the north to the south, south to the east, east to the west, west to the north, and anything in between."

"So you're a perfect fighter and athlete who's been all around the world, and suddenly just decided to show up when we need someone like you." Max said, skeptically. "Convenient."

"My life hasn't been convenient, kid!" The jaguar said, before letting out a sigh and calming down slightly. "I was abandoned when I was little. I didn't know who my parents were, and I was raised by anyone who was nice enough to take me in. As I grew up, I had to learn to be stronger than anyone else, which is why I'm so good at fighting."

"Oh." Max said, slightly shocked. "Uh, sorry for assuming anything."

"Its fine, I just got a bit worked up." Spike said, before turning to face the wolf. "But its nice to meet you, nonetheless! Sorry 'bout your injury."

"Its alright." Max said. "I'm starting to get better."

"Good for you!" Spike cheered. "Soon as you're better, we can all start fightin' the forces of evil together!" He quickly spun around to face Judy again. "Speaking of 'together', I need somewhere to stay if I'm gonna be working with you. Got any ideas?"

"Oh, right!" Judy said, placing a paw to her head. "Uh, I guess you can stay at our place."

"Also known as, my place." Max said.

"Sounds like a good idea!" Spike said, flicking his jacket. "You don't have to worry about my quarters, I can sleep anywhere."

"Seriously?" Nick muttered. "We're just gonna let this guy sleep in our place?"

"Uh, yeah." Emily said, interrupting the conversation. "Me and Horns are gonna head out." She continued, pointing her thumb towards the door. Henry nodded in response, and the two headed out.

"You guys go on ahead." Nick said. "I'll be out in a minute."

"You're not going to do anything weird, are you?" Judy asked.

"What, no, of course not!"

She gave a skeptical nod, and headed out the door, Spike trailing behind her. As they left, Nick turned to Max, before hopping up onto his bed.

"Come on, you didn't think there was ANYTHING weird about that guy?" He asked.

"Well, he just kind of seems odd in general." Max said, a bit freaked out at how angry the fox was. "Listen, you have every right to be paranoid after what's happened, but I don't feel like you should push someone out of your life just because of that."

"I'm not 'pushing him out', I think there's something weird about him!" The fox shouted.

"Well, do you have any evidence BESIDES him just showing up?"

"Do you seriously think something that convenient just happens!?"

Max stared at Nick for a second.

"The group of evil soldiers that were sent to kill us just happened to be your childhood friends, the mysterious hero who helped you for weeks ended up being a guy who worked with you, and both you and Judy ended up becoming the Zoorangers together."

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it.

"Lives are filled with conveniences, Nick." Max said. "Besides, if he was a villain in disguise, he would've smelled weird. Personally, I think his story checks out."

"Fine, whatever." Nick let out, hopping back down from the bed. "See you later."

"Bye." Max said as the fox walked out.

* * *

A bit later, they arrived back at the house. "Wowser, look at this place!" Spike said as he walked through the door, stepping right over Nick and Judy. He glanced around rapidly, looking at everything.

"Its a house alright." Nick said. "You never been in one before?"

The jaguar paused from his awing, and dropped to the couch. "Well, I have, but its a bit different when you actually get to live in one for a change."

"I know that feeling." Nick said, a bit reluctantly.

Spike quickly got back up, and stretched out a bit. "So, weird question, but, where is that wrist thingy I'm supposed to get?"

The fox's ears twitched at this.

"Well, we have it hidden somewhere in the house, in case burglars break in." Judy said. "I had to hide it better after the last monster attack, it turned out that someone we trusted ending up being a villain in disguise."

"Ugh, that's terrible!" Spike said, sounding genuinely disgusted. "What kind of monster would do something like that?"

"I know, right?" Judy said.

"So, why are you asking about the Zoolizer?" Nick asked. "That's what they're called. Zoolizers."

"Hey, just curiosity, mixed with a bit of excitement." Spike said. "I mean, how could I not be when I get to be a real, super powered super hero? It's like a dream come true, you know?"

"Yeah, stop being weird, Nick." Judy said, tapping her foot rapidly. She turned back to Spike. "So, where would you like to sleep?"

"Like I said, anywhere." He replied. "Maybe somewhere warm. Haven't had that in a long while."

"You can sleep in the basement?" She suggested. "I mean, that's where me and Nick sleep, might be a bit dark for you…"

"Ooh, I love dark spaces." The jaguar said, clasping his paws together. "Why don't you show me?"

"You go down there and look around for yourself." Nick said. "I want to talk with a certain rabbit for a bit."

"Oh, private talk, I get you." He said, with a wink, before rushing off to the basement.

Nick turned to look at Judy. She was glaring at him, and he knew the exact reason why. But he needed to bring it up.

"What the heck is going on with you, Nick?" The bunny asked, shaking her head. "Do you have to be a… a JERK to everybody new we meet?"

"Carrots, I have a bad feeling about this guy." He said. "Like, a genuine, real bad feeling. Think about it, he just shows up, and wants the Zoolizer? Is that not suspicious to you?"

"Actually, it's not!" She said. "I think you're just being paranoid because you don't want to go through potentially losing someone again!"

"I'M NOT BEING PARANOID!" He growled.

"Nick, please." She said, calmly. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. Just try to trust someone for once."

"I'll prove I'm not being paranoid!" The fox continued, seeming to ignore her. He walked over to the couch, and hopped up onto it. "I'm going to sit here for the rest of the night, and see if anything suspicious happens. AND WHEN IT DOES, I'll get to do my victory dance."

"Whatever." The rabbit let out as she shook her head. "I'm going to go check on Spike."

The fox plopped down onto couch, legs crossed and tail in high alert. He was going to show her. Show her that he wasn't just emotionally ruined, that he was RIGHT about something for once.

Hours past, and the fox was still sitting there. He hadn't moved at all, not an inch from the spot. The moon had already come up, but he wasn't sure what time it was. That would require moving and take his attention away.

But he was also starting to get hungry. And thirsty.

He clutched at his stomach, and then hopped down from the couch. He headed to the kitchen to get some blueberries from the fridge.

He grabbed a pawful of the berries, and tossed a few into his mouth as he walked back to the couch. To his shock, Spike was suddenly sitting on it.

"What? How did you…?"

"Just a tip, Nick," He started. "If you want to catch someone in the act, you can't just do the same thing for hours."

"And you know this how?"

"Experience." He said. "Sit down next to me, I wanna talk."

"Uh, okay."

Nick carefully walked over to the couch, and hopped up, not dropping any of the blueberries.

"I know what's going on, you know." Spike said. "You think I'm trying to steal that Zoolizer, right?"

"Uh, noooo?"

"That's a 'yes' then." The jaguar said with a chuckle, the fox quickly letting out a groan.

"Listen mate, I know it can be hard to trust others sometimes, that's happened to me a lot." Spike continued. "But locking everyone out won't get you anywhere. Sometimes you just need to let go of your reservations and make new friends."

"Why should I have to?" Nick said, sinking into the couch. "The only thing letting others into my life has done is bring me… pain and suffering."

"I don't know what happened in your life, but I do know what happened in mine." Spike said. "And trust me, trusting others is a good thing. Sometimes you're used, but a lot of the times you end up with someone new in your life."

Nick let out a sigh, and then quickly hit himself on the forehead. The jaguar was right, he was just trying to lock others out for no reason. He wasn't being paranoid, he was being stubborn and stupid.

"You're right, I'm sorry for thinking you were evil or whatever." The fox apologized.

"No problems." Spike said. "It's a bit difficult, but once you meet the real me, I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Go get some sleep, man."

Nick nodded, and hopped down from the couch. He rubbed his eyes as he headed down into the basement, leaving the jaguar behind.

He crossed his legs, and gave a small smirk.

* * *

Enter had arrived at his next location, a construction yard. Well, it was previously a construction site, the building had been standing for a month by this point.

Still, he walked around the outside of it, in the grassy yard that had been planted. He slipped his goggles on, and started to look around.

Through his goggles, he could see what he was looking for. Particles of green energy, floating and whipping through the air, phasing through solid matter and then back out. There was quite a bit of it here, though he shouldn't have been surprised.

He pulled the device out again, and placed it on the ground, quickly tapping it so that the teeth would open up. The false cheetah stepped back, and watched as the energy was sucked into it. There was a flurry of the energy, forming into an invisible, silent tornado, existing somewhere on another plane of existence.

In a matter of seconds, the energy was absorbed completely, leaving the air clean of it. He picked the device back up, closing the teeth again.

"That should be more than enough." Enter said to himself. "But a few more stops won't hurt."

As he walked off, he looked at the device. "I might not be able to regain its physical form, but… I suppose it won't need it."

He doubted that Sambash could do what he asked. But at the very least, he could do one very important thing.

Buy him time.

* * *

"So, you talked about it last night?" Judy asked as Nick and her walked up the stairs.

"Yeah, he told me I was being an idiot." Nick said. "Though, not in those words exactly."

"Well, sometimes you need to sugarcoat things."

The two paused as they walked into the living room. Spike was laying on the couch, asleep. Well, he was basically half on the couch, his arm drooping off of it. It looked like he was about to fall off.

The two tilted their heads in confusion, and the jaguar promptly fell to the ground, landing on his let out a pained whine as he got back up.

"Maybe I shouldn't have slept there." He said, pounding at his own head. He looked at the two, eyes a bit bleary. "Oh, 'ello guys, what's going on today?"

"Uh, not much." Judy said, walking to the kitchen. "We don't have a monster to deal with, so I guess we just have the rest of the week off!"

"Oh, that's nice!" Spike said. "I was kinda hoping something would happen so I could test out those powers."

"Better luck next time." Nick said, hopping up onto his chair. "Hey, whaddya eat?"

"Me?" Spike said, a bit surprised.

"Yeah, do you eat insects, or fish, or are you a vegetarian?" Judy asked. "We have a bit of everything."

"I-insects?" The jaguar said, his cool dropping for a moment. "Uh, I'm a vegetarian. Yeah."

The three ate breakfast, the jaguar seeming to be uncomfortable the entire time. It was quite awkward.

A bit of time passed, and the three were now relaxing. Spike was still looking at some of the things in the house, while Nick played on his phone, and Judy went over some reports.

Suddenly, the rabbit's phone went off.

"Uh oh." She muttered, pulling it out. It was Clawhauser.

She quickly answered it, the cheetah appearing on the screen. "Guys we have a monster attack down in Sahara Square." He said. "And it's a BIG one! Reports are saying there's like, two-hundred monsters!"

"That's not good." Nick said, dropping his phone onto the couch.

"Obviously not." Judy followed. "We'll be there in a bit, Ben."

"Emily and Henry are there already, so you might want to be quick!" He said. "I dunno if they can hold them off that long."

Judy nodded, and hung up. Without a word she hopped off the couch. "Alright, Spike, you ready to do this?"

The jaguar looked at her, eyes beaming. "You mean its time for me to get the thing?"

"It is time for you to get the thing, yes." Judy said. "Follow me."

The rabbit and jaguar headed towards the basement, Nick trailing a bit behind. They headed down into the bedroom, and past the couch-slash-bed, into a pile of boxes. She sidestepped around the boxes, slipping through a crack. The boxes rustled a bit, before she came back out, carrying a small, wooden box.

"Was it seriously hidden there the entire time?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, why would anyone look for an advanced piece of tech behind a pile of junk?" She said. "Seems pretty obvious to me."

Nick let out a sigh and shook his head.

Judy opened the box up, revealing the blank Zoolizer. "Wow, wow, wow!" Spike said, grabbing it. "This thing is incredible!"

"Alright, before we marvel at it, let's head out." Nick said. "You can get a chance to show off to the monsters, we have friends to save."

Judy nodded, and the two rushed up the stairs. The jaguar held the Zoolizer up, and gave a quick, quiet laugh. He calmly walked up the stairs, following the two.

* * *

The three drove through the sand on their motorbikes, Spike riding on the back of the Kitsunaider. They quickly arrived at a large plaza in the middle of the district, with a large fountain in the middle of it.

Pink and Green were already there, but were fighting against a ridiculous amount of the Yartot pirates. Clawhauser wasn't wrong, there were at the absolute least two-hundred of them, but the number seemed to be an underestimation.

The bikes skidded to a halt as the three looked over the sea of monsters. They watched as Pink pistol whipped several of the pirates away, while Green rapidly fired his cannon, knocking the orange monsters away.

Overlooking it all, on a nearby building, was Sambash, who seemed to just be sitting there. The three hopped off the bikes, and headed into the fight.

"You two go in and rescue them." Spike said to Red and Blue. "I'll stay in the back and make sure that none of these guys escape."

"Alright, good idea." Blue said. The fox and her quickly leaped into the crowd of the monsters, leaving the jaguar behind.

Red pulled out his sword, and slashed through a few of the monsters as he landed. Blue, in turn, pulled out her blasters, and kicked off of one of the Yartot's heads, firing her blasters and clearing out a chunk of them with her shots.

She hit the ground right next to Pink, skidding a bit on her feet. "You guys alright?" She asked.

"About as good as we can get with-" She quickly paused, firing a few shots at some more of the Yartots. "With all these assholes running around."

"Well, you're doing a good job!" Blue said, firing a few shots at the monsters herself.

The two paused for a moment as Red leaped through the air, cutting through a few of the Yartots. "Glad to see you're alright, Em." He said. "Think we should go help Horns?"

Pink glanced over at the bull, who was currently blasting and slamming through a good number of the monsters, not seeming to have any real trouble.

"Nah, I think he's good."

"Alright, then let's clear these pirates out before they can start looting." Blue said, quickly pulling out a white ZooTag. Red followed by pulling out a yellow ZooTag. They quickly plugged them in.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

"ICH NI  
SAN SHI  
GO GO GO!  
RACING CLAWS!"

The axe appeared in the rabbit's grip, while the clawed gauntlets appeared on the fox's paws. Blue raised the massive axe upwards, before slamming it downwards, unleashing a burst of energy that almost instantly eradicated two dozen of the Yartots, causing them to burst into sand.

Red, however, dashed off, going in between the Yartots and rapidly slashing at them. The pirates started to fall one by one, until Red stopped for a quick breather. One of the Yartots tried to sneak up on him and swing its sword, but the fox reacted quickly and slashed at it.

The four continued to bash at the monsters, and soon there were only a few left. "Alright, we're almost done!" Blue said, slamming the axe's handle into the ground.

"Yo, you brought that weirdo jaguar along with you, right?" Pink asked.

"Spike?" Red said. "Yeah, he was supposed to be making sure none of them got away.

"Well, looks like he's not doing a great job." Green said.

Blue and Red looked at the way they had come in. The jaguar was missing. "What?" Blue said, glancing around. "Where did he-"

"Oh no." Red let out, pointing towards the rooftop where Sambash was.

Blue looked up. The jaguar was there, looking at Sambash, who was in turn looking back at him.

"Spike!" Blue shouted. "Get down from there, you know you can't take him!"

The two turned to look down at the four. Almost instantly, another group of Yartots appeared, surrounding the Rangers, with their swords prepped to strike at them.

"What the-?" Red let out.

"Oh, sorry 'mates'!" The jaguar shouted down, before holding the blank Zoolizer up. He quickly tossed it to Sambash, who caught the device. "Guess you should've listened to your fox friend!"

"The "jaguar" held his paw up to his face, and started to glow. There was a quick flash of light, and the jaguar was suddenly replaced with something far more monstrous.

It was a massive, muscular insectoid monster, colored red, yellow and black. Its legs were entirely black, barring its feet. Its lower legs were covered in bands, which in turn were covered in spikes. The creature's feet only had two toes, both of which ended in large talons. The rest of his leg seemed to be covered in extra armor as well, though this armor seemed to be made up of its actual exoskeleton.

Its body seemed to be very muscular at a glance, with a broad stance and visible abs. However, these also seemed to be part of the monster's exoskeleton. Its arms were covered in yellow gauntlets, which were lined with spikes, and ended with large claws. The creature's actual hands came out through a hole at the end.

This lead up to its shoulders, which seemed to be made out of the claws of a mole cricket. They didn't seem to function, but instead only worked as heavy armor, which worked its way down the monster's hunched back. Finally, its head had a grotesque, snarling face, with the elements of a mole cricket's face forming above it, complete with antenna and two spikes that pointed forwards. The creature's neck also seemed to be muscular, though this again just seemed to be part of the exoskeleton.

Blue and Red stared blankly as the monsters started to laugh.

"I can't believe you idiots fell for this!" Sambash yelled down to them. "Let me introduce you to GURINJII!"

The monster gave a quick wave. "I'm the best actor in the Barban pirate crew!" He said. "I'm so good, I can even shapeshift into other people!"

"So that's how he knew why he used pirate minions." Green said.

Red and Blue continued to remain silent.

"Let me tell you, hanging out with you guys SUCKED!" Gurinjii said. "Pretending to be all goody-good like that, for a full day? I wanted to die the entire time! And giving the hokey speech to you, fox, that was the worst part! I'm amazed you fell for it!"

"Yeah, that must have been why it was so easy for Kyuemon to trick you all." Sambash said, tossing the Zoolizer up into the air. "You're all just gullible, trusting idiots! Don't you know that trusting others is a weakness?"

Blue started to clench her fists, while Red remained completely still.

"Boss, you know what the freakiest thing about this place is?" Gurinjii said, stepping closer to Sambash. "They EAT INSECTS!"

"What!?" The biker monster said, sounding genuinely grossed out. "Ugh, that's just nasty! You guys are sick!"

Blue let out a pained yell, and then grabbed hold of the axe, quickly flinging it towards the monsters. They quickly stepped out of the way as the axe sliced through the top of the building, and continued to fly off into the distance.

"Aw look, the bunny's angry!" Gurinjii laughed. "Let me handle these weaklings, boss."

The mole cricket monster quickly pulled out a rather plain looking broadsword, and leaped down into the plaza.

Without any warning, Blue rushed at the monster, and attempted to perform a dropkick on him. She ended up hitting the dull side of the sword, and the monster quickly flung her back to the ground. Almost instantly, she attempted to attack again, this time pulling out her daggers.

She leaped up, attempting to strike the monster's sword with her own blades. They clashed, but Gurinjii quickly flicked his sword upwards, before punching her away. She hit the ground rolling, stopping directly in front of Red.

"Judy!" He said, snapping out of his daze.

"I'm fine." She said, though it was in a tone that meant she was obviously not fine at all.

Gurinjii stepped closer, preparing to bring his blade down. Pink and Green rushed in, blindsiding the mole cricket. The bull rushed into him, knocking him back, while Pink quickly fired shots directly into his chest.

"Guys, you need to go get the Zoolizer thing back!" Pink said to the Zoorangers. They nodded, and quickly rushed at Sambash.

"Oh, the bull wants a fight, huh?" Gurinjii mocked. "Let's see how well you do with a target you can't hit!"

"What?" Green said, confused. "You're a really big guy, I can hit you easily-"

The monster leaped up into the air, and then crashed down into the sand. A lump of sand started to move around rapidly around the bull.

"Oh, right." He muttered. "Mole cricket."

Blue and Red leaped up onto the roof of the building, confronting the Gun Boss himself. "You guys really think you can get this away from me?" Sambash said with a chuckle. He quickly pulled out his gun, and started to fire at the two.

The fox and rabbit leaped around the roof as Sambash shot at them. "Stay still, you rats!" He shouted.

"You can't even get our species right?" Red said as he hit the ground in front of Sambash.

The monster stepped back, and prepared to fire his gun. The fox quickly slashed at his legs with his claws, causing Sambash to stumble for a moment. As he glanced back up, Blue flew in and kicked him right in the face.

He lost his grip on the Zoolizer. It hit the roof, and bounced off into the sand. "SHIT!" Sambash yelled as he recuperated.

Red and Blue hopped down before Sambash could, and the rabbit almost instantly scooped the Zoolizer out from the sand.

"GUYS, WE'RE GOING NOW!" She shouted over to Pink and Green.

"Give us a second!" Pink shouted as she jumped around the sand. The lump of sand was still zooming around, and the two were anticipating the moment that Gurinjii would pop up.

Green was trying to stomp on the burrowing monster, but had yet to succeed. The bull lifted his foot, preparing for it, and then stomped down as the lump moved passed him. This caused the lump to flatten, and the monster burst from the ground a second later.

Unfortunately, it landed right on its feet, still carrying the broadsword. "Ow, that hurt!" It shouted, before rushing forwards, preparing to swing the blade.

It clanged against Green's cannon, but the monster's strength allowed the blade to start cutting into it. Before it could continue, lasers shot at its side, causing sparks to erupt from its body. Gurinjii let out a grunt as he turned to see Blue, with one of her blasters drawn. He quickly noticed the Zoolizer in her other paw.

"What the, how did you-?"

"Gurinjii, get them!" Sambash shouted down. "They got the Zoolizer, and if they get away with it, I'LL HAVE YOU PAY!"

"Ack, yes boss!" Gurinjii said, giving a quick salute. He readied his sword, and dashed at Red and Blue. The two rushed forwards themselves, but didn't attack.

Red quickly started to slide, going between Gurinjii's legs, while Blue leaped over the monster. He paused for a second as he turned around, preparing to attack them again.

He looked as the two kept running, with Green and Pink following behind.

"Shit!" He let out, stomping the ground.

The mole cricket monster let out a quick yelp as Sambash jumped down from the roof and landed behind him.

"Boss, please, don't hurt me, I did my best!"

"I really want to wring your goddamn throat right now." Sambash said, clutching his fists as tight as he could. He quickly loosened them up. "But that would be stupid. You know where they keep the thing, right?"

"Yep, it'll be somewhere in that house." Gurinjii said.

"Good, then we don't need them alive anymore." Sambash said. "Just go kill them, and wreck the house until you find it."

"Right." Gurinjii said, giving another quick salute. He started to stroll off, but was quickly stopped.

"Hold it," Sambash said. Gurinjii turned around again, seeing that Sambash was now carrying a small, red object. "I'm gonna give you a bit of an upgrade, just to make sure you pull this off."

"What?"

Without warning, Sambash jabbed the Chaos Badge directly into the monster's chest. It quickly fused into his body, and Gurinjii started to twitch and change.

Almost instantly, his shoulder armor burst off, now with its own set of arms connected to his back. The spikes on the front of it grew longer as well. A row of large spikes burst out of his back, traveling all the way down. His front arms started to grow a bit larger, with the metal now forming completely around his hands, and an extra claw burst from the metal. His claws were now completely movable.

His legs grew a bit larger as well, and his overall shape changed to an even more hunched over one, making it easier for his new arms to punch at things. A plate of exoskeleton armor covered his face, leaving an insect like visor over it.

"CHAOS GURINJII!" He roared, before leaping up into the air and bursting into the ground. He quickly sped off through the sand.

Sambash looked around for a moment, and kicked at the sand.

"Fuck."

* * *

Around an hour had passed since the four had arrived back at Max's house. For most of that hour, Nick and Judy had been entirely silent, as Emily and Henry simply waited for them to say anything.

Finally, Nick said something.

"We are absolute morons."

He got up from the couch, and started to pace around. "You guys aren't idiots." Emily said.

"No, we are." Judy said. "We fell for the same trick twice in a row. And we were even trying to be more cautious."

"How are we supposed to trust anyone after this?" Nick said, frustrated. "Everything he said was bullshit, even the complimentary stuff!"

"Hey, guys listen…" Emily started.

"Was I wrong to trust someone?" Judy asked, seemingly ignoring the hyena. "Like, that's how I was raised, how am I not supposed to trust someone?"

"Guys…"

"This happens every time!" Nick said with a growl, also seeming to ignore Emily. "Every time I try to let someone into my life, something goes wrong! Why does this keep happening!?"

Henry quickly slammed his hoof on the floor, catching their attention.

"Listen to the hyena." He said. "She has good advice most of the time."

"...Most of the time?" She said, sounding a bit offended. She shook it off, and cleared her throat. "You two really shouldn't be beating yourselves up about this."

"Why not?" Judy asked.

"Because I know how something like this feels." She said. "I was betrayed by someone I trusted… a long while ago."

"Her ears started to droop, and Nick's followed suit.

"But, that's not really what I mean." She continued, starting to pace around the couch. "When that happened to me, I was upset at first too, to say the least. But when I thought about it more, I started to get angry… and then I did something about it."

"You can't just beat yourselves up over a dumb mistake." She said. "It happens to everyone, and sometimes its worse than others. There are things in this world that just aren't fair, but if you let those get you down, then you'll never be able to do something about it."

"So, you're saying we should just get over it?" Judy asked. "That's something that's hard to do."

"You knew the guy for a day." Emily said. "I knew the guy who betrayed me for most of my life. It took me years to get over that."

She sat down next to Judy, and carefully placed a paw on her tiny shoulders. "I'm not saying you'll be able to get over it instantly, but you can do something about it right now. Get what I'm saying?"

"Not really." The rabbit admitted.

"I get it." Nick said. "We just have to beat that guy, and we'll start to get over it."

"Oh." Judy said, a bit disappointed.

"Well, that's not entirely what I meant-"

Emily was interrupted by the Zoolizers going off. "Alright," Judy said, standing up. "Even if I don't get it, I know what we have to do. We need to stop that monster, and make sure no one else is hurt."

The other three nodded. Nick stepped forwards, and punched his paw into his other. "I'm ready to go take out some frustration on that asshole."

"So, I don't think either of you really understood what I said," Emily said as she stood up. "But yeah, let's go save some lives."

The four quickly headed out.

* * *

Max let out a long sigh as he continued to lay on his bed. He was feeling perfectly fine at this point, and just wanted to move around again. He was starting to get really, REALLY anxious. Was he going to be stuck here for another week? The thought was terrifying.

The wolf quickly sat up as the door to his room opened. He honestly thought it was going to be Nick and Judy again, but it was the antelope doctor again.

He walked into the room with a grin on his face. "Hello, Mr. Wolford, how are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm feeling fine." Max said, laying back down.

"Well, that's good, because I have some good news."

The wolf catapulted back up.

"Everything's pointing towards you being one hundred percent healed up." The doctor said. "You should be able to leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh thank god." Max muttered.

"But you'll need to stay here until then, just in case."

"I got it." Max said. The doctor gave a nod, and headed out. Max looked over at his bedside table, eyeing his cell phone. He quickly grabbed it, and dialed up Judy's number.

She answered, but the screen didn't flick on. "Max? You called at a really bad time." She sounded a bit surprised, mixed with some form of anger. Hopefully not directed at him.

"Oh, sorry." He said. "Want me to hang up?"

"No, keep going, there's really nothing stopping you."

"Okay." He said, a bit confused. "Uh, I'm being released tomorrow. You wanna come pick me up?"

"Sure." She said. She seemed to be cheering up slightly. "Hopefully we'll have sorted this all out by then."

"Uh, what exactly is going on?" Max asked.

"Turned out that guy we tried to recruit was a monster who wanted to steal the Zoolizer." She explained, in a bizarrely matter-of-fact way.

"Oh." Max said in response. His ears perked up as he realized what she had just said. "Excuse me, what?"

"Yeah, that happened."

"Does he have the Zoolizer?"

"No, we managed to get it back, but now he's attacking the city and we need to stop him."

The wolf flicked his blankets up, and started to get up. "I'm on my way there."

"Max, don't." She said. "If the doctors don't think you're ready to go, then you need to stay. If anything happened to you…"

Max let out a sigh, before laying back down. "Fine. But you're sure you can handle this guy on your own?"

"Yeah, we should be able to." She said. "See you tomorrow."

The wolf let out a sigh as she hung up. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment.

* * *

The armored truck drove into the middle of an open city block, followed closely by a pair of bikes. The vehicles stopped at the edge of a road. The Zoorangers got off their bikes as the SPD Officers exited the vehicles. All four of them looked around.

There wasn't a monster there.

It had clearly been there, however. Various cars had been tossed around, and several nearby buildings had chunks torn from them. Rubble littered the street. Hopefully the lack of any life meant that everyone had gotten away.

"So, there should be someone here, right?" Red asked as he walked into the middle of the street.

"I don't get it, this is where the Zoolizers said to go." Blue said, scratching her head. She was interrupted as her ears perked up. She had caught the sound of… crying?

"You hear something?" Pink asked.

"I do…" She said. "Someone's crying. Its a kit."

"That's not good." Red said.

"Its over there."

The four rushed over to a nearby alleyway. Blue quietly stepped in to the alley. She held her hand back, and then turned back, placing her paw over her visor. Green and Pink nodded, but Red looked back and forth at them, confused.

"What does that mean?" He whispered.

"It means 'keep watch'." Pink whisper growled. "You've been working on the force for three years and you don't even know the signals?"

"I didn't entirely bother, no…" He said as they walked off from the entrance of the alley.

Blue quietly stepped towards a dumpster, and peeked around. There was a small bunny, crying. "Hey!" Blue whispered. "Are you alright?"

The kit turned around, and looked at her for a moment, before nodding.

She held her paw up, and helped the bunny up to its feet. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here before anything happens."

The two headed back down the alley, but halfway there, the rabbit's paw slipped out her her own. "Hey, don't let go, we're-"

She turned around, but only managed to catch a large, red object flying at her. It smacked right into her, launching the rabbit out of the alleyway. There was even a large burst of dust and rubble as she flew off, before hitting the ground and rolling across the asphalt.

"What the-!?" Red let out. The three rangers looked back into the alleyway.

They were greeted with the monstrous, large form of Chaos Gurinjii, and started to back away as he exited the alley.

"God, you fell for that again!" He laughed as his upper claws pulled him out of the alley. Almost instantly, Pink and Green started to shoot at him, but he quickly punched at their blasts. "Are you guys idiots, or what? I'm going for the first option!"

Red rushed over to Blue, and helped her back up. "You just got tricked again, Blue."

"Seriously!?" She said with a growl. She quickly got back to her feet, and pulled out the moon shaped ZooTag. "Let's dig this guy a grave."

"Ooh, mole cricket pun." Red said, pulling out the sun shaped ZooTag. "You're getting better."

They quickly plugged the ZooTags in.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, and readied their weapons.

Chaos Gurinjii stepped forwards, and smacked Pink off with one of his arms, before punching Green to the ground with one of his upper claws. "So, you guys can transform too?" The monster said with a laugh. "Lets see how you like this transformation!"

There was a bright flash, and then Chaos Gurinjii was replaced by yet another form. He was now a much smaller, somewhat sleeker blue creature, wearing a white robe and bony sandals. Its back was covered by a large, blue cloak, and its arms seemed to be covered in coral-like armor. Its head was oddly bulbous, with an anchor tattoo painted directly onto it, and a pony tail sticking out of its otherwise hairless head. A sword was sheathed at its hip.

Its face, however, was the original Gurinjii's face, looking completely out of place.

"You guys take up the samurai theme, I'll follow suit!" The monster said, with Gurinjii's heavy voice. "Prepare to be sliced like fishes!"

He dashed at the two, attempting to bring his sword down on them. The two quickly sidestepped out of the way, both ending up on either side of the monster.

"Maybe you need some extra sword training!" Blue said, leaping up and swinging her twin blades at the monster.

With lightning fast reflexes, Gurinjii pulled his katana directly under the rabbit's blade, blocking her. "I'm not the one who needs training, rabbit!"

"Yeah, but maybe you need better peripheral vision!" A voice yelled behind him.

He quickly glanced back, before Red jabbed his staff right into the monster's back. He stumbled, letting Blue push her blades off of the sword, and flip directly over him. Gurinjii quickly turned around, before Blue started to fling laser slashes at him.

The lasers exploded upon hitting him, causing Gurinjii to stumble back.

Just as he regained his composure, several laser shots started to hit him in the shoulder. He looked over to see Pink and Green, their weapons smoking.

"Didn't anyone tell you never to bring a knife to a gun fight?" Green said.

"Didn't anyone tell you never to bring a gun to a sword fight?"

"Ugh, lame." Pink said, before firing at the monster. He quickly whipped his sword around, blocking all of the shots.

"Hah, nice try!"

The monster was quickly whapped in the side of the head as Red's staff extended directly into it, causing the monster to stumble off.

"Didn't I just say something about periphery vision?" The fox said.

Red and Blue quickly moved in to attack the monster. They leaped around him, getting in blows whenever they could. The monster attempted to block each of the hits, but its singular blade wasn't good enough to block the attacks from two opponents.

The two quickly leaped back, and then pulled their own weapons back. They both thrust them forwards, Red's staff firing out a fireball, and Blue's swords firing out laser slashes. They collided with the monster, causing it to fly off.

"Augh, I can't beat you guys in this form!" Gurinjii complained as he got up. "This body's too… stuck up! I need to get a bit looser!"

"Oh great, this again." Red said, as he and Blue covered their visors.

There was another flash of light, and now the monster had changed into yet another completely different form. It was a massive change from the previous form, being a lot slimmer and a bit more feminine, though still very monstrous.

Gurinjii's face was now plastered between two large horns, both decorated with Egyptian styled stripes. This extended to two long ribbons on either side of his face as well, which acted as frames to… another, much larger version of Gurinjii's face. The rest of its body was odd as well, with reptilian arms with rows of red gems, and pink, baggy pants that ended in a pair of monstrous crocodilian feet marked with sharp claws. Its shoulders were two massive spikes, which were also plastered with hideous versions of Gurinjii's face.

"Let's see if you enjoy some MAGIC!" Gurinjii shouted, before thrusting his arms forward.

There was an instant explosion in front of the two, launching them back toward Pink and Green. They rolled across the ground, and the two quickly helped them up.

"That's… probably the creepiest thing I've ever seen." Red admitted as Pink helped him to his feet.

Gurinjii started to laugh, as he raised his hands into the air. Two wrecked cars started to float up as well, the four watching in awe for a moment, before the monster thrust his claws forwards.

The cars started to zoom towards them, before the four leaped out of the way. There was another large explosion behind the Rangers.

Before the four could even recuperate, Gurinjii thrust his hands forwards again, causing tons of tiny explosions to erupt around the Zoorangers.

"HAH HAH HAH!" The monster laughed. "THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY FOR YOU TO DEFEAT ME!"

Pink quickly rolled out of the smoke, and fired off a few shots. They connected with the face on Gurinjii's chest, causing several explosions to go off, and knock the monster back to the ground.

"I believe they call this the 'squishy wizard' phenomena." Green said, prepping his cannon. Gurinjii quickly got back to his feet, before the bull fired the cannon.

There was another explosion. This delay in attacks let Red and Blue get back up to their feet, and rush in.

As the smoke cleared, Gurinjii was back to his feet, and the two leaped in to attack. Red went for the monster's stomach, landing and quickly extending his staff into it, while Blue went for the shoulders, quickly kicking off the monster's head and flinging laser slashes at the face covered mounds.

Blue landed behind the fox as he pulled the staff backwards. He then quickly swung it forwards, slamming the monster directly in the stomach and launching him off.

Gurinjii's smoking body rolled across the ground again, before stopping on his back. "Ugh, I need something more… durable."

He quickly got to his monstrous feet, and the four Zoorangers covered their eyes once again. It quickly cleared, and the monster was replaced, once again, by another.

The new form was made entirely out of bronzed steel and far more muscular than the other two forms. Like the others, it had Gurinjii's face plastered onto it in a way that looked unnatural, but now its head was also topped with a large viking helmet, complete with horns. The rest of his body was covered, absolutely COVERED, in spikes. It looked like he was wearing a full body set of armor, but the armor was actually his skin.

He quickly pulled out a large axe, which had a large, spiked ring around its two blades. "This guy was always second best to me!" Gurinjii said. "Strong, tough… but obviously nothing compared to the boss!"

"What are you talking about?!" Red asked.

Without warning, the steel beast charged forwards, bringing his axe to the ground. The two dodged out of the way as the blade crashed into the asphalt. The force of the blow caused a large chunk of the road to crack.

He quickly pulled the axe back out, and turned to face Red and Blue. They quickly thrust their weapons forwards, shooting off projectiles. They crashed into the monster's body, causing no visible damage.

"Hah, my body is completely invulnerable in this form!" Gurinjii boasted. "Hear that, you two?" He said, turning to Pink and Green. "No cheap shots now!"

The two quickly drew their guns, and started to fire. The shots bounced off of Gurinjii's steel body, causing them to fire towards Red and Blue.

"Hey, watch where you're shooting!" Blue shouted.

"We can't do anything about this guy!" Pink said.

"Maybe you can't, but maybe I can." Green said, before stomping over to the steel monster. He lifted his cannon up, and then slammed it against the monster. The force of the blow seemed to actually cause damage, causing the monster to stumble back.

"OW! That hurt!" It shouted.

"Alright, so we just have to hit it really, really hard." Red said.

"I think that's something we can do." Blue replied.

They quickly rushed up to the monster, Red leaping up into the air in an attempt to slam his staff down on the monster's head. Gurinjii quickly pulled out his axe as the staff came down, blocking it. Blue went for the feet, rapidly slashing at the monster's steel boots.

Gurinjii quickly thrust his axe upwards, causing red to fly off. He then started to stomp around at his feet, attempting to squish the rabbit that was attacking him. "Stay still!" He grunted as he tried to stomp down on Blue.

"No deal!" She replied, backflipping away from the monster. She then kicked off the ground, launching forwards with both of her blades pointed directly at him. The force of the leap was strong enough to cause the blades to leave scrapes on the monster's steel body.

The rabbit bounced off, as Red leaped back in. He thrust his staff forwards, directly into the monster's stomach, to no effect. "Was that really the best you got?" Gurinjii taunted.

"No, but this is."

He quickly pulled the staff back, and then thrust it again, still to no effect. Then the staff retracted a bit, and then extended back into the monster's stomach. It started retracting and extending faster and faster, jabbing into Gurinjii's solid body with each hit.

It was going as fast as a jackhammer, and the monster's body suddenly started to crack "W-what!?" He shouted out as Red stopped for a moment.

He clawed at his wound for a moment, before looking at the fox again.

"This is for lying to me."

Red thrust the staff directly into Gurinjii's face, piercing directly through it. The monster let out a scream as it stumbled back, before there was another flash of light.

Gurinjii had finally reverted back to his Chaos form, and was still stumbling around in pain. "You!" He shouted, turning back to the fox and rabbit. "I'm going to CRUSH you!"

"Sorry, I think you've got that backwards!" Blue said.

All four of them rushed at the monster, which tried to squish the fox and rabbit with his front arms, but was quickly distracted as Green and Pink started to fire at him. Blue and Red slashed at Chaos Gurinjii's stomach, before they thrust their weapons into it, launching the monster off.

"Ugh, this shouldn't be possible!" He growled as he got back up. "I should be destroying you filthy vertebrates by now!"

"This is what happens when you mess with us." Blue said, sounding angrier than she had in a long while. "If you thought we'd take this lightly, then you're a complete idiot!"

Red stepped forwards, and held his staff out. It extended slightly, before Blue threw her weapons into the sides of it, forming the large crossbow weapon. Blue grabbed onto the crossbow, while Pink and Green prepared to fire their weapons.

"Ready?" Blue asked, turning to her partners. Red gave a quick nod, while Pinka nd Green gave slightly more ecstatic nods.

"WAIT!"

The four turned back to where Gurinjii was, only to now see a certain jaguar standing there.

"Hey, we don't have to do this, right?" He said, not even attempting to put on the accent. "I can just stay like this and we can be pals, get over everything, you know?"

Blue and Red glared at him for a moment. Their stares, even though he couldn't see their eyes, pierced directly through him.

Without a word, the four fired, the massive energy beam fusing with the pink and green shots and turning into an even larger beam. The jaguar quickly covered his face as the beam struck right through him.

A massive explosion erupted from where the monster was standing, both a red object and a small mole flew out of it. The tiny mammal hit the ground, unconscious.

"You two get that mole to safety." Blue said. "We'll handle the giant monster part."

"Wait!" Pink said. "Before that happens, I need to give you something."

The rabbit and fox tilted their heads in confusion as she pulled something out. It was Max's Zoolizer. "Max told me to give this to you guys in case a giant monster fight was going to happen." She said, tossing it to the rabbit. She stumbled back as she caught it. She quickly tossed Red a coin, the one that Max used to summon ZooKami.

"Do you really think that will work?" Red asked. "I thought only we could summon the big robots."

"I dunno, but we could try!" Blue said. The four quickly turned to watch as the Chaos Badge launched up into the air and into the horizon.

There was a burst of red light, before Chaos Gurinjii appeared on the horizon. He let out a roar. "COME TRY ME ON FOR SIZE NOW!"

"Well, we better try it out now." Red said, holding the coin up. Blue held the Zoolizer up, letting him plug it in.

In a flash of light, ZooKami appeared in front of them. "Alright, so that worked." Red said, genuinely surprised.

The two quickly plugged their own ZooTags into their Zoolizers, summoning their own mechs. As they entered, Blue quickly realized something.

"Wait, doesn't he need a pilot?"

In response, the robotic wolf let out a howl, before leaping through the city.

"Guess not." Red replied.

ZooSagi and ZooKitsune leaped through the city as well, traveling right behind the wolf-mech. They quickly ended up in the outskirts of the city, with the titanic mole cricket monster waiting for them.

"Let's put 'em all together!" Red said, pulling out a red ZooTag, which he quickly plugged into his Zoolizer. His Zoolizer started to let out drum beats, as he shrugged.

"BRAVEST OF ALL TIME!  
A GOLDEN GOD OF JUSTICE!  
EVIL RUNS IN FEAR!  
ZOOSHISHI!"

The massive, golden lion mech appeared, and let out a roar, stunning the monster for a moment. The four mechs quickly leaped into the air, and formed into the new golden force that was called…

"ZOOROBO BRAVE OH KAMI!"

The golden mech crashed into the ground, debris flying out in all directions as the ground beneath it cracked. It shined in the setting sun, as Chaos Gurinjii backed off, clearly intimidated.

The robot waved its sword around for a moment, and struck a pose.

Then, nothing happened.

"Is something supposed to happen…?" Chaos Gurinjii asked, a bit confused.

"Uh, give us a sec!" Blue shouted out. She quickly looked over at Red. "Why aren't we moving!?"

"Ask the empty air." He said, pointing towards Silver's cockpit. Of course, it was completely empty.

"Oh, wonderful."

"I'm going to attack now!" The monster roared as it started to stomp towards the immobile robot.

"Ack, I'm going to take over!" Blue said, before leaping over to Silver's cockpit. She quickly grabbed at the controls, causing the legs to start moving.

Unfortunately, the arms started to droop, and dropped the sword to the ground.

"Oh, OF COURSE!" The rabbit shouted.

"Should've seen that one coming." Red sighed.

Gurinjii rushed at them, but ZooRobo quickly stepped out of the way. As the monster came to a halt. The mech lifted up its leg, and kicked Gurinjii back, before stumbling off.

"How about I take the arm controls?" Red asked.

"Won't we lose control of whatever you're controlling?" Blue asked.

"It's just the head, I don't really see anything going wrong."

The fox quickly leaped over to Blue's controls, and started to move the controls. The mech instantly responded, stomping forwards and punched Chaos Gurinjii's right in the face. The monster stumbled back from the blow.

It let out a grunt, before looking down at the large sword on the ground. He quickly picked it up in his claws. "Can't defeat me if you don't have this!" He taunted, waving the sword around.

"He has a point." Red said.

"Give that back!" Blue shouted. ZooRobo stomped forwards, preparing to attack the monster, but it quickly sidestepped out of the way.

"Turn around!" Red yelled. Blue attempted to turn the mech around, but its head wouldn't follow. They couldn't react in time, Gurinjii struck them in the back with both of its shoulder fists.

"Why didn't the head move!?" Blue shouted, absolutely panicked.

"Oh, shit, that was what I was supposed to be controlling!" Red replied.

"Guess we'll just have to react faster." Blue said.

Gurinjii hopped across the field, still clinging on to the sword. "If we can get the sword back, we can beat him." Red said.

"Here goes nothing, then!" Blue said, before ZooRobo charged in.

The mech charged at the massive mole cricket monster, who let out a laugh. "I can keep this up all day!" It shouted, before leaping forwards, and flying over ZooRobo.

As he flew over, however, the mech punched him right in the stomach, causing the monster to fall out of the sky, dropping the sword in the process.

ZooRobo quickly rushed over and dropped into a roll, picking the sword up in the process. "Alright, now we just need to soften him up a bit!" Blue said.

The monster let out a groan as it got back up. It quickly spotted the golden blade, now in ZooRobo's metallic hands.

"Yuh oh."

ZooRobo quickly rushed in, and slashed at the monster. Sparks erupted from his body as the sword connected. This was quickly followed up by another slash, and then a kick, which knocked the monster back.

Gurinjii quickly reared his massive punching arms, and started to stomp forwards. ZooRobo quickly slashed his blades twice, firing off golden laser slashes that went directly through the monster's back arms. He let our a yelp of pain as they dropped to the ground.

"Let's finish him off for good now!" Blue ordered.

ZooRobo slashed its blade downwards, forming a crescent shaped mirage of energy. Energy then started to gather in the lion head on its chest, forming a mirage of the sun. The energy fired out as a beam, combining with the moon energy. It crashed into the monster, causing a massive explosion.

"BOSS, I FAILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED!" Gurinjii shouted as he stumbled about, before exploding for a second time.

ZooRobo slowly turned around as the explosion erupted, and proceeded to strike a pose.

"Nature, protected."

* * *

A bottle smashed against the rocky wall of the cavern. This hadn't been the first one, as a pile of shattered glass, liquor, and frustration had been formed over the last few hours.

Sambash rested his head against the table, holding a half-full bottle. He let out a groan as he lifted himself up, and started to pour the liquid onto his face.

Enter walked into the base, quickly turning back into his human form. He glared at Sambash as he slumped back down onto the table. "I'm assuming things didn't go well." He asked as he walked past.

Instead of responding, Sambash tossed the bottle over his shoulder, it nearly hitting Enter. "It went like shit." Sambash finally said, before hanging his head and letting out a sigh. "Listen man, I'm real sorry. Guess I'm just worthless."

"Actually, you did incredibly well."

Sambash glanced back up at the robot, and proceeded to stand up. He seemed angry. "Are you pitying me?"

"What? Non non non!" Enter said. "Your plan worked amazingly well to distract the Zoorangers while I worked on part of my next… plan."

"The thing involving that… energy whatever, right?" Sambash asked.

"I managed to gather all I needed." Enter said, clutching the device in his hand. "And as I said, I'll so anything you want. Nothing stupid, though."

"Aw." Sambash let out, sarcastically. "I was going to make you do the chicken dance."

Enter glared at him.

"Alright, you want to hear what I want?" He said.

"I want jewels."

Enter looked at him, slightly confused. "Jewels? Your big plan involves… jewels?"

"The shiniest goddamn jewels you can find!" Sambash replied. "The most valuable ones in the entire city! I need a lot of them. A LOT of them."

Enter let out a sigh. "I… suppose I can work that out." His rather disappointed tone seemed to shift in a moment. "Actually… that's perfect."

He started to walk away. "Hold it." Sambash said. "Why'd you even want the Zoolizer? Its not like you could use it."

"Oh, I have my ways."

* * *

"Man, is it good to get some fresh air!" Max said, stretching his arms out as he exited the hospital. Nick and Judy followed behind him, and watched as the wolf started to stumble for a moment.

Judy rushed up and tried to help him. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just…" The wolf made a disgusted face, and then shook his head. "Its just because I was laying down for two whole weeks."

"That happened to me once." Nick said.

"Really?" Judy said, a bit surprised. "What put you down?"

"Depression."

The mood dampened for a moment.

"Anyway, uh, sorry about what happened with… that guy." Max said as they closed in on the police cruiser. "I should've been able to figure out something was up with him."

"Yeah, it… sucked." Nick said, rather bluntly. "Don't you guys think its weird how we havent found anyone besides Finnick to play the part?"

"Yeah, it's a bit strange." Max said, his vertigo kicking in again for a moment. "The only other candidates have been villains manipulating us."

"And that's a mistake we're never going to make again." Judy said with a commanding tone as the three hopped into the cruiser, the rabbit at the wheel. "From now on, we're keeping the Zoolizer locked up. Forever."

"Excuse me?" Nick spat out from the passenger seat.

"Forever?" Max said from the back seat, a bit shocked. "But, what about ZooYellow?"

"If the bad guys want it, its too dangerous to even have around." Judy said. "I trust that the five of us can defeat the villains, and a villain getting their hands on it could be disastrous. This is what AkaRed warned us about when we first met him, so I suggest we follow that advice."

"I suppose that's… fair." Max said, slightly disappointed. He quickly sat back up, and placed his paws on the back of the driver's seat. "Hey, if you're dropping bombs, can I drop one too?"

"What?" Judy said, confused. She had just placed the key in the ignition.

"I want you guys to move out of my house."

Both of them turned to look at him.

"...WHAT!?"

* * *

Enter looked on into the midday sky. It had taken a few hours for the energy he had collected to gestate and form. He had realized that it was ready when it started hopping around violently. He pressed down on the top of the device, causing it to open.

The energy started to swirl out, fully visible and taking on the form of green mist. It swirled around in the air, before taking on a concrete, though still intangible shape.

It formed into a skull, specifically the form of a canine's. The eye-holes quickly lit up with orange lights, and the skull started to look around.

"What? Where am I?" It snapped, in a slithering voice.

"'Allo there, Monsieur Savage."

The skull glared at enter for a second. "You! You're one of Long's buddies!"

"Buddies is a strong word." Enter said. "We're more like… business partners."

"What happened? I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare." Savage asked. "And… what happened to my body?"

"Long removed your energy from that lion's body, remember?" Enter explained. "Without anything to channel your form, you were just meaningless energy. I collected that energy up, and rebirthed you."

"I would have appreciated a body." The skull said.

"I have my limits." Enter said. "But, I would like to make a deal with you."

"No thanks, I've had enough deals for my immortal lifetime." Savage said, turning away from Enter.

"This is a deal with only good for both of us." Enter said. "I need your energy, and I can grant you a body at the same time. It's a win-win situation."

"Interesting, but how do I know you won't betray me like your 'business buddy'?"

"Trust me," Enter started, with a rather sly smirk. "I have more important people to betray."

"I don't know what that means, but I believe you… a bit." Savage said. "I'll go with it, as long as I get to kill some things."

"There will be plenty of killing." Enter assured. "But we'll need to wait a while before we can get started. And you need to hide."

"Got it." Savage said. "Oh, question."

"What is it?"

"Whatever happened to that snake, Long?"

"Right now, he's stuck in a wall."

"Hah, nice."


	40. Thief in the Night

A shadowy figure stepped through the ornate museum. It was pitch black out, and the few souls left in the building had no idea that he was here. He let out a chuckle as he walked closer to a glass case in the middle of the room.

The grand exhibit of the place, a massive ruby, claimed to have been owned by royalty in the mid-eighteen-hundreds, and potentially thousands of years older than even that. He admired it for a moment, before stepping back.

There was a quick flickering of light on his shoulder, something quickly popping up from it as well. Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of its shoulder, and collided with the glass case. He drew a circle with the beam, and then finished. He knelt down, and pulled the glass out carefully. Placing it on the ground, he grabbed the ruby.

As he pulled it out, sirens started to wail. He tossed the ruby up as he watched four guards run into the room, each being an animal of fairly large demeanor.

"STOP!" One of them, a buffalo, yelled. "DROP THE RUBY!"

The thief faced them, and let out a much heftier laugh as the guards stepped back in shock. "What the hell is that thing?" The pig guard asked.

"A good thief never exposes his identity!" The thief said. Something on his shoulder flicked up again, revealing to the guards what looked like a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass quickly shot out several bursts of light, which hit the ground in front of them and burst into smoke.

The guards coughed and waved the smoke away, revealing that the thief had completely vanished, alongside the ruby.

"What the…?" The buffalo said, shocked. "Where did he…?"

"Just going to say it, but I think we have a problem." The rhino guard said. "I'm calling the police station. We're getting some experts in on this."

"Good idea." The buffalo said. "You calling for a detective?"

"No, I think we need something better than a detective." The rhino said. "That thing wasn't a mammal."

"Wait, you don't mean…?"

The rhino nodded.

"We need the Zoorangers."

* * *

 

The rabbit and fox walked into the station, looking absolutely exhausted. Clawhauser watched them as they drearily walked to the bullpen. "You two alright?" He asked, a bit worried.

"Yeah, we're fine." Nick said, letting out a yawn.

"Because you look exhausted." Ben continued. "Were you guys up late?"

"We've been trying to look for an apartment." Judy said. "We were out all day, trying to find the right place."

"I thought a few of the places were nice, but Miss Picky here has to have it all be perfect." Nick said.

"Nick, every single place you picked was a dump."

"Yeah, but they were cheap dumps."

"I thought you guys were living with Max? He decide to kick you out?" Clawhauser asked.

"Yeah, he did." Nick said.

"'Kicking out' is a bit harsh." Judy followed. "Its a good thing that we've been saving our money ever since we got back to work."

"Oh, I get it, if you pool the money together, you'll be able to buy one!" Ben said.

The two nodded. "Biggest problem is that we haven't found any places with furniture already." Judy said.

"Well, we have, but apparently they weren't good enough for you." Nick mumbled.

The rabbit glared at him for a second. "We left all our furniture back at our old place. Didn't exactly have time to move it all out."

"Well, hope you guys get successful sometime soon!" Ben said. "You better hurry, you'll be late for roll call."

"Right, thanks for the chat, Ben!" Judy said with a wave as they headed off.

The two paused as a gruff voice shouted down at them.

"HOPPS! WILDE!"

The two looked up slowly, spotting Bogo looking down from the floor above them. He was glaring at them, and made a quick motion with his thumb towards his office. He promptly stormed off.

"That's not good." Nick said. "That was his 'you messed up badly' look."

The rabbit gave a nervous nod, and the two headed up to the office. "Did you do something stupid again?" Judy whisper asked as they approached his door.

"We weren't even here yesterday!" He replied. "How could I have done something stupid in the five minutes we've been here?"

"Remember the time with the coffee and the mop?" Judy asked.

"Oh, come on, that wasn't five minutes."

"You're right. It was three minutes and fifteen seconds. I timed it."

"Well, I…" Nick grunted as they headed into his office. To their surprise, Max, Emily, and Henry were all there. It looked like they were all waiting for them. Max in particular looked very tired.

"Yo." Emily said. Henry just gave a quick nod.

Bogo let out a snort from behind his desk. "You're finally here."

"Were we supposed to be here?" Nick asked.

"I called you two hours ago." Bogo explained. "The only one who answered was Wolford."

The wolf snapped awake for a moment at the sound of his own name. He glanced around, a bit confused.

"Oh, uh, yeah!" Max said. "You guys slept through the call. Bogo wanted us to come here earlier, but I managed to get you guys an extra hour of sleep."

"Yes, Wolford explained to me about yesterday." The buffalo said. "But just because I understand doesn't mean I'm not disappointed."

"Missing an important call two hours before work, I think that might be a new record!" Judy joked.

"Hey, this is your mistake too." Nick replied.

"So, considering all of us are here, I'm guessing we have an emergency?" Judy asked.

"Of a sort." Bogo said. "Last night we received a call from the National History Museum about a robbery. The Rodentia Ruby was stolen last night. "

"Sounds pretty normal." Judy said, a bit confused.

"Normal, aside from the robot with lasers." Emily joked.

Bogo nodded. "The report we got said that the thief wasn't a regular mammal. We can't verify this, but its best for all of you to go investigate. See if you can work anything out before things get out of hand."

"Yes, sir." The five said. Judy, Max, Emily, and Henry walked out of the room, Nick trailing behind them.

"Wilde."

The fox paused, and turned to the buffalo. Nick could feel Bogo's stare piercing directly through him.

"I'm growing a bit thin on patience with you two." He said. "If you two keep messing with police business without a good reason, I might have to do something… drastic."

"Uh… y-yessir." Nick said, before quickly running out.

Bogo let out a sigh, and leaned back in his seat, pulling out his phone. "That oughta put him in line for now."

* * *

 

"The Rodentia Ruby…" Judy said as they looked around the museum. It was part of the exhibit on priceless artifacts. The room was one of the best kept in the entire museum, and as such was one of the better looking ones as well. It was lined with red carpets, and each display had a comforting brown and gold design to it.

"Why's it called that?" Nick asked.

Judy looked at him, a bit surprised. "Hey, I have more important things to learn than about big gemstones." He said.

"The ruby was found back in the eighteen-hundreds, in Old Rodentia." Henry started, quickly interrupting them. "It was found by a group of miner mice who were trying to find materials for townhouses, but they found a ruby around half as tall as either of you."

"Wait, it was seriously that large?" Nick said, surprised. "With a name like that, I would have expected it to be tiny."

"Its called the Rodentia Ruby because it was made into a display piece outside the queen's castle after they found it." Judy continued. "Do you not read history books or something?"

"I prefer to live in the now, rather than the past."

The five walked up to the large casing in the middle of the room. The glass case had only been touched on one side, a large chunk of it had been cut into a circle, which in turn was placed on the ground.

Oh yeah, and the ruby was missing.

"The security for this room is supposed to be impregnable." The buffalo guard said to Judy. "The four of us were guarding every possible exit, and the only way out would have been through the ceiling window."

Judy glanced up at the window. It hadn't been touched in any way, not a single hole. How could a criminal, monster or not, have gotten out without leaving a single trace?

"You're completely sure that he didn't take a more obvious exit?" Nick asked. "Like, no gratings, or…?"

"Completely sure." The guard said. "It vanished right in front of us in a puff of smoke, just like that."

"And you're also completely sure this was a monster attack?" Max asked. "Any description of what he looked like?"

"It was dark." The pig guard said. "We could only make out shapes. All I saw was that it had a top hat and a cape on."

"Did you see how it carved this glass out?" Judy asked, stepping on the large chunk of glass.

"No, the alarm only goes off when the ruby is removed, so we only got alerted when he took it." The rhino guard said. "But it shot a laser at us from its shoulder, that could have something to do with it, but…" He shrugged.

"So, we don't have any actual evidence that its a monster." Emily said, a bit annoyed. "It could have just been someone in a top hat."

"Well, guess that means we can head home." Nick said, clutching his paws together.

"Nick, we can't do that." Judy said, slightly angry. "Monster or not, this is a crime, and its our jurisdiction to deal with it."

"Alright, alright, it was just a joke." Nick said. "But personally, I think this is just some wannabe supercriminal who got lucky."

"I think it might be a monster, actually." Henry said, a bit out of nowhere.

"What give you that idea, Horns?" Nick asked.

The bull looked at the casing, examining it a bit. "Well, for one, look at how tall this case is." he said. The casing only reached around half way up Henry's entire body, meaning that it was of middling size. "Then look at how the glass was carved." He continued.

Judy looked at it for a moment. The hole was slightly off-center, and even a bit oddly shaped. "So?" Nick interrupted. "He was off center, what does that mean?"

"Well, the thief had a laser attached to its shoulder, and this placement matches up perfectly if he was standing directly in the middle." The bull continued to explain. "And if you factor in how the glass was cut…"

He placed a hoof on the glass, and started to slide it across the circles. The glass was angled like it had been cut from slightly above, getting flatter at the top and sharper at the bottom.

"...It was cut from slightly above."

"Then that means we're dealing with someone in the middle size class, right?" Max guessed, speaking from experience. Henry nodded in response.

"But here's the problem," The bull continued. "No medium sized mammal has shoulders broad enough to fit where this was cut."

"That's definitely odd." Judy said. "I guess we can't rule out a monster just yet, huh?"

"I never ruled it out, I just said it wasn't very likely."

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring. She quickly answered it, Bogo's face showing up on the screen. "Chief, what is it?" She asked.

"More news related to your case, potentially." He said. "We just got an influx of calls from other museums, art galleries, private collectors, and jewelry stores. All of them had some kind of precious jewel stolen, well wnough that most of them didn't notice until the morning."

"Were there any details?" She asked. "Size, species, anything?"

"All we got were hysterical calls." The chief said. "If you want details, go and ask them yourselves. I'm sending you a list of the sites."

He hung up, and the rabbit quickly slipped her phone back into her pocket, before letting out a sigh. "Looks like we have a lot of running around to do today." She said.

"Ugh, don't we ever get to have a break?" Nick moaned.

"Obviously not." Max followed up.

"There's no guarantee this is the same guy, but all of this happening on the same night definitely isn't a coincidence." Judy said. "Let's head out."

* * *

 

"Hah, look at all these gems!" The skull said as it floated around the table. It was completely littered with gems of all kinds. Small, large, blue, green, red, opaque, clear… a gem suitable for every type of person was there.

"This is the most color I've seen in this place!" Savage said, mockingly. "Seriously, you could lighten this place up a bit."

"I don't care." Enter said. Savage let out a growl, before floating over to Enter.

The two turned to face the monster who had collected all of the gems. "You did an excellent job for just one night." Enter complimented. "But, what else should I expect from Louperoid?"

"Hah hah, you flatter me!" The monster said.

Louperoid was a humanoid robot, much like the rest of the Metalroids, though he in particular was very human looking. His body was almost entirely black, only marked by orange markings sporadically scattered across his body, each shaped like a diamond or crystal. The black was only broken up by yellow-gold wires on its chest, red lines running across its body, silver highlighting, and, bizarrely, an entirely red left leg.

Its head seemed to mostly consist of a large top hat, with four blue lights on it, and a heart design at the very top. Under the top hat was its actual face, a stump with one eye on its right side, formed from a large lens. It also had a cape, which seemed to actually be a large sheet of black and silver metal, formed into a three pointed, stiff cape.

It also had very large shoulder pads, each marked with yellow like on its chest, and large silver objects. He also carried a cane, fit for his size. It was entirely silver, but with a large, red ball on top of it.

"I must say, I'm impressed myself!" Louperoid boasted, rubbing its free hand on its face, in the exact position a mustache would be. "I was thinking of going for a second run, actually!"

"Fine." Enter said, looking over at the gems. "Sambash said he needed a lot, so the more the merrier."

"Tally ho!" The monster said, spinning its cane around. "But after all that, I'm afraid that things might end up getting too easy! A daylight run would make it tougher, yes, but what else could give me the challenge I so desperately crave?"

"I have a challenge for you." Enter said. "I need you to steal something from some very special animals."

"Ah, those meddling Zoorangers, correct?" Louperoid guessed. "What could those knaves have that's possibly worth my accomplished thieving prowess?"

"They wear these things on their wrists." Enter said, grabbing onto his own wrist. "They call them 'Zoolizers'. I need you to steal all of them for me."

"Hah, that's all?" Louperoid said. "That will be like stealing a confectionery from an infant!" He gave a quick wave of his cane, before vanishing in a burst of light.

"That guy talks a LOT." Savage muttered. I barely understood any of that!"

* * *

 

Several hours had passed since they had been given the case. They had been around the entire city, been to every spot that had called in, all twenty-five of them.

They were absolutely exhausted.

"You know, I was hoping we wouldn't be running around all day for two days in a row." Nick grumbled as he sunk back into the couch.

"I just wanted an extra hour of sleep…" Max followed up, rubbing his temples.

"Judy was busy looking at a handful of notes on the coffee table. They had managed to gather some more info… at least, a tiny bit more. The evidence consisted of witness anecdotes, security tape footage, and scene investigation.

Henry had been a major help throughout all of this. Judy wasn't even aware he had such good deductive skills. Guess you never really know a guy when he doesn't talk a lot.

The evidence was all pointing towards one thing, something they probably should have seen coming. The thefts weren't normal. Whoever had done this had somehow managed to avoid security cameras, even when they were aimed at the gem they were planning on stealing.

"What do you think the monsters want with gemstones?" The rabbit asked. "Doesn't seem like there's much value there."

"Maybe they're looking for, like, a mythical magical gem?" Max suggested.

"Well, so far they've only taken really shiny rocks." Nick said. "I don't see anything magical about that."

"Hey, I've watched a lot of things with magical rocks." The wolf said. "Villains are attracted to those things, you know."

"They could be stealing them just to make trouble." Judy suggested. "I mean, they didn't really need to steal all that money that one time…"

"We still don't know if it's actually a monster yet, you know." Nick said.

"You really think somehow managing to break into heavily guarded museums and collections without being spotted at all, even by cameras, is something a normal thief could do?" Judy said, a bit unimpressed by how stubborn the fox was being.

"It's a possibility, you know."

"It doesn't really matter." Max said, with a quick sigh. "either way, if it's a normal thief or a monster, we've pretty much reached a dead end."

"You're right." Judy said, quickly hopping back onto the couch. "We can't do anything until we catch the crook in the act. And who knows how long that'll take…"

She watched as Nick pulled out his phone, and started to browse something. "What are you doing?" Judy asked, trying to lean over and peek.

"Apartment hunting." he said. "Need to do something to pass the time, right?"

"How's that going, by the way?" max asked. "You guys were out all day, you had to have had some success, right?"

"It went terribly." Judy said.

"For you." Nick quickly followed.

"Nick, one of those places had rat squatters!"

"I thought you were Miss Tolerance?"

"I don't tolerate HAZMAT ZONES!"

"You see what it's like?" Nick said. "I pick out a bunch of great places, and she finds something to nitpick!"

"Uhhh huhhhh." Max let out. "Why don't you just let Judy pick one?"

"Because every apartment that's perfect for her is also a thousand a month."

"Okay, yeah, I'll admit that." Judy said. "But I had to live in a nightmare apartment for a few years, I'm not doing that again."

"Why can't you just let us stay here for a bit longer?" Nick asked. "We've been getting along well, I don't see that much of a problem."

Max looked at him for a moment. "For the past few months, I have been letting you live here out of the goodness of my heart, and you two have been great guests… but you also haven't spent a single penny on any of the necessities that we have."

The two's ears started to droop a bit.

"I've been paying for everything while you two were saving up. I'm nearly broke, and Kitmas is coming up soon." He continued. "I need to save some money up for that… and, well, honestly its just been a bit awkward recently. What if someone comes over to see me, and you guys are just… there, y'know?"

"Alright, alright, I get it." Nick said, a bit annoyed.

"I can give you guys however long you need, but I'm going to be sticking to your asses from now on." He continued.

"So, who's this 'someone' you want to come over?" Judy asked curiously, a smirk on her face.

"Ooh, asking the big questions." Nick said, with a laugh as he elbowed her.

"W-what?" Max said, a bit embarrassed. "It was a hypothetical someone, not anyone real!"

"The two glanced at each other, and then back at the wolf. They did not buy that at all.

"You hunting after someone special, Wolfsbane?" Nick said with a chuckle. "Who is it?"

"It's no one, seriously." Max said, starting to get angry.

"Alright, we were just joking." Judy said, Nick glanced at her for a moment, before nodding hesitantly.

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing noise. The Zoolizers were going off, which meant that a monster was attacking.

"Oh thank god." Max whispered to himself.

"Hey, maybe this is the monster we're looking for!" Judy suggested. "Maybe we can stop him before he causes any more trouble."

Nick and Max nodded, and the three quickly headed out.

* * *

 

"Where is it!?"

"I-I don't know!"

The monster slammed its cane into the desk, leaving a visible crack on its otherwise smooth finish. The rest of the bank's patrons started to scatter after the strike echoed. He glared at the gazelle teller. "Don't you lie to me, I know you know where it is."

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" She replied.

"The four million dollar pearl!" He shouted. "I know that this bank had it stored years ago. Tell me where it is!"

"I've only been working here for a year, I don't know!" She yelled back. "Talk to the manager or-"

The door slammed open, causing the monster to turn around. "See? Told you it was a monster!" Blue said as Red, Silver and her rushed in.

"Alright, alright, I'll admit I was just being really hopeful." Red said.

"Ah, there you three are!" The monster said. It quickly spun back around to the teller, and tipped its hat at her. "Thank you for your time, madame, but I have a withdrawal to make."

"What-?"

He spun back around again, and flicked his hand out. "Buglers, get them!" he ordered. Suddenly, an army of the purple, robotic footsoldiers appeared, armed with their massive claw weapons.

Louperoid then leaped over the barrier between him and the teller, and headed off into the back of the bank.

"If you were just going to steal it, why did you even ask me where it was!?" The teller shouted.

The Zoorangers drew their weapons and rushed at the platoon of monsters. Blue rushed in first, leaping up and kicking one of the Buglers in the face, which in turn launched her off so she could slice through a few more in midair.

Red and Silver headed in next, the fox leaping off of the wolf and slashing down in midair, cutting a Bugler directly in half. He then spun around and quickly slashed through the ankles of a few more of them.

Silver blocked at a few strikes the Buglers attempted to make, but quickly knocked them back, before jabbing through a number of them. He then quickly spun his blade's guard around, switching it to Moon Mode. He whipped his blade forwards, lashing through a few more of the monsters.

Red and Blue continued to fight through the Buglers, doing well for quite a bit. After cutting downa few more, Blue prepped her daggers, and readied another strike as one of the Buglers closed in.

Before she could do anything, her eyes seemed to start to close by themselves. She caught herself, shaking her head to keep herself awake as the Bugler rushed in. She got her bearings back, before backflipping out of the way as it attempted to strike her. In response, she pulled out her blasters, and fired a few shots at it.

"The heck was that?" Red asked, sounding a bit concerned.

"Ugh, I think the last two days are starting to catch up to me." The rabbit replied. "I just felt really… tired for a second, there."

"Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us." The fox said, a bit worried.

The three continued to fight through the robots until nearly all of them were laying on the ground in pieces.

Once they were clear, the three leaped over the counter, and behind the teller. "What was that monster after?" Blue quickly asked the her.

"Uh, some pearl?" She said, not really knowing what else to say. "He might have headed to the vault at the back of the building."

"Got it." Red said. The three quickly rushed off down the hall, leaving the teller confused and tired.

They reached a large vault near the back of the building. It had been opened, somehow, and the inside was lined with gold, stacks of cash, and several jewels. Standing in the middle of it all was the monster, who was resting on his cane.

"Hello there!" He said, picking his cane up and twirling it around. "Fancy meeting you all here."

"Cut the chitchat, crook," Red started. "You're the guy who's been going around stealing gems, aren't you?"

"Oh my, I thought you'd never figure that out!" The monster said with a chuckle, before performing a courteous bow. "My name is Louperoid, master thief by trade."

"Well, we're not going to let you take anything else." Blue said. "You're going down, here and now!"

"Yeah, you're going to cash in your last check!" Silver followed up.

"Please, can we make this fight at least a tad respectable?" The monster said, sounding surprisingly annoyed. "Puns are so… juvenile."

"Well, I already hate this guy." Red admitted.

The three rushed into the vault, and started to fight with the monster, who readied his staff as a weapon. Blue and Red leaped up, clashing their blades with the monster's cane, before he managed to push them back to the ground.

He quickly whipped his metallic hand forwards, causing wires to spring out of his wrists and lash at the two. They leaped out of the way as the wires hit the ground, and then quickly retracted back into the monster's body.

Silver rushed in next, and entered a duel with the Metalroid. They clashed weapons together for a few seconds, before the monster effortlessly seemed to push him back, and then jab him directly in the stomach, causing a quick burst of sparks.

Silver yelped in pain for a moment, briefly glancing down at his chest before looking back up. The monster had suddenly vanished in the brief second he had looked down.

"What the-?" He quickly let out, before feeling a sharp pain in his back. The wolf was flung forwards into the wall, briefly catching the shape of Louperoid as he flew. The force of the impact shook a few of the gold bricks.

"What just happened?" Blue asked.

"I dunno, it was like he just vanished!" Red said.

"Indeed!"

The fox did a double take as he looked to his side. The monster had suddenly appeared there, and delivered a quick kick to the fox. He slid across the ground as the monster let out a quick laugh.

"There is a reason why I'm considered a master thief, you know." He said, smugly. "And as it turns out, those skills are very useful in combat!"

The three Rangers grouped back together as the monster talked. As they prepared to launch another attack, two things popped out of the robot's shoulders. They looked like large… lenses?

Before they could do anything, several lasers shot out of the devices, hitting the ground at their feet and causing quick bursts of smoke.

"Ack, what the-?" Blue let out as the smoke plumed.

Before the smoke could even clear, the monster appeared behind them, and quickly whacked all three of the Zoorangers away with his cane.

As the three attempted to recover, the monster turned to one of the shelves in the vault. He quickly noticed the shiny, white orb sitting there. "There you are, my beauty!" He declared, picking it back up.

"You put that down!" Blue yelled as she aimed her blasters at the monster.

"Oh, excuse me for a second." He said, politely.

Not taking any chances, the rabbit fired two shots at the monster. However, in the moment that the lasers fired out, the monster suddenly vanished, alongside the pearl.

"Wh-what!?" She let out, looking around. "Where did he-!?"

"WATCH OUT!"

Blue glanced up, and dodged out of the way of her own lasers. The lasers had bounced off of the gold, and in turn continued to bounce off of the reflective surfaces that littered the vault.

"Another reason for no guns inside!" She quickly yelled.

The three continued to dodge the blasts for a minute, before Louperoid reappeared, and swatted them away with his cane. He no longer held the pearl.

"Sorry for the delay, I stopped for a bite to eat!" He joked as he stepped forwards. "Now, where were we?"

The robot suddenly vanished again, appearing almost instantly in front of Silver. It delivered a quick punch to the wolf, before suddenly appearing behind him, and then kicking him in the back. He disappeared and reappeared again. This time kicking Blue up into the air, and then quickly appearing in front of Red and smacking him with his cane.

The monster continued this teleportation trick for far longer than it should have, popping in and out to smack one of the three around for a moment, and then moving on to another one of them in the split second he had appeared.

Eventually, the three were littered around the room, battered and beaten.

"I believe I've had my fun for the day." Louperoid said, tipping his hat. "Now, its time to get to business."

It disappeared again, before red was suddenly scooped into the air by his wrist. Louperoid had appeared again, free hand reaching for the Zoolizer on his wrist.

"Hey, you're not allowed to touch that!" Red shouted, before swinging his body into the monster. However, before he could even collided with the monster, Louperoid had vanished and then reappeared, gripping onto the fox's wrist from the opposite side.

"My my, talk about a bad aim!" The monster joked. He quickly grabbed the Zoolizer on Red's wrist, and somehow managed to start to pull it off.

Red let out a scream of pain as the monster pulled it off, and then dropped him to the ground. There was a flash of red light, and Red had reverted back into Nick. He struggled to get up for a moment, but quickly fell to the ground, passing out in the process.

"One down, two to go!" The monster said. He quickly vanished again, this time picking up Blue and almost instantly repeating the same process.

The rabbit had barely any time to react before she was wracked with pain, and then knocked unconscious, reverting back to Judy and dropping to the ground.

"Hah, Master Enter made this sound like it would be a challenge!" Louperoid laughed, tossing the two Zoolizers up into the air. He turned around and looked at Silver, who was starting to recover, and even had his blade drawn. "My, you're eager to lose, aren't you?"

"GIVE THOSE BACK!" The wolf shouted. He quickly rushed at the monster, and the two clashed weapons.

For a brief moment.

He only saw the sparks from the metal clashing appear, and then the monster was gone.

"Honestly, if you wanted to be defeated, you could have just asked!"

He could feel the monster preparing to strike from behind him, so he swung his blade around, and blocked the monster's cane. He tried to keep the monster at bay for a moment, but he could suddenly feel his legs get weaker.

No, not now! He just needed to keep it up for a bit longer…

"Looks like you didn't get enough rest, eh?" The monster taunted as it pushed the wolf back. "I wonder if you could have taken me on even if you weren't. Either way, it looks like you could use a NAP!"

Louperoid raised his cane, and then slammed it down, knocking the blade out of the wolf's paws. The robot then quickly grabbed onto his Zoolizer, and pulled it off. There was a sahrp jolt of pain through his body, before everything went black.

…

The rabbit took a deep breath as she jolted up and looked around. She shook her head as she got up, and then noticed Nick, laying on the ground. She quickly ran over, and shook him. After that didn't work, she slapped him.

"OW!" He shouted, getting up from the metal floor. "I'm in enough pain as is, I don't need any mroe thrown on me!"

"Sorry, but you weren't waking up." She said. "And we have an even bigger situation now."

Nick glanced at Judy's wrist, which she was gripping. Her Zoolizer was gone. He looked down at his own wrist, and his was gone as well.

They both looked over at the still unconscious Max, and ran over, rolling him onto his back in an attempt to wake him up. He groggily got up. "Can't you guys just let me sleep for a bit longer…"

"Yeah, not right now." Nick said. "That guy stole our Zoolizers."

"Oh, so that wasn't just a nightmare." The wolf said, rubbing his head before getting up.

An dreadful silence fell over the three for a few minutes.

"So…" Max started, rubbing his wrist. "What… what are we supposed to do now?"

"We have to beat the monster." Judy said.

"But… how?"

She fell silent for a moment. She glanced over at Nick, who was sitting in a corner of the vault, absolutely silent.

"I… I don't know."

* * *

 

"How exactly did you guys get your Zoolizers stolen?" Emily asked as she paced around the living room.

"That monster roped us into a trap." Judy said. "It was a surprise attack. We weren't ready for it."

"Seriously, that guy could move at three hundred miles per millisecond!" Nick said. "He was zipping around the place like it was nothing!"

Emily let out a combined grunt and sigh. "How are we supposed to deal with this guy now?" She asked. "Me and Henry can't take him on by ourselves. And we especially can't do this with sulky over there."

She pointed over to Max, who was huddled up in his chair. He hadn't said a word the entire time that Emily and Henry had been there.

"Yeah, this is a major problem." Judy said. "I… I don't know what to do." She continued, sinking into the couch. "I feel like a failure."

"Just because you messed up bad doesn't make you failures." Henry said. "You just need to think this through, come up with a plan."

"A plan?" Nick scoffed. "How are we supposed to come up with a plan to beat a monster we could barely even hit WITH our powers?"

"Well, a plan still isn't a bad thing to have." The bull continued. "Just try to logic it out."

"Hmm…" The rabbit let out, starting to think. "Well, even if the monster shows up again, there's no guarantee that he'll have them with him… but it is a possibility. And, it's not like we're completely out of combat options." She quickly glanced at the hyena and bull.

"So, you're suggesting that we try and handle the actual combat, while you guys try to get the Zoolizers back?" Emily guessed. "Good plan… if you guys could get close to him."

"Hey, it's not like we're useless without our powers!" Nick said.

Suddenly, Max's ears popped up, and he quickly unfurled his body out. "Why don't we use our police equipment on the monster?" He suggested. "We should be able to get some things out of it, right?"

"Good idea!" Judy said, hopping to her feet. "Our police equipment is built to stop these kinds of criminals, heck, he might not even see something like that coming!"

"That sounds reckless and stupid." Nick said. "But it's also the only thing we've got, so I guess I don't have much of a choice."

"Hey, you have us as backup, zorro." Emily said with a chuckle. "We're pretty good at the whole monster fighting thing by this point."

"I think that's everything settled, right?" Judy said. "Now we just have to wait for a report to come in!"

"Uh, how are we supposed to get a monster alert without our Zoolizers?" Max asked.

"I sent a description of the monster into Clawhauser, who sent it around the city." Judy explained. "He's on top of that kind of stuff, so we should get something soon… hopefully."

"Yeah, but who knows how long that will take?" Nick said.

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring.

"How convenient."

She quickly answered the phone. "Oh my gosh," Ben started from the other side. "I just got a report of our monster-guy in Sahara Square! It looks like he's heading to the Desert Treasure jewelry store!"

"Thanks for the tip, Ben!" Judy said. "See you later!" She quickly hung up, and tossed her phone onto the couch. "Alright, this is our chance, guys! Let's try to actually stop a crime!"

* * *

 

"Ah, the Desert Treasure Jewelry!" The monster said as it walked up to the rather small, but ornate building. "Home of the semi-famous 'Eye of the Desert', a quartz stone that's semi-known for its shininess!"

It planted its cane in the sand as it continued to talk to itself. Everyone else in the area had quickly cleared out in fear, but Louperoid hadn't seemed to notice. "Not for sale, a one of a kind item, the perfect prize for my previous successes!"

The robot shook a bit in surprise as the sound of an engine grew from behind it. He turned around, and watched as a large truck pulled up to him, and the doors flipped open. Nick, Judy, and Max, dressed in their police uniforms, stepped out, alongside the fully armored SPD Officers.

"How did you find me here?" The monster asked, less upset and more inquisitive.

"We have other resources besides our Zoolizers." She said. "Your little crime spree ends here!" She finished, pulling out a taser.

Louperoid let out a sputter, before it turned into full on laughter. "Hah, you think you can take me on without your precious Zoolizers?" He mocked. "Look at you three, you're just cute little woodland animals trying to play people now!"

The rabbit's eye twitched for a moment, before she fired her taser at the monster. He caught the wire in his hand, and glanced at it for a moment.

"I don't see what this thing is supposed to do." The monster mocked, tugging on the wire. "You think a little taser could-"

The robot paused for a moment, before it started to jitter around, dropping the wire.

"Elephant caliber taser, asshole." Judy said.

Louperoid stumbled back, and crashed into the glass window of the jewelry store, falling through it. "Hah, nice work!" Nick said, fistbumping the rabbit. "Didn't expect that to actually work.

"You guys got everything else loaded in the back?" Max asked the armored hyena.

Emily gave a quick nod. "You guys get what you need, we'll keep this ladrón de mierda busy."

The three nodded, and hopped back into the truck. Pink and Green stepped forwards and readied their weapons as the monster recovered from its shock.

"That was severely uncalled for!" It shouted as it stood up. "How DARE you make someone of my stature look so undignified!?"

He finally turned to look at who he was talking to, and only saw Pink and Green, preparing to fire their weapons at him.

"Ah! Um, uh…"

They quickly opened fire on the monster, both of their shots connecting and sending it flying deeper into the store. Louperoid crashed through several of the displays, sending glass and jewelry flying all over.

"Hey, I expect you to pay for that!" The clerk, a camel, shouted.

The Metalroid let out a grunt, before it suddenly vanished, and then quickly reappeared outside of the store. "I'll show you hooligans how to treat a master thief!"

"I think we're treating you exactly how you should be treated." Green said, before firing his cannon at the monster. The monster teleported directly in front of the bull as the shot flew off, and then lashed his arm out.

Wires sprouted from it, and started to wrap around the bull's body. "Let go of him!" Pink yelled, before firing several shots at the monster. He whacked them away with his cane, and started to lift the bull up into the air.

The monster let out a laugh, but then turned towards the parked truck as he noticed something moving. Nick, Judy, and Max were standing outside it, armed with various different types of police equipment. The wolf had a riot shield in one hand, and a smoke bomb in the other, Nick had a bottle of pepper spray and a nightstick, and Judy was carrying a tranquilizer dart gun.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" The monster said, getting distracted from its attack on Green. In response, the bull quickly kicked the monster in the side of his head, causing him to stumble back and drop the bull to the ground with a thud.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Max said, quickly pulling the pin out of the smoke bomb. Pink and Green quickly scattered as he threw it at the dazed monster.

The canister clanked against his top hat as it started to leak smoke. The monster looked down, before it burst into a massive cloud of smoke.

"What is this nonsense!?" The monster shouted as it became enveloped. He waved his cane around, attempting to clear the smoke, but was quickly interrupted as Max rushed in and tackled him with the riot shield, knocking him back.

As he regained his balance, he looked around, still shrouded in smoke. Something he couldn't quite make out rushed through the fog and smacked at his ankle, causing Louperoid to recoil in pain for a brief moment. It rushed through the smoke again, hitting his other leg.

The robot let out a growl, and managed to pick the assailant up as it made another dash. It was the fox. Louperoid lifted him up by the shirt, and prepared to strike him with his cane.

"Ever thought about getting glasses?" Nick suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You're gonna need them."

He pulled out his can of pepper spray, and shot it directly at the monster's eye. It let out a screech of pain as it dropped both the fox and the cane to the ground, and started to stumble back.

"YOU MONGRELS!" He shouted. "YOU'LL ALL PAY FOR THIS!"

Louperoid started to wipe at his eye, and noticed that the smoke had cleared, but as he fully cleaned it he was suddenly met with a kick directly to his face from Judy. He fell to the ground, and tumbled around for a moment as he tried to get up.

"Where are our Zoolizers!?" She shouted at the robot as it got to its feet.

"Somewhere you'll never be able to get to!" He declared. "Master Enter has them in the mountain, and even you three aren't stupid enough to go there as you are now!"

"He's got a point." Nick said.

"And it looks like you're all out of weaponry!" The monster continued. "Prepare to be killed-"

He suddenly felt something jab into his leg.

He looked down, noticing a rather large orange dart sticking out of it. He then looked up at Judy, who had the dart gun held up. He let out a sigh.

"Drat. Looks like I'll be making a hasty retreat." Louperoid declared. "But you three will not be so lubkeh bleh…"

The robot started to fall over, but quickly vanished from sight.

"So, did we just manage to defeat that guy without our powers?" Max asked, a bit shocked.

"Technically we just managed to fend him off for a while." Judy said. "But yes, that's better than what we did last time."

"Yo, I'm proud of you three!" Emily said. "You managed to do that pretty well. Now you just need to get the Zoolizers back, and we'll all be golden!"

"But he said that the Zoolizers were being kept in the mountain…" Judy said, crossing her arms. "And he was right, we'd be idiots to try and do that."

"Right, all the monsters live up there." Henry said. "Trying to do that would be a suicide mission."

"But… how will we ever get them back if they're up there?" Max asked. "Like, I doubt they'd be willing to give them back to us."

"Yeah, we might just be… screwed." Nick said, a bit uncomfortably.

"Something will work out in the end." Judy said. "We just need to keep doing our best, and we'll figure it all out. We just proved we can fight them off without the Zoolizers, so I say we keep at that until there's some kind of opportunity."

"That's really the only thing we can do, if we don't want to die, at least." Nick said.

"Best thing to do is just get everything ready for the next attack." Max suggested. "You know, get some more supplies and all that."

"I agree, but I don't think we'll be seeing that guy for a bit." Judy said, looking a bit smug. "That dart I shot was ALSO elephant caliber. With his size, he'll be out for hours."

"How does that even work on a robot?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"You know, I'm not really sure."

* * *

 

The skull floated around the room, chuckling as it looked at one of the walls. "What are you doing?" Enter asked.

"Admiring this work of art!" Savage replied. He was looking at the trapped Long, still embedded in the wall of the base. "You think he's alive in there?"

"Probably." Enter said. "He is immortal."

He looked down at the table, at the three devices placed on it. Red, Blue, and Silver. They were lined up in rows, and he quickly ran his hand over them. With these, he was one step closer to getting to his ultimate goal.

He then quickly looked over at the floor. An unconscious Louperoid was still laying there. He had appeared like that the previous day, which had put a fairly big dampener on their whole operation. Of course, they still had a surplus of gems, but they could always use a bit more.

Suddenly, the robot burst to his feet, looking around in alarm. "What!? Where-!?"

"Oh good, snoozy's awake!" Savage joked as he floated over. "How's it going?"

Louperoid cleared his throat, ad placed his cane to the ground. "It appears we might have a slight problem with the plan."

"Is the problem that you got knocked out by a bunch of animals?" Savage joked. "Because that looks like the problem to me."

"I wasn't 'knocked out'." Louperoid said, sounding a bit insulted. "They caught me by surprise, I could have defeated them if I had known they were coming."

"Riiiiight."

"It appears the former Zoorangers have access to other forms of monster tracking." He continued. "That's how they managed to stop my last theft." He stepped up to enter, and went down on one knee. "Master Enter, do you have anything I can use to get those three off my trail?"

"Sounds lik you're scared of fighting the cute widdle bunny wabbit!" Savage said, before breaking out in laughter.

"Quiet, you infernal skull!" Louperoid yelled, getting to his feet. He quickly pointed his cane at the canine skull, who just continued to laugh maniacally.

"If you want to defeat them for good, I can always upgrade you." Enter suggested.

"An upgrade?" Louperoid said, sounding insulted again. "I'm good enough to defeat them already, why would I need such a thing? I just need, uh, a slight bit of support."

Enter let out a sigh. "You've already used your light manipulation powers to disguise yourself from security cameras. Have you tried something a bit more complex?"

Louperoid thought for a moment. "You mean like… a disguise? I suppose that would be fortuitous. But… I don't know if I have the data to use a disguise." He continued. "My programming only allows me to manipulate light via teleportation and invisibility."

"Hey, I know somebody with a good disguise." Savage said, floating over to Enter. He then proceeded to headbutt his shoulder a few times.

Enter let out a sigh. "I suppose I could lend you some of my disguise protocol data." He said with a sneer. The android got to his feet, and held his hand out. Red numbers started to shoot out of his hand, and into Louperoid's body. This took only a few seconds, before Enter pulled his hand back.

"There, you should have the ability to disguise yourself now." Enter said. "Why don't you try it out?"

"Excellent!" The monster said. "TRANSFORM!"

There was a flash of light, and the monster was suddenly replaced with a black wolf in a tuxedo and top hat. He still carried Louperoid's cane.

"Ugh, organic forms are so… primitive." He said, looking himself over. "But I suppose this should keep them off me for a bit longer." He gave a quick bow. "So long, master Enter!"

He quickly vanished, leaving Enter and Savage alone again.

"GrrAGH!" Savage yelled. "Why are we still letting that idiot run around!? We have the Zoolizers," He continued, floating over to the devices. "So why don't we just put one on and get to wrecking shit!?"

"We can't use those ones." Enter said, grabbing the top of Savage's head and moving him off to the side. The android sat back down. "Those ones are imprinted already. We need the one that isn't imprinted."

"Then why did we even steal these ones!?"

Enter grew a quick smirk, and started to rub his thumb and middle finger together.

"Black Mail."

* * *

 

The camel swept the last of the glass from the floor and into a dustpan. "Damn monsters, always running around causing trouble…" He muttered to himself. "Hope they get dealt with soon…"

The camel perked up in surprise as a bell chimed. He turned to the entrance of the store, and watched as a bizarrely dressed wolf walked in. "Hey, we're closed." the camel said. "If you want something for your costume, come back tomorrow."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that the place with the broken windows was closed." The wolf said, feigning sympathy. "I'll just be on my way and-"

The wolf suddenly vanished from the camel's sight. He glanced around the store, trying to see where he could have gone. He then quickly scratched at his head in confusion.

Then, there was a tap on his hump.

He turned around. It was the wolf. He was holding a stone. A rather familiar quartz stone. "Hey, put that back!" The camel snapped. "My boss is going to kill me if he knew someone touched that."

"Oh, so it looks like I won't have to do much ELSE here." The wolf said with a quick chuckle. He suddenly vanished again, but before the camel could even react, he suddenly found himself pushed to the ground.

"Hey!" he shouted as he got up. "Come back here! THIEF!"

The wolf laughed from the roof of a building across from the jewelry store. "Easy. Whatever sources they have shouldn't be able to track me while I look like this." He said. "Now, it's time to get back into the swing of things. Tally ho!"

* * *

 

Around a day had passed since the monster had shown up. This meant that, for once, the group managed to get some amount of relaxation during a monster attack. This, especially after the last while, had proved to be somewhat of a godsend.

Of course, the fact that there hadn't been anything reported was certainly a worry as well.

Well, specifically a worry for Judy.

"We should have heard something by now." She said as she paced around the living room. Nick and Max were sitting on the couch and chair, respectively, the fox playing on his phone, and the wolf working on his laptop. The rabbit turned to the wolf. "You're absolutely sure nothing has come up?"

"I've been checking the monster report feed." He said. "Only thing's that have come up have been obviously fake. Maybe that tranquilizer just worked really well?"

"No, that thing shouldn't have knocked it out for this long." She said. "I'm worried. I think there's something we're missing."

"I say 'don't worry'." Nick replied. "Like you said, we're good enough to take that guy on by ourselves, even without our powers. Maybe he realized that too, and decided to stop bothering."

"You know very well that's not how this works." Judy said, rapidly tapping her foot in frustration.

"I kind of agree with Nick." Max said. "Not on that point, like, at all, but I agree you should take it a bit easy before anything happens."

"How can I take it easy!?" She shouted. "There's a monster running loose ACTIVELY causing crimes that WE should be dealing with, AND our only way to stop him has been taken from us! This is a VERY stressful time!"

"And the fact you're that stressed about it is a sign you should try to calm down." Nick said. "Seriously, shouldn't this silence be a good thing to you? It's not like nothing happening is causing us any real problems-"

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring. "Oh, that might be Ben!" She said, quickly zipping over and grabbing it.

She paused and gulped as she read the number.

"Oh, that's not a good look." Nick said, putting his own phone down. Max quickly shut his laptop.

She took a deep breath, and answered it.

"HOPPS! WILDE!"

The two cringed as Bogo yelled at them through the phone. He looked absolutely livid.

"Heeeey, chief." Judy greeted, meekly. "Uh, what's going on?"

"We haven't been slacking off!" Nick quickly added. "We've been doing a lot of work, trust me!"

"Doesn't seem like you've been doing ANY work at all!" The buffalo replied. "Did you two even know about the robberies that have been happening all day!?"

"W-what?" Judy said, her arms shaking. "We didn't hear anything about those!" She quickly glanced over at Max, who gave a quick shrug in response.

"There wasn't anything like that on the monster report feed!" He said. "Are you sure this is even the same guy?"

"I've gone over all twenty reports, and they all match the THIRTY reports from yesterday." Bogo continued. "It's the exact same thief, and the fact you three aren't out on patrol is… well, let's just say it's not helping you right now."

"We got it." Judy said, with a disappointed sigh. "We'll head out right now to investigate, and get everything ready for an encounter…"

"You don't mind if we borrow some more smoke bombs, right?"

* * *

 

The three pulled up in a police cruiser, right next to one of the robbed locations. It was the mansion of a particularly wealthy stoat. Apparently a family heirloom had been stolen from right under his nose - Literally, as it was a jewel apparently forged into a necklace.

"Yikes, look at this place." Nick said as they admired the large, white, blisteringly bright mansion. "Think we'll ever get a place like this?"

"Well, considering the only mammals who are capable of owning houses like this are the one percent who were born into wealth, I really doubt it." Max quickly said.

"Fun ruiner."

At the gate of the mansion was the elderly stoat, and his two bodyguards, both moose. "Ah, you must be the officers on the investigation of this shadow thief, correct?"

"Oh, so the news already has a title for him." Nick said, sarcastically.

"Actually, that's just something I came up with." The stoat said.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but only sighed.

"Can you tell us anything about what happened?" Judy asked. "We need to figure out if this even is the same thief, so any details would help."

"Oh, I can give you quite a few details." The stoat said. "I managed to catch a decent glimpse at him, he really liked showing off, actually."

"Hmm, interesting…" The rabbit said as she wrote the detail down.

"He was a wolf," The stoat continued, causing all three officer's ears to pop up. He then pointed to Max "Around your size, lad, but entirely black. Wore a ridiculous top hat and tuxedo outfit. Orange accents, looked completely ridiculous."

"Hmmm." Judy let out, tapping her pen against the notepad. "Did he do anything… weird? Like, I dunno, vanishing from sight and then reappearing?"

"Oh, yes, that's how he managed to escape!" The stoat continued. "Though, odd thing is, he broke into my collection quite normally, by the looks of things."

Nick looked at him, a bit confused. "What's so odd about that?"

"Well, you'd think that with that kind of speed, he wouldn't waste time fumbling around in the dark." He continued. "The jewel wasn't even there, after all."

"In the dark…" Judy muttered to herself. "Hm. Thank you for your time, sir." She finished.

The three headed back to the cruiser, and began to talk about the information. "So, I wasn't the only one who found that weird, right?" Max said from the back seat. "Like, that sounds like the monster, but… I'm pretty sure he wasn't a wolf."

"Yeah, that was strange." Nick said. "You think its the same guy, Carrots?"

"I think it is." She said, before pausing for a moment. "I think I had am epiphany."

"About the monster, or about your life?" Nick joked.

"The monster. I think I figured how its powers work." She said. "In the vault, it was zipping all over the place like it was nothing, but when we were fighting outside that store, he wasn't, right?"

"I thought that was just because we surprised him?" Max said.

"I'm not finished." She said. "And then, apparently, he broke into a darkened room in that guy's house, when he could have just teleported… I think his power has something to do with light."

"Okay, how, exactly?" Nick asked.

"In the vault, everything was shiny and reflective, right? Like, that place was almost nothing but shiny stuff." She explained. "Then he got weaker when we ended up shrouding him in smoke. I think he uses light reflections to teleport."

"Weird." Max said. He thought for a moment. "Wait, then that means he could be using light to alter how he looks to others, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking!" Judy replied.

"Well, I'm glad someone here gets it." Nick muttered.

Judy quickly pounded her fist into her palm. "Alright, we need to keep vigilant." She declared. "The monster is still running around, and we need to keep more eyes out for him. We're gonna head back to the station, and you can head off to patrol on your own, Max."

"Oh, okay." He said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I'll give Clawhauser a description of the monster's disguise, and then Nick and I will head out on our own." She continued.

"I'll call up Em and Horns to tell them what's going on." Nick said, pulling out his phone.

"Good idea."

"Good thing we stocked up on the weapons early." Max said. "I can take some with me, right?"

* * *

 

Around an hour had passed since the two had done everything they needed to at the police station. It hadn't been an eventful hour, but uneventful patrolling was better than no patrolling at all. They would catch him eventually.

But for right now, there wasn't a whole lot else to do besides listen to the radio - Though they could never really get their musical tastes to work together, so it was off.

Luckily, Nick had found an alternative.

"Check this place out," He started. "Pre-furnished, water's included, AND there's wi-fi!"

"Ooh, that sounds nice." Judy said. "How much is it?"

"Lemme look…" He paused for a moment. "Oh, that is a LOT of zeroes. Never mind."

"Nick, why are you looking at EXPENSIVE apartments?" The rabbit asked. "At that point we might as well just buy a house!"

"Well, you don't like any of the cheap places I'm finding, so I thought I'd look in the opposite direction."

"Nick, I don't know how you managed it, but every single place you managed to find was an absolute disaster." She continued as they started to move through traffic at a fairly slow pace. "And whenever I try to find something, you always say it's too expensive!"

"I, personally, think that all of the places that I've looked at were perfectly… livable." He said, sounding unsure, but very obviously not wanting to give up his side of the argument.

"I'm fairly certain one of the places you picked was also a front for drug dealing." She said. "I probably should investigate that once everything's sorted out…"

"I don't even see why you care, we lived in a literal garbage heap for several months." Nick said.

"Yeah, and that's not a thing I ever want to do again!" She said. "I know you've lived in some rough areas, but I do actually have some standards of quality I want to live up to."

"What would those qualities be, exactly?"

"Pre-furnished, doesn't have to be that clean, and we can pay for electricity and water." Judy explained. They had stopped right next to one of Savannah Central's art exhibits. "As long as there's no bugs nests or slime growing or drug dealers, we can live there."

"I'll try to keep that in-"

There was the sudden sound of glass shattering. The two quickly looked out at the art exhibit. One of the windows had been shattered, and standing in the middle of the glass was a wolf, dressed in a top hat and tuxedo.

"STOP! THIEF!" Shouted someone from inside.

The two officers quickly glanced at each other, before Judy quickly burst out of the cruiser. "GET THE EQUIPMENT!" She shouted at Nick, who gave a quick salute.

"What?" The wolf said, a crystal clutched in its paw. "Who are y-"

"Don't play games, crook." The rabbit said. "We already know that you're disguising yourself."

The wolf let out a sigh. "Alright, you got me, congratulations." He said, sarcastically. "But just because you figured out my little trick, doesn't mean that you're capable of beating me."

"Oh yeah, I think I know how to beat you now, too."

The wolf's eyes widened, before he quickly bolted off.

"NICK, I'M GOING AFTER HIM, TAKE THE CAR!" She shouted.

"But you know I'm a terrible driver!" He said, but it fell upon deaf ears as the rabbit bolted off anyways. He let out a sigh, and flipped the sirens on, before bolting off down the street.

The wolf kept running,making sure not to drop the crystal. He glanced down to see the rabbit right at his feet.

"Hey, did you know that rabbits are really fast?" She said, before proceeding to kick him in the shins. He fell to the ground, the crystal dropping out of his paw as it rolled across the ground.

The disguised Louperoid scrambled to his feet, and attempted to make a run for the the crystal, which had rolled down into an alleyway. Before he could, the cruiser drove onto the sidewalk, startling him.

Nick kicked the door open, and tossed a smoke bomb over to Judy before hopping to the ground. "You're under arrest!" He shouted as the disguised monster started to back away nervously.

"I radioed Max, Em, and Horns." Nick said as he walked up next to the rabbit. "I'd say I did that drive pretty well."

"It was pretty well for you." Judy said with a sigh. "We need to force him into the alleyway, he should be weaker in there."

There was a standoff for a moment. The monster glanced down at the alleyway. It was dark, which meant he basically had no way to fight back without getting a bit hurt. But he also didn't have any choice in the matter, that's where his bounty had gone.

He quickly dashed into the alleyway, leaping to grab the crystal. He caught it and quickly fell into a roll, before getting back to his feet. The faux-wolf let out a sigh, before looking down to the entrance.

The fox and rabbit were there, waiting for him and armed with their own weapons. "This thing isn't even real!" Louperoid said, holding the crystal up. "Sure, it's valuable, but it isn't a real gemstone."

"We don't actually care about that." Nick said. "That's theft, and we're cops, we're natural enemies, get it?"

Louperoid let out a growl. Before he could do anything else, Judy quickly tossed a smoke bomb, which quickly plumed into a massive cloud of smoke, covering the entirety of the alley.

Louperoid stumbled around for a moment, before Judy quickly leaped into the air and struck him directly in the face with her foot. He stumbled back, before Nick hurried in and smacked at his ankle. The monster let out a growl, before slamming its cane down towards the fox, who stepped out of the way.

The fake wolf stumbled around in the smoke for a bit, before both of the cops quickly tackled him, knocking him into a wall and causing him to stumble even more. "This is starting to get rather annoying!" He yelled.

"Then we're doing a good job!" Judy said. She leaped up and sprayed the monster directly in the face with some pepper spray.

As it let out a cry of pain, the disguise quickly started to distort, before bursting back to Louperoid's robotic form in a burst of light. The explosion was strong enough that it knocked the two back, and cleared the smoke out.

"You miscreants will pay for this!" Louperoid growled as he unsteadily stomped forwards. The large lenses on his shoulders flipped out, and he started to fire beams of light from them. The two tried their best to dodge the explosions, but they were eventually knocked back out of the alley and into the road.

"Hah!" The monster laughed as it headed out into the daylight. "You two will never be able to defeat me out here, especially not without your powers!"

The rabbit chuckled for a moment. "Do you really think we were TRYING to beat you?"

"Yeah, we'd have to be idiots to want to do something like that." Nick followed. "We were just biding time."

"Biding time…?" The monster said to itself. "What for?"

Engine revving sounded down the road, before a large vehicle rammed directly into the monster, sending it flying. The SPD's truck stopped, and Green, Pink, and Max got out of it. The wolf was armed with a taser and a riot shield.

"Hey guys!" Max said. "Turns out we were patrolling closer than we realized, so I hitched a ride."

"Alright, let's finish this thief." Green said, quickly aiming his cannon at the monster as it got to its feet.

"W-wait!" The monster shouted, before Green fired a flurry of blasts at the robot. It quickly teleported away from the blasts, and over to a nearby building. "You can't destroy me yet!"

"What's stopping us?" Pink rhetorically asked, before firing her own blasters at the monster. This time, the shots connected, but the monster quickly teleported afterwards, getting up close.

"You see, I can-" Before the monster could finish speaking, Max quickly rammed into him with his riot shield, and then instantly fired the taser at him. The robot started to jitter around for a moment, before letting out a roar as it regained control.

"IF YOU WOULD LET ME FINISH!" It shouted, stomping forwards. It quickly cleared its throat, and gently placed the cane to the ground. "I have a proposition to make for you five."

"Don't care." Nick quickly said.

"Oh, this is something you might care about considerably." The monster continued. "You see, I can give you your Zoolizers back…"

The three's ears popped up.

"Alright, now we're listening." Judy said, crossing her arms.

"However, this is not a transaction that I can just give for free." Louperoid continued. "You see, my master has been wanting something of a unique value for quite a while…"

"Your blank Zoolizer."

"Oh, absolutely not." Max quickly said. "That's going too far-"

"We accept." Judy said, much to the shock of the others.

"WHAT!?"

"Very well!" The monster said with a laugh. "I will contact you later tonight, giving you the location of our exchange. Farewell!"

With that, Louperoid gave a quick bow, and vanished.

"Hey uh," Nick started, turning to Judy. "Are you crazy!?"

"We can talk about this later." She said. "I'm not an idiot, Nick. But this might be our only chance to get them back."

"I'm just saying, this is probably the worst idea ever." He continued. "Anyone agree with me?"

The other three nodded in unanimous agreement.

"Listen, let's just meet back up at the house." The rabbit ordered. "We can talk about this then. But trust me."

"I have no intention of giving him the Zoolizer."

* * *

 

Louperoid appeared in the villain base once more, the crystal still clutched in his hand. He dropped it onto the table, alongside the other jewels.

"That should be everything conceivable as a precious gemstone in the entire city." He declared.

"Good job." Enter said. He looked over the gems on the table. "Hopefully he'll be happy with all these."

"How could he not be?" Savage said, floating over. "There's like, fifty of them here, how many more jewels does a guy need?"

Enter simply shrugged, and turned back to Louperoid. "Did you make the deal with them?"

"I did!" The monster said. "And they actually agreed to it! I would've expected a bit more of a fight from them, in all honesty."

"You mean the 'we'll give you back the Zoolizers in exchange for the blank one' deal?" Savage asked. "Why are we doing this again? It seems like an incredibly dumb plan."

"Not when you think ahead." Enter explained. "I've put considerable thought into this, more than you ever have with, well, anything."

"If my existence weren't entirely dependent on you, I would maul you right here and now."

"Basically, we aren't going to give them the Zoolizers!" Louperoid continued. "But they won't know that until its too late! We'll be the ultimate victors, and then we can crush them!"

"Alright, a bait and switch sounds nice," Savage started, before floating up directly into Louperoid's face. "But we've been keepin' track of you, bud. And frankly, I don't think you can defeat them even without their powers."

"It is a problem that they've managed to… figure out my weakness." Louperoid admitted. "But what am I supposed to do to counteract that?"

Without a word, Enter quickly tossed something at Louperoid. It smacked directly into his top hat. "What was-"

He suddenly started to convulse and change as the Chaos Badge absorbed itself into his system. Quickly, the red from his leg started to seep across his entire body, turning the orange accents into black ones in response. Eventually, the monster's entire body was covered in red. The cape then started to change, flicking out into five different sections rather than three, and splitting completely into independent sections rather than one connected cape, and becoming lighter in the process.

His hat's rim became slightly larger, but otherwise remained the same black, though the blue lights turned red, and the Chaos Symbol was now embedded in it, rather than the heart-shaped Vaglass logo. Its singular eye remained blue, but a lens grew around it, resembling a monocle, complete with a string connecting it to the side of his head.

The monster's shoulders grew slightly, but otherwise remained the same. However, he flicked the lenses out, which in turn flicked out into two more on each side, forming a triangle on each shoulder. Finally, his cane started to change, growing spikes on its red ball, and turning completely black.

"Behold, Chaos Louperoid!" He cheered, before giving a bow.

"I don't see that big of a change." Savage muttered to himself.

"I believe it is almost time for me to get going!" The monster said. "I just have one place to stop at before hand."

With that, the monster disappeared, leaving Enter and Savage behind. "You actually think he can get his hands on that blank Zoolizer?" Savage asked. "I trust that guy about as far as I can throw him. Which isn't very far, since, you know…"

"I do think he can get it." Enter said. "We've planned this all out perfectly."

"Yo, who you talking to down here?" Said a voice from one of the caverns.

Enter quickly held out a small device, and absorbed Savage into it. Sambash strolled into the main lobby and almost instantly noticed the jewels.

"Holy shit, look at all of these!" He let out, rushing over to the table. "You seriously stole all of these for me!?"

"It was a very advantageous suggestion." Enter said.

"I don't even know what that means, but I don't care!" He said, grabbing a handful of the gems. "I'm gonna go see if I can get these things to work with my next plan… see ya!"

He quickly headed back out through the tunnel, though there were still plenty of gemstones left on the table. Enter held the device out again, and pressed a button. It opened up, and the floating skull soon reappeared.

"You gonna do that every time someone comes in here?" He growled.

"Nobody here actually likes you. They'd kill me if they found out I revived you." Enter said. "I'm the only one who truly respects your power."

"Fine, whatever." Savage muttered.

* * *

 

"So, let's just go over this again," Nick started. "You are entirely aware that this is definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent, no doubt about it, a trap, correct?"

"Yes." Judy replied.

The five had gone back to Max's house after the fight. After a bit of relaxation, Judy called a meeting about the deal they had struck with Louperoid.

"And you're still going through with it?"

"Nick, don't worry, I have a plan." She said.

"We can still be worried even with a plan." Emily said. "Plans don't always work out, you know."

"Yes, but this plan is completely going to work." She said, sounding completely sure. "When has one of my plans backfired? That has never happened before."

"I can name a few cases." Nick said.

"Shush." The rabbit snapped. "Obviously this monster is going to try and trick us somehow, but we'll have the advantage, since we already know that its going to be a trick."

"That's a decent point." Max said. "If we plan carefully, then we can out-trick the monster's trick."

"In the trade, we call that a 'double hustle'." Nick said. "But I get what you're saying. I still think it's a terrible idea, though."

Henry stepped from behind the couch, and cleared his throat. "If we want to make sure this goes well, we need to all pitch in." He said. "I can help with our part of the plan." He finished, gesturing to Emily.

"We're the only ones who can effectively fight the monsters right now." He continued. "We'll be part of the escape. Once everything else has gone right, we'll bust in and let you guys get away with all of the Zoolizers."

"Alright, so we have the ending planned out." Judy said. "Now it's time to plan out the rest of it. First, we need to make sure we're properly armed. Don't want to go in too gung-ho."

"I can go get them." Max said.

"And what are we going to do for the actual transaction?" Nick asked.

"My plan was to swipe the Zoolizers when the monster is lulled into a false sense of security." She explained. "And hey, you're good at the whole lying thing, why don't you do that?"

"Guess I should have seen that coming." The fox muttered.

"So, here's the plan," Judy started. "Nick sweet talks the monster, I attack and get the Zoolizers from him, and then Emily and Henry come in and cover us as we get out of there. We bring the police equipment with us, just in case anything goes wrong."

"Sounds solid to me." Max said.

"Sounds fine." Emily said. Henry just nodded his head.

"Guess I don't have much of a say in this, do I?" Nick said with a sigh. "I think we're just too under-prepared to do this kind of impromptu hustle. We could end up in an even worse situation than we are now."

"Everything will turn out fine." Judy said, quickly grabbing onto his paws. "Trust me."

There was silence for a moment as Nick looked at her. He let out a sigh. "Fine. Just… don't blame me if something goes wrong."

A while passed. The five fleshed the plan out some more, while still keeping to the same general layout. The only flaw Judy had seen in between then and now was the lack of a location. The SPD would have to be hidden, which could be hard if they were outside, or if they ended up in a building without a back entrance.

Emily had assured her that they could just blow through any walls.

After the plan was mostly formulated, Judy's phone started to ring. She quickly answered it. Clawhauser popped up on the screen. "Ben?" She said, a bit surprised. "Why are you calling?"

"Because I just received a super weird note addressed to you guys." He said, calmly. "I found it on my desk after I went to the bathroom."

"What's the note say?" Max asked.

Ben placed the phone down, the sounds of paper unfolding being heard for a few seconds. He then picked it back up. "Alright, it says… 'Dear Zoorangers, if you want your Zoolizers back, meet me at the abandoned warehouse downtown. The one that's third from the right.'"

"How specifically non-specific." Nick said.

"'The rendezvous time is at nine PM, I anticipate your arrival with utmost… titillation.'" The cheetah finished reading. "There's no name here, it just ends."

"Thanks, Ben." Judy said with a laugh. She quickly hung up. "Alright, we have about an hour to get there. Max, go with Em and Henry to get the equipment, we'll meet you there."

"Alright." He said, giving a quick nod. The three headed out, leaving Nick and Judy alone for a moment.

"Why would he want to meet up during the night?" Nick asked. "Shouldn't that be him at his weakest?"

"Yeah, that's… a bit disconcerting." Judy admitted. "But if we follow the plan, I think everything should go well…"

She was starting to sound a bit unsure of herself. Nick let out a sigh, and placed his paw on her shoulder. "You're right. If we get this plan to work, we can get everything back to normal." He said. "And the plan WILL work. I'm sure of it."

Judy sighed, and then smiled. "Thanks, Nick."

He smiled back at her.

* * *

 

The truck pulled up to one of the abandoned warehouses. This was the third one they had to check, mostly because of the complete lack of directions that they had been given.

"Hopefully this is the right one." Nick said as Judy and him got out of the cruiser. "At least real criminals can give decent directions."

The SPD truck was already there, presumably it had the same troubles, and Emily and Henry were waiting for them outside it. Max was inside, gathering some of the equipment.

"Alright, Em, Henry, you guys head round the back." Judy ordered, quietly. She quickly pulled out her phone, and dialed in a number. Suddenly, Emily's phone began to ring. "Try to stay as quiet as you can, and when you hear anything that sounds like trouble, come in and help."

The hyena and bull nodded, and they quickly headed to the back of the warehouse. Judy turned to Max. "You got everything?"

He turned to her, and nodded. The wolf then quickly tossed out a few smoke bombs, cans of pepper spray, and a few hand-held tazers. Judy and Nick caught them, and holstered them to their uniforms. The wolf hopped out, armed with his own set of equipment.

"You guys ready?" He asked, a bit nervous. The rabbit and fox nodded. As they walked towards the warehouse, Judy pulled out the Yellow Zoolizer, and handed it to Nick.

Standing in the middle of the room was Louperoid, in his disguise… though he was now wearing a red suit, rather than a black one. "Ah, there you three are." He greeted. "I trust you've brought the terms of our agreement?"

"Yeah, but we're not giving it over until you prove you've brought our part of the deal." Nick said.

The wolf groaned, before pulling the three Zoolizers out. He held them all by the straps, and dangled them about for a moment. "These are what you mean, yes?" He asked.

"Yeah." Nick said, stepping forward. There was a bit of a pause.

"Well, are you going to bring it over here or not?" The fake wolf asked, starting to get frustrated.

"We'll place them in the middle of the room." The fox said. "At the same time. That way, nobody can do anything shady."

The monster growled, before they both started to walk to the middle of the room. They met in the middle, and glared at each other for a moment. Nick prepared to place the Zoolizer on the ground. "Alright, both at the same time, on three." He started. "One, two…"

Louperoid started to place the Zoolizers on the ground. "No, sorry." Nick suddenly said. "Didn't say three yet. Gotta start over."

The fake wolf's eye twitched as he brought the Zoolizers back up. Nick started to count down again, and this time the monster waited for him to say three… but the fox hesitated for a moment, not moving his arm as Louperoid started to place them on the ground.

"Sorry, nerves." he said. "Let's start again, last time, I promise."

"You're stalling." The monster said.

"Am I?" Nick said, surprised. He placed his paw to his chin for a moment. "Oh, I totally am."

The monster quickly turned around, just in time to watch as two smoke bombs came flying at him. During the prolonged transaction, Judy and Max had snuck behind the monster, and prepared to attack from the corners of the room. They managed to pull it off without Louperoid noticing.

Nick leaped out of the way as the smoke bombs burst, clouding the room in a thick, heavy smoke. Judy and Max quickly rushed in, Nick following slightly behind. All three of them rushed at the fake wolf, preparing to strike.

Judy leaped up into the air and kicked him in the face, while Max shoulder tackled him. The monster stumbled back as Nick moved in from behind, quickly pulling out one of the blocky, close ranged tasers, and jabbing it into the monster's leg. It started to jitter around, dropping the Zoolizers. Judy rushed in and grabbed the three devices, before the three retreated outside of the smoke.

The monster let out a roar, before the smoke burst away, cleared in a quick moment. The monster had transformed back into its robotic form, only now it looked different.

"You three will pay for that little trick." He declared, surprisingly calmly.

"So what, you got an upgrade." Nick said. "We've got our Zoolizers back, you're about to go down for good!"

"Alright, guys, let's do this!" Judy shouted.

They quickly slapped the Zoolizers onto their wrists. Judy slammed her paw down onto the button first, and struck a fighting pose.

She quickly started to stumble as the Zoolizer started to make… strange noises.

"ZOO ON!" A voice shouted from it. It was a male voice, and not one she had heard before. It then started to make stock explosion and laser sound effects.

"W-what!?" She shouted, pulling it off. Nick and Max responded, pulling them off.

Max stared at the bottom of his for a moment. "…Made in China!?"

Chaos Louperoid started to laugh, which quickly went from a snicker to a boisterous guffaw. "Did you idiots really think we'd just give you the Zoolizers back!?" He shouted. "I bought those at a TOY STORE!"

Judy started to shake and clench her fists for a moment. She quickly tossed the toy at the monster, which hit it in the head.

Nick followed by quickly slamming the toy into the ground, shattering it. Max, however, slipped it into his pocket without the other noticing.

"Now, I gave you what you wanted, technically." The monster started. "I think I'll be taking what I came for now!"

"You might have tricked us," Judy started. "But you won't get the Yellow Zoolizer from us!" She quickly pulled out her phone. "Guys, its time!"

There was a quick explosion from behind the monster. He turned around to see the SPD Officers, and a massive hole in the wall. They quickly started to shoot at the monster, who took the hits and stumbled back.

"Think you might have backed yourself into a corner here, Lupen the NERD!" Max taunted.

"Ugh, that was terrible." Nick groaned.

"Yeah, your light reflection powers won't work here!" Judy said. "There's no lights for you to use!"

The monster thought about it for a moment. "Hm, you make a decent point." He declared. "But I think you ignored one extreme point…"

Suddenly, the top of the monster's hat flipped open. A large rod extended out of it, which quickly started to electrify. The energy gathered at the tip of the rod, forming into a sphere that brightened the entire room up to a ridiculous degree. It then shot up into the air, and hovered, forming a miniature sun.

The metal in the room, which was a LOT of the room, suddenly became very shiny. The monster vanished, and then reappeared on a nearby staircase, and then teleported over to a wall, and then over to Pink, who he gripped by the throat. He then teleported back to the center of the room.

"What was all that about me having backed myself into a corner?" He said.

"LET GO OF HER!" Green shouted, pointing his cannon at the monster. He quickly moved Pink in front of the cannon, causing the bull to hesitate for a moment.

"Now, if you want your friend here to come out of this deal alive, you will give me the Zoolizer." Louperoid threatened.

There was quiet for a moment. Judy was racking her brain for a solution to the problem, but nothing was coming up. Nick was having equal trouble. They had no idea what to do at this point. They didn't have a choice.

Well, not at the moment they didn't.

As the Metalroid glared at the three, Pink raised her blasters to the monster's chest, and placed them against its body. He glanced down, before the hyena quickly shot at him, knocking Louperoid away and causing him to let go of her.

"Manos fuera, ladrón tonto!" She shouted at the monster.

"It doesn't matter if she escaped!" The monster said, regaining his footing. He quickly pointed at Nick "I'm still taking that Zoolizer from you!"

"You're NOT getting it!" The rabbit shouted, stepping in front of the fox. She quickly pulled out her tazer gun, and fired it at the monster.

He held his cane up, and whipped it at the cable, causing it to wrap around. He pulled back, tugging the gun out of the rabbit's paws. "That isn't going to work a fourth time." The monster said, wagging its finger.

He quickly vanished, and then reappeared next to Max. He quickly held out his pepper spray, which then caused the monster to recoil for a second. Louperoid quickly teleported behind the wolf, and kicked him in the spine, knocking him to the ground.

Before the monster could teleport again, Judy rushed up and attempted to kick the monster in the back. However, his new cape seemed to spring to life, forming a series of tentacles which then proceeded to lash at her in a fury. She was knocked across the room, covered in scrapes.

Green and Pink quickly stepped in, and blasted at the monster, hitting it a few times. Louperoid seemed to barely react, before the lenses on its shoulders sprung out. They started to fire a flurry of lasers at the two, causing them to scamper away.

Louperoid turned to Nick, who stepped away, nervously. "Without your powers, you're worthless." The Metalroid mocked as he stepped closer. "And even if you did, there's no way you would be able to beat me now."

The monster lashed its hand forwards, causing wires to fly out of its wrist. They whapped at the fox for a moment, before knocking him to the ground. The Yellow Zoolizer slid onto the ground, and the tentacles lashed at it, pulling it into Chaos Louperoid's grasp.

He glanced around the room, eyeing at Nick, Judy, and Max. He stepped over to the fox's body, and planted his cane down on his neck. Before he could do anything else, he was shot in the back. He turned around to see Pink and Green. The monster let out a growl, before it vanished.

The small sun fizzled out, leaving the room, once again, completely dark, lit only by the lights on the SPD Officer's armor.

"We need to get them out of here." Green said, rushing over and picking up Nick and Judy. Pink nodded, and headed to help Max up.

The wolf let out a groan. "Nice to see you're still conscious." Pink joked.

"What happened?" Max asked, still stunned.

"You guys got your asses kicked, and he stole the Zoolizer." Pink explained as they exited the warehouse. "But you guys could have been killed, so its not all a loss."

"Oh, great."

They slowly headed to the truck. Green placed the smaller mammals gently on the back seats, while Pink helped Max up to another seat. As he sat down, he noticed that Nick was awake, and gripping onto Judy.

He was crying.

* * *

 

"I can't believe this worked." Savage said, completely surprised. He watched as Chaos Louperoid handed Enter the blank Zoolizer. The android walked over, and placed it on the table. Savage quickly floated over. "Look at that, a complete collection!" He joked.

Enter ran his hand over the four Zoolizers, and then proceeded to sit down.

"So, what's the next part of the plan?" Savage asked.

"Nothing." Enter said, fairly bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Savage said. "We're not going to do whatever you were planning and kill them with our new power?"

"Mmm… not yet, at least." Enter said. "I want them to know how truly hopeless their situation is before I kill them."

"Alright, smart guy, you might want to play the misery game," Savage started, floating right up into Enter's face. "But I have an URGE TO MURDER, and if you're not going to let me do that to them, I'll do it to one of your pals."

"I don't care." Enter replied, again, quite bluntly. "As long as they don't have the Zoolizers, we've won."

Enter's eyes widened as he felt a tremor. His heart started to beat as he got to his feet, and glared at the massive cylinder at the back. "What's gotten into you?" Savage asked.

Suddenly, a pulse of energy flew through the air, as the cylinder lit up with an unholy red light. The pulse nearly knocked Enter don, and completely knocked Louperoid to the ground. Enter quickly pulled the energy collection device out, and prepared to suck savage into it.

" **ENTER** "

Another pulse shot across the room, causing the device to drop out of the android's hand. "W-what is it, patron?"

" **DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR FRIEND** " The Omnipotence roared. " **I HAVE LARGER CONCERNS WITH YOU** "

"How did you know I was-?" Enter started, before pausing. "What have I done wrong? I've beaten the Zoorangers, I should be rewarded!"

" **THAT WAS YOUR MISTAKE** " The Omnipotence continued, confusing both Enter and Savage. " **RETURN THOSE DEVICES AT ONCE** "

"What!?" Enter yelled, angry and confused.

"I put in a lot of effort to steal those!" Louperoid said as he got back up. "Why should we return them!?"

"They're beaten, they won't cause any more trouble for us UNLESS we give them the Zoolizers back!" Enter tried to explain. "Returning them would just cause us more problems!"

The Omnipotence burst into laughter, shaking the entire mountain. " **ENTER, YOU KNOW SO LITTLE** " It said. " **I NEVER REMEMBER SAYING THAT YOUR GOAL WAS TO DEFEAT THE ZOORANGERS** "

The android's eye twitched a bit at this comment.

" **YOUR GOAL IS TO SIMPLE ACQUIRE CHAOS ENERGY FOR ME** " The Omnipotence continued. " **AND ON THAT FRONT, YOU AND THE OTHERS HAVE DONE MAGNIFICENTLY** "

"I don't need your praise!" Enter shouted. "I had this scheme planned for so long, you can't just have me give it all up!"

" **YOU ARE ALLOWED TO KEEP THE BLANK ONE** " It said. " **I DO FIND YOUR PLAN INTRIGUING** "

Enter was confused and definitely a bit creeped out at this comment. He hadn't told anyone about this plan, especially not the boss. How did he know about it…?

" **RETURN THE OTHERS** " The Omnipotence continued. " **OR ELSE…** "

The cylinder started to glow, before lightning began to strike from it. It ripped across the entire room, leaving burn marks across the floors and walls, but not touching any of the monsters there.

" **I WILL MAKE YOU PAY** "

Enter took a deep breath, and walked over to the table. He picked the Zoolizers up, and tossed them at Louperoid, who fumbled a bit as he caught them. "Return these."

"What?" The monster said, shocked. "I'm a thief, returning things is the opposite of what I'm programmed to do!"

"Just… do… it." Enter growled.

"Oh, uh, yessir!" The monster quickly vanished, leaving Enter and Savage alone in the room.

"The heck was that about?" Savage asked. "I'm not complaining, actually. Means we get to test the new power out on them at full strength."

"I suppose seeing how powerful it truly is will be an… upside." Enter said, still sounding disappointed. He grabbed the Yellow Zoolizer, and headed down the tunnel, Savage quickly following after.

* * *

 

Judy let out another aggravated scream as she huddled up in a ball and rolled back and forth on the couch. They had made a quick stop to the hospital after the warehouse incident, and Judy ended up being the one in need of medical attention. It had taken a full night, but they managed to get her patched up decently.

Her screams were a mix of frustration, sadness, and pain.

She unfurled herself, and started to punch the couch cushion she was sitting on, before letting out a loud, annoyed grunt.

No one really had the nerve to say anything. Nick was on his phone, trying to keep his mind of the situation. Max was sitting in a chair, seemingly thinking about something, but it was hard to tell. Emily and Henry felt the most awkward, considering they neither had anything to add to all of this, and were loitering about in someone else's home.

"What are we supposed to do?" Judy said, after nearly an hour of her grunting and yelling in anger.

"Don't ask us." Emily said. "At this point, the only thing I can think of is just letting us handle the monsters."

"Which is a terrible idea that will get us both killed." Henry added. Emily nodded her head in agreement.

"We can't just let the bad guys win, right?" Judy said to Nick and Max, hopping down from the couch. Neither of them responded. "…Guys?"

"Sorry, too busy dealing with other things." Nick said, bluntly.

"Seriously?" The rabbit muttered. She turned to Max. He was leaning on the chair's rest, and had his head on his hand. He seemed to have genuinely not heard her. "Max, are you even listening?"

He still didn't respond.

She hopped up onto the opposite rest, and snapped her digits. The wolf popped out of his trance, and glanced around. "What? Whu-?"

"What were you thinking about?" Judy asked, a bit curious.

"Uh, about what happened." He said. "I mean, I don't know if this will be helpful at this point, but the monster did something weird that we might be able to use-"

"Yeah right." Nick interrupted, still glaring at his phone. "We can't do anything right at this point, so why would we even bother fighting that thing again?"

"You can't be serious right now, Nick." Judy said. "We aren't giving up until we die."

"Maybe you aren't, but I am."

"How are those two dating when they argue all the time?" Emily whispered to Henry. The bull shrugged in response.

"Can I at least say what my idea is?" Max asked, raising his paw into the air. Nick and Judy just shot him looks, so he lowered it.

"No, go ahead." Judy said. "Anything can help at this point."

"Okay, so…" He started. "When I tried to pull the pepper spray on the monster, it kind of reacted… differently. It seemed like it was scared of it."

"I mean, who doesn't hate pepper pray?" Nick retorted. "Stuff stings."

"We can attest to that." Emily added.

"Yeah, but that thing's a robot, it doesn't have eyes to hurt." Max continued. "So, why would he even be scared of something like that?"

"I'm guessing you have a reason, don't you?" Nick asked.

"I think that his light teleporting power is based around what he can see!" Max explained. "If he can't see any reflections, then he won't be able to do anything that dangerous! If we can hit him with the pepper spray, we'll be able to fight him in the open, without any real problems!"

"That's… actually a pretty good idea." Nick admitted, finally looking away from his phone.

"Problem is actually trying to actually spray him." Henry added. "And also the fact that none of us can actually destroy him right now."

"Yeah, that's a problem." Max said, slumping down in his chair.

"At the least, its something we can use to drive him off for a while." Judy suggested. "But… who knows when he'll attack again."

Suddenly, Judy's phone started to ring.

"Okay, is that gonna happen every time we say something like that?" Nick asked, annoyed.

She quickly answered the phone, Clawhauser's face showing up on the other end. "Oh my gosh guys, the monster's shown back up!"

"We can tell, Spots!" Nick said. Judy chuckled in response.

"Yeah, but I bet you didn't know that he's in city square!" Clawhauser retorted. "And he's also not actually attacking anyone, he's just kind of… standing there, not doing anything."

"That's odd."Judy said. "Ben, we need you to prep up some pepper spray for us. Think you can do that?"

"Uh, sure, but you guys have been using A LOT of pepper spray recently." He said. "I'm not sure we have a lot left, but I'll see what I can scrounge up!"

"Thanks." She said, before hanging up. "Alright, so we're going to try out Max's plan. Try to… fend him off."

"Can you fend someone off when they're not actually attacking?" Max asked. "Won't we technically be the ones assaulting him?"

"Doesn't really matter." Nick said.

* * *

 

The truck pulled up to the plaza, right on the road in front of the Oasis Fountain. The five got out of the truck, Judy, Nick, and Max armed with a can of pepper spray each. Emily and Henry quickly armored up as they headed into the plaza.

Standing by the fountain was the monster, who, like Clawhauser had said, was doing nothing. He was sitting on the side of the fountain, but quickly got up as the five arrived.

"There you all are." Louperoid said with a laugh. "I've been expecting you for a while!"

"Yeah, that's usually what happens when a monster waits around for us." Nick said. "What exactly are you up to?"

To their shock, Chaos Louperoid pulled out the three Zoolizers. "Behold, Zoorangers," He started. "It seems fortune has shined on you all, for I bring you the REAL Zoolizers!"

"You expect us to buy that those are the real ones?" Judy said.

"If they are the real ones, why did you even bring them here?" Nick asked. "If we get them back, you're pretty much screwed."

The monster paused for a moment, and took a glance at the Zoolizers. They were right, if he did what Enter wanted, then that would mean he'd be on death row.

"Er, why would I give them back to you!?" The Metalroid shouted, rather hastily. "I'm going to, uh, DESTROY THEM! Right in front of you, so you know there's no hope!"

"There's something weird about this." Judy whispered to Nick and Max. "I mean, a different weird than usual."

"I get you." Nick said. "He's a bit awkward. I think those might be the real ones."

"If they are, then that's a threat we can't take lightly." Max added. He turned to Pink. "Think you guys can handle him for a bit?"

"Oh, absolutely." Pink replied. The two stepped forwards, and fired at the monster. Louperoid quickly teleported out of the way of the blasts, which hit the water in the fountain and caused a burst of the liquid to spray up into the air.

The monster reappeared over at a nearby lamp post. Before it could react, Pink and Green charged in, the bull running ahead and tackling the monster. The force of the charge sent the monster flying, smacking into the wall of a nearby building.

As Louperoid attempted to get back to his feet, Pink rushed in, and grabbed onto his arm with one of her paws. "Let go!" The monster shouted.

"Now you know what it's like!" She said, before, aiming one of her blasters at his face. She fired and let go at the same time, causing the monster to stumble back from the blast.

The monster regained its composure for a moment, before thrusting its cane forwards, shooting out a series of lasers at the hyena. She leaped out of the way as sparks flew into the air, and burst into a roll as she hit the ground.

The monster teleported over to her, and kicked her before she could get up. "You really think you'll be able to take these things from me?" He asked with a laugh.

"Yes, actually."

Before the robot knew who even said that, he found someone wrapping their arms around his own, putting him into a lock. It was Green, who had put enough pressure on to even stop the monster's cape from doing anything.

The monster let out a grunt, before he attempted to teleport away from the bull. He spotted a glinting window nearby, and teleported… but the bull was still locked around him.

"Dangit!" Louperoid let out as it struggled.

"Guys, now's your chance!" Green shouted to the three. The rabbit, fox, and wolf nodded, before rushing at the monster.

Judy leaped up into the air, and delivered a kick to the monster, Nick scratched at its legs, and Max punched him in the face. They hit all at the same time, and dazed the monster for a moment. Using this opportunity, Green lifted Chaos Louperoid up into the air, and slammed him down into the ground.

With that blow, the Zoolizers flew off of him, and fell to the ground. The Zoorangers rushed over, and picked them up.

"Hope these are the real deals." Nick said, a bit worried.

They slapped them down onto their wrists, and then pressed the buttons.

In a flash, the three had transformed.

"ZooBlue!" Blue yelled out, striking a pose.

"ZooRed!" Red shouted, also striking a pose.

"ZooSilver!" Silver finished, striking a final pose.

"ZYUMEN SENTAI, ZOORANGER!" They all shouted.

"No!" Louperoid yelled as he got back up. "I knew we should have just destroyed those things!"

"There is one thing that's going to be destroyed today." Blue started, pulling out the moon shaped ZooTag.

Red followed by pulling out the sun shaped one. "Guess what it is?"

"I don't want to know!" The monster shouted.

They quickly plugged the ZooTags in, and turned into their Solar and Lunar forms. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to strike the monster, but were stopped by Silver.

"Hang on, guys!" He said, pulling out a small disc. "You have to let me on this, too!"

He plugged the disc into his Zoolizer, causing a flash of light. "RAMPAGE" His Zoolizer shouted, as the super form of Silver was revealed.

"Isn't that thing dangerous?" Red asked.

"I think its mediated by my anger." Silver said. "And right now, I'm only PRETTY angry, not furious."

"Hopefully you can keep up!" Blue said.

The monster started to back off for a moment, before he turned around, coming face to face with Green and Pink. Before he could do anything, the two punched him in the face, knocking him back.

"Let's let them have this one." Green suggested. "Seems like they really want it." Emily nodded, and the two sneaked off.

"You three might have your powers back, but that doesn't matter!" Chaos Louperoid shouted. "I'll crush you all like last time!"

The top of his hat opened up, and shot a miniature sun up into the air. He let out a laugh as the entire area lit up to ridiculous degrees. All the Zoorangers had to shield their visors… except for Red.

"That the best you've got?" He asked.

"W-what?" The monster said, before clearing its throat. "No, of course not, I have much better up my sleeves!"

He quickly vanished, before reappearing behind the three super Zoorangers. His cape stretched out, and prepared to strike them, but Red quickly whipped his staff backwards, it extending in the process, and wrapped the cape around it. He then flung the cane over his head, sending Louperoid flying into the ground.

"You just got lucky!" Chaos Louperoid said. "Watch THIS!"

His cape started to stretch out, before they started to vanish at around the mid point. "Watch out!" Blue shouted, before all three of them leaped out of the way. The capes started to stretch out of every possible reflective surface, and strike at the three.

They danced around the capes for a bit, but they didn't seem to stop. Red quickly ducked under one flying out from a window, while Blue jumped over one that came out of the fountain's water. Silver spun past one that came out of a severely reflective part of the ground, and fired a few shots from his gun arm at the monster. The capes suddenly retracted in an instant, returning to Louperoid's body as they wrapped around his front, protecting him from the blast.

"Thought we'd be having an easier time with this!" Red said.

"We need to blind him." Silver suggested. "You guys still got the pepper spray on you?"

"I do!" Blue said. She pulled out the can, and glanced over at the monster. "Let me handle this, you guys keep his cape-tentacles busy!"

Silver and Red nodded, as the rabbit dashed at the monster. The capes continued to strike at the three, until Blue suddenly curved around to the monster's backside.

"What is she planning!?" He asked himself. "I can't move from where I'm looking, or else those three will get me, but if I don't-"

"You'll get sneak attacked!"

Blue slid into the monster's leg, knocking it onto its back. The capes retracted as it fell down, letting Red and Silver rest for a moment. Blue quickly hopped up onto the monster's body shaking the can of pepper spray as she did so. She walked up to the monster's neck, and aimed it at his eye.

"No, wait-!"

Before he could finish, she sprayed it, for quite a bit longer than she probably should have, causing Louperoid to let out a shrill scream of pain. In response, he quickly smacked her in the side of her face with his fist, and then crawled back up to his feet.

"I'M BLIND!" He shouted, rubbing at his eye. The spray wasn't coming off this time.

"And now you're completely vulnerable!" Blue said as she got to her feet herself. She readied her blades, but paused as the monster started to laugh.

The laugh quickly turned into a snarl. "You think you're clever!? Well guess what!? I'M NOT BEATEN YET! LET ME SHOW YOU MY ULTIMATE ATTACK, WHELPS!"

The miniature sun started to fly over to Louperoid, and then suddenly split up into six even smaller suns, stationing themselves in a pyramid formation behind both his shoulders.

The lenses on his shoulder popped up. "I don't even need to see to use this one!" He shouted. "I'll just BURN YOU, LIKE THE INSECTS YOU ARE!"

Two massive laser beams fired out of the monster's shoulders, scorching the ground as they moved towards the Zoorangers. They leaped out of the way as the lasers hit a window, and in turn reflected off into the sky, hitting a tall building a handful of miles away.

"Yikes!" Silver shouted. "How are we supposed to deal with that thing!?"

"I know how." Red said, tapping his staff against the ground. "They call this 'Solar mode' for a reason, y'know?"

"Good idea!" Blue said. "But you'll need to be quiet, or else…"

"I can hear you scheming!" Louperoid shouted, quickly zipping the lasers over to where Blue was standing, she flipped out of the way before they could strike.

Red gave a nod, and started to tip toe towards the monster.

"Hey, Loopy!" Silver shouted. "We're over here!"

The monster growled, before moving the lasers over to where Silver was. He also dodged out of the way.

"Whoops, wrong way!" Blue shouted.

As this continued, Red managed to sneak up on the monster. He slowly reached towards the suns with his staff, but one of the cape sections whipped out, knocking him back.

"Did you really think I'd fall for that so easily?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of."

The capes started to lash at him, but the fox quickly started to strike back with the staff. They clashed for a moment, before Red stepped back, and shot a burst of fire at the monster. "AHHH, HOT!" He let out. The cape sections had been lit on fire, and started to burn away.

"Alright, time to play ball!" Red said, before leaping up and swiping up all the small suns into the center of his staff. They collected into a single large ball of fire, covering the entire end of the staff. The fox rushed back over to his teammates as the confused monster tried to figure out what happened.

"What did you do!?" Louperoid shouted, stomping forward.

"I took the heat." Red said. He then turned to Blue, and nodded at her. "Good one, right?"

She shook her head.

He stepped back, and pulled the staff back over his shoulder. "You guys ready for a home star run?" He asked.

"I don't know what that means, but sure?" Silver said.

He swung the staff like a bat, launching the large fireball off of it. It flew at the Metalroid, and exploded into a massive burst of fire.

The fire quickly cleared, revealing the weakened Louperoid, who stumbled to his knees. "Ugh, just finish me off right now." He grunted.

"I don't think you've been thrashed enough yet!" Blue said.

"Yeah, and we have some frustrations to work out." Red followed.

"Ugh, this sucks." The monster muttered as the three ran up to him.

Silver ran up first, and slashed upwards with his sword arm, bringing the monster back to its feet. He then shot the robot at pointblank range, causing him to fly off. Blue ran up behind him as he flew off, and leaped up into the air. She started to rapidly slash at the thief with her blades, before kicking him off. She continued to fling laser slashes at the robot, keeping him up in the air for a bit longer.

Red headed underneath the monster, and swung his staff upwards. It extended up, and slammed into the Metalroid's stomach. He then let out a burst of fire from the staff's tip, burning the monster, before he thrust it up and knocked Louperoid up into the sky.

The three gathered, and Red and Blue quickly combined their weapons into the combined crossbow. The jaw on Silver's chest opened up, revealing a cannon. The three aimed their weapons upwards, and fired. The lasers combined together, and struck the Metalroid in midair, causing it to explode.

From the explosion fell a magnifying glass, which shattered as it hit the ground, and a Chaos Badge, which just bounced.

"That felt so good!" Silver said, triumphantly. "Oh, hang on a second." He said, quickly turning back to his normal form.

"Why did you do that?" Blue asked. "Don't you want to stay in that form for the big monster battle?"

"You know how terrible it'd be to try and pilot while wearing that thing?"

The three quickly turned to the Chaos Badge as it started to float up into the air. It quickly flew off into the distance, and exploded into a flash of light. As the light cleared, it revealed Chaos Louperoid, completely revived.

"Time for me to steal your LIVES!" He roared.

The Zoorangers quickly readied their robots, which quickly combined into ZooRobo and ZooKami. The two mechs stomped towards the giant Metalroid.

"Think we should call up the lion guy?" Red asked.

"Nah, I think we can take this guy out just fine with these." Blue replied.

"Excuse me!?" The monster shouted. "Am I not worth your time!?"

"No, you aren't." Silver said.

The mechs quickly stomped forwards, and both of them attempted to slash at the monster. Its cape tendrils quickly lashed out, and blocked the strikes, knocking them both back. The monster let out a laugh, as the lenses on his shoulders popped out. Lasers started to fire from them, causing explosions and sparks.

The mechs stood strong, however, much to Louperoid's shock. He let out a growl, before sending his cape to attack them. The two mechs started to slash at both of them, knocking them aside as they started to head back towards the monster.

Both of them managed to get up close to the defenseless monster, and brought both their blades down at the same time. The force of the blast caused a massive explosion, knocking Louperoid to the ground. He scrambled to get back up, and the top of his hat popped open.

He leaned forwards, energy building up, and then fired a much larger sun towards the two mechs. ZooKami slashed at the orb, and knocked it back. The monster whacked it into the air with his cane in response. The ball flew in an arc towards ZooRobo, who quickly smacked it with the side of his sword. The sun flew directly into the unprepared Louperoid. Another explosion erupted as the sun hit, leaving the monster stumbling and in pain.

"Ugh, maybe I should have just took up that job as a hatter…" The Metalroid muttered to itself.

"Haven't gotten to use this in a while!" Red said as ZooRobo stepped forwards. It quickly raised its sword up, moving it in a clockwise pattern. An aura of energy formed, before it zig-zagged the blade, forming a Z-shaped aura of energy. Finally, it thrust the blade forward, sending the energy flying directly at the monster.

It sliced right through him, and he started to spark and stumble. "I knew he shouldn't have made me return them!" Louperoid whined.

"What?" Blue said. "You… purposely returned our Zoolizers!? Who made you do that!?"

"That Omnipotence fellow!" He shouted. "It doesn't matter, at least you idiots will never claim my stolen goods!"

The monster tilted and fell over, before exploding into a massive burst of fire. ZooRobo and ZooKami turned around as the explosion erupted, and struck poses.

"Nature, protected!"

The mechs vanished, and the three landed back in the middle of the plaza. They quickly turned back to normal. "Ugh, that felt SO GOOD!" Judy said, hopping about.

"Tell me about it!" Nick followed. "I almost forgot how exciting that always is."

"I'm just glad to have this little guy back…" Max said, looking at his Zoolizer. Nick and Judy looked at him for a moment. "Uh, because, then I couldn't… fight any more monsters." He hastily added.

"I don't think you guys should be celebrating just yet." Henry started. "We're still missing something."

Judy's ears popped up. "The Yellow Zoolizer!" She said, slapping herself in the forehead. "It's still up in the enemy base… we're never going to get it back!"

"I say we don't worry about it." Nick said, surprising the rabbit. "We're five strong, if we stick together and keep at this pace… we'll have the bad guys beaten in no time."

"That's… optimistic." Judy said.

"Yeah, you hit your head?" Emily added.

"No, I just…" Nick paused. "I feel really good right now, I dunno."

"You know, all those gems that monster stole are also up in the mountain." Max said. "We're not going to be able to get them, either."

"Hopefully neither of these things come back to bite us." Nick sighed. "Though, Bogo will probably be… furious."

"We can worry about that later." Judy said. She let out an exhausted sigh. "Let's just head home."

Everyone nodded, and they headed back to the truck.

* * *

 

"You're telling me you HAD the Zoolizers," Sambash started. "And then the boss man told you to… return them?"

Enter nodded.

"That's fuckin' stupid." Sambash said. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"Apparently it has something to do with 'Chaos Energy'." Enter said. "I think that's something he made up. I'm sure he has something planned against us."

"Should we be talking about this in here, though?" Sambash asked, looking up at the massive cylinder. "He could hear us insulting him, and put us in the same situation dragon boy is."

"I think he's asleep." Enter said, getting up. "So we shouldn't have to worry about-"

Before the android could finish, The Omnipotence sprung to life with a burst of red energy.

" **I AM AWARE OF ALL THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHILE INSIDE HERE, ENTER** " It roared. " **AND I HAVE AWOKEN TO ALLEVIATE YOUR CONCERNS** "

Enter raised an eyebrow.

" **CHAOS ENERGY IS GATHERED THROUGH THE ACT OF DESTRUCTION AND FIGHTING, SOMETHING THAT THIS WORLD HAS LACKED FOR MOST OF ITS HORRID EXISTENCE** " The Omnipotence explained. " **BUT THE MOST POTENT FORM COMES FROM WHEN GOOD FIGHTS AGAINST EVIL, THROUGH THAT STRUGGLE WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GATHER UP AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT IN BUT A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME** "

"So, you're just having us fight to gather up energy?" Sambash asked. "The hell are we even doing that for!?"

" **TO GET YOUR REVENGE** " The Omnipotence roared. " **YOU DO REMEMBER OUR DEAL, DON'T YOU** "

Sambash shook his head. He really DID want to get revenge… and there wasn't much else he could do. He wasn't in any position to retaliate, either. This guy could take down an immortal, and the rest of the villains and him would have no idea how to get back home without the boss.

"Fine, whatever." Sambash said, still very clearly angry. He quickly stormed out of the chamber.

Enter glared into the red void that was The Omnipotence.

"I still don't entirely believe you." Enter said. "Wouldn't we get more Chaos Energy just by destroying the planet?"

"DO NOT FRET" The Omnipotence assured. "WHEN WE ARE FULLY CHARGED, THERE WILL BE NOTHING THIS PLANET, NOR THE ZOORANGER, CAN DO TO SAVE ITSELF"

"Tch."

Enter started to walk out, but was stopped by one last booming vocalization from the cylinder.

" **ENTER, HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT YOU REMIND ME OF SOMEONE THAT I USED TO KNOW?** "

Enter rolled his eyes. "You do too."

He headed down the hall, but managed to catch a surprisingly quiet chuckle from the inner sanctum.

* * *

 

The three had arrived at Max's house after Emily and Henry dropped them off. For most of the night, they just spent it relaxing.

But throughout the night, thoughts had been running through Judy's head. Not good ones. Why did the monsters need all those gemstones? What were they going to do with the Yellow Zoolizer?

And most importantly, why would the leader of the villains want them to have the Zoolizers?

She glanced around the room. Nick was on his phone, while Max was on his laptop. It was quiet, but she felt like it was time to break the silence.

"What do you guys think of what that monster said?" She asked.

"About the Zoolizers?" Max said. "That was definitely… odd."

"It's gotten me worried." She said, shaking her foot back and forth. "This Omnipotence guy is supposed to be the big evil… why would he want to help us?"

"That's a mystery we might never learn." Max said. "Best case scenario is we have somebody in the bad guys who wants to actually help."

"I sincerely doubt that." Judy said. "I doubt a guy named "Omnipotence" would ever be considered a good guy… Comes off egotistical, you know?"

Max nodded. "Best not to worry about it." Max said with a sigh. "If you let it bother you, we won't be able to save the world, right?"

She let out a sigh. "You're right, I should really just-"

"OH MY GOD!" Nick suddenly shouted, startling the two.

"What, what is it!?" Judy asked.

"I just found the PERFECT APARTMENT!" He explained, slamming his digit into his phone screen. "It's got all your specifications, pre-furnished, no drug dealers, apparently its in good condition…"

"That sounds great!" Judy said.

"You guys wanna go check it out?" Max asked.

"We'll have to set up a good time." Nick said. "You know, work and stuff. I'll send an e-mail and set something up."

"Alright!" Judy let out, jumping up to her feet. "We're not going to have to sleep in a basement anymore! We'll have actual BEDS!"

"There's only one bedroom, though." Nick said.

Judy looked like she became slightly enthusiastic, but her ears didn't drop. She then pumped her fist into the air.

"Good enough!"

* * *

 

Enter and Savage stood on the top of the mountain, the moon shining down onto them. "What'dya think of that guy's bullshit excuse?" Savage asked, before chuckling to himself. "He thinks he can trick us."

"Indeed." Enter said. He looked down at his hand, which was grasping the Yellow Zoolizer.

"So, when we get this all sorted, we're going to kill him and take over, right?" Savage asked.

"Definitely." Enter responded. "It's time to get this started."

He turned around, and glanced over at another object. It was a cage, containing a sheep who was, currently, asleep. "What's the plan got to do with the lambchop over there?" Savage asked as Enter walked over.

He picked up the cage, and carried it over to Savage. "I need you to take something from her." He started.

"I need her skin."

"Oh ho ho, now you're talking my language!" Savage said. "How much? All of it?"

"Enough to wrap around my wrist." He said.

Savage nodded, a bit disappointed. He opened his jaw up, and slipped through the cage bars. He stretched his jaw open to ridiculous levels, almost completely dislocating it.

However, the sheep started to move. "What?" She let out as she got up. "What am I doing out-"

He words turned to bloodcurdling shrieks of pain as Savage bit down on her. His teeth teared through her prison outfit, wool, and upper layer of skin. In a swift motion, he had torn off an clean rectangle of flesh from her back. The sheep simply twitched in pain for a moment, before passing out.

It was only the upper layer of her skin. As much as he wanted to murder the sheep and then eat her corpse, that would leave little flesh left. He need to show SOME restraint.

Savage gnashed the skin around in his mouth for a moment, before spitting it out onto the ground. It was completely sans fur and the prison uniform, a simple, long strip of white flesh.

Enter picked it up off the ground. Luckily for him, it wasn't covered in slobber. Energy beings couldn't salivate, for obvious reasons.

"Why do you need that?" Savage asked.

Without a word, Enter quickly wrapped the flesh around his wrist, and then closed his eyes. His arm suddenly started to melt off, turning into red wireframe version, with only the additional skin left in tact. However, after a second, it started to turn into a wireframe as well, fusing with his arm. His "flesh" crawled back up his arm, with the pale white skin now fused into the rest of his skin.

"Neat trick."

"I need the flesh for a very simple reason." Enter said, waving the Yellow Zoolizer. "This thing only reacts to animal DNA. I needed to incorporate some of that into my own code, and now it should register."

"It's time, Savage."

"Ha ha, I've been waiting for this for a WEEK!"

The skull floated over to Enter as he held up the Yellow Zoolizer. His energy form seemed to absorb itself into the device, causing it to glow green. Enter smiled as the Zoolizer started to change. It turned gunmetal gray, with red accents. A rim of sharp teeth exploded from the edges, destroying the animal head design that hid inside. The button had disappeared, as the teeth now formed into a sort of switch.

Enter then slapped the device onto his wrist, causing it to light up. His smirk turned to a grin, as he pushed the jaws of the device together.

"SAVAGE"

Dark energy started to swirl around him, covering his entire body, before it stopped.

Enter started to laugh, though his voice also seemed to sound a bit like Savage's at the same time. "'Allo…" He said, his voice sounding normal.

"ZooDark."


	41. Savage City

The villains had gathered up in a small cave, near the back of the mountain, far away from where The Omnipotence had been. The only one who hadn't shown up was Enter, but none of them were bothered. Surprising most of them, however, was the fact that Sambash had called this meeting.

He explained to them what was going on, what The Omnipotence had said only a few nights before.

"So, you're saying that The Omnipotence has been using us?" Kyuemon asked.

"Looks like it." Sambash said. "I knew something was up with that guy."

"We're villains, we're untrusting of everyone!" Yogostein proclaimed.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do something about it." Sambash replied. "Being used is something I ain't gonna stand for."

"So, you're suggesting a coup?" Yogostein asked.

"More like a mutiny." Sambash said. "We're all powerful…" He quickly glanced at Yabaiba, who was sitting absentmindedly on the floor. "…Most of us are powerful, we can take him on!"

"I think you're vastly overestimating our abilities." Kyuemon said. "We might be powerful enough to take on any heroes we face, but I doubt we can do so for The Omnipotence."

"You remember what he did to Long, right?" Yogostein followed. "If we try to betray him, we'll end up like that too… or worse!"

"The only reason he imprisoned Long was because he's immortal." Kyuemon said. "We, on the other hand, are completely mortal. Trying to go against him would be suicide."

Sambash tried to say something, but couldn't. He kicked at the ground as he let out a frustrated yell. "Well, what are we supposed to do, then!?" He shouted at the fox yokai. "Just let him tell us what to do!?"

"I don't really see the problem." Yabaiba said. "I mean, we're doing this to get home, right? If we keep following along, we'll be fine."

"For once, Yabaiba raises a point." Kyuemon followed. "There's no downside to us following him, other than our own egos."

"Fine, whatever." Sambash muttered. "Enter didn't seem too happy about it."

Before the conversation could continue, a deep rumbling started to shake the room. "The hell-?" Sambash let out.

A few moments later, the rumbling stopped… and another kind of rumbling started. The rumbling of The Omnipotence's powerful voice.

It let out a roar, before saying a name.

" **YABAIBA** " It yelled. " **COME TO ME** "

The Org quickly scrambled to his feet, and ran out of the cave, the other villains following shortly afterwards. However, they were greeted by something peculiar.

The exit to the cave now lead out to the main hall, rather than the hall where they had found it. It had suddenly moved from the back of the mountain… to its very front.

"How is this…?" Kyuemon said to himself, before shaking it off.

Yabaiba ran up to the large tube, seemingly not noticing the massive spacial displacement they had just gone through, and quickly bowed. "What is it, your tubiness?"

" **GATHER CHAOS ENERGY** " The Omnipotence boomed.

"On it!" Yabaiba said. He stood there for a moment.

"You gonna do anything, bozo?" Sambash asked, before sitting down at the table.

"Uh… I can't think of anything."

"Not out of the ordinary." Yogostein muttered.

Yabaiba let out a frustrated grunt as he scratched at the sides of his head. "I think I've run out of plans! I can't even think of any good monsters! Why is it so hard to get rid of a bunch of animals-"

He paused for a moment, before letting out a laugh. "Yes, that's it!" He yelled. "I just came up with the greatest plan EVER!"

"Hyperbole at its finest." Yogostein mocked.

"Not even hyperbooly!" Yabaiba replied. "I have a plan that will completely knock you all off your socks!"

He quickly ran out through the exit, laughing and giggling as he did so. The three remaining villains watched on, fairly confused.

"He seemed more enthusiastic about that than usual." Kyuemon noted.

"Maybe the dunce will come up with something useful for once." Sambash said, looking at a half empty bottle of brandy. "Doubt it, though."

* * *

The door to the apartment swung open. "Here we are." The sheep landlord said. He was a bit rough looking, but it matched the rest of the apartment building.

Judy and Nick stepped into apartment after the sheep. "This is the living room," He started. It had blue carpeting, with a green couch pointing towards a wall. The wall had windows, as well as a rather old looking TV sitting on a TV stand in front of it. "Don't worry, the TV just looks old." The sheep assured them.

The two looked at each other, a bit skeptically. They followed the sheep over to a small corner of the room. "Here's the kitchen." he said. It was a very cramped looking kitchen, even for smaller mammals like them. Cupboards and pantries were lined up in a U-shape, with the stove and fridge on opposite sides. There didn't seem to be a microwave or toaster. The flooring there was hard, buts eemed to have a few… stains.

The sheep walked over to the next corner, and another door. "This is the closet." He said. "I recommend not leaving anything in there for too long."

That wasn't worrying at all.

"Over there is the bedroom and bathroom." The sheep continued, pointing to the other side of the room. There were two doors, and it was hard to tell which one was which.

Judy quickly hopped over to one, and opened it. It was the bathroom, which, surprisingly, looked like one of the cleaner rooms in the place. Hopefully that didn't mean ominous things.

Nick, on the other hand, went over to the bedroom door, and peeked inside. It had a double bed, and a dresser already, alongside purple walls. It didn't look that bad, at least, not to him.

"So, whaddya think?" The sheep asked.

The two turned to look at him, and then glanced at each other. "Can you give us a moment to talk?" Judy asked. The sheep nodded.

She quickly pulled the fox into the bedroom. "So, think we should get it?" Nick quickly asked, hopping up onto the bed.

Judy took a deep breath. "This place isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but that doesn't mean it isn't terrible."

"I think its fine." Nick said.

"Of course you do." Judy replied, ears dropping. She sighed. "I think I can make do with it, but we'll need to do a lot of work."

"So, you're saying we should get it?"

"We don't have much else to choose from." The rabbit said.

"We could live on the streets." Nick suggested. "I'm an expert at that."

"Aaaaabsolutely not."

A few hours had passed after they paid for the apartment. They had started to move in, and four suitcases were placed in a corner of the apartment. Immediately after bringing them in, Judy rushed off. She came back a half hour later, armed with a variety of different cleaning items.

"How much did you spend on all that?" Nick asked, looking over the couch's back at hehr. She had gotten spray bottles, a mop, a pawful of rags, air fresheners, soap, and even a vacuum cleaner.

"Still less than what we spent on this place." She said.

She grabbed the mop, and then stomped over to the closet, taking a deep breath. As she opened it, a horrible stench wafted out. It smelled like a dead body, or something even worse, if that was possible.

Nick instantly retched, and the rabbit slammed the door close. "We'll deal with that later." She said, catching her breath.

The rabbit watched as the fox pulled his phone out. "What are you doing?"

"Calling up Max, maybe he can help us out with the move-in." He explained. The phone rung for a moment, before the wolf answered.

"Hey guys." He greeted. "How's everything going?"

"Pretty well." Nick said. "We bought the place, it's alright."

"Oh, well that's good to-"

Judy grabbed the phone from the fox's paws. "Yeah, this place WILL be 'alright'." She said. "Right now it's a filthy mess."

"You lived in my basement for months." Max said with a chuckle. "Why do you care about a mess?"

"For one, we didn't have much of a choice, and second, we cleaned it up." She started. "Do you even use the basement?"

"Uh…"

Nick watched on for a moment, but soon realized he wouldn't be getting the phone back any time soon. He turned to glance at the TV. It looked old, old enough to not be able to connect to the internet. He walked up and peeked around the back.

No, it was definitely just OLD.

There wasn't even an HDMI connector, just the old multi-color plug-in connectors. And whoever owned seemed to have run off with anything to plug it in to, which meant they could only watch… ugh, cable.

He searched for a remote as Judy rambled on about the apartment to Max. He ended up finding it inside one of the drawers in the TV stand. It seemed to have been heavily used, and had a few distressing stains on it.

The fox sat back on the couch, and tried to flick the TV on. Unfortunately, it didn't actually turn on. He glanced at the remote for a moment, there was a light on it, which meant the remote wasn't dead. He quickly got up, and walked back over to the TV, and hit it with his fist.

Nothing happened.

He hit it again, and then again. On the last hit, the TV suddenly flicked on. The two mammals were startled as circus music played, and and an announcer started to yell.

"The Roary Brother's Circus of Wonder and Fun, coming to Zootopia TODAY!"

"Nick, seriously!?" Judy shouted.

"I didn't think it'd turn on!" He said, fumbling to smack the power button.

"Located just outside the city, come and see our acrobatics and daring dangerous stunts! A world of entertainment awaits-"

He flicked the TV off, and glanced at the rabbit, who in turn glared at him. He stumbled back over to the couch and sat back down, silently.

"So, I guess we have to buy a new TV at some point now." Judy said to the phone.

"That'll probably end up being more expensive than the apartment, if I'm being honest." Max said.

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?"

* * *

The tent had been set up quickly, and a large group of mammals had formed outside of it, all of them wanting tickets.

"How many do you think are out there?" A lion said, looking out the window of a trailer, which was parked next to the tent. He was half dressed up in a ringmaster's outfit.

"Oh, probably about… five hundred, by the looks of things?" Another lion said. This lion was sitting at a table, checking their bank account on his phone. He was dressed a lot more casually. "This is the largest turn-out we've gotten in five years. They're all a bunch of city-slickers who've never been to a circus before. Told you this would be a great place."

"You're right, as always." The ringmaster lion said, before taking a deep breath. "Better make this show as good as we can."

"We're the second best circus in the world, of course we can." The other lion said. "Get out there and put on a show already, everyone else is waiting for you."

The lion took a deep breath, and quickly headed out of the trailer. What felt like a moment later, he entered the tent. It was crowded with hundreds of different mammals, of all shapes and sizes.

He cleared his throat, and headed into the middle of the circus' dust floor. "LADIES AND GENTLEMAMMALS!" He shouted into the microphone he was wearing. "WELCOME TO THE ROARY BROTHERS' CIRCUS! PREPARE TO BE AMAZED BY TRICKS OF ALL KINDS, ACROBATICS, CANNONS, DEATH DEFYING STUNTS! ALL OF IT IS HERE, AND WILL BE SHOWN DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOUR FACES!"

The audience cheered, but the lion was still sweating a bit. This was a lot easier in front of a smaller crowd.

"But before we get started," He continued. "Let's open up with some light comedic antics! We have some hilarious hi-jinks to warm everything up, so SEND IN THE CLOWNS!"

Circus music started to play, signaling the arrival of the clown troupe… but none of them seemed to be coming out.

The lion looked towards the entrance at the back of the tent, and then back to the audience. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they realized something was going wrong.

Just before the ringmaster could say anything, something came cartwheeling out of the entrance. It cartwheeled over to the ringmaster, and did a handstand, before flipping back onto its feet.

It was dressed like a clown, with a baggy, multi-color outfit, a puffy rainbow wig, and a red nose… but not only was it not one of his clowns, it didn't appear to be a mammal at all.

It was a horned, bony creature, who quickly proceeded to give a bow as the ringmaster stepped back in shock. "Howdy there, folks!" The creature said, standing back up and giving a wave. "Are you all ready for an extravaganza of MISERY and TORMENT!?"

"Who are you!?" The ringmaster lion shouted. "What happened to the rest of the clowns!?"

The creature looked over to him and laughed. "Those clowns of yours were so lame!" He said. "But they're all a bit… tied up at the moment. So I brought my own."

The creature snapped his fingers, and suddenly, a horde of green monsters wielding clubs charged in through every available opening in the tent, some even cleaving through parts of the tent. The crowd screamed as the monsters went into the stands and started to attack.

"What-!?" The lion shouted.

"You been out of the loop here, buddy?" The clown garbed monster said, placing his hands on the lion's shoulders. "Zootopia's had a bit of a monster infestation recently!"

Before the lion could react, Yabaiba spun him around, and then slapped him in the face, knocking him to the ground and causing his hat to fall off. The Org skipped over to the hat, and picked it up.

"How lucky that a circus was coming into town the same week I came up with my master plan?" Yabaiba said to the unconscious lion. He pulled out a spiraling horn, and then jabbed it into the hat. It started to glow as he threw it to the ground.

The hat started to shift in shape, becoming larger and slightly more stiff. The glow cleared, revealing that the hat had shifted from black to red, with a black stripe running across its brim. Green horns burst from the hat, and pointed up into the air. Two more horns, purple in color, burst from the top of the hat and curved downwards.

The hat started to shake again as two legs burst from its bottom. The legs were white, mimicking a ringmaster's puffy pants, while the feet were large, pointed boots that seemed to meld with the pants. They seemed more like skin rather than any sort of clothing.

The hat popped up a bit more, revealing the bottom half of the monster's rotund stomach, the hat stretching and conforming around it. It struggled for a moment, before two arms burst from the bottom of the hat as well, red and with cracked, white facsimiles of cuffs, with hands that naturally looked like black gloves.

The hands gripped onto the sides of the hat, pulling it up and revealing the rest of the monster's body. Its rotund figure attempted to mimic that of a ringmaster, with various pieces of armored, exoskeleton-esque skin forming into a vague approximation of a red vest and a golden undershirt. However, the monster's form was large enough that the vest wasn't even zipped up, instead revealing the organic undershirt in full, which had a large purple orb between the two hanging parts of the faux-undershirt.

Its shoulders were covered in mismatched pauldrons, one completely connected and poking up into a spike, the other forming a sort of cover for the shoulder. The monster also wore a very clashing and tacky purple and orange striped tie.

The monster gripped onto his hat once more, and with a quick tug, it jutted up a tiny bit. This revealed a tiny ring of flesh, which opened up into an incredibly long, toothy mouth, a green void only visible inside of the maw.

Finally, part of the monster's hat folded in a bit, before two bits of the brim burst open to reveal two emerald green eyes. The monster let out a laugh as it patted its stomach.

"It's nice to finally put on another show!" It said.

"Animal Tamer Org!" Yabaiba said, patting the stout org on the back. "Been a long time since I saw you, think you can help with my master plan?"

"Anything for you, one-horn!" The monster said. "But how am I supposed to help with some master plan?"

"Look around you."

The monster glanced around the circus. There were animals everywhere. The monster let out a laugh. "Looks like my specific talents have come in use once again!" Animal Tamer Org said, stepping toward the stand.

He pulled out two large, purple and orange whips, and cracked them on the ground.

The sound echoed through the tent.

* * *

"What the heck is this?" Judy said as she reached behind one of the couch cushions. She was attempting to clean them, but the cushions weren't removable, so she had to reach behind them. She had found numerous coins and odd pieces of tat, but whatever she had found now was… sharp.

She pulled it out, revealing a small switchblade. She turned to the fox that was sitting next to her, and waved it in front of his muzzle.

"How the hell does something like this get behind the couch cushions!?" She shouted at him.

"I dunno, but you should probably go wash your paws." He said, calmly. "Could get tetanus, you know."

Judy groaned as she hopped off the couch. She walked over to a bin, and tossed the knife into it. The bin was full of broken glass and other sharp objects she had found while cleaning up the house.

She washed her paws in the kitchen, and looked at the room.

She had spent a good few hours just cleaning up the living room. It wasn't anything pretty, the carpet had a few stains that just didn't seem to come off, but other than that, the rest looked almost livable.

Almost.

Still, that was only the living room. She hadn't even started on the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or… the closet.

"How could somebody live in this place?" She started, drying off her paws.

"Some mammals just work with what they have." Nick said.

"It was a hazard zone until I cleaned it up!" She said, starting to sound a bit worked up. "What's even the point of houses if some mammals live like this? If you can't take care of a SINGLE room, you should just live on the streets, right?"

Nick looked at her for a moment. The rabbit was seeming to get war more worked up at this place, more than he had seen her before. Lord knows what she would be doing if they picked any of the other places.

The comment about houses kind of stung him a bit, personally, but he knew she wasn't directing it at him.

"I think you need to calm down for a bit, Judy." Nick said, getting up. "Take a deep breath, and think about the positives for a change. You're the positive one, after all."

She took a deep breath through her nose, as her ears drooped down. "You're right, I was just getting frustrated… but, I can't really think of anything positive right now…"

"Think about it like this," Nick started. "We're not stuck in a basement, or an even filthier basement. We don't have to, ahem, do private things in someone else's house, either."

"Fair points." She said. "And, if we work hard, we can get this place up to livable status soon!"

"Exactly!" The fox said, enthusiastically. "We just need to get this place all sorted, give it a few days, and then we'll be all settled in."

She gave a nod. "Thanks, I was getting… upset, there."

The fox gave a thumbs up, and headed back to the couch.

"Wait," Judy said, interrupting him before he could sit down. "Nick, can I ask you something?"

"Sure?" He said as he sat on the couch.

"How… how many houses have you lived in?" She asked. "Or, living spaces, I guess."

The fox thought for a moment. "Maybe… fifteen? It's definitely been over ten, at least."

"That's… a lot." Judy said, walking up to the couch. She leaned on the armrest. "All of them have been in Zootopia?"

"Yep." He said. "I had my mother's house, the abandoned house I stayed at with Emily and Henry, Mr. Big's place, multiple times, and there was a while where I had an apartment up in the Rainforest District."

"That's not getting into the places I had to stay while I was homeless." He continued. "Add those in and it'd come up to around thirty something."

"Yikes." Judy said. "It sounds pretty difficult to live like that."

"You have no idea." The fox said with a laugh. "Having any kind of roof over my head is still weird to me. But it's better than nothing."

There was silence for a moment.

"No wonder you picked all those places." Judy said. "Sorry about getting angry."

"It's alright."

"Though, we do need to get a new TV." He said. "This thing is useless."

Judy rolled her eyes. "A new TV would cost at least half of what we spent to buy this place."

"Then that's something we can save up for."

The rabbit let out a small laugh, but was quickly interrupted as their Zoolizers started to go off. "Oh cheese and crackers, it is Monday isn't it?" She said, panicking a bit.

"Can't we just settle into our new place without anything WEIRD happening!?" Nick growled as he got up. "Alright, let's go see what's up."

The fox walked towards the door, but let out a yelp of pain as he stepped on something. "Oh god, what happened!?" Judy asked, rushing up to him and helping the fox back on his feet.

"I think I stepped on some glass."

* * *

"THIS is the instrument of your ultimate plan?" Sambash mocked as he circled around Animal Tamer Org.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" Yabaiba asked. The Org was still dressed in his clown outfit, embarrassingly enough, though he very obviously did not care.

"Yeah, he's lame as hell." Sambash said, before lightly kicking Animal Tamer Org in the back. The pudgy monster stumbled forwards awkwardly, before falling to the ground. "Guy doesn't even look like he can fight."

"Hey, just because he's weak doesn't mean his isn't powerful!" Yabaiba said.

"Actually, that is literally what that means." Yogostein said, sat at the table. What you just said was a contradiction."

"Actually, it ain't not a contradiction!" Yabaiba retorted. He helped Animal Tamer Org up to his feet.

"Thanks, one-horn." The ringmaster monster said. "Duke Yabaiba is right, I have an incredibly powerful ability!"

"Why don't you stop talking about it and show us?" Kyuemon said, clearly getting a bit annoyed.

"Alright, we will." Yabaiba said, before heading over to a hanging cage. He peeked in, looking at the small sheep inside. She seemed to be in extreme pain, and the back of her orange jumpsuit was noticeably darker than before.

"Hell do you want?" She said to the Org.

"Okay, you're alive." Yabaiba said, taking the cage down. "Animal, show them all your showstopper!"

Yabaiba quickly kicked the cage, causing it to open, and for Bellwether to slide out of it. She unsteadily got to her feet, as thoughts flooded her head. She was free, but could she even escape? If she tried, would they kill her, or would they just not care?

She stumbled back as Animal Tamer Org stepped towards her, brandishing his whips. He let out a hearty chuckle, before cracking one of the whips on the ground. The whipcrack echoed throughout the room.

"Is that it?" Yogostein asked.

"Look at the sheep!" Yabaiba shouted, frantically pointing at Bellwether.

The sheep's eyes had dilated. Almost instantly she dropped to her fours, and started to trot around the room, letting out a small baa.

"Sheep!" The monster yelled, cracking his whip. "Lay down!"

The sheep stopped for a moment, before laying down on her side.

"Get up!" The monster yelled again, yet again cracking his whip.

The sheep instantly sprung to her feet.

"Do a backflip!" The ringmaster Org said, with yet another whipcrack.

Much to everyone's shock, the sheep suddenly leaped into the air and performed a backflip, before landing perfectly back on the ground.

"Back to your cage!" The Org shouted, with a final whipcrack. Yabaiba quickly set the cage back up, as the sheep walked back into it. He shut the cage door, and then hung it back up on the chain.

"Pretty great, huh?" Yabaiba said.

"He can control sheep, so what?" Sambash scoffed.

"Not just sheep!" Animal Tamer Org said. "Any animal of any kind, any time, any where! I can make any animal do what I command, no matter how dangerous!"

"And we're currently attacking an animal infested city." Yabaiba added. "I'm going to have Animal here brainwash any animals he wants throughout the city, and eventually we'll have control over the entire population, fully under our control! And that includes…"

"The Zoorangers." Kyuemon finished, sounding genuinely impressed. "Color me surprised, Yabaiba, you managed to come up with a decent plan on your own."

"'Decent'?" Yogostein replied, pounding his fist on the table. "This plan could win us this idiotic war! Go out there and get things done, partner!"

"On it!" Yabaiba said, giving a quick salute. Him and Animal Tamer Org prepared to leave, but were stopped by Yogostein.

"Wait," He said. "Take that thing off, please. It'd ruin any drama."

Yabaiba looked at himself for a moment. "Oh, guess you're right."

He grabbed at the clown suit, and then flung it off his body in a single motion. The clown garb landed on the ground as the two headed out.

"Don't tell me you guys think he's actually going to win this." Sambash asked with a groan. "Guy's a goddamn CLOWN! He'll mess it up!"

"You may not seem to realize this, but Yabaiba is quite reliable when given the proper supervision." Kyuemon said, calmly. "There is a chance he could pull this off."

"It's a very high chance, according to my calculations." Yogostein followed.

Sambash let out a frustrated grunt, before storming off into one of the tunnels. Shortly after, Enter came walking out, his right arm tucked into his sleeve.

"Ah, Enter." Kyuemon said. "Why didn't you show up at the meeting last night?"

"I didn't want to." He replied, bluntly.

"Really now?" Kyuemon said, getting up from the table. "You weren't doing anything last night?"

"Absolutely not." Enter replied. It wasn't a lie.

"Then what do you have in your coat?" The yokai asked. "It's a very conspicuous way of trying to hide something, isn't it?"

"What does it matter to you?" The android snapped.

"You're just incredibly suspicious." Yogostein said. "Of course, you've been like that since the start of this nonsense."

"Just because I like to do things by myself doesn't mean I'm hiding anything." Enter said, calmly. "Now if you excuse me, I have some business to deal with."

"What business?" Kyuemon questioned.

"Business with a friend." Enter said as he strolled out of the cave.

The room fell silent for a moment. "He's definitely hiding something." Kyuemon said. "I can sense these things."

"Well, if he's hiding something," Yogostein started. "As long as it helps us, there's no real problems, correct?"

Kyuemon let out a scoff, before walking out of the room, leaving Yogostein behind.

The robot glanced around for a moment, before pulling out a large bottle of liquid.

"Bottoms up!"

* * *

The two bikes zoomed into the outskirts of the city, a large grassy field marked with tons of footprints from giant monster and robot alike.

"Why would a monster attack the outskirts of the city?" Red asked as he and Blue both hopped off their bikes. "Isn't their whole thing to destroy the city?"

"I think that might have something to do with it." Blue said, pointing over to a clearing.

In the clearing was a large circus tent, alongside other things you'd expect at a circus, like food stands and several trailers… only the entire place was in ruins. The stands had been knocked over, and several holes had been torn in the main tent.

"A circus?" Red said, a bit surprised. "Wait, didn't we hear about that earlier?"

Before the conversation could continue, Silver crashed into the ground next to the fox and rabbit, startling them. The wolf, however, was completely unfazed by his hard landing.

"Sorry I'm late." Silver said. "I had to make some preparations for later, you know?"

"Uh, alright." Blue said. "We think that the monster's over there, and if it isn't, we should probably check in case anyone's in danger."

"Good idea." Red said. "Let's just hope there aren't any clowns."

The three rushed over to the circus tent. As they walked through a small selection of food carts and stands, an eerie silence fell over the place. It was unsettling, seeing a place that seemed this abandoned.

"It doesn't look like anyone is here." Silver said, looking around. "Maybe everyone escaped?"

"Surely we would have heard something from Bogo if there were survivors, right?" Blue said, sounding a bit concerned.

"What even did all this damage?" Red asked, examining a food stand that looked like it had been stepped on. "We should've seen something that could've done this by now, right?"

"Maybe we should check inside the tent." Blue suggested. "If there's any evidence, then it would have to be in there."

The three started towards the tent's entrance, part of which seemed to have been knocked down, leaving half the tent hanging over it.

Blue's ears twitched as they approached, she had picked up something coming near them. She quickly looked around, but didn't see anything.

"I think there's something here." She said, stopping in her tracks. Red and Silver stopped and turned to her.. "I think something's hunting us."

"What the hell would be hunting us?" Red asked.

"I don't know, but I heard something." Blue said. "Like a… It was like…" She struggled for a moment, trying to put it into words. "It was like my instincts kicked in for a second."

"Ancient bunny instincts, huh?" Red said with a chuckle. "Sorry, but I wouldn't exactly trust that."

"It's worked for us for millions of years, no reason it shouldn't now." Blue said, crossing her arms.

Silver sniffed at the air for a moment. "Wait, I smell something…" He said.

"Is it the peanuts?" Red asked. "Because that's all I can smell right now."

"No, it smells like…" He paused for a moment. "…A lion?"

Before any of them could react, a loud roar pierced the air. They looked up at one of the still standing food carts. A lion was standing on it, on all fours. It was glaring at them, and baring its teeth.

"Uh…" Red let out. "This isn't good, is it?"

The lion braced itself, and leaped at the three. They scattered in different directions, just before the lion could hit any of them. With a clearer look at the lion, Blue noticed that it had shreds of clothing over its body.

The lion moved around in a circle, glaring at all three of the Zoorangers as they stood still, paralyzed at the feral mammal.

"Why's he acting like that?" Silver asked. "You two dealt with this kind of stuff before, right?"

"Yeah, this looks like a Nighthowler thing." Red said. "But, how'd this happen? Didn't they boost security checks?"

"I don't think this is a Nighthowler thing." Blue said. "I don't know what it is, but it might have something to do with a monster."

"Seems like a safe bet." Red said.

"So, uh, how are we supposed to get out of this?" Silver asked. "I'm assuming running will just lead to a chase."

"That's very likely." Blue replied. "But we can't really use our weapons…"

"Let's just knock the guy out." Red suggested. "We're still physically stronger while transformed, so it shouldn't be that hard."

"We still have to make sure not to hurt him too badly." Blue reiterated. She thought for a moment. "Guys, can you grab onto him? Just keep him steady for a moment?"

The two nodded. Blue nodded in return, and then started to step back slowly. As soon as she did, the lion snapped towards her, and started to prowl closer and closer. The rabbit started to step back faster as well.

She then quickly burst off into a dash, but before the lion could chase after her, Silver and Red leaped in and grabbed the feline. Silver wrapped his upper arm around as much of the lion's back as he could manage, and the other arm gripped onto its leg. Red, being much smaller, wrapped himself around the lion's other front leg.

Unfortunately, he was quickly knocked off. Thinking quickly, Red pulled out his sword, flicking it so that the blade fell off and revealed the wire. He whipped the sword forwards, causing it to wrap around the lion's front leg a few times.

"Alright, we got him steady for a bit!" Red shouted to Blue. "What's your plan again!?"

"This!"

Blue rushed back into the fight, now holding a dart gun. She ran over to the side of the lion, and shot a dart directly into its neck. The lion let out a roar, and then thrashed around for a moment, knocking Silver and Red away.

In a few seconds, the lion fell to its side, unconscious.

Red took a few deep breaths, before getting back up and looking at the rabbit. "Where did you get that from?"

"I had to go change back to normal, so I could use the dart gun I brought." She explained.

"Why do you have a dart gun with you?"

"I bring almost all my police equipment with me wherever I go."

"Of course you do."

"What the heck was that?" Silver asked.

"I have no idea." Blue said. "But we need to check to see if anyone's inside."

The three headed into the circus tent itself, which was almost completely deserted as well. Light leaked in through the large holes. The only thing there was another lion, dressed in ringmaster clothes, laying unconscious on the floor.

"Think that guy hasn't gone savage?" Red asked as the three approached the body, cautiously.

"Well, he's knocked out, so…" Blue started. She started to walk faster, nothing happening in response. Red and Silver followed her after.

Red and Blue looked over the body, while Silver knelt down a bit to get a better look.

Suddenly, the lion let out a grunt, and started to move. Red and Blue stepped back in surprise, wwhile Silver stumbled back.

The lion started to get up, clutching his head. "What happened…?" He asked himself, before noticing the Zoorangers. He gazed at them, a bit confused. "Who are you guys supposed to be?"

"Super heroes." Silver said.

"And we're here to help you." Blue continued as the lion got to his feet.

He brushed himself off, and looked around. "Well, this turned out to be a disaster…" He muttered to himself. "You three know what happened here?"

"Absolutely no idea." Red said. "Did anything weird happen before you got knocked out?"

The lion thought for a moment. "I was about to start the show, but then… this clown showed up, along with a bunch of green monsters. Then he punched me in the face."

"Clown?" Blue said. "What did the clown look like?"

"He had a weird… bony face, and a horn." The ringmaster continued. "You know anyone like that?"

"Oh yeah, we sure do." Red said. "This whole thing kind of fits his motif, now that I think about it."

"So, obviously Ya… our culprit…" Silver quickly stopped himself. This stuff might have been too weird for a civilian to hear. "Wanted something from the circus, but what even here would make a decent monster?"

"A clown." Red quickly said.

"He's already a clown, Red." Blue said.

"He could have made ANOTHER clown."

"Wait!" The ringmaster said, starting to panic. "My brother! What happened to my brother?"

Blue glanced at Red, who quickly glanced at Silver, who glanced back to Blue.

"He's outside." Red said, bluntly.

The ringmaster quickly rushed outside, and the Zoorangers followed him back out. He knelt over the other lion's unconscious body. "What happened to you, bro?" He muttered.

"He tried to attack us, that's what." Red said. "He was acting like, well… an animal."

"That doesn't make any sense." The ringmaster said. "He was never very active, he just handled our business…"

Before the ringmaster could continue, the ground shook for a moment. It shook again,a nd the four turned to see a large figure moving in.

It was an elephant, walking on all fours. It was being ridden by two beings. Yabaiba, who sat at the neck of the elephant, and a new monster, who rode on a platform that had been attached to the pachyderm's back.

"How's it going?" Yabaiba said with a laugh. "Looks like you three met one of my new pets!"

"'Pets'?!" Blue said, furious. "What did you do to these mammals, you creep!?"

Yabaiba wagged his finger. "Sorry, but that trick's gonna be saved for the big show!" He said. "Speaking of, we're here to pick up a straggler!" He continued. "Turns out we were missing one of our lions! We need a full troupe for our big show!" He pointed towards the unconscious lion.

Animal Tamer Org marched to the side of the platform, and lashed his whip at the unconscious lion. The whip wrapped around his body, before the Org reeled it back in. The lion hit the platform, still completely unconscious from the dart.

"Get up, you lazy cat!" The Org said, cracking his whip. The lion started to stir, before waking up and getting back to its feet.

"Give him back!" The ringmaster shouted.

"Should I get him too?" Animal Tamer Org asked, leaning off the platform to look at Yabaiba.

"Nah, we only need this one." Yabaiba stated. "Hey, maybe you can come to our show, see what a REAL circus is like!"

Yabaiba pulled out a card, and tossed it towards the ground. Animal Tamer Org quickly lashed his whip, causing the elephant to let out a trumpet, and start to march off towards the city.

"Oh, we're not letting you get away that easily!" Blue shouted. "C'mon, guys!"

The three leaped up, and landed down on the platform. The Org let out a high pitched scream as it saw the three. "You guys aren't allowed to be up here! This is for performers ONLY!"

Yabaiba leaped up onto the platform as the elephant came to a halt. "Let me take care of this." He said.

The Duke Org pulled out a dagger, and waved it around. The three Zoorangers braced themselves for a fight, each both prepping to draw their weapons or leap out of the way.

In a quick motion, Yabaiba dashed at the lion, leaping onto it and wrapping his arm around its neck. He placed the knife dangerously close to the lion's throat.

"If you three don't get off, I'll kill this guy right here, right now." He threatened, with a hint of maniacle glee in his voice.

The Zoorangers froze. "We're not just going to let you do this." Blue said.

"Listen, you'll be seeing the show in forty minutes, tops," Yabaiba started. "You can try and stop us there. The location is on the card."

Yabaiba placed the knife closer to the lion's throat, who didn't seem a bit bothered with the situation.

"Got it?"

Blue let out a sigh. "Got it."

"Seriously?" Red said, shocked.

"Yeah, we can take him out right now!" Silver said.

"Well, I'm not risky a life." Blue said. "We're heading back and getting the ringmaster somewhere safe.

Red let out a sigh. "Fine."

The three leaped down from the elephant, which started to stomp off. They could hear Yabaiba laughing as it walked off.

They quickly headed back to the circus. The ringmaster lion was sitting on the ground and crying. "Don't worry." Blue said, patting him on the back. "We'll get your brother back."

"Please…" He sobbed.

"But first, we're getting you somewhere safer." Red said. "Not worth it hanging around this disaster area."

The lion wiped his tears, and got back to his feet. "I'll get you to the police station quick." Silver said.

"That's miles away from here, how are you-"

Silver grabbed the lion's paw, and then quickly leaped into the air, dragging the ringmaster along.

"That's certainly a… direct way of traveling." Red said.

Blue spotted a card laying in the middle of the grass. She picked it up, and read it.

"THE DUKE'S HEART POUNDING ANIMAL CIRCUS  
Today, forty minutes from when I threw this card, the crossing of Oak St. And Pack St."

"'The crossing'?" Red said, peeking over Blue's shoulder. "Heck does that mean?"

"It means he's doing it in the middle of downtown." Blue said, crunching the card up. "If we don't do something about this, the city could be overrun by feralized mammals."

"That's definitely not good." Red said. "And if they're going downtown, that means there'll be a lot of other mammals running around…"

"He could do whatever he did to everyone here to… This is NOT good."

* * *

Around forty minutes later, as had been specified, Blue and Red arrived at the middle of a large crossroads. The two streets intersected in the middle, with a large plaza built around it. They had quickly gotten to evacuating everyone, so the entire street had been cleared.

"That clown should be here soon." Red said, looking around the street.

"Hopefully Silver's here before then." Blue said. "I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Not an unsafe feeling to have, Carrots." Red said.

Silver suddenly crashed from the air, landing next to the two. The fox and rabbit looked over at him, the wolf looked out of breath.

"Guys, I saw the parade." He said. "It's coming right this way. And there are a LOT of brainwashed mammals."

"How many are we talking?" Red asked. "Fifty? A hundred?"

"Over a hundred, and it looked like it was growing." Silver continued. "I think they're brainwashing mammals as they head here."

"We probably should have seen that one coming." Red said.

The ground started to shake periodically. The three Zoorangers ran into the middle of the plaza, and looked down each of the roads.

"Uh oh." Blue let out, her ears drooping. Red and Silver turned to look down the road.

There was a massive parade of animals. They were all considerably larger mammals, from bears to lions to rhinos to elephants, and most of them were still wearing, at least part of, their outfits. Alongside most of the animals was an army of Orgettes, some riding on the animals, or carrying large, colored banners.

"So, Blue, got any plans of how to, uh, stop all this?" Red asked.

"Uh, you guys got any tranquilizers on you?" She asked.

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"Well, then we just need to… beat the monster." She said. "Obviously he's controlling them all somehow, so…"

"Good idea, but, uh…"

The parade of animals headed into the plaza, the elephant from earlier leading the charge. The monster from earlier was still on the platform, but Yabaiba seemed to have gone off somewhere.

"Ah, looks like our audience is here!" Animal Tamer Org shouted down with a laugh. "You two ready to experience the attraction of your lives? It'll be to DIE FOR!"

He quickly cracked his whips, causing a host of the mammals to let out roars. A few bears prowled forwards, followed by lions, cheetahs, and other predator mammals. The bears were being rode by Orgettes, while the felines were totted along by more of the gooey green ogres.

"Alright guys," Blue started. She pulled out her dart gun. "I have one dart left, and I'm going to use it to take out the monster. Deal with the minions, then meet up with me."

The two nodded. "Don't worry, we won't hurt anyone." Silver said

"I won't either, unless it's someone I don't like." Red followed. Blue glared at him for a moment. "Kidding."

The two pulled out their swords, and leaped into the battle. Red started up by jumping up onto one of the bears, and pushing the surprised Org off of it. The monster fell to the ground, allowing Red to jump down and slash at it. The monster melted into a pile of goo.

As Red prepared to head off, there was a large roar. He turned around, and watched as the bear rose into the air, and prepared to slash at him.

He dodged out of the way before the bear could squish him, and quickly ran off. He came to a halt as a group of cheetahs and lions, alongside their Orgette handlers, surrounded him. He stumbled back a bit, before quickly leaping up and kicking one of the monsters in the face.

He landed on a cheetah, causing it to let out an aggravated growl. He quickly jumped off, and pulled out the Vickscannon. Hitting the pavement, he aimed towards the Orgettes carefully, and fired, causing the monsters to explode into goo, covering the animals, who let out even more stressed and angry noises.

"Sorry guys!" Red apologized.

Silver headed towards the elephant itself, and attempted to attack the Orgettes carrying the banners. "Nice to see you guys are already giving up!" The wolf joked as he approached two of the Orgettes.

The two Orgettes looked at each other, confused, before dropping the banner to the ground, and pulling out their clubs. They rushed in to attack Silver, who blocked the club strikes, before slashing at the two monsters.

The wolf turned away as the Orgs burst into goo, but found himself quickly ambushed by another pair of banner-carrying Orgs. They tackled him, and then pinned him to the ground, both with their banner's heavy fabric. Silver struggled for a moment as more of the Orgettes started to pile onto it.

With a bit of a struggle, Silver cut through the banner with his sword, causing the Orgs to scatter.

Blue looked around, attempting to find something to get up a bit higher. She needed a bit of height in order to get the shot right. She noticed another elephant nearby, heading right past the stopped main elephant. This one was slightly smaller, but it could do.

She dashed towards the elephant, quickly leaping up and landing on the back of a brainwashed giraffe. She ran up its neck, it seemingly not caring, and then kicking off towards the elephant. She hit the passing elephant's side, and then kicked off, up to the platform the monster was standing on.

"Ack!" The monster let out as it stumbled towards the platform's railing. "You're not supposed to be up here until the final act!"

"Consider your show canceled!" Blue said, pulling out her dart gun. She quickly leaped over to the railing, and fired it into the elephant's neck. It let out a trumpet, before the large mammal started to teeter.

The rabbit grabbed onto the railing, while the monster panicked. The elephant fell over, crashing into the road and cracking half of the platform, which slid off onto the ground.

Blue was hanging from the half that was still attached to the elephant, while the monster was on the half that had split off. The Org scrambled over the railing, before Blue swung herself over the remains of the platform and back onto the ground.

"You're an annoying little rabbit, you know that?" The monster said, a bit aggravated.

"I get that a lot, actually." She said. "Usually from guys like you, so I'll take it as a complement!" Blue quickly pulled out her daggers, and prepared to attack the monster.

She dashed at the monster, before leaping up and attempting to slash at him. The Org barely managed to duck out of the way, letting Blue land on the broken platform's railing. She spun around and pulled out her blasters, quickly firing several rounds at the ringmaster monster.

He lashed his whips around quickly, blocking the shots. As he finished, the rabbit leaped forward and attempted a diving kick, which the monster stumbled out of the way of.

"I'm guessing you aren't much of a fighter." Blue guessed.

"I'm only the host, I'm not supposed to have an active role!" The monster said. "But that doesn't mean that my boys can't deal with you!"

He cracked his whips, causing a lion and a bear to close in on her. He cracked his whips again, causing the two feral mammals to leap at her.

The rabbit dashed under them, and quickly slashed at the monster's legs causing him to hop around on one leg for a moment.

"Guys, let's take this monster down!" Blue ordered through the commlink.

Red and Silver quickly ran over, and all three prepared their weapons. Animal Tamer Org stumbled back. "Wait, don't hurt me!"

"Why shouldn't we?" Red asked.

"Uh… Can I get back to you on that?"

The three looked at each other, before they ran in to attack the monster. The three ran past him, slashing him with their blades. As they passed, they spun around and prepped their projectile weapons, Silver quickly switching his blade to Sun Mode.

They all shot at the monster's back, causing him to fall flat on his face. "This isn't going like how the Duke wanted at all!" The monster groaned as it got up. "But maybe… Maybe I can FIX THAT!"

He turned around, grabbing onto his whips tightly. The three prepared themselves for an attack.

"SIT, RABBIT!"

The three fell silent for a moment. Blue spoke up first. "What are you-"

Before she could finish, the Org cracked his whip again. Instantly, Judy transformed back to normal, her ears jolting up.

"Uh, you alright, Carrots?" Red asked.

She then fell to the ground on all fours. "Wait, did you just-!?" Silver shouted, quickly catching on.

"That's right, I can control any animal with these whips!" Animal Tamer Org said. "That's why they call me Animal Tamer Org, kind of obvious!"

He rose his whips up, and prepared to lash them again. "Now to round out my collection!"

Red let out a growl, before running at the monster. He leaped mid-run, and kicked the monster in it's hat head, knocking it to the ground. He landed on the monster's stomach, seething with anger.

"Turn her back."

"Hah, no chance!" The monster said. He quickly jolted up, flinging Red to the ground. "If you want to be with her, you can enjoy her as a SNACK!"

He raised his whips again, but he was suddenly struck in the face by a blue laser whip. During that time, Silver had switched his blade to Moon Mode.

"Nice try, kid, but you can't out-whip me!" The Org chuckled. He lashed his whip at Silver, it extending out at a rapid rate.

"No, but I can definitely do something about your whips!" Silver said. He lashed the laser whip again, managing to tangle it and one of Animal Tamer Org's whips together.

"H-hey!"

Silver pulled the whip right out of his hand, and tossed it up into the air. The whip hung there for a moment. "Red, shoot that thing!" Silver said.

The fox nodded, before aiming the Vickscannon up and firing it at the whip. It burst into a fiery explosion, ashes raining down.

"No, how could you do that!?" The monster yelled, stomping its foot. "That was my favorite whip!"

"Now you got a new favorite." Red said. He quickly pointed the cannon at the other whip, which was currently in the monster's other hand.

He fired, causing a fireball to fly into the Org's hand. He let out a screech as the whip flew through the air, catching fire as it did so. It fell to the ground in a pile of ashes.

"Uh oh." The Org let out. The two angry mammals stomped towards him. "Looks like we're taking a break!" The monster said, before grabbing the brim of his hat head.

He started to spin around, before his entire body was sucked into the hat. The brims of the hat started to get sucked into the hat as well, and then popped out of existence as it folded in on itself.

Nick and Max untransformed. The wolf looked around at the mammals, who started to pace off on their own through the plaza. "We should probably try to round some of these guys up." He said, to no response.

He turned around. The fox was approaching the rabbit, who was sniffing around at the ground, completely in a trance. He tiptoed, trying not to alert the rabbit.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you…" The fox whispered as he tiptoed closer, the rabbit still not having noticed the predator sneaking up on her.

Suddenly, her ears jolted up as her head twisted to look at the fox. He froze for a moment, mid-step, and looked around awkwardly. The rabbit quickly jolted off, and the fox fell flat on his stomach.

"That's going to be a problem." Max said, reaching down and helping the fox up.

"We can't just leave her here." Nick said, brushing his shirt off. "With all these predators around…"

His ears twitched. "Ugh, that felt wrong." He muttered.

"Nobody's in their right mind right now." Max said. "So, it isn't an incorrect thing to say, just… awkward."

"Very." Nick replied. "Let's get to rabbit chasing."

The two chased after the runaway rabbit, out into the cleared streets past the parade of mammals. She hopped down the sidewalk in huge strides, leaving the two in the dust.

After ten minutes, and not having caught up at all, the two paused for a quick breather. "How is she so fast?" Nick asked as he sat down on the sidewalk. "Like, she was already fast before, but I could keep up with her…"

"Must be some… instinctual thing." The wolf replied. "She probably doesn't know we're trying to help her. Being on all fours probably helps."

"That's just great." Nick groaned. "What are we gonna do, chase after her on all fours like… animals?"

"I think I can work something out." Max said. He quickly transformed into ZooSilver. "I have that thing, remember?"

"Oh, good idea."

He quickly pulled his blade out, and spun it around. It went into Eclipse Mode, causing time to stop. He quickly ran up to the frozen rabbit, and picked her up. Time restarted, and rabbit didn't seem to mind being picked up.

Nick walked up to Silver, who held the rabbit down slightly, and he looked her in the eyes. "We're gonna get you back to normal, Judy. Don't worry."

She sniffed at him for a moment, before lightly biting down on his nose. He let out a pained grunt, and pushed himself off of Silver's legs, causing the rabbit to let go.

"I'm gonna call up the station and let them know what's happening." Nick said, pulling out his phone. "Make sure she doesn't get away."

"Don't think that'll be a problem." Silver said, the rabbit seemingly not caring about being held up.

Nick quickly dialed the number, and Bogo popped up on the screen. "Ah, Wilde, what kind of antics have you and your friends gotten into today?"

"This sounds ridiculous, but I'm being entirely serious here," The fox started. "There's a crazed circus ringmaster running around, and he's been… feralizing mammals."

Bogo looked at him for a second. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It's like the Night Howler's effect, except… less violent." Nick explained. "But they're all acting like animals, and there could be some casualties if you don't put up… some form of protection."

"And why, exactly, are you, Officer Hopps, and Officer Wolford incapable of doing this?" The chief asked.

"We're, uh, going through some issues right now." Nick said. "We'll try our best to take out the monster if anything happens, but it might be best to send the SPD guys out on patrol too."

Bogo sighed. "Fine, but if you're messing with me, Wilde…"

"I'm not joking." Nick said, completely serious.

Bogo let out another sigh, before hanging up.

"Alright, that should hold things up for a little bit." Nick said, with an aggravated sigh.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Silver asked.

"Uh, you could come check out our apartment, I guess?"

* * *

The Duke Org was fast asleep in one of the chairs, head placed against table. The base was silent for once, but that would be broken once Animal Tamer Org stumbled through the entrance,.

"DUKE!" He yelled, fallingd own, and then getting back up. "WE HAVE SOME MAJOR PROBLEMS!"

Yabaiba continued to snore, still asleep. The Org walked up to him, and shook him. He suddenly popped up, and looked around.

"Oh, hey, Animal." Yabaiba said, placing his fist against his cheek. "How'd the show go? Did you manage to get rid of them?"

"Uh, not exactly." The monster said. "I managed to brainwash one of the Zoorangers… but the others destroyed my whips. I can't brainwash or control anyone now!"

Yabaiba jolted up. "Ack, seriously!?" He shouted, clutching onto his head. "This is bad!"

"You can do something about this, right, Duke?" The Org asked.

Yabaiba scratched his chin for a moment, and then rubbed his horn. "Ah, I think I've got something!" He said. He pulled out a Chaos Badge. "Maybe if I use this, you'll get your whips back!"

"What is that?" The monster asked.

"Not important!"

He quickly jabbed the badge into the monster's stomach, it absorbing into his body. The monster started to twitch a bit, before his body started to contort and transform. Its body started to slim down a bit, while its hat-head started to grow taller. The horns coming out of the hat moved up as well, extending out slightly in addition, while the eyes under the brim of the hat vanished.

A massive, singular emerald green, eye appeared in the middle of the hat. The monster's mouth fully expanded around its neck, and then popped off, attached to its body via a single pole of flesh. The monster's golden cape grew slightly longer, before an extra pair of arms burst from its body, right below its other arms.

The arms resembled his normal arms in every way, but were a bit shorter. The exoskeletal cuffs on all the arms expanded slightly, before black, wriggling strings of flesh burst out from the bottom of the edge. They extended outwards, wriggling like worms as they formed into new, organic whips for the monster. Finally, the Chaos Symbol appeared on the monster's purple stomach.

The upgraded Org let out a maniacal laugh, his head bobbing up and down as he did so. "CHAOS ANIMAL TAMER ORG!" He cried, lashing all four of his whips.

"Yeesh, talk about a mouthful." Yabaiba said. "Four words is a bit too much."

"I feel so much better!" The ringmaster monster said. "I feel like I could take this show WORLDWIDE!"

"Yeah, that'll have to wait." Yabaiba said. "We still have the next performance here to do!"

"That's right, I'll get to it in a bit!" The monster said. "I need to see what this new training can do!"

The two paused as footsteps sounded through the hall. They turned to face Enter, who was walking towards them.

"Oh, uh, hey… Enter." Yabaiba said.

"I heard about your plan earlier." He said. "And I must say… I think it's tre magnifique."

"What does that mean?"

Enter sighed. "It means I think it's a good plan, you dunce." He explained. "But… I think I know how you can make this all even better."

"Oh, really?" Yabaiba said, sounding a bit skeptical. "What would that be, exactly?"

"Listen," Enter started. "And you'll understand."

* * *

"JUDY, GET DOWN FROM THERE!" The fox shouted.

The three had arrived back at the apartment, and this seemed to have been a worse idea than Nick had thought. For the past thirty minutes, the feralized rabbit had been causing all sorts of trouble. Right now, the rabbit had somehow hopped up to the top of the refrigerator, and Nick was, of course, panicking. Max watched on from the middle of the apartment, not sure what to do.

The fox turned to him. "You're taller than me, get her down!" He said.

"Hey, she's not my rabbit." Max said.

"Ha ha, not funny." Nick replied. "If we leave her up there, she could be hurt."

Max walked over, and grabbed the rabbit off the top of the fridge, placing her on the ground. Almost instantly, the rabbit hopped over and onto the couch, and started to nibble at the cushions.

Nick let out a small shriek, and rushed over, picking her up and placing her back on the ground. "No eating the couch, who knows who's been sitting on that!?"

Judy seemed to ignore him, and instantly hopped off.

The fox let out a sigh, and fell onto the couch. "How is she even more frustrating?" He asked, rubbing his temples.

"Give her a break, this isn't Judy's fault." Max said.

"I know, I just… I'm scared." He admitted. "I don't want to lose her… again."

"Well, with that monster's brainwashing whips out of the way, we can just destroy him when he shows up next." Max said. "We just have to keep Judy safe until then."

"You know how dangerous this place is?" Nick said, getting up off the couch. "It's a death trap! When we got here, there were shards of glass, nails, and other things just laying around on the…"

He paused, and then dropped to the ground. He started to crawl around, looking for any sharp objects that could've been on the ground. Max let out an embarrassed sigh as he watched, before turning away.

The fox continued to crawl around, before finally finding a small, loose nail. He picked it up, and sat up a bit. He then noticed Judy, across the room, looking at him. She quickly hopped off, and he let out a sigh.

"What if there's some way to snap her out of it?" Nick asked the wolf as he got up. "It's just some kind of brainwashing… there should be some way to do it without defeating the monster."

"I mean, there could be." Max said with a shrug. "But if there is, we don't have any idea how to. We don't even have a lead."

"Well, we'd just need a way to knock some sense into her… not literally, of course." Nick said, before thinking for a moment. He glanced at the closet. "Hmm… maybe…"

He quickly rushed over and grabbed Judy by her arm, bringing her over to the closet. "Nick, what are you doing?" Max asked, a bit concerned.

"Listen, if there's anything that can snap someone out of a trance, it's this closet." Nick explained. He opened the door, causing a terrible smell to waft out.

Max let out a screech as he clutched his nose. Judy also let out a scream, before kicking the fox into the wall and running off.

Nick climbed up and closed the door. "Oh well, was worth a shot." He muttered.

"NO IT WASN'T!" Max yelled, still in pain.

Nick's phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, and answered it. "Hey, Nick." The caller said. It was Emily.

"Oh, Em, what's up?" He asked. "Anything happening? Monster sighting, maybe?"

"No sign of a monster yet, but, uh…" She paused, and looked around for a bit. "We might have something a bit bigger than that."

"Oh, great." The fox said, sarcastically. "What happened?"

"We haven't seen a single normal mammal since we started our patrol." Henry said, from off camera. "Only these feralized ones."

"Some of them are… looking at us." Emily followed, looking very concerned.

"That must be the monster's fault." Max deduced. "If he's back, that might be our chance to stop him!"

"Good idea, we'll be out in a bit to help." Nick said. "And if you guys run into the monster, try to take him on yourselves. He's terrible at actually fighting."

"Got it." Emily said. "Just get your butts out here ASAP, it's starting to get creepy."

She hung up, and the fox slipped the phone back into his pants pocket. "So, let's head out!" Max said, enthusiastically. "If we wait any longer, we could miss the action!"

"Uh uh, we're not going anywhere without Carrots." Nick said. "If we leave her here, she'll either ruin everything, or kill herself. Or both."

Max sighed. "So, what do you think we should do to stop her from doing that?" He asked. "We can't just bring her into a fight either, she'll escape."

Nick thought for a moment. "If only there was some we could tie around her to keep her from getting away…"

"You mean like one of those Kit Chains that terrible parents use?" Max asked.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Nick said.

"I think we can get something like that." Max said. "We should get going, bring her along."

"Wait, what are we supposed to use?" Nick asked, confused. The wolf looked at him for a moment. The fox let out a sigh.

"Oh."

* * *

The SPD Officers drove through the streets of the downtown area. They still hadn't seen any living thing besides the feral mammals, who were absolutely crawling around the place. They had to drive slowly to make sure they didn't hit anything.

"This is creepy, right?" Emily said to Henry. "It isn't just me, is it?"

"It is a bit unnerving." Henry admitted, looking through the window. He caught a cougar outside, which quickly turned to glare at him. He turned back to the road.

"This isn't going to look good for predators, huh?" She said, sounding a bit worried. "All of these guys attacking each other out of instinct…"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Henry said. "Knowing mind control, I doubt anyone will remember what happened when this is all done… If we manage to beat the monster, anyway."

"Ugh, I don't even wanna think about what'll happen if we don't…" Emily said, shuddering a bit.

The two felt a quick thump on the back of the vehicle. They stopped for a moment, and looked at each other, then to the back of the vehicle.

There was another thump, this time pushing the truck forwards a bit. "That's not good." Emily said, quickly flicking her armor up. Henry followed, his armor going up as well. The two exited the vehicle, weapons prepared, and headed to the back of the vehicle.

What was there was certainly odd. Two knocked out mammals, a panther and a rhino. "That's… worrisome." Green said, Pink nodding along in agreement.

They tried to head back towards the truck's doors, but were stopped as the cougar Green had seen earlier flew through the air, attempting to attack both of them. The two ducked out of the way as to cougar hit the ground, and turned around, growling at them both.

Before either could react, more animals, including non-predatory ones, started to swarm in on them. Several smaller mammals, rabbits and weasels and such, latched onto their limbs, while larger ones bit down on their bodies, keeping them in place.

"The hell's going on!?" Pink asked, getting weighed down by the swarm of other animals.

"Ho ho, looks like you two aren't having that great of a time!" A voice said.

"Who-?"

The ringmaster monster suddenly appeared in front of the two, snapping its left fingers. "I'm the showrunner here, and you're up next for auditions!" The monster said. He raised both of his upper arms, and prepared to strike with his whips.

Green grunted, before flinging off most of the mammals. He aimed his cannon at the monster, and fired. The blast hit the animal tamer, causing him to slam into a nearby building.

The monster quickly got back up, letting out a frustrated grunt. "I don't like hard to work with performers," He started. "So, I'll just have to show you how serious this production is!" He quickly lashed all four of his whips, the upper two before the lower ones.

"I just met this guy and I'm already tired of his circus jokes." Pink said as she struggled to break free of the swarm of mammals.

Green stepped back, preparing to fire, but bumped into something. He turned around, seeing a bear as large as him. It was standing on its legs, and pulled back its arm. In a swift motion, it let the punch loose, knocking the bull through the air and into a wall.

"Henry!" Pink shouted.

"Now that the problem is out of the way, it's time for me to get the show really started!" The monster cheered, clapping all four of its hands.

He quickly lashed the whips again. This time, the hyena froze, and the animals let go of her. She slumped down for a moment, before popping her head back up.

The monster giggled as it turned to the bull, who got to his feet, unsteadily. Green shuffled over to the hyena, and both of them then stood up straight. "Excellent!" Animal Tamer Org said. "Now, a quick test!"

He lashed his whips again. The two brainwashed mammals quickly pulled out their weapons, and fired at the buildings around them. Debris fell from the sky, and onto the street, the monster still cheering.

"Excellent work, excellent work!" He said. "Now, you two better get ready, because we have a rehearsal soon!"

* * *

"You know this is utterly embarrassing, right?" Red said as they walked down the street.

"Yep." Silver said with a sigh.

The fox was holding onto a leash, which was then attached to a harness that a wandering bunny rabbit was wearing. Red stopped for a moment, and looked back at Judy. She was sniffing at some grass that had grown through the sidewalk.

The fox let out a sigh, and tugged the leash, pulling the rabbit back over to him. "This just feels weird," He started as he caught up to Silver. "I really don't like it."

"Listen, what else were we supposed to do?" Silver said, stopping for a moment. "The only other thing would be to put a collar on her, and… you know."

Red scratched at his neck. Collars were generally only used as imprisoning tools, though one that Nick had never really had to deal with before. But he had heard horror stories. The only mammals that wore them in public were, well… definitely into strange things. He guessed that the harness was better than walking around looking like…

Before he could finish the thought, Silver pointed to something. "Hey, isn't that the SPD's truck?" He asked. The wolf was pointing towards a truck, which definitely was the SPD's. They ran up to it, Red dragging the rabbit along.

Silver looked through the front window, no one was in it. "They aren't here." He said.

"I can see that." Red replied. "But… why would they abandon their truck here?" He asked. "Henry wouldn't do something like that… What if something got to them?"

"What would have gotten them?" Silver asked. "We haven't seen anything along here…"

Silver paused, and Red raised an eyebrow. "Didn't they contact us because there was nothing BUT hypnotized mammals out here?" The fox asked. The rabbit hopped up onto the hood of the truck.

"Yeah."

"And the zero number we've seen is definitely weird, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"We just walked right into a trap, didn't we?"

To answer the fox's question, several colored clouds of smoke burst up around them, covering the street. Music started to play, before a large green blast of energy, and several shots of pink energy flew from the edges of the smoke.

Silver quickly ducked out of the way, but Red grabbed the rabbit, and then dropped down, barely dodging the fire. More shots flew overhead for a bit, before they finally stopped. The smoke started to disperse, and the two Zoorangers got up, Red letting go of the rabbit, while still clinging to its leash.

The two SPD Officers stood a yard away from them. "What the hell are you two doing!?" Red shouted. "We came here to help, and-"

"Ho ho haw!" A voice chuckled from behind them. Both turned to face the truck, which had been slightly wrecked from the gunfire. Standing on top of it was the upgraded Animal Tamer Org.

"Oh, great." Red said, ears drooping. "Just… great."

"You brainwashed Em and Henry, didn't you?" Silver said.

"Yep, they're the stars of my next performance!" The monster answered. "Aren't they something? With this upgrade, I can keep them in their normal states instead of just feralizing them!"

"How did you even do that!?" Red asked, furious. "We destroyed your whips!"

"Oh, like I NEEDED those whips, specifically!" The monster chuckled, before revealing his four, new, wriggling whips. "A good showrunner always knows what to do when something goes wrong!"

"So, if you don't NEED specific whips to brainwash mammals, how do you do it?" Silver asked, trying to probe a bit deeper. He turned to Red, and winked slowly. The fox just looked at him, not being able to see the wink through his mask.

"Well, it's actually a sort of sub -sonnnwaitasec…" The monster said, catching on to what the wolf was attempting. "I'm not revealing my tricks to you! That'd just ruin the fun!"

The monster raised one of its upper hands to its mouth, and coughed, the entire head springing up in response. "Anyway, we have a bit of rehearsal to do, so time to get to work!"

"Rehearsal?" Red asked. Silver shrugged in response.

The monster lashed his whips again, and the two turned around. Green and Pink started to charge towards them.

"Oh, I get it."

The bull started charging at the fox. Red quickly wrapped the leash around his paw, and dragged Judy along as he dashed out of the way. Green crashed into the car behind him, pushing it back a bit. The monster stumbled a bit as this happened.

Pink charged at Silver, who quickly pulled out his blade. The hyena attempted to pistol whip him, but he blocked with his sword. "Em, snap out of it!" He said, pushing her back. "Try and fight it, you're stronger than this!"

She froze for a moment, before aiming her pistols at the wolf. She fired several shots as he leaped out of the way, and into a roll. "That usually works on TV…" He said to himself as he got back up.

Red continued to leap out of the way as Green continued to fire on him. The fox had Judy wrapped under his arm as best he could, continued to dodge.

Right now, all he cared about was protecting her. He didn't even care about himself in the moment, he just didn't want her hurt.

He skidded across the ground, pulling out his blade with his free paw. The fox prepared to lash it at the bull, but he quickly realized how dumb of an idea that would be. "Hey, you got any ideas on how to fight them?" Red asked into the commlink as he backed off from the approaching bull.

It took a few seconds for Silver to respond. "Hell are you asking me for!?"

"Well, who else do I have to ask!?" Red yelled. He quickly dodged out of the way as the bull stomped down onto the pavement, cracking it slightly.

"We can't just attack them." Silver said into his own commlink as he quickly blocked another strike from the brainwashed hyena. "They're our friends, they could get hurt!"

The monster on the truck laughed, catching their attention. "This might be a rehearsal, but I'm not having them go easy on you! It's either kill or be killed, laws of the wild!"

"Stuff it up your hat!" Red shouted. He flicked his blade at the monster, causing it to fly off the handle. The monster let out a squeak of panic as the blade flew at one of the whips. The blade flew right through two of the whips, which dropped to the ground and started to wiggle.

Before anyone could do anything else, however, two more of the tentacle whips stretched out from where the previous two had been segmented.

The monster laughed again. "Infinite whips, sucker!" He said. "I have whips for days, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I think we should maybe be getting out of here." Silver suggested. "Come up with a plan or something, right?"

Red let out a frustrated grunt as he continued to run from the bull, rabbit still clung under his arm. The monster was right there, but with how things were going, it could only get worse. "Alright, we'll make a run for it!" Red said.

"Running away isn't part of the show!" The ringmaster monster said, quickly cracking his whips. "Get them, you brainwashed beasts!"

Pink started to fire her blasters even more rapidly at Silver. He quickly managed to block a few shots, but a few struck him directly. There was a brief pause in the fire, letting the wolf hop off.

Red was continuing to dance around and dodge whatever Green could throw at him. "Seriously, Henry, I thought you were a better shot!" The fox joked, to no reaction.

Silver dashed around the back of the truck, and quickly scooped Red and Judy up. He then leaped up into the air, out of the sight of the brainwashed officers and the monster.

There was silence for a moment as Animal Tamer Org looked up. "Hah, oh well!" He exclaimed. "They'll still be at the second ring of our performance." He continued, hopping down from the truck. The Org turned to his brainwashed slaves.

"And I must say, you two will make great bait!"

* * *

A few hours had passed since Nick and Max had escaped. They had gone back to Max's place, mostly because it was nearby.

The wolf was pacing around, while Nick sulked on the couch, still clutching onto the leash of the harness. Judy, however, didn't seem to care much. Nothing had seemed to really register with the entranced rabbit.

The only thing Nick could think to do right now was just look at her. What a completely undignified way to go out, reduced to a little lagomorph by a circus freak. He always thought they'd lose in a considerably cooler way.

He let out a sigh, and Max looked at him. "You feeling alright?" He asked.

Nick just looked at him for a moment.

"Alright, that's a 'no', I'm guessing." Max said, a bit embarrassed that he had even asked such a dumb question. Of course he wasn't feeling alright, almost all of his friends were functionally dead, and there was a high percentage that they could lose…

"I'm scared." Nick said, suddenly. "I'm incredibly scared right now."

"For Judy?" Max asked.

"For all of you." The fox responded. "I've already lost most of my fa… friends. If we go out to fight the monster again, then… you could be next, Wolfsbane."

Max blinked for a second. "You're worried about me?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Nick said. "We're all a team, we should all worry about each other, right."

"It's just… not something I expected you to say." Max said.

"I've grown really close to all of you over the last while, you know?" Nick continued. "I feel… fulfilled, for once. But I'm just so close to losing it all again… Losing even more…"

"Don't give up." Max said, sitting down next to the fox. "We can do this, we just need to… figure something out, right?"

"How are we supposed to beat him when he can control all of us, and we have no way of getting rid of his weapons?" Nick said, pounding his forehead. "I wish one of those Sentai guys was here to help, they could probably come up with something…"

Max thought for a moment. "So, the guy's an 'animal tamer', right?" He asked.

"That's what he said, yeah." Nick replied. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"No, I'm just thinking…" The wolf said, rubbing his forehead. "I almost got him to say something earlier… If the whips aren't what cause the mind control, then he's just using them as a… a conduit…"

"Something about 'sub somethings', right?" Nick said. "Sub sandwiches, submarines, sub…"

"Subsonics?" Max said. His ears suddenly popped up. "That's it!"

"Subsonics are like, sound waves, right?" Nick asked. "Wait, that'd mean that the whipcracks…"

Max got back to his feet. "He uses soundwaves to mess with our minds, probably tapping into an instinctual state near the back of our brains!" He continued. "As long as we can't hear the whipcracks, that means that we're entirely safe!"

"Nerd." Nick said, playfully.

"I think I have a plan." Max said. "We'll-"

Before he could explain, Nick's phone rang again. It scared the rabbit, who hopped off and pulled the fox to the ground. He let out a sigh, before pulling out his phone and checking the number. It was Clawhauser. He quickly answered it. "Hello?"

There was a sudden blast of carnival music, the screen only showing red and white, spinning around. "Hellooooo there!" A voice said. It sounded like Animal Tamer Org. Nick got back up to his feet as the voice continued to talk. "You are formally invited as the guests of honor to the SECOND ring of our three ring circus! The event is located at the precinct one station, and starts as soon as you get here, you filthy FOX!"

"And what if we don't want to, you circus freak reject?" Nick growled back.

"Well, then…" The camera suddenly flicked from the red and white colors to a shot of a dark area. Emily and Henry were there, not in their armor, but still clearly brainwashed. They were both attached to a prop of some kind. Emily was strapped to a spinning wheel, while Henry was sitting on a platform above a tank of water.

"...I guess we'll have to move on to our daring stunts!" The monster declared. "See how long a cow can last underwater, and how many knives a hyena can take!"

Nick growled. "Alright, asshole, we'll be there."

"Fantastic! I hope you two remember your role in this act… DYING!"

"We're improv actors." Max said. "We like to go on our own pace."

"Yeah, so you'll be seeing a show from us, alright." Nick said, before hanging up. "Alright, let's go."

"Bring Judy with you." Max said. "We'll need her later. I'll tell you the plan on the way there."

* * *

The skull growled as it floated about the top of the mountain, alongside Enter. "When are we going to go out there and DESTROY EVERYTHING!?" It yelled.

"Just relax." Enter said, with an exasperated sigh. "If everything goes well, we'll be able to show off our power soon enough."

"But I wanna do it NOW!" Savage whined, bobbing up and down in the air. "They're already weakened, we can just slaughter everyone and be done with it!"

"I don't feel that would be an accurate way to test our capabilities." Enter said. "If the rest of the plan is to go smoothly, then I need to make sure that we can defeat the Zoorangers at their full strength."

The skull growled, and floated around a bit. "Grrr, fine." It let out. "Not like I have much of a choice, I'm stuck to you right now…"

Enter looked down at the transformed Zoolizer. After it had been corrupted, Savage and himself realizes that the two had somehow become connected, both of them able to use the power of the Zoolizer at the same time. This also meant that Savage was always around, and talking in Enter's head when he wasn't projecting out from the device.

This wasn't a very optimal situation, considering the two had very, very different personality types. But there wasn't much to be done.

"How much longer is 'soon enough', anyways?" Savage asked.

"Depends on how long the second act goes on for…" Enter explained. "But, as soon as the third act starts… then it'll really be showtime."

* * *

The two Zoorangers, alongside the rabbit, had arrived at the station… or, what used to be the station, at least. The entire building was now covered in a massive red and white tent, one the looked in even worse condition than the one they had been to earlier. It wasn't set up like a tent, however, just draped over the building very haphazardly.

Red growled in disgust as they approached the building. The fox was still gripping to the leash, and the rabbit attached to it still didn't seem to care much about anything.

"This is just disrespectful." Red said. He quickly turned to Silver, and gave a thumbs up. "Ready to go?"

Silver nodded, and they headed into the station, passing under the curtains and through the front doors.

The inside was almost entirely pitch black as they entered, before two spotlights from above turned on. The station looked mostly like normal, but any extraneous objects, like Clawhauser's desk, had been removed, leaving a circular arena. The stairways and small garden areas were blocked off with metal gates. Despite that, the doors were not gated up.

Above them, on the upper floor, was a crowd of Orgettes, looking down on them. They instantly burst into cheers as the three entered, though the thunderous applause only startled the rabbit.

Chaos Animal Tamer Org was standing in the middle of the upper floor, looking down at the three. The two attractions from the call were there as well, placed next to him, with Emily and Henry still attached. He pulled out a megaphone, and started to yell at them. "ALL PETS ARE TO BE LEFT AT THE FRONT DOOR! PLEASE TIE THAT HORRIBLE RABBIT UP BEFORE THE SHOW BEGINS!"

The two looked at each other, Silver shrugging in response. "Alright, just at the front here?" Red asked, walking, or rather, dragging, the frightened rabbit to the doors. He wrapped the leash around a doorknob, and then glanced up at the monster.

"ALRIGHT, GOOD, NOW COME BACK IN HERE!" The monster yelled, head bobbing up and down with each syllable.

The fox stepped back into the main circular area. As soon as he did, a large metal gate, attached to the gates around the rest of the room, closed behind them.

"WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, ORGS AND SUCKERS ALIKE, TO ACT TWO OF OUR THREE RING CIRCUS!" The monster greeted, still yelling into the megaphone. "BUT BEFORE WE GET TO THE MAIN ACT, HOW ABOUT A LITTLE BIT OF A WARM-UP?"

He cracked his whips, which echoed throughout the building. The three doors started to shake for a moment, before they all burst open, flying off their hatches. Three feral and angry animals came walking out, though they couldn't make them out in the dark.

"FOR OUR FIRST EVENT, THIS DIPSTICK DUO WILL EITHER HAVE TO KILLE THEIR FRIENDS, OR WATCH THEIR FRIENDS DIE!" The monster cheered.

"What?" Silver said, confused.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Red mumbled loudly.

They were a buffalo, a cheetah, and a tiger. It was Bogo, Clawhauser, and Delgato, all still wearing their clothes.

"You're gonna get such a beating for this." Red said, pounding his fist into his palm.

"DON'T EVEN TRY IT YET!" The monster shouted. Spontaneously, his bottom arms pulled out several objects. One pulled out several baseballs, and started to juggle them. The other pulled out three knives. "IF YOU DO, THEN I'LL SEND YOUR PALS BEHIND ME TO A HILARIOUS DEATH!"

"Guess we don't have much of a choice." Red said.

The two looked towards the three angry mammals as they approached even closer. The feralized Clawhauser was the one farthest behind, due to his, uh, size, while Bogo and Delgato were incredibly close to attacking.

"I really don't want to do this." Silver said, looking at the tiger as it let out a growl.

"Me either, but we just have to bide a little time." Red followed. "So let's just-"

The buffalo let out a snort, before charging forwards. The two leaped out of the way as Bogo's horns hit the metal gate behind them. It rattled as he got stuck in them, said rattling as shocking the rabbit behind them as well.

The buffalo started to scratch at the gate, but was completely stuck for the moment.

There were two simultaneous roars, and the two Zoorangers braced themselves for the next attacks. Red looked over towards Clawhauser who had started to run at him, faster than he figured would have possible for the overweight cheetah. Silver, on the other hand, was almost instantly tackled by the tiger, knocking him back.

Red leaped over the cheetah, who attempted to make a quick turn, but ended up falling over. He rolled over into one of the garden gates instead, but almost instantly started to get back to his paws.

Silver was flung into one of the gates, and crashed onto his face. He quickly got back up, only to see Delgato preparing to swipe at him. He ducked down as the paw went over his head, and then quickly rolled out of the way.

The monster above them growled, and looked down at them from the railing. "Aren't you two going to attack them!?" He shouted. The Zoorangers continued to dodge the two felines' attacks with, with no response. "Hello!?" The monster shouted again. "Are you listening to me!?"

The buffalo pulled its horns from the railings, and turned towards Red, letting out a snort. The fox quickly sidestepped out of the way as Clawhauser attempted to dive at him, and watched him bounce off again. He was distracted, and didn't seem to notice the buffalo, only keeping his eye on the cheetah..

The buffalo scraped its hoof against the floor, and then proceeded to charge. The unaware fox only noticed moments before he was hit. He was sent flying, slamming into a grating, and then bouncing off and hitting the bottom of the upper floor, before falling back to the ground. The Orgette audience burst into cheers.

Red sat up, and shook the blow off as best he could. "Even when he's brainwashed, Bogo still hates me!" He joked to himself.

Silver was still dodging around the tiger's attempted strikes, but quickly realized that he was being pushed back. Behind him was the cheetah, and in front of him was a tiger, and both were preparing to strike.

He dodged out of the way, letting both of the felines smack each other in the face with their paws. The two cats started to growl and scratch at each other in response.

With them distracted, Silver quickly ran over to Red, who had gotten up by this point and was prepping to dodge another of the buffalo's charge. The wolf quickly grabbed the fox by his neck, and leaped up as the buffalo charged forwards.

The two landed on the upper floor, right in front of the monster. They quickly drew their blades, and pointed them at the monster. "Alright, hatter, time for us to shut this carnival down!" Red said.

"No you don't!" The monster said, raising its arms. "Since you survived the the warm-up, it's time for you to head to the REAL ACT!"

He lashed his whips down as hard as he could. The two quickly looked behind them at the entranced SPD officers. They started to stir, Emily managing to break from her locks and falling to the ground, while Henry burst through the glass. The both quickly put up their armor.

Almost instantly, they started to fire at Red and Silver. The blasts hit, and created a large explosion, sending them flying back to the first floor. As the two recovered, they noticed that the other animals had vanished. Before they could think about it, Green and Pink jumped down from the second floor.

"Alright, this could be going better." Red said, hitting himself in the head. He quickly turned to Silver, and made a pointing motion with his paw. "I think we need to actually fight these guys this time." He said, before pounding his fist into his paw. "They can take a hit, right?"

Silver nodded, and gave a thumbs up. The two readied their weapons, and headed in to the fight. Silver went for Green, and swung his blade at the bull. He blocked with his cannon, but the wolf quickly ducked down and swept at his feet, causing the bull to fall over.

Red went for Pink, leaping up into the air to try and strike her. She quickly blocked the sword swing, and continued to block for a few moments as the fox continued to leap around her and slash. Eventually a few slashes got through, and the hyena stumbled back.

The crowd started to cheer as the hits started to be dealt. Animal Tamer Org looked down at the fight, and rubbed all four of his hands together. "This is going even better than the rehearsal!" He said to himself. "But they need some more… encouragement. A little spontaneity never hurt a performance!"

As the four mammals continued to fight, the Org spotted the rabbit behind the gate, who seemed to be barely paying attention. He let out a laugh, before cracking his whips in her direction. The noise caused the rabbit's ears to jut up and eyes to dilate. She quickly got to her feet, and transformed into ZooBlue. She leaped over the gate, pulling the handle off of the door that her harness was attached to.

She landed in the middle of the fight, catching both of the other Zoorangers' attention. "Oh, this is definitely not a good thing." Red muttered to himself.

Unfortunately, the rabbit had also distracted the two from the fights they were currently having. Silver proceeded to get knocked right in the face by Green's cannon, sending him across the room. Pink quickly kicked Red away, and then fired at him several times, all of them connecting.

The brainwashed Blue quickly turned to Red as he attempted to recover. She dashed at him, and leaped into the air, delivering a diving kick to him. The fox was bounced off the ground via the force of the kick, and bounced up into one of the gates, before falling back down to the ground.

Silver quickly shook his head, trying to shake off the blow, and got up. He noticed the harness' leash, lying on the ground, but slithering away as Blue closed in on the fox. Silver jumped into a leap, and grabbed the leash.

He got back up, and tugged at the leash, causing the rabbit to be pulled away from Red as he got up. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the brainwashed hyena from going over and kicking Red right in the stomach. She then picked him up, and threw him across the room.

"Well, that didn't go as well as I planned." Silver said. A shadow suddenly cast over him. The wolf looked back, and was socked right in the face by Green, causing him to fall to the ground, letting go of the rabbit's leash. Blue instantly turned to him, and drew her blasters.

The wolf scrambled on all fours for a moment as he tried to avoid the lasers, but he was quickly shot several times by them. He managed to get back on his feet, and met back up with the fox.

The two drew their weapons, and prepared themselves as best they could, considering how much of a beating they had taken. Red had pulled out the Vickscannon, which he could hold up, but was a bit shaky. Silver's sword wielding arm was just as shaky, if not more.

The three brainwashed teammates walked towards the two, slowly. They were backed into a corner, and had nowhere to run to. Red fired several shots from the Vickscannon, most of them missing and hitting the ground and ceiling, but one managed to hit Green. Even with the misses, the blasts shook up the brainwashed mammals, leaving them open… for the moment.

The two quickly dashed between the three dazed brainwashed mammals, Silver quickly pushing Pink out of the way as the two made a run for the middle of the room.

"Alright, I'm going to finish this off." Silver said, giving a quick thumbs up. Red gave a nod in return. Silver quickly flicked the guard of his sword around, switching to Moon Mode. He lashed the laser whip forward, causing it to wrap around the three. Blue, Pink, and Green were quickly tied up and pulled together.

There was resounding booing from the audience.

"We just finished up your little act," Silver shouted up to the monster. "Come fight us yourself, you coward!"

The monster looked down, and pounded two of his fists on the railings. "I'm not giving up!" The monster responded. "I got a secret weapon!"

He quickly raised his two upper arms into the air, and then lashed the whips forward… in the direction of Silver!

The wolf let out a quick howl of pain, and fell to his knees, letting go of the three brainwashed Rangers.. "No, Silver!" Red shouted, backing away. "You can fight this!"

The wolf got back up to his feet, quickly followed by the other brainwashed mammals. Red backed up, too weakened to fight all four of them on his own.

"Isn't this a great show, folks?" The Org yelled to the audience. "Thrills, chills, twist, and turns, truly a triple A performance for the ages!"

The ringmaster let out another laugh, and looked down from above. He watched as the four quickly approached Red, but Silver quickly stepped out in front. He pulled out a disc, and then quickly plugged it into his Zoolizer. In a flash of light and noise, he had gone into Rampage Mode, and continued towards the fox.

"Oooh, this is gonna be a messy one!" The monster cooed, rubbing its hands together. "Get 'em! GET 'EM!"

The fox quickly rushed off, running around the center pillar. As he reached the other side, Pink and Green suddenly appeared, blocking his way. He turned back, Blue and Silver were closing in on him. He swished his tail a few times, and then looked at the gates.

"Alright, time to do this." He muttered to himself. He ran to the gate, and started to climb up it.

"What!?" The monster from above shouted. He quickly motioned to the Orgettes. "Get him, you idiots!"

Red climbed up, and onto one of the railings. He pulled out his blade, and jutted it towards the crowd of Orgs as they started to draw their own weapons. He stabbed into one of the Orgettes, and started to run along the railing, slicing through the monsters as he ran.

The brainwashed mammals below watched on, before quickly moving into action. Blue quickly grabbed onto the railing and started to climb up, with Pink behind her. Green jumped up next, and the bars instantly bent under his weight, knocking all three to the ground.

After a second, Silver's jetpacks activated, launching him up into the air. The fox reached the end of the railing, and hopped down onto the path to Animal Tamer Org's platform. Silent, the fox started to pace towards the monster, who started to back off.

As Red hit the mid-point of the walkway, Silver landed behind him. "Ah, good!" The monster let out. "Kill this fox, minion!" He quickly cracked his whips in Silver's direction.

Silver raised his gun arm, and pointed it towards Red. The fox stood for a moment. Silence fell as the audience, as well as the ringmaster himself, waited in anticipation.

In a split-second, Silver moved his arm up a bit, aiming it directly at Animal Tamer Org. Before the Org could realize what was happening, he fired a blast from it.

"W-what!?"

The blast hit the monster in the stomach, knocking him back, and onto the ground. "Alright, I can't believe he fell for it!" Red shouted. He quickly tilted his helmet to one side, and knocked at it a few times, and then the same on the other side. Silver quickly did the same as well.

"H-how!?" The monster asked, incredulous. "No animal can escape my hypnotic whips!"

"You let the game slip a bit earlier." Silver said. "We figured out it was some kind of sonic frequency."

"Yeah, some great power you have." Red said, sarcastically. "You just got foiled by ear plugs!"

The monster growled as it got back to its feet. "You might have gotten around it, but I still have the other Zoorangers under my control!"

Silver quickly activated his jetpack, and dashed at the monster. He grabbed onto one of the Org's hands , using his free hand, and then raised his large claw into the air. In a single motion, the claw went straight through the monster's hands.

It let out a pained shriek, as its hands from the cuff up fell to the ground. This included the whips, which Silver quickly grabbed with his free hand. He then turned to the reeling monster, and slashed with his claw, cutting right through the stem in the monster's mouth, which fell down and balanced on its body perfectly for a moment. He then quickly delivered a kick, knocking the monster off the platform, and through the front wall.

"Chief's not gonna like that." Red said.

"Consider the lecture we get a sacrifice for the greater good." Silver said. He held the whips up. "But right now, it's time to get everyone back to normal!"

The two leaped down from the upper floor. The three brainwashed mammals below started to charge towards them, but Silver quickly cracked the whips. The three suddenly froze.

"What?" Blue let out, shaking her head. "Where…? Why am I in the station…?"

"I was wondering the same thing." Pinks aid, also shaking her head.

"We just saved you guys!" Red declared. "You were under the monster's mind control."

"Oh, that makes… sense?" Blue said. She quickly looked at her back. "…Why am I wearing a harness?"

Pink let out a laugh. "Wow, didn't know you were into THAT kind of stuff, Judy!"

"What?" She said, confused. "What are you…?"

"I can explain it to you later." Red followed up. "Well, I'll explain… part of it. But right now, the monster is outside, and we have a job to finish."

"Alright, got it." Blue said. "Ready to go all in, Red?"

"Oh, you know it."

The two pulled out their moon and sun shaped ZooTags, and quickly plugged them into the Zoolizers.

"TAIYO~!  
TSUKI~!  
CELESTIAAAAAAAL  
BODIES!"

The two transformed into their armored forms, and quickly used their weapons to slice through the gate blocking the exit. The metal exploded throughout the building, and the five quickly headed out into the parking lot.

The monster was there stomping its feet. "Alright, circus freak, time for us to end this!" Red shouted as the five pulled out their weapons.

"Grah, this isn't the end for me yet!" The monster shouted. "I have one more trick up my sleeve before I head to the big top in the sky!"

The monster held its hand-less stumps up, and the five watched as several, three-clawed appendages burst out from them. They clacked together as the monster started to laugh. Its hat-head started to float into the air, leaving the headless body on the ground.

"Okay, that's just… ridiculous." Pink said to herself.

"Prepare to face the hell hot hate of my horrid hat!" The monster said, its voice still coming from its body somehow. "There's no way you fools can take a balancing act like this on!"

"Was he always this annoying?" Green asked. "We didn't get to see much of him before the brainwash."

"Oh, yeah, he is just the absolute worst." Red said in response. He quickly tapped his staff on the ground. "Alright, let's get to this and finish this clown off!"

The hat floated towards them, and proceeded to fire out several lasers from its eye. The lasers struck at the ground around them, causing bursts of dust to erupt from the ground. The monster's body let out a laugh as the smoke started to clear.

"That could get annoying." Silver said. "I'll handle the hat."

"Let me get in on that action!" Pink said. "I mean, it's better to go two on one, right?"

"Uh, alright?" Silver said, slightly confused. He grabbed onto her paw with his free hand, and then quickly flew up into the air.

"Guess that leaves us and him." Green said, looking towards the monster.

"Don't worry, I think this'll be a pushover." Red said.

"Hah, I doubt you idiots can even reach me!" The monster boasted. He quickly bent over, revealing the inside of his head-mouth-hole. Fire started to build up inside it, before it fired out in a ring shape. The ring of fire flew towards them, and was followed by a string of more rings.

Blue dashed forwards first, and leaped into the air. She started to somersault as she flew through the rings. The monster looked back up as it finished firing the rings, and stumbled back in surprise as the rabbit flew at him, her blades now drawn.

Red, meanwhile, extended his staff upwards, putting at the size of the rings' circumferences. The rings slammed against the staff, and started to be absorbed into its end. The end of the staff burst into a massive plume of flames.

Blue spun around as fast as she could, blades drawn, and slammed right into the monster's body, knocking it to the ground. She hit the ground, and then vaulted out of the way as Red fired the massive flame at the monster. There was a massive explosion, and the body quickly fell down as the smoke cleared.

"That was for the presumed humiliation." Blue said. She quickly looked back at the fox. "It was humiliating, right?"

"Oh, definitely." He said. "I can give you the full, embarrassing rundown after this."

"Uh, no thanks."

In the air, Silver and Pink flew around the station, chasing after the flying hat. They swooped and zipped around, attempting to catch up with it as it flew backwards. The hat occasionally fired lasers at them, which just slowed them down even more.

"Why don't you just shoot him!?" Pink shouted up to Silver as they paused for a moment.

"Well, I can't do that when you're hanging onto my gun arm!" He replied, a bit angry. "I don't even know if I could hit something that small with it, though…"

Pink thought for a moment. "If you give me a good shot, I could probably hit it." She said. "I'm a better shot than you, y'know."

"How do you know that?"

"I have never seen you use a gun at all, ever."

"Fair enough." He admitted. "I'll try my best."

"Just fly up a bit, that should be good enough." She said. Silver proceeded to do just that, floating up a bit higher. Pink pulled out one of her blasters, and caught the flying hat in her sights.

The was floating around in odd patterns, almost like it was taunting them. She aimed her gun, and fired off several shots. The hat zipped around them all, but she quickly fired out a few more. "Estúpido sombrero gilipollas." She muttered to herself.

She focused the shot a bit more, following the hat around as it zipped. She quickly fired off three shots. The first two missed, but the third one managed to hit. "Nice job, Em!" Silver complimented. The hyena chuckled in response, and the two quickly flew over to the dazed hit.

In a swift movement, Silver slashed at the hat, sending it flying into the ground. They landed back on the ground as the hat crashed into its body. The five mammals gathered up as the body and hat started to stir.

"Oh no!" The monster said as it got back to its feet. It quickly placed the hat back on top of its body. "I can't believe you runts managed to beat me! This is just the worst!"

"Well, this is what happens when you try to mess with us!" Blue said, pointing towards the weakened monster. "Now it's time to pop your big top for good!"

Blue and Red combined their weapons together, while SIlver moved behind them, the giant jaw on his chest opening. Pink and Green moved to the sides of them, and prepared to fire their guns.

Before they fired, the monster let out a small chuckle.

The four fired simultaneously, and all the beams combined together into a single beam, which flew through the monster. It let out a scream as it exploded into a massive ball of fire. Out of the flames flew a top hat, which was on fire, and a red Chaos badge, which tinked against the ground.

"Thank god that's over." Red said, shaking his head. "Now that he's dead, everyone else should be going back to normal, right?" He asked.

"I mean, that's usually how all this works." Silver said. He turned to Pink and Green. "You guys mind going in and checking? We have a thing to do now."

"Got it." green said with a nod. Him and Pink quickly headed into the building.

"I'm sure it'll be alright." Red said.

The three then turned to the Chaos Badge, which started to float in mid-air. It zoomed off through the sky, and then exploded into a burst of light on the outskirts of the city. In the flash, Chaos Animal Tamer Org reappeared, looming over the city. He was completely revived, with his head reattached to his body… and his whips and hands back.

"TIME FOR ACT THREE!" It roared.

"Oh, that's the opposite of good." Red muttered.

"Quick, let's call on the robots before anything happens!" Blue ordered. The two nodded, and then quickly summoned up the mechs. ZooRobo and ZooKami crashed into the ground as they formed, and then stomped towards the monster.

"Hah hah!" The monster laughed. "You three idiot animals just fell for my brilliant plan!" It exclaimed, leaving the three confused.

"Your plan was to get killed?" Blue asked.

"Not much of a plan if you ask me." Red said.

"What? No!" The monster said. "Now that I'm a giant, my hypnotic whipcracks can take over the city in a single stroke! And once I'm done here, I'll move on to the REST of this planet! I'll turn this entire world into a chaotic circus!"

"Well, you're gonna have to get through us first!" Blue said. "Red, call him up!"

"Got it." He replied, pulling out a red ZooTag. He quickly plugged it in.

"BRAVEST OF ALL TIME!  
A GOLDEN GOD OF JUSTICE!  
EVIL RUNS IN FEAR!  
ZOOSHISHI!"

With a roar, the large robotic lion appeared from thin air. It landed on the ground, and then turned to the rest of the mechs, preparing to leap up and combine together.

But before the three mechs could combine together, the monster swung one of its whips, sending out a sonic wave. The wave hit ZooShishi, causing it to let out a pained roar, before its eyes shined red. "Hey, he's not even an animal!" Red said, calling foul. "You can't do that!"

"It's animal enough, stinko!" The ringmaster Org replied with a laugh. "Sic 'em, kitty!"

The robotic lion let out another roar, before leaping at ZooRobo. It crashed into the mech, causing it to split in two. "Guys!" Silver shouted. ZooKami started to stomp towards the monster, and prepared to strike with its sword.

"Sit, dog!" The monster cracked its whip again. This time, ZooKami froze, before uncontrollably shifting back into its wolf mode. It then sat down.

"Hey, what?!" Silver shouted, trying to get the mech to move. "This isn't fair!" He shouted.

"Life's not fair, kid!" The monster laughed. It quickly turned towards the brainwashed ZooShishi. ZooKitsune and ZooSagi were dashing around the field, attempting to dodge its own strikes. "Yeah, you try to run! Can't take down one of your own mechs now, can ya!?"

"I can't believe this!" Blue shouted, jerking the controls. ZooSagi leaped over ZooShishi as it swiped at the rabbit mech. "We're still losing to this guy! This is just… ridiculous!"

"Sorry, Carrots." Red apologized. "I thought we wouldn't have any trouble after that, but…"

"Nick, it's fine." She said. "It's not your fault we're losing. I think it's my fault, if I had been around to plan more…"

"Guys?" Silver said, trying to catch their attention.

"No, this was my fault." The fox said. "If I had thought ahead, we could've done something."

"Guys."

"So, basically neither of us thought this whole thing through." Blue said. "I still feel like I'm the one who should have done something more, but…"

"Guys, shut up!" Silver snapped. "There's someone on the mountain, look!"

The two mechs turned towards the mountain, letting their pilots see as well. There was a small, black figure standing on the top, only noticeable by a smoky aura wafting off of them. The smoke drifted off, waving as it disappeared into the wind.

"Who is that?" Red asked. "Why is he on Mt. Animalia?"

"I don't know." Blue said. "But… I have a bad feeling about this."

"Whaddya three yapping about?" The monster said, turning to face the mountain. "No one's allowed on the mountain unless they're-"

Before the monster could finish, the figure leaped off of the mountaintop. It flew through the air, smoke still drifting off and leaving a trail. It crashed into the monster's body… and then seemingly reappeared on the other side.

"What was-?" The monster let out, sounding confused. It froze for a moment. Suddenly, it started to spark. "What the hell? What just hit me!? I was so close, I can't end the show on something like this! I can't-!"

Before he could finish, the monster suddenly erupted into a massive explosion, which quickly cleared. ZooShishi's eyes turned back to normal, before it let out a roar, and then leaped off, vanishing in the process.

"Whhhhat the hell was that." Red said, shocked and confused.

"I think we just got… saved?" Silver said.

"But… by who?" Blue asked. "…It landed on the ground, let's check this out."

The mechs suddenly vanished, and the three were now standing in the middle of the field. Several yards away from them was the figure, the black smoke still drifting off of it. It quickly faded as the figure started to walk towards them.

The figure looked… familiar, but they had definitely never seen it before. It was the size of the Sentai Rangers, the humans, that they had run into before. The difference was that this one seemed to be dressed in an outfit similar to their own.

Most of the suit was black, but with dark gray highlights. The helmet was feline shaped, stylized much like the Zoorangers' own, except designed for the human head. The visor was blood red, and lined with teeth.

A twinge of fear struck all three as it walked forwards. The figure stopped, and let out a small, familiar sounding laugh.

"...The hell are you?" Red asked, trying to hide the fear.

"Come now, you don't recognize your old enemies?" The figure said, before laughing again and placing his hand to his chin. "Though, I'm not surprised. None of you have seen me in my true form…"

"Don't mess around." Blue said, pointing one of her blades at the figure. "Tell us who you are, or else."

"You may call us…" The figure stepped back, and then took a bow.

"ZooDark."

"Zoo… Dark?" Silver said. "What are you, some kind of knockoff?"

"Non non non," ZooDark replied. The rabbit's nose twitched as he said this. "Knockoff implies a lower quality, I'd consider us an upgraded version."

"Upgraded? That's… incredibly arrogant of you to say." Red said. "Let's show this guy what arrogance gets you."

"Guys, I don't think that's a good idea." Blue said, starting to sound worried. "We should get out of here, NOW."

"Oh, come on, Carrots," Red started. "You're gonna have us run away from a random cosplaying loon?"

"The is making a good suggestion." ZooDark continued. "But, since you insist on a fight…"

ZooDark held his arms out, a sickly green aura covering him. Out of his back burst two, large, ghostly skeletal arms, armed with massive claws on animalistic paws. A ribcage and skull then followed. The skull was distinctly canine.

The skeletal ghost let out a maniacal laugh, causing the three to stumble back in fear and surprise. "Haven't seen you three in a while!" It said, in a familiar, slimy voice. "Surprised to see me?"

"S-Savage." Red muttered. "But… we destroyed you for good… didn't we?"

"Can't destroy something without a body." Savage explained. "My good friend, Enter here, gathered my remaining energy and brought me back to life."

"Enter!?" Silver shouted. "Wait, what? How did you-?"

Enter… ZooDark held up his wrist, shining the corrupted Zoolizer at the three. "Surprised? I got my hands on that device of yours, and figured out how to use it myself."

"And thanks to ME, we're even more powerful than the three of you will ever be!" Savage boasted.

"We've beaten you three times, we can take you a third." Red said. He felt like he was pushing it a bit, but he really didn't want to show how scared he was.

"Nick, stop." Blue said. "We need to get out of here, right now, and-"

Before she could finish, ZooDark suddenly rushed forwards, the spirit of the savage beast following behind him. He quickly slashed at the three as he seemingly phased through them. Savage copied his movements as he swung at them.

The Zoorangers froze for a moment, before a sudden eruption of flames burst from beneath them. They yelled in pain as the monster turned around. ZooDark let out a chuckle as he and Savage looked on. The flames dispersed, revealing the three, heavily damaged.

"What… what WAS that?" Silver said, weakly. "He just hit us so hard…"

"He's too strong." Blue said as she tried to get up. "We need to head out and figure out a plan…"

"Aw, running away so soon?" ZooDaark asked, feigning disappointment. "I guess this isn't any fun for you if you don't have a chance… how about I give you a free hit? All of you, give me your best!"

Red and Silver got back up to their feet, and readied their weapons. Red swung his staff around, while Silver shined his claws.

"Guys, don't this is obviously a set-up!" Blue said.

"We can't just let this guy run around, can we?" Red said.

"Yeah, we have to protect the city, fighting this guy is part of our job!" Silver followed. "And besides, one free shot is better than none!"

The two ran at ZooDark, who stood idly by. Red leaped in first, jumping up and sending his staff flying as he landed. It extended towards the dark ranger, but as soon as it hit, he vanished in a burst of dark smoke.

Red looked around for a moment, but in the second he had looked away, ZooDark reappeared in front of him. He now had a sword drawn, similar to the one that Enter had used before.

"You missed." The monster said, snidely. He quickly kicked the fox, with enough force to send him launching into the city's barrier. Red hit the wall, leaving a large cracked imprint in it. He fell to the ground, in horrible pain and unable to get up.

Silver let out a growl as he aimed his gun arm at dark ranger. He fired several shots, but ZooDark effortlessly slapped the shots away. They flew off, hitting parts of the field and the barrier. Silver then ran at him, preparing to strike with his claw.

As the wolf swung the oversized claw, ZooDark caught it in his hand. "Did you really think that would work?" The villain asked. "Didn't you see what happened to your friend?"

"I… uh…" Silver had no idea what to do.

"You are all so much weaker than I was hoping." ZooDark said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Shame, I'm barely putting in any effort."

The wolf growled, and attempted to punch at ZooDark with his gun arm. The dark ranger caught it, punctuated by a laugh.

"I think he wants to see full power!" Savage said, hovering above the two.

"Well, I can't just end this here, can I?" ZooDark replied. "I'll give you a taste test…"

The dark ranger's hands started to glow with an impossible black light. Silver attempted to pull himself away from him, but his grip was too strong.

"NO!"

Blue rushed forwards and performed a leaping kick. ZooDark quickly turned to her, and let go of Silver's paws. He quickly smacked her with the back of his hand, knocking her to the ground. He then turned back to Silver, and raised his hand, which still glowed with the black light.

The wolf's eyes widened.

The dark ranger fired a blast of energy from his hand, directly at Silver. The force of the blast charred the ground around him, and burned his entire body. The wolf started to breath heavily, before falling to the ground.

ZooDark turned to the rabbit, who was just recovering. "I think that's enough for today." He said, before walking off.

"What!?" Blue shouted. "You're just going to let us go!?"

"Well, now that I've tested this power, I can safely say I can destroy you all at any moment." He explained. "Might as well let your demises seep into you before I take the finishing blow."

"And don't worry," Savage started. "We WILL be back."

"Ciao!" ZooDark let out, with a quick wave. In a flash of black light, he vanished.

Blue stood silent for a moment, and then fell to her knees. She let out a yell as she pounded at the ground.

* * *

"I can't believe this." Sambash muttered.

"It certainly is… impressive." Kyuemon let out, frustrated.

In the middle of the cavern stood ZooDark, alongside the spirit of Savage above him. Enter was flaunting the power he had gained.

"I suppose you all must be surprised, hm?" ZooDark said. He quickly pushed the button on the Zoolizer, and transformed back to his normal human-facsimile form. Savage quickly transformed into just the skull, and started to float around as well.

"Is this what you've been hiding?" Yogostein asked.

"It was a plan that took a while to fully form." Enter said. "Once I had heard about the free Zoolizer… everything clicked."

"Yeah, and you can consider all of that a test run!" Savage cackled. "The next time we go out, those animals will be torn to pieces!"

"And the city will be destroyed as well." Enter said. "We will have enough Chaos Energy to do whatever we want after that."

"HEY! What's the big idea!?" Yabaiba shouted, stomping into the room from one of the caverns. He marched up to Enter, and stomped his foot in front of him. "Why did you destroy my monster!? We had them beat!"

"I needed something impressive to introduce my new power." Enter explained. "Single-handedly defeating a monster they struggled to beat… I would call that a good entrance."

"Yes, very flashy." Savage followed. "And if we can destroy a giant monster, imagine how easy it is to destroy their robots!"

"What will the big boss say when he finds this out?" Yogostein asked, standing up. "He doesn't have a good temper for when things like this happen."

"As long as I'm gathering energy, there is nothing for him to complain about." Enter said, calmly.

"Yeah, besides, what else are we gonna do, backstab him using our new, incredible powers?" Savage said.

"How totally not suspicious of you to say." Sambash said.

"Y'ever hear of a joke, bike brain?"

Sambash laughed, and started to walk off. "Whatever, no matter what you do, I'll still be the star of this show by the end." He said. "My next plan's gonna be big, just trust me."

"And how, exactly, is this plan going?" Enter asked, slyly.

"It's going… well." Sambash said, harshly, before storming off.

"Poor guy, doesn't realize he's completely useless and a waste of space." Savage said.

"Yeesh, you guys gotta be rude all the time?" Yabaiba asked.

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow ow ow…"

"If you keep squirming it'll just hurt more." The rabbit said as she applied a few more dabs of disinfectant to a wound on the fox's side. He was laying on the couch, most of him wrapped in bandages due to the pummeling he had received. Judy wasn't looking great either, with a few bruises visible on her face.

"I can't believe this is happening…" Nick muttered as Judy wrapped the wound in gauze. "We got beaten so easily, and we were at full strength, too."

The rabbit remained silent as she moved on to another wound. "What happened to Max?" Nick asked, after a brief period of silence.

"He's at the hospital." She said. "Wasn't as bad as the last time, but… it was still pretty bad."

"Hopefully he'll be all rested up soon." Nick said, sighing. "It's almost the holidays."

"I'm more worried about you not getting better before Kitmas." Judy said, placing the disinfectant tube on the table, and hopping up onto the grody couch. "Well, actually I'm more worried about…"

"We should all be worried about that." Nick said. "But, I wouldn't worry too much. We can take him next time."

The rabbit glanced at him. "You're joking, right?"

"I'm not." Nick said. "I'm just looking on the positive side of things. We were just exhausted from everything that happened. If we fight him when we're not doing something, we can definitely beat him."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

Judy let out a small laugh. "Weird of you to look on the bright side, but thanks. That helped a bit."

"No problem." Nick said.

That was all a lie, really. He just wanted to cheer her up after all this, even in just a small way. That single attack from ZooDark had left him reeling and covered in scars. Just being near him was terrifying…

The fox really wasn't sure if they could ever beat something that strong. And it wasn't something he was going to put in the back of his mind. ZooDark could show up at any time, and who knows what would happen then.

But the holidays were nearly here, and this was a time for them to relax.

It wouldn't be very easy.


	42. Calm Before the Storm

Festive music played through the apartment, coming from an old radio. Tonight was the best night of the entire year, Kitmas, a holiday where all mammals came together as one and celebrated peace and oneness.

And presents. Lots of presents.

It was one of Judy's favorite times of the year, and she was showing it by having spent the entire week setting up decorations. The walls were lined with the things, holly on the window, a wreath on the door, colored lights lining the walls, and an artificial tree in the corner.

They didn't have real Kitmas trees in their size, unfortunately.

Nick had done as he had the previous years they had lived together for this, and helped as needed, though he had mostly been resting off recent injuries. By this point he could tell this was a bit of a stress relieving time for the rabbit, which was something they obviously needed at this point.

A lucky thing about living in Zootopia was that, due to how the climate was completely controlled, the only time they'd have to put on any heavy clothes was when they went to Tundra Town. And even then, foxes and rabbits grew extra coats during this time, so they only needed to wear sweaters instead of the full get-up like some other mammals had to.

Judy and Nick were sat on the couch, music drifting as they sat and had some eggnog. Judy had wanted to watch some specials, but they still hadn't managed to get a new TV, and the only things that were on were very, very old, and they had already seen them all two dozen times.

"I love Kitmas." Judy said, out of nowhere.

"I know, this is like, the third time you've said that." Nick responded, amused. "This hour."

"Oh, sorry." She said. "I just… I'm so excited for tonight."

"I think everyone is, Carrots," Nick started. "But I'm not sure they have your rabbit-like enthusiasm."

Every year, on Kitmas Eve, the station would have a party, alongside secret gift exchanging. It was one of the few times they were really allowed to let loose, and even Bogo had fun every year.

The rabbit quickly checked her phone. "We should probably head out soon." She said. "The shops are gonna open up in an hour."

"Last minute Kitmas shopping," Nick said. "Not something I'd expect to have to do with you around."

"We've been busy, alright?" She grumbled as she got up, the couch creaking. "We had to clean up everything, get our stuff, go to work, wait for you and Max to recover, fight monsters, it's just been a really crazy week!"

"Don't forget the panicking and anxiety attacks." Nick said, jokingly. The rabbit looked at him, unamused. "…Sorry."

The last week, in addition to moving in, had been a nightmare mentally for the two. Judy was feeling incredibly guilty, having let the Zoolizer fall into enemy hands, and equally as guilty about letting Nick and Max get beat up.

Nick, however, was still in some pain, even though most of it had passed. He had still occasional pains and spasms. It was incredible how a single creature could deal a hit that bad.

"This whole ZooDark thing isn't something we should be joking about." Judy said. "Let's just put it out of our minds for right now. I just hope there's no monster attack today."

"So, wanna go see the tree tonight?" Nick asked, deflecting from the current conversation.

Every year, on Kitmas Eve, a massive Kitmas Tree would be set up in the middle of Tundra Town. It was a sight to behold, a glimmering tower of wonder in the night sky. They had visited every year at this point.

"Uh, duh?" Judy said, getting a smile back on her face. "It's the best part of the best part of the year!"

Nick chuckled, before getting up. "You're right about the presents, we should probably go get them. Who do we have this year, anyway?"

"Francine." Judy said. "I think she's been talking about new earrings."

"That's gonna be a pain to keep at the party." Nick sighed. "Alright, I'll go get ready, and we can head out before-"

Before the fox could finish, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out, inquisitively. His eyes widened as he saw the number.

"Who is it?" Judy asked, noticing the fox's shocked expression.

"Uh, um, bluh…" The fox sputtered for a moment, before clearing his throat. "I need to-to… take this to the bedroom."

He quickly dashed into the bedroom, and looked at the number. His knees were shaking, as he placed his paw to his head. "Why did you have to do this right now?" He muttered to himself.

He took a deep breath, and answered it. The screen flicked to a blank image.

"Hey, mom!"

"Nicky, it's been so long since I've talked to you." A kindly, older sounding voice said on the other side of the phone. "How has everything been going?"

"Oh, you know, fine." He said. "We really need to get that camera fixed. I could get you a new phone, you know."

"You don't have to do that!" She replied, with a laugh. "You already have enough troubles, you don't have to worry about me at all."

"So, uh, why are you calling?" Nick asked, though he already knew the reason.

"I want you to come over for Kitmas dinner." She said. "I really want to see you again, but if you're doing something, then…"

Nick groaned and pounded his fist into his face several times. There was no way he could say "no" to his mom. Not after all this time.

"I'll come over." He said with a sigh.

"Oh, wonderful!" His mother replied. "Do you think you'll be bringing over your partner, what was her name?"

"Judy." He said. "No, I don't want her coming over."

"Why not?" His mother asked. "Not ready to show her off to your ma?"

"No, it's just because…" He paused for a moment. "I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Not ready for what?" Asked Judy, peeking her head through the door.

"Not ready to tell her about-" he quickly let out a shrill scream and dropped the phone onto the bed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He shouted, voice a bit shaken.

"I heard you talking about me." She said.

"How much else did you hear?" He asked.

"All of it." She said as she walked into the room, and quickly pointed at her ears. "Why can't I come over to your mom's place for dinner? It doesn't sound like she minds."

"I…" Nick paused for a moment. "Well, you… There's…"

The rabbit crossed her arms, and waited for the fox to come up with an excuse.

The fox growled, and picked up the phone. "Change of plans, Judy will be coming." He said to his mother.

"Oh, wonderful!" She replied. "Tell her not to worry about the food, I'll figure it out. Love you, Nicky!"

Nick sighed, a bit embarrassed. "Bye, mom."

He hung up, and dropped the phone to the bed. "You guys are vegetarians, right?" Judy asked. "Well, I know you are, but is your whole family?"

"My mom is." Nick said, sitting down on the bed. "My dad was more of a carnivore-type, but when he vanished… guess things just sort of fell into place for my diet."

"Oh." Judy said, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry for eavesdropping."

"No, it's fine." He said. "Well, eavesdropping isn't, that's my thing, but maybe it'll be for the best that you come over."

"Well, if we're doing that," Judy started, clasping her paws together. "Then we better get shopping!"

"You seriously do not need to get anything for her." Nick said.

"I would feel terrible if we didn't." Judy replied. "And besides, we have to do this anyway, so what's one more gift?"

"Twenty to fifty bucks, probably." The fox replied.

"It'll be a small gift!" She said.

A few minutes later, the two were all ready to head out. They stepped out of the apartment, and took in the sun over the city.

"I've lived here for years, and the climate walls are STILL amazing." Judy said, looking up at the sky.

"It's definitely something." Nick replied. "Technology surpasses nature yet again, I suppose."

The rabbit let out a sigh. "I kind of miss the snow, though." She said, ears drooping. "When I was a kit, it was always exciting to get up and head outside to play in the snow around our farm."

"There are a lot of mammals that can't really survive through something like that, it's a necessary evil." Nick said as the two started to walk down the street.

"Just… kind of miss it." She said.

The two walked for a moment, before the sky suddenly went dark. The two looked up, a massive black cloud had covered all of the blue sky that had previously been visible.

"That wasn't there a second ago, right?" The rabbit asked.

"Are we getting a thunderstorm?" Nick said. "Usually that doesn't happen until summer."

"Maybe we should have worn our jackets." Judy said with a shrug. The two started to walk again.

This was quickly stopped as something dropped from the sky. They only caught a brief glimpse of it as their vision was suddenly covered in a blanket of white.

It took a moment, but the two burst their heads through the mound of snow that had suddenly dropped down. They both shuddered as they climbed up onto it, their light weight only causing the snow to press in a little.

The two looked around, the entire area, from head to toe, had just been covered in a thick layer of snow. It was taller than either of them, and was draped across the tops of buildings and throughout the entire street.

The clouds still hung in the air, snowflakes starting to drift down from above.

"W-w-w-what just happened?" Judy asked, teeth clacking as she tried to rub her arms.

"I really hope it isn't what I think it is." Nick said, his breath showing up in front of his face.

"KASASASASASASA!" A voice from above yelled. The two glanced up to spot a spinning, black object. It drifted down through the air before landing on top of the snow on one of the buildings.

"Oooooh, COME ON!" Judy yelled, frustrated.

It was a monster, this one resembling an odd looking umbrella from the waist up, which looked like it was made of straw. A large, red eye stared from the middle of it, and the brims were lined with sharp, white fangs. The top of its head, where the center of the umbrella would be, however, was instead what looked like an inkwell.

The bizarre details continued, as coming out from under the monster's umbrella head were six large appendages, each resembling an ink pen. Underneath those was a set of arms, which were colored mostly black, but had monstrous brown claws at the end, each paw having a white stripe going through the middle of them.

The lower half of the monster was less bizarre, comparatively. Its body, while mostly black, had a large strip of flesh hanging from it, resembling a hideous pink tongue. It's waist was also lined with more of the teeth. It plain black and gold legs, which had the addition of large golden strips from the knees to the lower legs, resembling the clips on a pen. Its feet were also cartoonishly monstrous.

Something also hung from its waist by a string. It looked like a wooden sandal.

"FOOLS!" The monster shouted down in an annoyingly shrill sounding voice. "Be prepared to be buried in the white hell of the legendary Kasabake's Snowy Summer Day technique!"

The rabbit stomped forwards, shaking off the cold, as well as the pain the monster's yelling was putting on her ears. "Why did you have to attack TODAY, of all days!?" She shouted up. "Can't you put this off for two days!?"

"What?" The monster said, confused. "Am I interrupting something? Kasasasa, then that means that I can be even more devious! Prepare to have your day ruined, Zoorangers!"

He started to spin around rapidly, before taking off into the air. "If you wanna stop me, you gotta catch me!" It taunted, before zooming away.

Judy prepared to say something, but all that came out was a frustrated grunt. "Do they seriously have to do this on KITMAS EVE!?" She shouted. It had been a while since Nick had seen her this angry.

"Listen, that guy seems like an absolute dunce," Nick started, grabbing onto her shoulders. "We can take him on, just relax before you have a migraine."

"Right, right." She said. "Let's head after him. I'll let everyone else know what's going on."

"Good, no need getting angry at all this right now." The fox said, calmly. "We'll deal with this quickly and get back to our lives."

* * *

The umbrella monster spun through the air, zigzagging as it went along. It then quickly zipped down to the middle of a snow covered plaza, coming to a halt before it could hit the snow.

It chuckled to itself as it looked around. "If I keep making snow, then this place will be in ruins in no time!" It said to itself. "Time to get to work!"

The monster started to spin around again, hovering just above the snow. From the inkwell on top of its head, a cloud of ink started to emerge. As the monster continued to spin, the cloud of ink started getting larger, and floated up into the sky, combining with the dark clouds.

"Stop it right there!" Someone shouted, causing the monster to stop instantly. The Zoorangers, Red and Blue specifically, had arrived in the middle of the snow covered plaza.

"How did you find me so fast?" The monster asked, shocked.

"Like you're easy to miss." Red said.

"Just had to look for the spinning thing." Blue followed. "Easy enough to spot that we had our other teammates follow you here!"

"What?"

Silver suddenly leaped down from the sky, landing directly in the snow. "Alright, time to take this small fry down!" He said, trying to strike a pose. He grunted as he tried to move his legs through the snow. "I'm… I'm stuck."

The monster laughed in response. "Kasasasa, is this the back-up? How pathetic!"

Several laser shots then struck the monster in the back, causing him to fall forwards and faceplant directly into the snow.

"Don't treat us like we're nothing!" Pink shouted as her and Green trudged through the snow.

"Sorry, we're a bit late, truck got stuck." Green said.

"Yeah, lots of traffic accidents." Pink followed. "No casualties, but we need to get rid of this snow before anything worse happens."

The monster started to spin around as it laid down, spraying snow directly at Red, Blue, and Silver. It then pushed itself up, hovering in the air. "Peh, pew!" It sputtered, wiping off its tongue. "Even with five of you, you'll never be able to defeat me! Last time, I required a MASTER ninja warrior to be defeated! I'm sure none of you are even white belts!"

"Aren't belts a karate thing, not a ninja thing?" Silver asked.

The monster looked down at him. It then started to spin rapidly, and hurtled directly towards the wolf. Before anyone could react, the monster plowed into him, knocking the wolf several feet back and right through some of the snow.

Red and Blue quickly drew their bladed weapons, and leaped at the monster as it stopped spinning. The two slammed their weapons into the side of the monster's body, and slammed it back into the ground. It bounced slightly as it slammed into the snow, letting it spin around and reorientate itself.

The monster then thrust its arms forward, causing the six pen appendages to fire out blobs of ink, which homed in on the two. They leaped out of the way of two of the blobs, which crashed into the snow, turning the white completely black. They blocked two of the other blobs with their blades, slicing right through them and causing the ink to splatter around.

The last two blobs continued to fly at them, but Silver quickly leaped in and smacked them with his sword, sending them flying back towards the monster. They exploded as they hit the monster, sending it flying back even more.

"Good shot!" Blue said, giving a thumbs up. Silver gave a nod, before the snow collapsed beneath his feet.

"This is going to get annoying." He muttered to himself.

"Too bad you losers can't fly!" The monster mocked as it floated up into the air. "I'll just rain inky black death down on you from up here!"

The monster started to spin around, dropping down more blobs of ink directly towards the ground in hopes of bombing the three. The Zoorangers leaped out of the way as the monster moved closer. Silver had a bit of difficulty, but managed to pull himself out of the thick snow just in time.

The white sheet of snow was slowly turning black as the monster continued to follow the three. Silver grunted as he did his best to trudge through the snow, only barely managing to keep away from the monster's bombing.

"Hey, wait a second…" He said, looking at his sword. He quickly spun the guard to Sun Mode, and then swiped his sword in front of him. A wave of flame fired from it, instantly melting the snow.

"Good idea!" Blue said. "We just need to use our fire power to clear out this place!"

"Got it!" red said, pulling out the Vickscannon.

The rabbit quickly sprinted towards the hyena and bull, who were still stuck in the snow.. "You guys and I will distract the monster while they work on that, got it?"

"Sorry, but we can barely move." Pink said. "How are we supposed to distract that thing?"

"Like this!" Blue said, leaping on top of the hyena's head.

"Hey!"

"Now you just jump up onto Henry's shoulders, and we can do this!" The rabbit ordered.

"What!?" Pink shouted.

"Just do it." Green said, sounding a bit exasperated.

"Well, I can't really-"

She was cut off by the bull lifting her right off the ground and placing the two on his shoulders. Green let out a snort, before tromping through the snow, his legs cutting through it quite effectively.

"Alright, just prep your blasters, and then we'll take this guy down!" Blue ordered, spinning her own blasters around before pointing them at the monster.

Pink pulled out her dual pistols, and aimed them at the rapidly spinning monster. Green quickly followed, aiming his cannon. The three then quickly unleashed a flurry of gunfire on the umbrella beast. The combined power of the myriad shots knocked the monster right out of the air and into the snow.

"Alright, time for our part!" Red said, prepping the Vickscannon. Silver nodded as he pulled his sword back.

The two quickly unleashed a volley of fire across the plaza, practically melting the snow in only an instant. The monster quickly scrambled to its feet as it noticed, but was quickly shot down by the combined power of Blue, Pink, and Green.

"No, my tactical advantage!" The monster yelled as it got back up, this time successfully. The plaza was now completely bare… but only this plaza.

"Not so strong now, are you?" Red said. He quickly pulled out a red ZooTag. "Let's see if you can handle us on fair ground."

"GAO, RAWR!  
BEAT THE BEAST  
KING OF THE JUNGLE  
BRAVE, GAO!"

The dual blades appeared in Red's paws, before he dashed towards the monster. It stood still for a moment, petrified, before the fox leaped into the air and brought the blades down onto its head. The monster flew back from the strike, and crashed into the side of a nearby building.

"Get rid of the rest of this snow!" The fox shouted as he leaped at the monster again, slashing at it with both blades again as he hit the ground.

Sparks flew from the monster as it stumbled off to the side. "Hah, I can't do that, I just make the weather!" Kasabake said, mockingly. "You'll have to destroy me if you want to get rid of it all!"

"Then we'll do that right now!" Blue said as she leaped in and kicked the monster in the face.

The force of the kick bounced the monster off the side of the building, and over Blue and Red's heads. It rolled across the ground, and got back up, dazed. "You'll have to catch me first!" It said, before spinning up into the air. It continued to laugh as it zipped around the sky for a moment.

Pink and Green instantly opened fire on the monster before it could escape. It crashed back into the ground, and was met with Silver looming over. "You're not ruining today." He said. "You can ruin every other day, but NOT today."

The wolf raised his blade, and prepared to jab it down. The monster let out a screech before it rolled out of the way. The sword pierced through the concrete ground, barely missing the monster. Silver struggled for a moment as he attempted to pull the blade out.

"You guys are really upset, huh?" The monster said as it got back up and stumbled back. The five Rangers closed in on the monster. "I don't get why, but I have more work to do, so…"

A cloud of ink suddenly burst from the top of the monster's head, and quickly engulfed the area. The five started to cough, as the inky black cloud broke through their masks. The cloud dispersed just as quickly, revealing that the monster had vanished.

Judy let out a sigh as she, and the rest of the team, untransformed. "That was less successful than I hoped." She said.

"Well, at least we know we can take the guy." Nick said. "He quickly turned to the other three mammals. "You guys going to the party tonight?" He asked.

"Really?" Emily said. "You're worrying about the Kitmas party and not the monster?"

"Kitmas is far more stressful than that guy." He half-joked.

"I wouldn't miss this party for the world." Max said, cheerfully. The others looked at him for a moment, creating an awkward silence. "Y-you know, because… I don't miss it every year."

"Uh huh." Emily said, glaring at the wolf.

"So, who'd you get stuck with this year for the gift exchange?" Judy asked the wolf, nudging his leg.

"Yeah, don't you get stuck with Rhinowitz every year?" Nick asked. "You gonna get him another horn-warmer this year?"

"Uh…" Max cleared his throat. He seemed obviously anxious. He then leaned down, and whispered something into Judy's ear. "Hey, can we talk about this over there?" He asked, pointing towards an opening between the buildings, about ten feet away.

She gave a confused, but sincere, nod, and the two headed over. Emily squinted, curious at what he would need to talk about…

"You know the whole point of this gift exchange is to keep It secret, right?" Judy said witha chuckle. "If you have to get me something, you should have asked Nick."

"What?" Max said, confused. "No, that's not it."

"Ohhh, you want to know what you should get for Nick!" She guessed. "Well, he's been-"

"No, not Nick either!" The wolf said. "I want to…" He paused and thought for a moment, his tail beating against the wall of the building several times. "You and Nick are… dating, right?"

"Uh, yeah, we are, kind of." She said, rubbing the back of her head. "I wouldn't call it that serious, just casual dates… Wait, where exactly is this going?"

Several feet away, Emily tapped her foot against the ground. "What's got you all wound up?" Nick asked.

"I'm going to go over there." She said, looking directly at the wolf and rabbit.

"Don't, that's incredibly rude." Henry said.

"And also creepy." Nick followed.

"I'm not going to listen to them, I'm just going to… go over there." She said, before she started to stomp over to the building that Max and Judy were next to. She huddled against a wall, and started to listen in.

"What's up with her?" Nick asked, a bit amused.

"I think she has a crush." Henry said with a sigh.

"What is that, her fifth since Dave?"

"Maybe more, I lost count."

The wolf and rabbit continued to talk, without noticing the hyena snooping in on them.

"I… I need to ask how you… ask someone out?" Max said, nervous and quiet.

"You've never asked anyone out on a date?" Judy said, confused. "Like, nobody?"

"I have horrible anxiety issues, of course I haven't!" The wolf said.

"Wait, did you get someone you have a crush on for the gift exchange?" Judy said.

Max took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes I did."

Emily's ear twitched as she heard this.

"I want to ask them out on a date at the party tonight." The wolf explained. "But… I don't know how to do it."

"That's easy!" Judy said, with a slight chuckle. "If you want to start simple, take her to a movie. Just, get the tickets early, and give them tonight."

Max looked at her for a moment. "…Is that it?"

The rabbit nodded.

The wolf placed his hand against his head. "Wow, that's really easy." He muttered, and then looked at her again. "You know this works, right? You've done it?"

"I actually never really asked anyone on dates." Judy said reminiscing. "I mostly GOT asked out a lot… But I turned most of them down."

"Huh." Max said, surprised. "That doesn't really inspire a lot of hope in me."

"Just try it, and if it doesn't work out, then… Try not to worry about it." She said. "I'm sure it will turn out well."

Max nodded. The rabbit quickly pulled out her phone to check the time. "Cheese and crackers, me and Nick have to be at a dinner in the next five hours!"

"So?"

"We have to go Kitmas shopping!" She shouted, before dashing off. She quickly dashed towards Nick and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him off.

"See you guys later!" The fox shouted as the rabbit dragged him through the snow.

Emily sat there for a moment. Asking someone out? Tonight? At the station? Who could it be? There weren't a ton of female officers at the station, and even less that she saw Max actually hang around with. She slowly sat down, sliding down the building and tucking her knees up to her chest.

Then she heard something.

"Oh gosh, she's going to be here in an hour!"

Max quickly dashed out of the alley, unknowingly leaving the hyena with a scowl on her face. She clutched at her knees, before she got up.

She started to stomp over to Henry, who was simply standing there in wait. "You got everything you need?" He asked, sarcastically.

"Oh, I got everything." She said through gritted teeth. "And more than I wanted."

* * *

Judy and Nick arrived at a store in the downtown area, which hadn't been completely covered in snow. After the sudden downpour of snow, there had been a bit of an exodus from Sahara Central, meaning that the already crowded streets were even more crowded. This could have been a problem, but Judy was just thankful nothing terrible had happened.

The two had been shopping around the town, picking out small gifts. Like the last few years, Judy had bought gifts for everyone at the station - not much, treats and knickknacks they might like, but there was a lot of stuff. As of the moment, they were in the middle of a large mall.

"Do we really have to buy all this stuff?" Nick asked as he lugged around a small bag filled nearly to the brim with wrapped gifts. "We only had to get stuff for Francine."

"No, we had to get stuff for Max, Emily, and Henry since they're our friends." She said, stopping in place. The rabbit was also carrying another bag of gifts, roughly with the same amount in it. "We also have to get something for Bogo, since he's our boss, we have to get something for Grizzoli for helping us with that case, Delgato for helping us out during that one attack, Fangmeyer for-"

"Okay, I get it, you want to say thanks to everyone." Nick said, letting go of the bag and stretching his tired arm out. "But they don't really need it. We're having money troubles, we can't really waste that much."

"But… I like giving gifts." Judy said, ears dropping. "I was always told that Kitmas was about giving, and not getting, and I have a LOT to give!"

"Uh huh." The fox said. "Well, I think we have something for everyone who will be there tonight, and maybe some mammals that don't exist, so can we head to my mom's place now?"

"Oh, your mom!" Judy said, ears popping back up. "We have to get something for her!"

"No, we really don't." Nick said with a sigh.

"What do you think she'd want?" The rabbit asked, ignoring him. "Uh, maybe some jewelry? Some claw polish? …Fang sharpeners?"

"She's not that kind of fox, Carrots." The fox said. "Least, she isn't anymore."

"Alright, you know her better, what should we get?" She asked. "She's probably talked about something recently."

Nick fell silent for a moment, and the started to walk off. "Let's just get going."

Judy glared at the fox as he walked off, dragging the bag behind him. She quickly hopped up to him, effortlessly lifting her own bag. "You haven't talked with your mom much, huh?" She asked.

"I haven't had a… a REAL conversation with her in years." He said, quietly. "The last time I saw her was… probably at my graduation from the academy. We only talked a bit there."

"Oh." Judy said, a bit surprised. Having come from an incredibly close-knit family, the act of spending so much of your life away from them was… alien, to her. "You haven't even seen her at Kitmas time?"

"There was one time, but it got… awkward." He said. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Alright, alright." The rabbit said. She got she was pushing boundaries… but she was so CURIOUS. What could have happened between Nick and his mom? She needed to find out.

"Can… can I ask what happened between you and her?" She asked. "Just out of curiosity."

The fox sighed. "I'll… tell you outside."

A short while later, after several more stops where the rabbit tried in vain to get something for the fox's mother, the two were outside the mall.

The fox looked at his phone. "My mom lives down in Happytown, we should be able to make it before dinner. Just follow me." He started to walk off from the entrance to the mall.

Judy quickly started follow him, and after a few minutes of silence, hopped up next to him, and waited. "So…?"

"So what?"

"You gonna tell me?"

He sighed again. "I was hoping you'd forget."

"Yeah, not gonna get out of this THAT easy."

"When I was a teen, around sixteen, the dumbest age, I got into a fight with her." He started. "It got bad enough that I ran away from home, and that's how I ended up with Clawbick's gang."

"What was the fight about?" Judy asked, curious.

"It was about… what she wanted from me in the future." He said. There was a brief pause, as if he was searching for the absolute vaguest way to explain it.

"Oh, I get it." Judy said. "Bad time, you got angry at what she wanted your job to be, I get it. My life was like that for a while, but I… never gave up!" She finished, punching her fist into the air.

Nick chuckled, sounding a bit weary. "Actually, I really don't think you WOULD get it…" He said.

"Well, you didn't give up on what you wanted to be, right?" She asked. Nick looked at her, shooting an unamused glare. "Oh, right. The whole… homeless thing. Sorry." She said as she shrunk back

Now she just felt really bad.

"I guess you could say that I got to be what I wanted." Nick said. "But… It's complicated."

"Alright, I'll stop now." She said. They continued to walk through the moderate climate, which combined with the dour mood, really didn't make it feel like Kitmas time.

"Just because of what I said doesn't mean you should be scared of my mom." Nick said, out of nowhere.

"Who said I was scared?" Judy replied with a scoff. "I'm sure she's wonderful."

"She's… she's the absolute, most amazing vixen you'll ever meet." Nick said, wistfully. "She's just… incredible. Even after that fight, even after I ran away… she forgave me for everything. I haven't met anyone else like that… besides you."

The rabbit chuckled. "Sounds like we might get along."

"Oh you definitely will." Nick said. "Her veggie dishes are some of the best I've ever had. In fact, they're the reason I'm a vegetarian."

"Strong enough to send a meat eater to the healthy side?" Judy said. "Must be something!"

The fox remained silent as they continued to walk.

* * *

"You know that this is illegal, right?" The bull said to the hyena, who was currently peering her head out from the corner of a building. After the fight with the monster, Emily had decided to, ahem, "keep an eye on" Max.

They had first followed him to the train station, where they watched him pick up a female wolf. They looked very similar, with the same shade of gray fur. They also looked to be getting a bit too chummy, complete with a hug. This just, uh, "worried" Emily a bit more, so much to Henry's chagrin,

This had lead them directly to a small outdoor cafe in Sahara Square. "This isn't illegal, I'm just trying to make sure he's alright." Emily stated, staring out at the cafe, where Max and the female wolf sat.

"Uh huh, right." The bull said, leaning against the side of the building. He very obviously did not care about this, though he was fairly certain most of the passing by mammals were interested in whatever was happening. The front of the building next to the cafe was the best hiding spot from Max, but not from anything else.

"Who the hell is she?" The hyena muttered to herself, gripping onto the corner of the building. She seemed to be oblivious of other mammals giving her odd stares.

The two wolves were just sitting there under an umbrella, having a meal and talking to each other. Emily was unable to hear them, given she was at least a dozen feet away, but she could still see them clearly.

She had tried to read lips, but the angle wasn't good. And she wasn't good at it anyway.

"I think you're overreacting to all this." Henry said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The hyena growled, still not breaking from her stare. "I'm not overreacting, I have every right to be worried about a friend."

"More like worried about your love life…" The bull muttered. This finally got the hyena to turn around and face him. She raised a claw up, and prepared to strike, but he knew she wouldn't do it.

He was right, and she lowered her claw. She then started to laugh. "You think I have a CRUSH on Max?" She said, trying her best to sound surprised and indignant.

"Mmm, yep." The bull responded, rather plainly. "You act like this every time you get a crush."

She laughed again, though this time it sounded more forced. "Why would I have a crush on that… that cabrón!?" She said. "He's the farthest away from my type."

"And all those times you got with 'your type' have ended SO well." Henry replied, sarcastically.

The hyena opened her mouth, preparing to say something to the extent of "You're wrong", but a lot harsher. However, she realized that Henry was right. Over the years she had ended up dating a variety of mammals… none of which were particularly "respectful" of her.

The hyena leaned up against the wall, and let out a sigh.

"I'm not making fun of you for this, you know, it's just that this really won't help if you actually decide to… you know, go anywhere with this." Henry said. "I'm not even sure he realizes you feel anything for him, so maybe you should just… tell him."

"I don't have a crush on him." She insisted, pushing herself off of the wall. "I'm just… worried about a friend. He could no idea who that wolf is, this could end up just as bad for him as all my relationships have. I don't want anyone to experience that."

"And you're sure stalking him is the best way to get that across, huh."

"Oh, just shut up."

Max bit down into his sandwich. "I'm glad you decided to visit for the holidays, L." He said to the wolf sitting in front of him. A winter coat hung from her chair, and she was dressed ina n outfit that was still probably too warm for Sahara Square. She didn't seem to mind, though.

"Hey, you're the one who asked!" She replied with a laugh. "Besides, talking to you over the phone was starting to get boring. I prefer physical interaction."

"I mean, I don't, but…" Max replied, nervously. "But, uh, I still enjoy your company, you know."

She rolled her eyes at him as she took a sip of coffee.

"You're still planning on coming to the thing tonight, right?" Max asked.

She laughed in return. "Really, you think I'd come all the way here and then NOT go?" She said. "Of course I'm going, dummy."

"Oh, good." Max said. He attempted to take another bite of his sandwich, but quickly noticed something in the air.

Heavy, dark clouds, looming directly above them. "Oh, come on." He muttered, putting the sandwich down and getting up.

"What are you doing?" L asked, a bit confused.

"Uh, do you mind getting back to the car?" He asked, starting to grimace a bit.

"Why? I'm not gonna melt in a bit of rain." She replied.

"Just go back to the car." He replied, a bit more firmly.

"...Are you alright?"

There was a sudden clap of thunder, and rain started to pour down from the sky at a ridiculous rate. The raindrops bounced off of the umbrella, and onto the sand around them, moistening it in practically a second.

"I'm taking this isn't normal, is it?" L asked.

"No. It isn't."

She gave a quick nod, and dashed out from under the umbrella. One of her paws sank down into the malleable sand, which she managed to pull out with minor trouble, before heading off to Max's car.

Max stepped out from under the umbrella, and looked up into the air. He quickly spotted a spinning, whirling thing in the sky, made more obvious by how pitch black the backdrop was. An obnoxious laughter emanated from the sky as well, as the spinning thing started to lower to the ground.

"Kasasasasasa!" The monster laughed, as it reached just above the ground. The ahndful of other mammals ran in fear as it started to speak. "Looks like I managed to capture some helpless prey!"

"Yeah, sure whatever." Max said, a bit irritated. "You know what you're interrupting right now? It's kind of important."

"I don't care!" The monster shouted, before lashing its arms forward. Two blobs of ink raised from the monster's inkwell tip. The wolf prepared to dodge, but found himself unable to move.

He glanced down, noticing that he was nearly knee deep in thick, moist sand.

He glanced back up, and watched as the ink blobs shot at him. He covered his face, preparing for the impact.

Instead, several projectiles fired from out in front of a building, which struck the blobs and caused them to explode.

"What!?" The monster shouted, turning to the building. Pinka nd Green were standing there, on a paved sidewalk.

"Do your transformation thing, Max, we'll distract him!" Pink shouted.

"Alright, thanks for-" The wolf stopped himself. "How did you guys get here? I didn't even call you."

"NOT IMPORTANT!" The hyena shouted. Her and the bull quickly fired several shots at the monster, hitting it directly in the face.

Max quickly transformed into ZooSilver, and then burst from the sand. He drew his blade as he flew through the rainy sky, and brought it down directly onto the Kasabake. He knocked the yokai out of the sky and into the sand, where it struggled for a moment.

With a grunt, Kasabake unleashed a burst of air, pushing msot of the sand away and letting it float back up. "You just got lucky!" It shouted. "With this entire area covered in downpours, it'll turn into the world's largest quicksand pit! You'll all be stuck and left for the pickings!"

Silver looked around for a moment, at the area, and then at his feet. He moved one of his legs back and forth, with only slight pressure. He then pulled his foot out, with no issue.

"Hey, looks like the sand doesn't stick to my costume!" The wolf said. "Guess your plan's gone inside out!"

"What!?" The monster shouted. It glanced over at the much more heavily armored SPD Officers. "Well, you might be able to move around, but how about your FRIENDS over there!?"

The monster started to spin around, right as Silver figured out what the monster was implying. Wind started to whip up, pushing in the direction of the two officers. The rain flew at the two thanks to the sudden burst of wind, and they started to be pushed back. Pink started to tumble back, but was quickly grabbed by the paw by Green, who's weight helped him stay planted on the ground.

Silver briefly considered calling up Nick and Judy, since this looked like trouble... but then he remembered that they were at a dinner right now, and that would be rude.

He also remembered how much of a wimp this guy was the last time they fought. As he watched the monster spin for a moment, he got an idea.

Moving fast, Silver quickly spun the guard of his blade around, switching it to Moon Mode. He lashed the blade forward, shooting a laser whip out. It wrapped around the monster's legs, but started to pull the laser whip in as it spun around.

Suddenly, the monster stopped, unable to spin anymore causing the wind to stop. "H-hey, what just happened?" The monster asked. "I can't spin!"

It looked down at its legs, which were now almost completely wrapped up in the whip. "Looks like you're a bit WRAPPED up!" The wolf started. "Maybe now you'll be more on TOP of your game.

"What did you emphasize top-"

Silver quickly pulled his blade back, causing the whip to start retracting back into the blade. Almost instantly the monster started spinning again, this time in the opposite direction, and without any control of its own.

The monster let out a scream as Silver quickly lashed his captive up into the air. He quickly slammed him into a nearby building, and then down into the sand. Finally, he pointed the blade upwards, balancing the monster as it spun.

"Check it out!" Silver started. "Looks like he's SPINNING in the rain!"

Green shook his head while Pink let out a loud groan.

"Alright, let's get this creep out of here." Silver said, suddenly sounding a lot more serious. He lashed the whip around a bit, positioning it so that the top of the monster's head was pointing directly towards Pink and Green. "Let's finish with some target practice!"

Pink and Green readied their weapons. "Hey, whoever hits its eye gets to drive next." Pink dared.

"You're on." The bull replied.

The two started to fire at the monster's head rapidly, causing a cloud of explosions to blanket it for quite a while. They were still firing as the end of the whip finally retracted back into the sword.

The flaming explosions vanished, and the monster dropped to the sand, starting to sink in the process. It thrashed around for a bit, either trying to escape the sand or having a tantrum, before it finally got out.

"How is this POSSIBLE!?" The monster shouted, frustrated. "I can't be beaten by just THREE of you! This is humiliating!"

With a whining yell, the monster started to spin, and then flew off into the sky, creating a small hole in the darkened clouds.

Silver walked up onto the pavement, before transforming back to normal. Pink and Green followed suit. "We should probably go and see if anyone's in trouble." He said.

"Yeah." Henry replied. "Thankfully the city thought ahead, most of Sahara Square's sand is only a few inches deep."

"Yeah, this is really just more of an inconvenience than a disaster." Emily said. "But it is kind of our job, so, we'll get going." She turned to the bull. "By the way, I get to drive."

"No way." Henry said. "You didn't hit that thing in the eye, I did."

"He yelled in pain the loudest when I shot him, so that means I hit his eye." She continued.

"You couldn't even see anything!"

"Well neither could you!"

Max looked over at his car as the two continued to argue. Its wheels were sunk under the sand a bit. He quickly ran over to it, wading through the sand, and opened to door up.

"You alright?" He asked L.

"Yeah, of course I am!" She said, smiling. "That was… that was incredible!"

"Oh, did you see all that?" Max asked, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"...Were you hoping I didn't?"

"Well, I just thought… maybe you wouldn't have seen it through the rain."

"It's hard NOT to see something like that." L said. "You did know that I knew you were a superhero, right?"

"Uh…"

She rolled her eyes. "Again, hard not to hear about that."

"Fair enough." He muttered. "I… I have to go and check if anyone needs help." He explained. "I'll be back soon, alright?"

"Got it."

"Well, I probably hit his eye MORE times." Emily said to the bull, who just rolled his eyes. He quickly noticed something out of the corner of his eye, however.

"Maybe you should be keeping your own eyes open a bit more." He joked

The hyena looked back, and saw Max talking with the wolf, who was sat in his car. She let out a frustrated growl, and clenched her paws together. She started to storm off.

"So, I guess I get to drive now?" Henry cheekily asked, as he caught up with her.

"Fffine, whatever." She replied, now sounding VERY upset. The two arrived at the truck, and shook off their wet fur. Henry looked at the hyena.

He let out a sigh. "Want me to call up Nick and Judy and tell them what's going on?" he asked.

"WHY would I want you to do that!?" She shouted. "I'd look completely CRAZY to them!"

"Sheesh, just asking." He said, pulling out his phone. "I'm going to call them anyway to tell them what happened."

"Whatever."

* * *

The rabbit and fox stood outside an old, single house. It looked like it had been standing for years, the paint faded and most of the structure having degraded. It matched the rest of Happytown's... depressing surroundings, but an air of comfort seemed to surround it.

"Is... is this your house?" Judy asked as they stepped towards it.

"Yep." He said. "It looked better back in the day, trust me. Rest of this place did, actually."

He let out a sigh, a bit of an uncomfortable sounding one. "Let's head inside before anyone notices us." He said, heading down the walkway a a much faster pace. The rabbit was surprised for a moment, before following.

She walked up the steps to the door, right as Nick started to rapidly, but lightly, knock at it. "You seem a bit more... worried, than I expected." She said, a bit surprised and confused.

"This isn't exactly the best place in town." He said as he stopped knocking. He then pressed the doorbell. "We're pretty well known, don't want to be jumped by some try-hard, right?"

"Uh huh." Judy said. She had been a bit suspicious of Nick the entire day, which was something she admittedly felt bad about. She knew he was hiding something from her, but she couldn't tell just WHAT it was. As she looked at him, a voice came from inside.

"Coming!" It shouted. It sounded like Nick's mother.

Judy shook off her suspicions at that moment. She was trying to peer into things she likely had no reason to know, it was her natural curiosity getting the best of her. Better to not be weird and just have a good would be the best for both of them.

After around another minute of waiting, they heard a lock start to move... which was then followed by the door's lock opening. Opening it wide open was an older fox, around fifty or so. Her fur was a much lighter shade than Nick's but it had definitely been the same color at one point. She was relatively fit looking, and wore a pink dress that seemed to brighten up the world.

Almost instantly she locked Nick in a big hug. "Oh, Nick, it's been so long!" She said.

Nick let out an embarrassed laugh as Judy looked on, slyly. "Mom, please." He muttered.

She looked at the rabbit, who gave a quick wave. "Oh, I'm sorry," She started, breaking away from Nick. "I forgot you were bringing company."

She grabbed Judy's paws, and started to shake them. "Pleasure to meet you, Judy. I can call you that, right?"

"Of course!" She said with a laugh.

"Well, you can call me Mary." She said, letting go of the rabbit. Judy shook her paws, the fox had a pretty tight grip to her. "Mary Wilde."

"Nice to meet you!" Judy replied.

"I'm so sorry to keep you waiting, I just had to..." She looked at Nick, nervously, and raised a paw up to cough into it. "...Clean up some things." She finished, before popping back into a more upbeat mood. "Anyway, do you enjoy roast carrots, Judy?"

She laughed in response. "I'm a rabbit, I love every type of carrot."

"Good, good." She said, before looking at Nick. "Don't worry, I made some things for you too, Nicky."

Nick let out a groan. "Mom, don't call me that. Not in front of Judy."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, sounding a bit more ashamed than you would think.

The two headed inside, giving Judy time to examine the house some more. It was very... green, an olive green with very tacky floral-patterned wallpaper. Now she knew where Nick got his fashion sense from. Aside from that, it was very homey and cozy, a lot smaller than Judy's home... though what else was she supposed to expect?

"Come sit down in the living room!" Mary said as she headed for the kitchen. "Sorry if it's a bit messy!"

Nick walked in, while the rabbit just peered in through the hall. There were only a few seats, with particularly large, warn one sitting in front of a TV, with a pile of crossword puzzle books sitting next to it. Nick stood in the middle of the room, just seeming to bask in it. It was obvious he hadn't been here in a long time.

There was a certain... oddity, that Judy had caught. The walls, both in the entrance hall and the living room, had nails hanging from them. The kind of nails you would hang pictures on. There was even faint outlines of various different frames. It looked like the pictures had been there forever, so... had she just taken down all of the pictures?

Why had Mary done that?

She was quickly knocked out of the thought as her phone started to ring. She quickly pulled it out, and answered it just as swiftly. "Hey, Judy," Henry said as he showed up on the screen. "You at the dinner thing you and Nick were planning?"

"Yep, I am." She replied. "...Is that all you called to ask?"

"Well, no- Hey!"

The phone was quickly snatched by Emily, her face showing up on the screen."That monster showed up a bit ago," She said. "Started making it rain in Sahara Square, we're going around making sure nobody's in trouble."

"Oh, that's good- Wait, the monster showed up!?" She whisper yelled. "Why didn't you call us!?"

"Relax, Jude, we took care of the monstruo tuerto easily, no problem!" Emily said.

"If me and Nick were there, we could have defeated it for good." She said, nearly growling.

"She makes a good point." Henry said. Emily rolled her eyes in response.

"Well, we didn't want to... interrupt your dinner." She said, quickly coming up with an excuse. "You shouldn't be mad at us, you know? It all ended up fine."

"If the monster got away, it could just get stronger, and we'll have even MORE trouble to deal with!" The rabbit continued. "I am NOT willing to put up with that today."

"Another good point." Henry said. This time Emily growled at him.

Judy let out a sigh. "Whatever, just calls us next time it shows up. This dinner isn't as important as protecting the rest of the city."

"Alright, gotcha." The hyena said, before hanging up. The rabbit let out a grunt, and looked up.

Nick was still standing in the same spot, he hadn't moved for the last few minutes. The rabbit raised an eyebrow, and walked up to him. A quick tap on the shoulder snapped him out of it.

"Whoa, what?" Nick said, sounding a bit confused.

"You alright?" Judy asked. "You kind of... spaced out for a bit, there."

"Yeah, just..." He let out a sigh. "Memories, you know?"

"I guess."

The fox quickly turned around, and headed into the hall. He quickly went up the stairs, located next to the door. Judy's eyes followed him until he disappeared from sight.

The rabbit started to look around again, noticing the odd picture-less walls. There were a few shelves as well, which looked like they had also had pictures removed from them. She ran a paw across one of the shelves, there was only a slight hint of dust.

"Alright, I think dinner should be ready in-" Mrs. Wilde started as she walked back into the room. "Where did Nick go?" She asked.

"Upstairs." Judy said. "He's acting a bit weird."

"Probably just being sentimental." She said with a small, but upset sounding, laugh. "He has trouble letting go of things, you know."

"I've caught onto that." Judy said as the elder fox walked over to the large chair. "I'm guessing that's why he doesn't visit often."

"Did he tell you about our... fight?" Mary asked. Judy nodded. "Did he tell you what the fight was about?"

"No, but I don't feel like that's something I should pry into." She said, lying about how much she really wanted to know.

"I was so stupid." Mary muttered. She quickly cleared her voice and turned to the rabbit. "Anyway, want to know what we're having?"

"Carrot salad?" Judy guessed. "Nick told me about your cooking, said it was phenomenal."

"He said that?" She said, sounding genuinely shocked. "Maybe he HAS gotten over it..." She muttered quietly under her breath.

"So, uh... why did you take down all your picture frames?" Judy asked.

"Oh, shoot, you noticed that?" She replied.

"I'm very observant." Judy said. "Hoping to become a detective some day, you know."

"I took the pictures down... because they had Nick's father in them." She explained, albeit a bit awkwardly. After living with Nick, the rabbit had started to pay closer attention to potential lies. Apparently lying didn't run in Mary's side of the family, because she wasn't good at it.

But it wasn't right to judge others just by how they talk, and it would be even ruder to point it out. "So, what was your husband like?" Judy asked, sitting down on a nearby green couch. "Nick doesn't talk about him that much, but he didn't seem to have anything... negative, to say."

"John was a wonderful fox." Mary said. "Optimistic, loyal, could talk his way through a deal... just wonderful to be around." She started. "He was Nick's biggest supporter, he always wanted whatever was best for him... Never thought much for himself, though."

"What do you think happened to him?" Judy asked. "Nick thinks he just vanished."

"Like I said, Nick never lets go of something." Mary replied with a sigh. "I think the mob got him."

Judy's ears popped up. "He was with the mob?"

"He made a few deals, mostly because his business wasn't as successful as he hoped." Mrs. Wilde sighed. "He wanted to make sure that me and Nick would have a roof over our heads, but he couldn't pay them back." She fell silent for a while. "At least, that's what I'm assuming happened."

Judy raised an eyebrow. "Why do you 'assume'?"

"The day he disappeared, he just... said he had some important business... and then he was gone."

"No other details?"

Mary shook her head. "Absolutely nothing, but it's probably what happened. Apparently he was last sighted around Tundra Town, so..."

"I'm sorry." Judy said, with a sigh.

"It's fine, but... try to avoid bringing it up at dinner." She said, with a faint smile. "I don't want to start another fight."

Judy smiled back. "Don't worry, I won't."

Mary's ears popped up. "Oh, speaking of!" She said. "Go tell Nick that we have an hour left until dinner, I have to make the carrots are alright!"

She quickly dashed off into the kitchen, which was only the next room over. Judy considered what she had learned for a moment, before hopping down from the couch. She noticed something odd... well, it would be less odd if things weren't odd enough already. Despite the rest of the house being barren of any pictures, there was one on the small TV stand. It was face down, making sure that no one would be able to see the actual picture without touching it.

Certainly odd, but probably not something for her to dabble in.

She was incredibly tempted to look, though, but she held back and headed upstairs.

The upper floor was just as cozy as the ground floor, and the exact same fainted green color, with the exact same tacky floral patterns. There were only a few rooms, accessed by a thin hall. Two bedrooms and a bathroom, this would have been a nightmare for a rabbit family to live in.

One of the doors was closed, and the one on the other side of the room was open, but very clearly lead to the bathroom. There was only one other door, which was open.

She headed to it, and peeked inside.

The room, which had the same wallpaper prevalent in the rest of the house, was strangely still furnished. There was a dresser, a lamp, and a rather rickety looking bed, with generic superhero-themed blankets on it. Nick was laying on the bed, which he was slightly too large for, and staring up at the ceiling.

"You alright?" Judy asked as she walked into the room. Nick didn't turn to look at her, but he did respond.

"She kept it exactly the same." He said. "This is just how it was when I left."

Judy looked around. The room was, relatively speaking, fairly clean for a place that hadn't been touched in a decade. Mrs. Wilde had probably cleaned up some, but Judy had expected him to cause more of a fuss before leaving.

"I thought that was only something that happened in corny movies." Judy said as she walked up to him.

"I did too." Nick sighed. He quickly sat up, and looked at a closet in front of him. It was open, showing a few boxes and other objects which had looked like they had been there for years. He motioned his paw towards Judy as he got up. "Hey, check this out."

He headed to the open closet, Judy following behind him. He went to his knees, and pulled out a small shoebox. Pulling the lid off revealed that the box was lined from one end to the other with old comic books.

"These were my dad's collection from when he was a kid." He said, pulling out an incredibly old looking issue of The Bat. The fox flipped through a few pages. "These things inspired me a lot when I was a kid..." He let out a sigh, before falling into silence for a few seconds. "...Wonder what happened?"

Judy cleared her throat, deciding, wisely she thought, not to respond to that rhetorical question. "Your mother said that supper will be ready soon, so..."

He let out a sigh. "That means I have a while to be by myself, right?"

The rabbit groaned and rolled her eyes. "Nick, seriously, this is YOUR mom's place!" She said. "She hasn't seen you in years, I can tell how much she misses you. She probably hasn't seen anyone lately. Go talk to her for a bit at least."

The fox got up, looking a bit grumpy. "I hate your guilt trips." He sighed as he headed out of the room.

Judy examined the room for a minute, before poking her head out the doorway. "Can I look around your room?" She asked the fox, who was starting down the stairs.

"Uh, alright?" He said, turning to look at her. "Just... don't touch anything too... sensitive, alright?"

"I'll try not to." She said, before heading back into the room. She had no idea what was "sensitive" and what wasn't, but her curiosity was killing her at this point. She needed to know at least something about what was going on, and maybe snooping would help.

As long as she didn't bring it up at the dinner table, it would be fine. Right?

She started by looking around the room itself. It was very sparse, a few old stuffed toys on the bed, not much else beyond that. Especially nothing that would be eye opening. She checked the closet next. It was shaped like a two door closet, but it only had a single door, meaning that it was practically impossible to get into if the closet was being used. There only looked to be a few boxes inside.

Of course, being a rabbit, her smaller size and more acrobatic build helped her squeeze through the cracks between the cardboard, letting her check boxes had a few interesting contents, mostly books, records, and CDs. Again, nothing eye opening. Well, nothing besides the revelation that Nick had a terrible musical taste even back then.

Then, she noticed something at the very back of the closet, buried in a corner. It looked like it had been haphazardly tossed inside, with no real thought.

She grabbed it, and then snuck back through the boxes. Examining it in better light revealed that the thing was COVERED in dust, even more than the rest of the room. Like it had been sitting there for even more decades than Nick had been gone for.

She wiped the cover off, wiping off a very physical amount of dust. It looked like the dust had gathered onto the dust, as the cover had been bleached, turning from what looked like a red to a faint pink.

There wasn't a title on the book, but there was a name.

"Nick Wilde", written in rather poor pawwriting.

Judy let out a gasp. Did she just find what she thought she found? Did she just find Nick's childhood diary?

She reached for the cover, this could be what she needed to get some answers. But she froze. Nick said not to touch anything sensitive, and this was definitely sensitive. She let out a grunt, and shook her head. She couldn't do this, not right now. That would be terrible.

The best she could do as she tried to fight herself was look at Nick's name. She noticed a few details, other than it being very crude. She noticed that part of it, specifically from the "k" onwards, looked like it had been scratched out and then written over. That was definitely curious. It certainly didn't help her with not reading the thing, anyway.

Almost a few seconds after noticing that, she opened it, almost by instinct.

'Well, maybe reading one page wouldn't hurt.' She thought to herself.

She started to read. The first page was written in the same crude style, and had a... noticeable amount of errors, and covered a lot of the page..

" _dear diary_

 _mom and dad said to rite in you becuz im going to school tomorow. dad wants to now what hapenned at school but he nows im scarred to talk about it. i dont have any thing 2 rite cuz i didnt go to school_ "

Judy let out a small laugh. Nick not being able to talk about emotions and what he's doing? The more things change, the more they stay the same, she supposed. She flipped to the next page.

" _dear diary_

 _i went to school today. it was ok. i didnt learn a lot but we started on the alphabet. dad taught me that all ready though. i dont think the kits there like me they just went away when i tried to sit with some of them. is it becuz im a fox? the teacher acted wierd to but i dont know why_ "

Judy raised an eyebrow at this. For one, this was fairly depressing considering how Nick's life went... but the teacher acting weird was definitely something out of the ordinary. Maybe she'd figure out what was happening if she kept reading.

She read through most of the pages quickly. Most were just simplistic recounts of kindergarten classes, with the writing getting... slightly better, as it went on. Not by a whole lot, but it was getting more consistent and not as large. Most of the entries talked about how the other kits there didn't seem to enjoy being around Nick, no matter how much he tried. It was starting to get depressing, to be honest.

Then, she came to a page that seemed to give her hope.

" _Dear diary!_

 _I'm really excited! Today at school some of the kits asked if we could be friends! After school was over they asked me if I could meet them in the park. I'm so happy I might actually have friends now._ "

Unfortunately, as soon as Judy thought about this, things turned sour. There wasn't any way this would end up good, or else Nick's life would have been a lot different. She took a deep breath, and turned to the next page.

" _dear diary_ "

That was all it said, the rest was blank, writing wise. There were dark spots around the page. They looked like they could have been tear drops. She quickly turned to the next page, which was blank. That must have been the last entry Nick had wrote before he tossed it in his closet.

"Hey, Carrots, I-"

Judy quickly turned around, just as Nick was walking in. He had noticed the diary immediately, and went wide-eyed.

"Nick, I..." She started as the fox walked towards her, still glaring. "I didn't mean to... I'm..."

He quickly snatched the diary out of her paws, and opened it. In a single swipe of his claw, he slashed through most of the pages, leaving them as shreds that floated towards the ground. Judy kept watched as the fox started to tear even the blank pages out, and then worked on trying to tear the actual cover apart. He didn't have the strength to, so he just threw it to the floor.

"Supper's ready." He said, flatly, before walking out of the room.

The rabbit looked at the shredded paper on the ground, and then let out a sigh. Hopefully she could explain what happened at the dinner table.

She slowly headed out the room and down the hall.

* * *

The monsters clamored around the table, passing drinks and talking to each other. Even Kyuemon, who was usually very anti-social with the rest, was taking part. The only monster not there, besides the currently incapacitated Long, was Enter.

"Here's to taking a break on this horrible day." Sambash said, raising a bottle of whiskey. The three other monster raised their respective glasses in return.

"Christmas, bah!" Yogostein said, before taking a sip of his cocktail. "A day of 'peace' and 'harmony' is the worst for us villains!"

"Working this holiday's sins against it have proven enjoyable, in my experience." Kyuemon said, taking a sip of sake from his own bottle.

"Its just super nice to take a break, you know?" Yabaiba said, before sipping from his juice box. "Sometimes this villain deal can just be too much! Like lately, you know?"

"Oh, I know it." Sambash said, before looking over to Kyuemon, who was sat across the table. "You sent a monster out, though, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did." The fox yokai said. "It was a weak one, however. It should be able to get enough Chaos Energy to keep the Omnipotence happy, and let us take it easy."

"So, you don't actually care if this guy gets destroyed?" Yabaiba asked, surprised.

"He's an idiot and a tool, his destruction means that we can just move on to better plans after today." Kyuemon said.

Before they could continue their relaxing break, the four fell silent as Enter walked into the room. He was now wearing a completely black longcoat, and slowly walked past the table.

"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Kyuemon asked, standing up.

The ghostly image of Savage suddenly burst from his back, and glared at Kyuemon. "We're going to go rend some flesh, foxy." It growled. "Let us be."

"Savage, not now." Enter said with a sigh. The spirit returned to his body, and the android turned towards the villains himself. "Pardon, Kyuemon, me and Savage were just planning to go out and... well, you know."

"Can you NOT do something stupid today?" Sambash growled. "This is a break, you know, you can't just go back to work on a break."

"Not without ruining it for the rest of us!" Yogostein said.

"Just remain in the base for a few more hours." Kyuemon said. "I have a monster out there already, he'll gather enough energy."

"Hah!" Savage laughed as he popped out of Enter's body once again. "But can whatever you've sent out destroy the Zoorangers?"

"Does that matter?" Kyuemon asked. "Now that we know we don't have to destroy them to win, we can just use them-"

"You're buying that?" Enter said. "You're so gullible. We're leaving."

Enter started to walk towards the exit, before there was a sudden burst of wind. With a yell, Kasabake flew through, and crashed into the floor.

"Is this the monster you sent out?" Enter asked, with a light, degrading chuckle.

The monster clambered to its feet, out of breath. "M-master Kyuemon!" It said, walking towards the yokai leader. "I'm not strong enough to beat those Zoorangers! I got beaten by just three of them!"

Sambash and Yogostein let out small laughs, causing Kyuemon to turn and glare at them. He turned back to Kasabake, and let out a sigh. The fox monster quickly pulled out a Chaos Badge, and flung it at the monster.

It impaled itself on the monster's inkwell, and then absorbed itself into it. The monster started to convulse, as all the black parts of his body began to become splotched with red, including the ink inside his inkwell. The Chaos Emblem appeared on the inkwell, engraving itself on the glass.

The large pen appendages underneath his umbrella head suddenly stretched out, forming into long, spider-like legs and lifting him off the ground. The length of the new limbs were completely red, and were disturbingly long. The monster's arms then quickly retracted into the underside of the umbrella, before bursting out of the sides of the paper, slightly larger looking as well.

The monster's underside started to transform drastically. First, a large, black and gold patterned abdomen burst from its back. The abdomen ended with a large pen-point. The rest of the underside morphed, the legs dissolving and turning into a large mouth, the edges of it lining up with the curves of the umbrella.

The monster then started to grow, becoming easily larger than any of the monsters there by a few feet. It let out a roar, revealing its mouth full of sharp teeth, and a leg shaped prehensile tongue, complete with a foot wearing a sandal at the end.

"CHAOS KASABAKE!" It roared, it's voice having gotten deeper. It quickly stomped out through the entrance, leaving the villain behind.

There was a brief, surprised silence.

"Yikes." Sambash said, breaking the silence.

"Well," Enter started, a small smirk growing on his face. "Color me impressed."

"Are you still planning on doing something stupid?" Kyuemon asked.

"No, of course not." Enter said as he headed towards the exit. "I don't do anything stupid."

Kyuemon let out another sigh as Enter exited the base. "That guy is going to get us all killed." Yogosetin said.

"Or, best case scenario, he gets himself killed." Sambash followed.

"Let's hope neither happens." Kyuemon replied.

* * *

"So, why are we here again?" Henry asked. Emily and him had arrived in the Rainforest District a while ago, just as the sun was setting, and were currently parked in a lot.

"Well, think about it," Emily said from the other seat. "That monster attacked Savannah Central, then Sahara Square, its attacking all of the districts." She explained. "It'll probably go after the Rainforest District next. Probably save Tundra Town for last, to make sure it gets to ruin everything. Which WE won't let it do!"

"Alright, makes sense." Henry said, nodding his head. "You put a lot of thought into this excuse."

"Oh, yeah, I know-" She stopped and glared at the bull. "This isn't an excuse, Horns."

"Uh huh." The bull said. "Then why are we parked here?"

"It's just a parking lot. Better to explain things while not driving."

The bull pointed at the window, directly at the car next to them. It was Max's silver sports car. The two were parked outside of tourist attraction, a tower made completely out of a tree. It was impressively tall, and had a large pathway carved into its sides which lead to an observation deck, perfect for sightseeing.

"Well, if the monster DOES attack, we'll need Max's help-"

"We followed him here." The bull said, rubbing his temples. "You're just worried about that wolf he's with."

"I am NOT!" Emily growled in response. "I'm being ENTIRELY SERIOUS here!"

"I don't know why I let you talk me into these things." Henry muttered. He quickly turned the key, starting the car up.

"Hey, you can't-"

"Yes I can." Henry said. "I'm taking you home, and maybe then you can think things through before the party tonight."

"NO!" She shouted, quickly batting the bull's hoof out of the way. She yanked the key out of the ignition.

"Oh, come on!" Henry shouted. "That's going to damage this thing, you know!"

"I don't care!"

"Give back the keys!"

"No, I'm not leaving until the monster shows up!"

"Em, please, just-"

They heard a light knocking at Henry's side of the truck, causing the two to stop fighting. The bull looked out, seeing that it was Max. He was looking at them with a confused look. He quickly rolled down the window. There was some heavy wind, causing the wolf's ears and fur to be pushed along with it.

"Oh, hey Max." He said.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked.

"Oh, Emily was-"

"Worried that the monster could attack here!" The hyena interrupted. "If it did, we'd need to work together to beat it, right?"

"Uh, alright." Max said.

The wolf's car window rolled down, revealing the female wolf from earlier. "You know these two?" She asked, a bit concerned.

"Uh, yeah." Max said. "They're work buddies."

"If you don't mind me asking, who's your lady friend?" Henry asked.

"Oh, right, I didn't get to introduce you all!" Max said. "See, this is-"

Before he could finish, there was a large burst of wind, stronger than any that had happened the last few minutes. It knocked the wolf off of his feet, sending him to the dirty ground.

He got back up, but before he could continue, there was the sound of someone above them screaming in fear. "What the hell?" Emily asked, concerned.

Max looked up at the large tree that hovered above them. His eyes widened as he spotted the observation deck, which was now tilted to one side. "Oh god!" He shouted. "The wind just knocked the deck out! We need to go help!"

The hyena and bull quickly got out of the truck, and were met with harsh gusts of wind. Henry was fine due to his size, but Emily was nearly knocked over.

"Was it even this windy ten minutes ago?" The hyena asked as the three started to run to the carved path.

"We were up there just a bit ago!" Max said. "The wind's been picking up for the last half hour!"

"If the wind keeps up," Henry said as they reached the path. "It'll be a hurricane in no time."

"A hurricane in winter?" Emily said, as they dashed up the path. It was carved wood, with the walkway itself being made of the trunk of the tree, and part of the tree's bark forming railing. "That's completely ridiculous." She finished.

"Yeah, which means this can't be natural." The bull replied.

"So, you think the monster's doing this?" Max asked.

"He does have weather controlling powers, it would make sense."

Emily quickly stopped running, and pumped her fist into the air. "Hah, I was right!" She cheered.

Henry rolled his eyes in response.

"So, if the monster is here, does that mean we should transform and get him?" Max asked.

Henry shook his head. "He might not even be near here." He said. "It could be causing this from a remote location."

"So, we're just gonna transform and go save those tourists, right?"

The bull nodded.

The three quickly transformed, and then started up the path again. As they continued upwards, the wind got worse and worse, as leaves, twigs, and rodent-sized cars flew into the side of the tree. It would only be a bit until the observation deck would be knocked completely off the tree.

After a few more minutes, the three reached the deck, a circular, definitely artificial platform tat had been connected to the tree by four bolts, each connecting to a branch. Two of the bolts had already come off, and the tree branches on the other side were starting to bend precariously. The entrance to the deck, a set of stairs placed at the end of the walkway, was hanging directly above them.

"Who built this place?" Pink asked.

"Someone who loves money more than individual lives?" Silver followed up. He looked back up, and examined the deck for a second. "How are we supposed to fix this thing?"

"Don't think that's a good idea." Green said. "Even if we worked a way to bolt it back down, the branches on the other side have still had a ton of pressure put on them. It could still just snap at a moment's notice."

"So, just gotta go in there and save everyone?" Pink said, cracking her knuckles. "Alright, can do!" She paused for a moment, before turning to Silver. "...How many mammals were in there?"

"I dunno, maybe... seventy? A hundred?" He replied. "I didn't count them."

"Fair enough, but... That's gonna be a lot of work." Pink said. "How are we supposed to help everyone in there? We can't do it one at a time."

Green looked around for a moment, including off the side of the tree, before looking at Silver. "Go inside there and find something sturdy." He said. "Wrap your whip around it."

"Okay." Silver said.

"Em, go in there and try to help calm everyone down." The bull continued. "Try to get everyone to move to the side of the building that's tilted up."

"Oh, I get it." Pink said. "Once wolf boy here's found something to get a grip on, he comes down and helps counterbalance it."

"Got it." The bull said. "And you need to do it QUICK."

The two nodded. "Come on, I'll help you up." Silver said, reaching his paw towards Pink. She grabbed on, and the wolf leaped up into the small hole at the bottom of the deck.

They landed in the deck, which was fitted with nice carpeting, and windows lining the entire room. Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to sight-see, as there were easily a hundred or so panicking mammals of all shapes and sizes. A pile of tables, chairs, and broken dishes were piled on the opposite side of the deck, right up against the windows... which were starting to crack under the pressure. There was also a large pole in the middle of the room, connecting the floor to the ceiling.

As soon as they landed, the deck bounced slightly, and the two instantly lost their balance. They fell down, and clung by their claws to the carpet.

"At least we know we have a bit before the glass breaks." Silver said as he glanced down at the window.

"Yeah, good to know if one of us loses our grip!" Pink growled.

Pink looked around at the mammals. There were a handful of larger mammals, like elephants, doing their best to stay on the side that was tilted up, while the smaller and middling sized mammals seemed to be doing their best to stay in one spot. The ones their size were doing the exact same thing they were at that moment.

"Alright, I think I know what I'm supposed to do." Silver said. He let go of the carpet with one of his claws, and reached for his sword. He quickly flicked it to Moon Mode the best he could, and then lashed it at the pole. It wrapped around several times, and the wolf gave it a quick tug to make sure it was secure.

"Alright, I'm gonna head back down!" Silver said to the hyena. "Once its evened out a bit, get everyone over there!"

She nodded, and the wolf clawed his way up to the exit, using his foot claws to help him. He quickly reached the outside, the whip still connected the pole, and dropped down next to the bull.

"Good job." He said. "Now, give me that sword."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you really think you can counterbalance that thing?" Green asked. "I'm the only one of us heavy enough to do that."

"Uh, alright." Silver said, handing the bull his blade.

"It is secure, right?"

"Yeah, I checked."

"Alright, let's hope it holds."

Green took a deep breath, before leaping off the side of the tree. The whip wriggled a bit as the bull fell more and more, before it snapped straight. As soon as that happened, the tilted deck suddenly started to fall back down - but only by bit.

To the mammals inside, this was quite a shock. Several of the larger mammals got back to their feet, trying to keep steady on the still unbalanced ground. Pink got up as well, finding that it was capable of keeping balance like this.

"Alright, all of you!" She shouted. "If you want to get out of here alive, you have to go stand on THIS side!" She finished pointing towards the opposite side of the deck.

After a few seconds of quiet, the mammals all started to head over to the other side. As more headed over, the decks tarted to fall back into place. Once everyone was there, there was now a far less perilous drop between the entrance and the tree-carved pathway.

Silver quickly poked his head through the entrance. "Alright, I'd say its safe enough!" He said. "Okay everyone, let's head back to the ground!"

There was a stampede of mammals as they all rushed towards the exit. They exited one at a time, or several at a time depending on how large the mammals were. Silver and Pink helped some down once the deck started to go bend back up. Eventually, the deck was cleared.

Finally, the whip started to retract, pulling Green back up onto the top of the handed Silver back the sword, who quickly retracted it in full, loosening it from the pillar.

Almost instantly, the deck snapped back, the pressure breaking the branches and causing it to fall to the ground with a massive crash.

"That could've been a disaster." Silver said, with a sigh of relief.

"But we managed to save everyone, without any trouble." Green said.

"Wait, what if there's more mammals in danger?" Pink asked. "With this kind of wind, the Rainforest Distract is a death trap!"

"You're right!" Silver said, shocked. "We need to go help everyone else!"

"NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!"

The tree suddenly started to shake. The three looked over at the other side, and watched as the massive Chaos Kasabake climbed up onto the top, pen legs jabbing into the wood. It stood roughly twice as wide and twice as tall as the bull.

"Oh, that's not good." Pink muttered.

"How d'ya like my upgrade?" The monster asked. "It's time to blot you little pests out for good!"

The monster raised its front pen legs, and fired two streams of blood-red ink at the three. They quickly dodged out of the way, but were suddenly struck in the back as the wind blew the ink back into them. The ink started to melt into their suits, causing a horrible burning pain without even touching their skin.

The monster let out a laugh as the three fell to their knees in pain. The spider-umbrella-pen-ghost stomped towards them. "Time to put a period on your sentences!" The monster quipped.

Silver let out a pained groan as he attempted to get back to his feet. "I'm not going to let you ruin today!" He growled, helping himself up with his sword. He quickly lashed his blade forwards, launching out the laser whip. it lashed forwards, but the monster's front legs quickly lashed forwards rapidly, striking the whip. It limply fell to the ground, and then fizzled out.

"You guys seem a bit aggravated," The monster started. "Am I really getting in the way of something big?"

"Are you an idiot?" Pink said. "Today's a holiday, jackass!"

"Ooh, really?" The monster said, clapping its large mitts together. "I've never gotten to ruin a holiday before!"

The hyena growled, before she pulled out her pistols. Green followed by aiming his cannon. The two quickly fired at the monster, causing a flurry of explosions on its face. "Bleh, that tickled!" The monster grunted. "I say its time to take the wind out of your sails and finish you for good!"

The red ink in the monster's inkwell started to bubble, before it spat out a large blob of ink. It slowly transformed into a massive cloud. The cloud suddenly started to spew out wind, causing the three to latch onto the wood of the tree as best they could. Silver had some extra edge, as he dug his blade into the wooden ground.

"Pests!" The monster snapped. "Time to put your foot where your mouth is!" The monster's jaw snapped opened, as its foot-tipped tongue slithered out.

"First, I WISH this guy could get his metaphors straight," Pink started. "And second, that's EXTREMELY GROSS!"

The tongue whipped around in the air for a few seconds, the foot wriggling its toes in preparation as well. It suddenly lashed forwards, striking directly in front of Silver. The force of the strike caused the wolf to fall off balance, and the sword to dislodge. He fell to the ground, and wind suddenly picked up.

With a single large burst of wind, the three were flung off of the tree in a split second. The monster let out a laugh in triumph.

"So long, Zoorangers!"

* * *

The two foxes and the rabbit were sat at a small dinner table. There was a bowl of salad placed on it, made out of lush greens and various other fruits and veggies, but mostly out of roasted carrots and sprinkled with blueberries. It was a really good meal.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere had become unbelievably awkward.

After what had happened upstairs, Judy and Nick hadn't said a word. They just ate in silence for a while. The bunny attempted to say things a few times, but quickly shut herself up before she could make it worse.

"You know, when I invited you two over, I was expecting this to be... less depressing." Mary joked. "What's going on?"

"Fluff here decided to snoop around without asking me." Nick said, tapping his fork against his plate.

"Nick, I'm sorry." Judy replied. "I regret reading it."

"'Reading'?" Mary said. She thought for a moment, before letting out a gasp. "Did you find Nick's old diary? We lost that thing decades ago."

"She sure did." Nick said. "Read the whole thing, too."

"In case you're worried, I didn't find out about your big 'secret' from it, Nick." Judy said.

The fox's ears popped up and his tail twitched. "What are you talking about? I don't have a secret."

"Your tail's all puffed up." Judy said. It was a sure sign of a fox being scared. They were pretty easy to read.

"Oh, his tail puffs up pretty bad when he gets embarrassed, too." Mary said.

"MOM!"

"I don't know what you're hiding Nick," Judy started, with a sigh. "And I will admit, I really want to find out... but you don't HAVE to. Whatever it is, you can tell me when you want to."

"How do you even know I have a secret?" The fox asked.

"All the cryptic things you've said and done over the last while." Judy said. "Also how this place had all of the pictures taken down, and how you reacted to me reading your diary. Pretty big red flags."

"Oh, were the pictures that noticeable?" Mary sighed.

"Kinda, yeah." Judy said with a small chuckle.

Nick sighed. "I'm sorry for lashing out like that." He said. "I should've known that you'd get your ears into something while you were here. Just how you work."

"Glad that's sorted out." Mary said, smiling warmly. "How's the salad, anyway?" She asked Judy.

"Nick wasn't lying." She replied. The salad was really dang good, maybe even better than some of the ones her own parents made. And that was part of their business.

"It really is good, mom." Nick said. "It makes me..." He paused for a moment. "It's... really good."

"Do you want me to pack the leftovers for you?" Mary asked. "Maybe the recipe?"

"Yes. Please."

They ate for a few more minutes, before Judy's phone started to ring. "Oh, hold on a second." She said, getting up from her seat. She quickly answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Judy!" Said a nervous sounding ZooSilver as he showed up on the screen. She couldn't make out where he was. "How's the dinner going? Everything fine, not busy?"

"It's going... fine, I suppose." She said. "Max, where are you?"

"Oh, you know, in the Rainforest District. Nice weather."

"Why are you transformed? Judy asked. "Are you in the middle of a fight?"

"Maaaybee-"

"Oh, just get on with it!" Pink shouted, somewhere below the wolf.

"Okay yeah, we're in a lot of trouble and need your help really quick." He said.

"Oh gosh, we'll be there ASAP!" Judy said. She was starting to panic a bit, noticeable by her sudden uncontrollable foot tapping. "How long do you think you can keep fighting?"

"Oh, I think we can hang in there for a bit." Silver said. There were two very distinct loud groans from off camera. He quickly hung up after this.

"Well," Judy said, turning back to the table. "Looks like we have some work to do."

Mary let out a sigh. "I guess something was bound to happen." She said, wistfully, before turning to Nick. "I just can't seem to keep you here."

"Well, you know how this works." Nick said as he got up. "Protecting the city is a very spontaneous job." He started to walk into the living room. "C'mon, Carrots, let's go."

"You're not going to say goodbye to your mom?" Judy said, giving the fox a confused stare.

"You heard Max, they're in trouble." He said, turning to face the rabbit.

"They also said they can hold out for a bit." Judy replied.

"It's fine, Judy." Mary said. "It sounds like there's some trouble."

"No, Nick, you say goodbye to your mother." Judy ordered. "And MEAN it."

"What about the others?"

"I'll go on ahead." She said. "You can get there just as quickly."

The rabbit quickly turned around, and grabbed onto Mary's paw, shaking it firmly. "Thank you for the wonderful meal, ma'am. We'll definitely be coming back."

"What?" Nick said, shocked. Judy had dashed off before he had even finished.

He turned to look at his mom, who got up out of her seat. "Uh... see you later, mom." He said, awkwardly. "I'll just be-"

Before he could finish, his mother hugged him again. "Nick, I am so proud of you." She said.

"You're... what?" He said.

She let go. "I'm incredibly proud of you." She said. "You've grown up into exactly the fox I would've wanted you to be."

"But... What about...?"

"I don't care about that any more." She said. "You're you, and that's what matters most to me now. I was the one in the wrong back then. If you hadn't made that choice, you wouldn't be where you are now."

Nick tried to find something to say. "I... I'm still not sure if that was the right choice, though..."

"Oh, shut up." Mary said. "You're everything you wanted to be when you were little. You're a hero, and you have a wonderful life. You made the best decision of your life."

Nick was flustered, and a bit embarrassed. He wasn't used to compliments, especially after an entire life of being considered nothing but a crook and a liar. "...Thanks." He said, quietly.

Mary walked over to the TV stand, and picked up the picture frame. "This is my favorite picture of all of us." She sighed. "The three of us look so happy."

"I thought you said you stopped caring about... that?" Nick said. "Why do you still have pictures?"

She let out a laugh. "Nick, I have no other pictures of you." She said. "If I had photos of you now, I would absolutely cover the walls with them. But for now, this is all I have."

She sighed again, before opening the picture frame and pulling out the photo. She handed it to her son. "Why are you giving this to me?" He asked.

"I know you have a hard time expressing your feelings." She said. "When you feel ready to tell Judy, give her this picture. It'll be a good place to start."

Nick looked at the photo for a moment. "Thank you." He said, before hugging her in return.

"I love you, mom."

"I love you too."

A moment later, Nick was at the front of the house. Judy had gone, but some tire tracks had been left behind. The fox took one more look at the photo, before folding it up and slipping it into his pocket.

"Not today." He said to himself. "But... soon."

* * *

The rabbit's bike skid to a halt in front of the large tree. It had been around fifteen minutes since Max had called, hopefully everyone was alright.

She hopped off, and looked around for a moment. She noticed a large piece of rubble next to the massive tree, and briefly wondered what had happened. Before she could ponder for much longer, a burst of air hit her, causing her to stumble for a moment.

"Usually not this windy." She said. "Probably related to the monster."

She placed her paw on her helmet. "Silver?" She said into the commlink. "You there?"

"Yeah, we're here." He said. "You at the bottom of the tree?"

"Yeah, I've been here a few minutes." She said. "Where are you guys?"

"Look up."

Blue quickly looked up. Hanging roughly eight or nine stories above her was Silver, hanging by his blade, and Pinka nd Green hanging by him in return. The blade's whip had dug itself into part of the tree's trunk, letting him hang on and not fall to their deaths.

"How in the world did that happen?" Blue asked.

"The monster got an upgrade, he's a lot stronger now." Silver explained.

"Also it picked a really bad spot for us to fight it." Green followed.

"Red and I will get you guys down from there..." She looked around. "Once he actually shows up, that is."

The rabbit's ears twitched as she heard another motorcycle engine nearing. She turned towards the exit of the parking lot, as Red zoomed in on his bike.

He practically leaped off, sword ready as he landed. "Sorry for being late, I'm ready now!" He shouted.

"Calm down, firefox." Blue said. "The monster's not here by the looks of things, no need to fight yet."

"Oh, alright." Red said. He quickly looked at her. "Don't ever call me 'firefox' again, alright?"

"Sorry." She replied, before quickly shaking it off. "Silver, Emily, and Henry are stuck up there, and we need to help them down before we take the monster on."

"Okay... How are we going to do that?" The fox asked, looking up at the three hanging mammals. "They're not next to the walkway, so we can't just pull them in."

"Hah, easy." Blue said. "We just have to get up to the part where the whip and the walkway meet, then we can pull them in!"

The two quickly ran up the walkway, reaching that very point. Blue hopped up onto the wooden railing and looked down. The three were still a story or two underneath where they were, which could potentially be a problem.

"Alright, Red, do you think you can hold me out a bit?" Blue asked, turning back to the fox.

"Excuse me?"

"Just stand up here and grab my paw," She started. "Then I'll grab onto the whip, and we can pull them all up."

"I dunno..." The fox muttered, crossing his arms.

"Would you rather grab it instead?"

Soon, the fox was standing on the edge of the railing, grabbing onto the rabbit's paw. He leaned back as she grabbed onto the whip, and then instantly fell backwards. The two were flung back in, with enough force to bring the energy whip in with them.

"Alright, that went smoother than I thought it would" Blue admitted.

The two started to reel the whip in, and eventually pulled the three other rangers onto safe ground.

"I'd like a bit of a more detailed explanation of what's going on here." Blue said as the three recuperated themselves.

"The monster made a wind storm, which knocked the sky deck here off of its bolts." Green explained.

"We managed to save everyone that was inside, but the monster's still running around here." Pink followed.

"And the wind is still bad." Silver finished.

"Judging by the wind, the thing is still in this area." Green continued.

"But you have no idea where it could be by now, right?" Red finished. "Is this going to be another thing where we race around the city trying to find a monster?"

Suddenly, the tree started to shake. It stopped for a moment, before happening again. It was starting to get closer.

"Alright, guess that I'm wrong."

The five quickly readied readied their weapons as two large, clawed hands reached up and grabbed onto the side of the railings. The massive head of Chaos Kasabake the rose up as well, and glared at the five.

"Really, you can't just stay dead?" The monster said, sounding disappointed. "I still have one more part of the city to ruin before the day ends, and you guys keep getting in my way!"

Without saying anything, Blue quickly started to fire at the monster with her blasters, specifically aiming for the eyes. "Ow, ouch, hey!" The monster shouted. "What are you trying to do?"

The rabbit then leaped forwards, and delivered a kick directly to the monster's eye, causing it to fling back for a moment. It let out a grunt, and then turned around, crawling downwards.

"Heck was that about?" Red asked.

"I was trying to knock it off." Blue said. "A fall from this height would probably dangerous, even for something that... big."

"Wait, that guy's an umbrella, right?" Silver interjected.

"In a loose sense he could be called that, yes." Pink responded. "What're you getting at?"

"What happens when umbrellas get caught in the wind?"

"They blow away!" Blue answered. "If he's latching himself to the tree somehow, then that must mean he knows what will happen."

"So we just need to knock the inkstain off the tree, and then it'll be out of our faces for a while." Red guessed.

Blue nodded. "Hopefully it'll go away until tomorrow."

The five quickly rushed down to the bottom of the tree, and almost instantly spotted the spider-monster-thing, clinging to the tree bark by his pen-tipped legs. "It looks like you dunces really just want to be blown away by me!" It mocked as it climbed down more towards the base.

"Actually, all we really want to see is you... getting... blow up!" Red said. "Sorry, I'm a bit off my game right now."

"It's fine." Blue said. She quickly pointed her dagger at the monster. "Time for this spider to get flushed down the drain!"

"Damn it, that was a good one!" The fox muttered to himself.

The monster let out a laugh. "Good one, how are runts like you going to knock me down!?" It mocked. "I've dug my legs in deep enough that not even a hurricane could unlatch me!"

Blue glanced at the others. "Alright," She started. "I think I have an idea, we just need to get this all set up." She said. "Em, Henry, you two distract it, we'll get it off the tree."

The two nodded in response, and readied their guns. They started to fire at the monster rapidly, as Red, Blue, and Silver ran towards the tree.

"Hey, stop it!" The monster shouted. "What are you even trying to do!?"

The other quickly ended up underneath the monster. "Silver, fire a few flames at it to loosen the thing up." Blue ordered. Silver nodded, and quickly spun his blade's guard around, switching it to Sun Mode.

He thrust the blade upwards several times, firing off a flurry of fireballs at the monsters legs. The flames collided, causing the monster to let out a yelp, and its legs to catch on fire. It pulled one of its legs out in an attempt to start cooling them down, but realized that was a mistake.

"Better stop drop and roll!" Red yelled up.

The monster let out a frustrated growl as its legs continued to burn.

"We can help you with that!" Red said, pulling out a red ZooTag.

"GAO, RAWR!  
BEAT THE BEAST  
KING OF THE JUNGLE  
BRAVE, GAO!"

The twin blades appeared in his paws, before he leaped up into the air and started to spin around. He leaped up high enough to slice directly through three of the monster's six legs, leaving the stubs locked in the tree's bark.

It roared in pain, as Blue pulled out her blasters, and fired at the other three legs, softening them up more. She then readied her daggers, and threw them directly at two of the legs, severing them.

The monster let out another pained yell as it lost balance, and swing down, slamming the top of its head into the tree. Silver quickly leaped up, and slashed through the leg, causing the monster to fall to the ground with a large crash. It thrashed around for a moment as it attempted to get back to its now severed legs, which were bleeding red ink.

Eventually it managed to flip over, and let out another roar as it stomped its stubs on the ground. "Time for us to fight on equal footing, freaks!" It said.

"Looks like you missed the weather report, inkstain." Red said.

"Yeah, you're going to be going for a little winter holiday." Blue said. "And hopefully stay out of our way for the rest of the evening!"

"What?" The monster said, confused. Its query was answered as a gust of wind started to blow. The rangers braced themselves as it continued to get stronger and stronger. "Wait, no!" The monster shouted. "I made this storm, how can it- waaah!"

With one final push of the wind, the monster was knocked off of its stub feet, and flung through the air. It tossed and turned as it flew, smacking into several trees as it continued along. "You haven't seen the last of meeeeeeeeeeeeee!" It cried as it vanished off into the horizon.

Judy let out a sigh of relief as she untransformed, alongside everyone else. Almost instantly, the wind started to calm down. "Well, that's one thing we don't have to worry about right now." Nick said, rubbing his neck.

Without saying anything, Max rushed over to his car, leaving the four others behind. He quickly opened the passenger's door. "You alright?" He asked the female wolf.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, looking up from her phone. "Buuut, if we don't hurry up, we'll be late for our dinner." She said, waving the phone around.

"Oh, poop, it is soon, isn't it?" The wolf said. He quickly turned back to the others. "Guys, I have to go! I'll see you all later tonight!"

"Got it!" Judy shouted back, giving a thumbs up.

Silver quickly got in the car, and drove off, leaving everyone else behind.

"So, who was he talking to in there?" Nick asked.

"Em thinks its his girlfriend." Henry said, bluntly.

"Oh, come ON, Horns!" She growled, delivering a swift punch to the bull's side.

Nick let out a chuckle. "Seriously, Em?" He said. "Why are you getting upset about that?"

"It's because she has a crush on Max." Judy said.

The three looked at her, surprised.

"What?" She said. "She's been acting weird around him for like, two months, it's really obvious."

The hyena let out a sigh, and drooped down. "I don't know, I just got really upset when I saw him with... someone else." She said. "Maybe if I had said something to him, but I... guess I just wanted to keep up the tough act."

"Yeah, probably." Nick said, bluntly. "But, if that's who he wants to go out with, it's Wolfbane's choice."

"You're right." Emily said, with a disappointed sigh.

"Hey, don't look so down!" Judy said, hopping up and giving the hyena a punch in the side. "You two are going to the Kitmas party tonight, right?"

"Yeah, pretty sure we are..."

"Well, Max is going to be there too!" The rabbit continued. "If you want to tell him how you feel, you can do it then!"

The hyena stood up straight, a smile growing. "Yeah, you're right!" She said, confidently. "I can do that! Maybe everything will turn out alright."

"Well, we still have a few hours left until the party." Nick said, glancing at his phone. "You guys up to anything?"

"No, not really." Henry said. Emily nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.

"We're going to go see the annual Kitmas tree lighting in Tundra Town Square." Judy said. "That starts soon enough. Wanna come with us?"

Henry and Emily looked at each other, and then both shrugged. "Sure, why not." The hyena said.

* * *

A short while had passed since Chaos Kasabake had been blown away in the wind. Right now, it was dark, and he was in the middle of nowhere in the Rainforest District, flipped upside down, and almost eye-deep in mud.

Needless to say, this wasn't how he was expecting this all to go.

"Maybe I should have actually fought back." It muttered to itself.

"You're looking rather down there, Kasabake." A voice said.

"Who's there?" The monster said, rocking side to side. "I'd turn around to look at you, but I don't have a neck!"

"Ugh, do we really have to put up with this guy?" A second, more snarly voice responded.

"He's amusing." The first voice said.

Chaos Kasabake soon found himself being grabbed by his abdomen, and was then suddenly flipped over onto his stumps with a huge splash of mud. He slowly turned around with pained steps, until he saw who it was.

"It was ZooDark, with Savage floating up above him. "Bonjour." The evil ranger said.

"Hey, you're that guy who was making fun of me earlier." The monster said. "Why did you help me?"

"Like I said, you're amusing." ZooDark responded. "I'm also curious about how rough the Zoorangers have been treating you."

"I know, right?" Kasabake said. "I get them fighting me, but they've just been rude and mean! It's like I barged in on some kind of major holiday!"

ZooDark placed his gloved hand to his chin, and thought for a moment. "Why did we just assume that they didn't have a form of Christmas here?" He asked.

"Hello?" Savage said, waving a skeletal claw in front of Enter's face. "You have a spirit who's existed from the beginning of time stuck in you, I can tell you anything." He said. "They have this thing called Kitmas here where all the good children in the world get presents or something. It's childish and boring, I'd rather there be a holiday about murder."

"That sounds exactly like Christmas." ZooDark said, before letting out a small laugh. "Say, Kasabake, do you want to help me ruin a holiday for this city?"

"Ooh, I'd love to!" The monster said. "But... I still don't have any legs. I can't really move around without them."

"Let me handle this." Savage said. He held his claws up, black energy gathering in them. He then thrust them both towards Chaos Kasabake, the energy flying from them and into the yokai's body.

The energy flowed into its body, and coursed into its six severed legs. From the stumps, black energy started to rise, and formed into new replacements for the last ones. A misty, black aura surrounded the monster as it let out a roar. "I feel... even more strong now!" It roared as it stomped its new feet around.

"There's only a few hours before Kitmas starts." Savage said.

"If we want to ruin it, then we need to find the 'heart' of it." ZooDark said. "And, considering this city, there's only one spot that truly fits that mark."

"Lead the way, and we can do this together!" Kasbake cheered.

ZooDark just shook his head in response, before heading off.

* * *

In the middle of Tundra Town, a massive, artificial tree had been set up. It was larger than most buildings in the area, and towered over even giraffes. It was covered in different decorations each year, but always tipped with a large, yellow star that let out a warm glow. Every year, mammals from all parts of the city would come to see it as it lit up at night. It was something Judy had never missed the few years she had been living there. Heck, even with Nick's pessimism in some places, it was something he would always go to without complaint as well.

It felt nice to be heading there with some new friends.

"That thing is massive." Emily said as they looked up at the tree. The four were all bundled up in warm clothes, something they never really got to wear for most of the year. "I think the last time I saw it in person was when I was seven." She continued. "Every other time was on TV. The screen doesn't do it justice."

"I know, right?" Judy said. "It feels like they make it bigger and bigger each year."

"I can assure you that this is the exact same tree, every year." Nick said. "At least, for the last while, it gets replaced every so often."

"It's definitely a marvel of engineering." Henry said. "Pretty impressive for a holiday that only half the world actually celebrates."

The four waited around, as a larger crowd started to gather. "How long until this thing lights up, anyway?" Emily asked after ten minutes.

"About a half hour, maybe?" Nick said, checking his phone. "Forty minutes tops, usually goes up around eight."

"Oh, hey, guys!" Shouted someone from behind them.

They all turned around to see Max, along with the female wolf from earlier, running towards them and waving.

"Maybe you'll get a chance earlier than you thought." Henry whispered to the hyena.

The two were also bundled up, and ran over to the four quickly. "I'm sorry, I never got to introduce myself earlier." The other wolf said, holding out her paw towards Emily. The two started to shake paws. "My name's Lisa, I'm Max's-"

"Girlfriends, yeah, we could tell." Emily quickly said.

The two wolves suddenly looked really shocked, and then glared at each other. "I'm... I'm his SISTER." Lisa said.

Emily let go of Lisa's paw, and her jaw hung open. Henry started to laugh, as Judy just clenched her teeth. "Oooh, boy, talk about an embarrassment." Nick said.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." The hyena said. "I just... I saw you two out together, and I assumed... I'm really sorry."

"It's okay." Lisa said, still sounding a bit embarrassed. Max looked completely mortified however. "I moved out of the city for work a few years ago, Kitmas time is the only time I get to see the rest of the family."

"Did it really look like we were on a date?" Max said, thinking back.

"Yikes, don't let it get to you, Maxy." Lisa said, quickly nudging him with her elbow. "It was just a mistake."

"We need to plan things out better next year."

"But yeah, we come see the tree every year." She continued, before glancing around. The crowd had gotten even bigger. "I'm guessing most of the city does too!"

"It's... it's a tradition!" Judy said, trying to move on from the awkward mistake.

Nick looked on as Judy, Lisa, Emily, and Max continued talking. He felt at the photo in his pocket. Why did he bring it with him? He wasn't sure, but it was making him think... maybe tonight would be the best time. He reached into his pocket and felt at the photo more, before letting out a sigh.

"Something wrong, Nick?" Henry asked. "You look a bit down."

"I... I want to say something to everyone, but..." He stuttered for a moment. "I'm... nervous."

"You, nervous?" Henry said, surprised. He thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Alright, if you're having trouble, why don't I help you?"

"How?"

"I'll tell everyone that you have something to say." He said. "That way, it'll ease you in better. But I'll let you know beforehand."

"Uh, alright." Nick said, without thinking.

"Of course, if you don't want me to, I can just forget it." The bull continued.

"Uh, just give me a minute." The fox said, shaking his head. He quickly walked over to a clearing, and started to think. This went on for a few minutes, as he weighed the pros and cons.

But he was quickly distracted, as something from the tree started to shine. It was rather annoyingly bright, but something from it felt... wrong. He quickly checked his phone. It wasn't eight yet, so the tree shouldn't have been going off...

He turned around, seeing a large, glowing sphere hovering directly above the tree. He headed into the crowd, where it became apparent that nobody else there was sure what the sphere was either.

"Is this a new decoration?"

"Reminds me of New Year's."

"It looks like its moving..."

Nick quickly found the rest of the team. "So, they decide to set the sun up early, or is this weird?" He asked them.

Emily shrugged. "Kinda just fell from the sky." She explained.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Judy said, tapping her foot. "I think this might be monster related."

"Well, there's three options." Nick said. "It's a new decoration, the world is ending, or-"

All of the sudden, the orb started to pulse in and out, the light starting to become more and more intense as it continued. It suddenly grew to a massive size, and impaled itself directly on the star. With a POP, a fountain of red ink suddenly spilled out over the crowd, including the the others, and the snow.

"-Or it could be that." Nick said, rubbing the ink from his face alongside the others.

The crowd started to panic at the sudden attack, their screams not managing to cover up monstrous laughter from above. Judy managed to clean her eyes off just in time to see Chaos Kasabake fall from the sky, larger than before. It fell directly onto the tree, wrapping its legs around it and causing it to tilt.

As the rest of the gang, besides Lisa had cleared off their eyes, they watched as a figure hopped off of the back of Chaos Kasabake. It landed in the snow, and sent an instant pang of dread and despair through them.

"Ah, nice to see you five again." ZooDark said as he stepped towards them, drawing his own rapier.

"L," Max started, helping his blinded sibling up. He quickly wiped the ink off of her eyes. "You need to get out of here." He said.

"What? Why?"

"Just run." He said.

She noticed ZooDark.

"Oh, okay, got it." She said, before dashing off.

Max turned back to the monster.

"Oh, did I interrupt something?" ZooDark said. "Maybe, say, a holiday?"

"Are you really that petty, Enter?" Judy asked. "Are you really going to ruin Kitmas for everyone in the city, just because?"

ZooDark thought for a moment. "Yes. Yes I am." He said. "And I suppose you five are dumb enough to try and stop me, hm?"

"Oh, you know we are." Nick said, as he and Judy pulled out the sun and moon shaped ZooTags.

They quickly transformed, drawing their weapons and then dashing at ZooDark. Max quickly started to transform into ZooSilver, and then pulled out a small disc to shift into Rampage mode. Emily and Henry readied their armor and weapons. The three prepared to follow Red and Blue, but Chaos Kasabake quickly leaped off of the tree, crashing in front of them.

"How bout you take me on first!?" The monster roared.

"Good idea, you'll be a good warm-up." Pink retorted.

Kasabake gasped in shock. "How dare you?!" It yelled. "I'll show you all how great Kasabake is!"

Its mouth quickly opened, before the foot-tipped tongue launched out towards Silver. The wolf dodged out of the way as the foot slammed directly into the snow, but the monster swung its giant mitt at the wolf at the same time, knocking him into the snow. The monster raised one of its legs above Silver's head, and prepared to bring it down.

Pink and Green started to fire on the monster, causing it to fall off balance. As the two distracted the monster, Silver quickly aimed his gun arm at the yokai's underbelly. he fired a few shots, and then activated the jetpack, causing him to skid through the snow and then arc up into the air. He quickly fell back to the ground, back on his feet.

Blue and Red drew their weapons as ZooDark glared down at them. He then let out a short laugh. "Even when there was three of you, you couldn't touch me." He said. "Why do you think you can do it now?"

"You messed with the wrong holiday." Blue growled. She quickly dashed forwards and leaped up, bringing her blades down on the dark ranger. He blocked the double strike with his rapier, and then pushed her back to the ground.

"Wouldn't be the first time." ZooDark responded.

The two then rushed at the monster at the same time. "Lemme handle this." Savage said, appearing from ZooDark's back. He flew at Blue, a strand of dark energy connecting him to Enter's body, and started to swipe at her. ZooDark himself turned to Red.

The fox leaped up and attempted to jab the android with his staff. It extended rapidly, but ZooDark managed to catch it in his hand with little effort. ZooDark shook his head, disappointed.

"Wrong move, jackass."

A sudden burst of fire flew from the staff's end. The force was enough to knock ZooDark to the ground. He started to get back almost instantly. "You are all so annoying sometimes." ZooDark said, sounding a tad bit more agitated.

Blue continued to block Savage's fast and furious swipes, only barely managing in some cases. "C'mon, rabbit!" The spirit monster mocked. "You gonna try to hit me or what!?"

"I would if you had any openings!" She retorted.

"Oh yeah!" The monster laughed, without breaking his constant wall of attacks.

Blue was starting to get annoyed. She prepared for another block, but this time angled her blades in a way that they ended up sliding between the monster's claws. "What!?" Savage let out, surprised.

"Just because you have no openings doesn't mean I can't MAKE one!" She said, before pushing the claws away, revealing Savage's body. She quickly let go of the blades, and then performed a dropkick, right into the monster's chest. The spirit beast was knocked back, in pain.

Suddenly, ZooDark started to spark for a moment. He clutched at his own chest as a sharp pain shot through it. "Looking a bit off there," Red started, noticing the monster's pain. "Something up?"

ZooDark let out a growl, before flinging his hand forward. It fired out an erratic flurry of dark energy projectiles. Red quickly spun his staff around, blocking the energy bolts as they flew at him.

The erratic fire caused some of the bolts to fly past the fox, and strike at Silver, Green, and Pink. The energy struck at them and the ground, causing snow to explode around them.

Chaos Kasabake stomped towards the three distracted rangers, and prepared to slam his hands down on them. The three managed to recover in time, and quickly leaped out of the way as Kasabake's hands came down. Pink went to the right of the monster, Green to the left, and Silver right underneath it. The three continued to fire at the monster as they met up on the other side.

"I think you three need to SIT STILL for a bit!" The monster up for a moment, the monster fired out bursts of ink out of its abdomen, The three were struck with the sticky ink, wrapping them and leaving them tied up on the ground.

ZooDark rushed at Red, and the two started to clash weapons. "Have you heard the story of the Go-Busters?" The dark ranger asked as he jabbed his blade downwards.

"Yeah, I did!" Red said, stepping out of the way as the blade impaled itself into the snow. "They lost their parents, because of your old boss."

"Oh, I see Blue Buster informed you." He continued, before swinging his blade upwards, flinging snow at the fox. "But did he tell you what day it was when Vagrass attacked?"

"What?" The fox said, wiping the snow off his visor. The sword smacked him directly in the chin, knocking him to the ground.

"Today was the day Vagrass attacked." ZooDark said as he walked up to the recovering fox. "Today was the day their lives were ruined. And you're getting up set at me for attacking a tree?"

He knelt down, and grabbed the fox's helmet with his free hand.

"I could do so much worse." He said. "I could destroy this city and all you love. Wouldn't that be a hell of a way to ruin Christmas?"

"It isn't just a tree!" Blue shouted as she continued to fight against Savage. ZooDark rose up, and turned to look at her. Without looking back, she continued. "The tree is a symbol of togetherness and hope! Right now, it's a beacon of light that shines through your darkness!"

"Very dramatic," ZooDark said. "But it isn't even a real tree."

"Does that matter!?" She shouted back. "This tree still standing means that we all can get through this," She continued, still continuing to clash with Savage. She quickly started to lash out more, breaking through the monster's defense in a matter of seconds. "...No matter how ROUGH-" She quickly slashed both swords down, cleaving right through Savage. The two connected monsters reeled in pain in response. "-It gets!" She finished.

ZooDark shook off some of the pain, and let out an annoyed grunt as he recovered from the blow. "Togetherness, hope?" He said with a scoff. He then noticed the three rangers that had been incapacitated. "Let's see if I can destroy both those things for you."

He leaped off, and landed next to the three. He tossed his rapier up in the air, and caught it by the handle, blade pointing down. The three started to struggle as ZooDark examined them. "Let's see..."

"STOP!" Red shouted as he started to run at the dark ranger. Savage got in his way, and the two started to spar.

With Red distracted, Blue made the run instead. "No you don't!" Savage yelled." He suddenly appeared in front of Blue, causing her to skid to a halt. He slashed at her before she could stop, and then vanished, reappearing back in front of Red in order to strike at him again. The monster continued to teleport between the two, keeping them from ZooDark.

"I think you'll do nicely." ZooDark said, looking at Pink. "Weak and insecure."

"If I could spit out of this thing, I would." She retorted.

"Hush." He said, calmly. "Think of yourself as a martyr."

"Don't!" Silver shouted, managing to flick his legs and hit ZooDark in the shin. "Kill me instead."

"Oh, another hero willing to sacrifice himself." ZooDark said. "What is it with you all and being so willing to risk your lives?"

The wolf quickly turned to the bull next to him. "You gonna pitch in, or...?"

"You''re the one who started it, so..."

"Oh, I know." The dark ranger said. "I'll just kill all of you."

He raised his blade, poised to stab it directly into the hyena's heart...

Suddenly, a snowball flew directly into his visor.

Everything fell silent.

"...What?" The dark ranger said, feeling at the snow on his visor.

Suddenly, another one hit him. He turned towards the thrower. It was Lisa, who was gathering snow in her paws in preperation. "Get away from them!" She shouted, before throwing another one at the monster.

"L, I told you to get away from here!" Silver shouted.

"Yeah, like I'd just leave you to die!" She shouted back, throwing another snowball at ZooDark.

"A relative, I presume?" ZooDark asked. He looked at her. "Not worth my time. Kasabake, kill that girl."

"Yessir!" The monster said, before stomping towards her. Silver let out a yell as he struggled more.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" He yelled.

Lisa backed away as the massive monster peered over her, eye shining in the dead of night. "Time to rub you out, pest!" It said as it approached her.

She was frozen for a second. She shouldn't have tried to help, she should've just...

Her eye quickly flicked to to the tree. Suddenly, it started to light up. A blinding burst of lights of all kinds bloomed to life, covering the white snow in a technicolor dance. The star on top started to shine a glowing yellow, and spun around. The monsters stumbled back as the light overpowered them.

"Eight already?" Red said.

The wolf suddenly felt something inside her. Building up her courage, she threw another snowball at the giant spider monster, hitting it directly in the eye. "Hey!" It shouted. "That stings!"

"You know how often I get to see my brother!?" She shouted, throwing another snowball. "ONCE A YEAR! I'm NOT letting you jerks ruin this!"

Kasabake started to stumble back as snowballs continued to hit him. "Enter, help!" It cried.

ZooDark let out another growl, this one loud enough to show that he was well and truly angry. "You can't kill one dog!?" He said, before starting towards Lisa. "You've certainly been a pain, you mongrel!"

Lisa quickly turned as ZooDark suddenly appeared right in front of her. He rose his sword, preparing to bring it down on her. The wolf braced herself, but another snowball suddenly flew out of nowhere and hit him on the face.

It had come from a small lion cub. While the fight had been going on and distracting everyone, a large crowd had slowly formed. They had been inspired by Lisa's bravery and every single mammal, large and small, held a snowball in their paws.A suddenly flurry of snow came from the crowd, as snowballs of all sizes rained down on ZooDark and Kasabake.

"Not your lucky day, huh?" Savage mocked. With a growl, ZooDark forcibly called him back. He grabbed onto the spirit monster and held him up, causing him to be hit by some of the snowballs.A particularly large one, thrown by an elephant, knocked the two to the ground.

Using this chance, Red quickly dashed over, and cut the three from the sticky ink with his claws. He helped them up and away as ZooDark and Savage got back up, turning towards the Zoorangers. Blue quickly started to walk towards the others.

"This is what I mean!" Blue shouted. "It might be a fake tree, but a symbol of hope is still HOPE! Even if you did manage, you'd never be able to destroy the hope in this city!"

"Everyone here is going to live through this." Red followed from the rabbit. "And we're going to make sure of it!"

Silver, Pink, and Green nodded, and the five quickly gathered together in a group.

"No matter how much damage you cause, no matter how much you threaten," Blue started, pointing towards ZooDark.

"YOU AREN'T RUINING KITMAS!"

Suddenly, a green and red light started to glow at the rabbit's paw. It faded after a moment, but left something in her grasp. It was a half red, half green ZooTag, with a tree image on it.

"What is that?" Red asked.

"I think I know." She said, grasping the ZooTag. "Red, we're going back to our normal forms." She said.

"What?"

"We need to form the Zookaiser."

"Oh."

The two shifted from their solar and lunar modes back to normal, and pulled out their usual weapons. "Ready to go, guys?" Blue asked.

"Always am." Silver said.

"I mean, why wouldn't we?" Pink said. Green just gave a nod.

Red, Blue, and Silver tossed their weapons into the air, which quickly combined into the Zookaiser. They caught it, and Pink and Green prepared to fire their own guns.

"Kasabake!" ZooDark shouted. "Get them!"

The spider monster was still being pelted by the snowballs, but quickly turned and started to stomp towards the five. Blue plugged the multi-colored ZooTag into the Zookaiser, causing energy to gather in its barrel.

The monster stomped closer and closer as the energy continued to charge. "Alright, GO!" Blue shouted. Red pulled the trigger, and Pink and Green fired their weapons.

"MERRY KITMAS BLAST!"

The energy fired out, forming into a large, decorated tree. The monster tried to stop, but found the tree piercing directly through its eye, and then out the other end. The tree-shaped projectile continued on after it flew through Chaos Kasabake, and headed straight for ZooDark. It hit him, causing a large explosion.

"Looks like I'm the one who got squished!" Kasabake moaned as it sparked and stumbled around, before erupting into a massive, red and green explosion. Several sparks flew out of the spectacular explosion, which in turn exploded in a dazzling fireworks display. A small fountain pen also flew out of the explosion, and landed in the snow. When the explosion cleared, a Chaos Badge fell to the ground as well.

"Wow, that was something." Red said, in awe.

ZooDark stumbled from the remains of the explosion. "You just got lucky." He growled. "It won't happen again."

He then burst into dark energy, and vanished.

The five let out sighs of relief shortly afterwards. "Thank god that's over with." Red said.

The Chaos Badge suddenly burst from the snow, and then flew off into the outskirts of the city. It burst into red light, which formed into Chaos Kasabake, completely restored. "TIME TO PUT AN END TO THIS STORY!" The monster roared as its legs stomped towards the city.

Red let out a sigh, before pulling out a red ZooTag. "Alright, let's get this over with."

Red, Blue, and Silver called upon their mechas, as well as ZooShishi, which quickly formed into the ultimate form of ZooRobo. The mech formed and crashed into the ground, and started to stomp towards the monster. It quickly swing at the spider with its sword, causing it to reel back in pain.

The monster roared, before a cloud of ink burst from its head. It flew directly at ZooRobo, and started to cloud around its head. The mech was blinded, and thrashed around for a few moments. "Augh, we've been blinded!" Blue shouted

"Chance!" The monster gleefully laughed. Kasabake stomped forwards and slashed at ZooRobo with its claws, causing it to fall back instead.

The mech was knocked out of the cloud of ink, and fell to the ground. It started to get up, but the monster suddenly lashed its foot-tongue at them. It rolled out of the way, before jumping back to its feet. "This is starting to get annoying." Red said, as the mech flicked its cape.

The monster shot its tongue out once more, this time aiming it directly at the robot's face. ZooRobo caught the tongue before it could hit, and then raised its blade. "Wayth!" The monster said. "Don doo iht!"

The mech brought the blade down, severing the tongue from Kasabake's mouth. ZooRobo then dropped it to the ground as the monster clutched at its mouth, yelling in pain.

"Alright, let's just finish him off." Silver said. "If we don't do it soon, we'll be late for the party!"

"Got it." Blue said with a nod. She pulled out the Kitmas-themed ZooTag again, and glanced at it. "...I wonder if this thing will work with our robot?"

"I don't see why you shouldn't test it." Red said with a shrug.

She plugged the ZooTag into her control panel. Suddenly, ZooRobo's sword started to glow red and green. It raised it to the air, where an energy mirage of a Kitmas tree appeared around it, extending high up into the air, larger than the actual blade itself.

"Nice." Red said.

"SILENT NIGHT SLASH!" Blue shouted as ZooRobo brought the blade down on to the monster. It cleaved directly through it, the energy disappearing shortly after.

The monster let out a pained yell. "Looks like my sentence ends with a period!" It shouted as it started to spark. It let out a scream before it exploded.

As the explosion erupted, this one just as fantastic as the last one, ZooRobo turned around and struck a heroic pose.

The mech disappeared, and the three returned to the ground. All five untransformed after this, and after a few minutes, the crowd had gathered back around the tree. "I'm glad nothing bad happened." Judy said. "This could have gone so much worse."

"Yeah, it really could have." Nick said, thinking back to what Enter had told him. He shook it off, and looked back at the tree. He then looked at everyone around him.

The group started to calm down and relax for the next while. Emily and Lisa got into a friendly conversation, while Max and Judy talked as well. Nick remained silent for the entire time, with Henry not taking his eyes off him.

The bull cleared his throat. "I believe that Nick wants to tell all of you something." He said.

"What!?" Nick shouted, glaring at the bull. That wasn't what he said he could do.

"Really?" Judy said, raising an eyebrow. "You gonna spit it out tonight, huh?"

"I, uh..." The fox said. "...Can we go somewhere where no one else is listening?"

"I don't think this involves me." Lisa said. She gave her brother a pat on the shoulder. "You go enjoy the party, I'll be Mom's." She said.

"I'll meet you there." Max said. The two hugged, and then Lisa headed off.

A moment later, the five headed away from the crowd. "I thought you were okay with me not saying anything." Nick whispered.

"If I hadn't done anything, then you never would have said anything anyway." The bull retorted.

He had him there.

Nick stopped several meters from the rest of the crowd. "So, uh, what are you going to tell us?" Emily asked.

"Well, I..." Nick started, before gulping. He felt at the picture in his pocket. "I wanted to tell you all something... important."

Suddenly, his eyes widened. Oh god, he shouldn't tell them all, not like this not right here not right now

but he couldn't leave them hanging. Lying his way out of this situation would be incredibly obvious at this point, so he needed to come up with something else important, and most importantly, true.

He cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. "I just wanted to say that, uh..."

By this point, Judy knew that he wasn't going to spill out his actual secret. That was just how the fox worked, he wasn't really capable of getting his emotions out without effort, and something that important would probably be incredibly difficult. Still, she was interested in whatever he WAS going to say.

"I..." Nick paused. "I love all you guys."

That was definitely shocking.

"My entire life, I never felt like I belonged anywhere." He continued, pacing around. "Even after becoming a cop, I always felt out of place. But... but after everything that's happened, I think I found... where I belong."

Tears started to well up in his eyes as he looked over the stunned mammals. "All that stuff about you guys being family?" He continued. "That wasn't me exaggerating. I know it might not seem like it, but I'm happier now than I have been in thirty years. I know it's only been less than a year, and I know that the world's in danger... but with all five of you, I just... I just want to thank you all."

There was stunned silence from the fox's sudden, impassioned admittance.

"We love you too, Nick." Judy said. "You've been difficult with all of us, I feel, but..."

"No one else like you." Emily finished. "That's what makes you so great."

"yeah, no matter how pessimistic, sarcastic, annoying, or insufferable you get," Max started. "I'm glad to be your friend."

Henry gave an approving nod.

"I'm... glad all of you think so too." The fox finished.

"Alright, time to finish this sentimental moment!" Henry said, cheerfully. He scooped up the other four into a large hug, almost, but just barely mot, crushing them. "Group hug!"

Nick tried to let out a laugh, but it came out as a wheeze.

* * *

An hour had passed, and the five had wound up at the station's annual Kitmas party. It happened late at night, and not everyone could be there for various reasons, but everyone who could showed up. It was the funnest the station ever got, outside of the Halloween party.

Even Bogo loosened up a bit. He still got angry when something stupid happened, but what he considered stupid was slightly more lenient.

The gift exchange was already well underway, and Judy and Nick had already given out their gifts. Everyone that could make it was in the lobby, waiting for them to be called to hand out their gifts. There were only a few more gifts left to give out, and that included Max's gift.

Judy was hanging around the refreshment table, which mostly had punch and such. A small staircase had been attached to it so the smaller officers could access it. She was scooping out some punch for her and Nick, but suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, and saw Emily.

She glanced around for a moment, and then started to whisper. "Hey, so, if Max wasn't on a date with anyone... why did he ask you about romantic advice?"

"How do you know he-?"

"I was eavesdropping." Emily said.

"Oh, of course." Judy sighed. "I don't really know why, maybe he's going to ask someone here out?" She continued, scooping some punch into a paper cup.

"Well, do you think..."

"Oooh." The rabbit said. "You think that he's going to ask you out tonight, right?"

The hyena nodded.

Judy shrugged. "Maybe he will, maybe he won't, we won't know until its his turn."

Meanwhile, several feet away, Bogo was looking at a list of names on his clipboard. He glanced up from it. "Officer Wolford!" He shouted. The wolf, who had just been in a conversation with Delgato, jolted up and turned stiff. "It's your turn!" The chief continued to shout.

The wolf became incredibly nervous as everyone turned to him. "Who'd you get?" Delgato asked.

"Well, I, uh, um, uh..." He sputtered, before glancing around. He quickly found Judy and Emily, the hyena in particular looking a bit excited. He then glanced over to Henry, who was reading a book over at the far side of the room.

He then looked at Delgato, and took a deep breath. "I, uh... I got you."

Emily's excitement faded as her ears started to twitch.

"Oh, nice." The tiger said.

The wolf held his breath as he pulled out a present. It was wrapped in red and white stripped paper, and was noticeably flat. He handed them to Delgato, who started to unwrap it.

Inside the wrapping were two movie tickets. Delgato looked at them, quizzically, and then looked at Max. "Movie tickets?" He said, a bit confused.

"Well, that movie you've been talking about is coming out soon," The wolf started, rubbing the back of his head. "So, I thought, maybe, we could... go see it together? Like... a... a date?"

There was a surprised gasp from everyone in the lobby... aside from Emily, who's jaw had just dropped open.

"You're asking me out on a date?" Delgato asked.

Max nodded.

The tiger shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Almost instantly, the wolf passed out.

Henry walked over to the punch table, which Judy had quickly hopped down from after this event, though Emily was still staring slack-jawed into the distance. The bull tapped her on the shoulder, but got nothing. "You know we didn't actually put our names in the draw, right?" He said.

Emily groaned in response, jaw still hanging open.

Judy headed outside with two cups of punch. Nick was sitting on the steps, and looking up into the night sky. She sat next to him on the steps, handing him the cup of punch. "Sounds like something went on in there." The fox said.

"Max asked Delgato out on a date." Judy said, frankly.

"Huh."

"You're not surprised by that?" She asked.

"I would be if I cared about stuff like that." The fox said. "Just let him be."

"Oh, I don't think him being gay is bad, its just surprising."

"Hm."

"Why don't you come inside?" Judy asked. "It's fun."

"I don't really feel like it this year." He said. "It's nice to just be somewhere quiet for a bit."

"You thinking about your mom?"

"Kind of, yeah." He said. "Also been thinking about the monsters and stuff."

"Are you scared?"

"...Maybe a bit."

"Well, I don't think you should be." She said, confidently. "Think about what happened tonight. We managed to take down Enter and a monster, that means we can win, right?"

Nick smiled. "Nice to have your optimism around." He said. The rabbit chuckled in response.

They both fell silent for a bit, enjoying the relaxing feeling of the night. Eventually, Nick broke the silence. "Judy, can I tell you something?"

"Is it about your secret?" She asked, playfully.

"I... maybe..."

"Then no, I don't want to."

The fox looked at her confused.

"I don't have any right to know." She said. "I was just incredibly rude earlier, I shouldn't have tried to intrude on anything private."

"Well, I want to tell you."

"Do you want to? Or do you feel you HAVE to?" She asked. "Because you don't HAVE to. If whatever this is means so much to you, just let it come out naturally."

She stood up, and stretched out. "I'm going to go check if Max is alright, want me to get you some more punch?"

"No." Nick said, sounding like he was lost in thought.

"Alright then." She said with a chuckle. "Merry Kitmas." She said as she headed back into the station.

"Merry Kitmas." The fox replied, before letting out a sigh and falling quiet. He pulled out the picture in his pocket. He unfolded it, and stared at it for a minute.

He quickly ripped part of the picture, only a bit from one side, and crumpled it up into a ball. He got up, and tossed the ball directly into the garbage. He then looked at the rest of the photo.

It was a picture of his mom and dad, looking happy. As happy as the day this picture was taken. Happy for him.

He folded the picture back up, and slipped it back into his pocket. "Mom was right, I shouldn't care about that anymore. I made the right choice." He thought to himself.

The fox looked back up to the night sky.


	43. Life of Machines

"Now stopping, now stopping!"

The train skidded to a halt on the grass, tracks appearing in front of it as it moved ahead. With a whistle, it stopped completely. The door slid open, as a being clad in white and pink stepped out of the cart.

"Thank you for the ride." She said, giving a quick bow.

"Always a pleasure," The rabbit-headed man said as he looked out the doorway. "Especially when its for someone important like you."

"'Important', yeah." Said the monkey puppet on his hand.

"Shush."

"I'm not that important." The other figure said. "I'm just doing what anyone would do, you know?"

"What anyone would do, if they had a big robot with them!" The puppet continued.

"Alright, now you better shut your trap." The pink-clad figure said, raising a fist. The puppet promptly clamped its mouth shut.

"Speaking of," The rabbit-headed man said. "Your friend should be in trolley five. It's the really big one."

She looked off down the rest of the train. Sure enough, the fifth cart was a massive one, larger than even the rest of the already slightly oversized train itself by a large margin. "Thank you." She said. "I'll go get her ready right now."

"Good luck hiding that thing!" The puppet said with a laugh. She shot a glare at it, and it clamped its mouth shut once more.

The Pink Ranger skipped over to the large trolley. She placed a hand on it, and then noticed a normal sized ladder that lead up to a normal sized doorway. She climbed it up and opened the door slowly.

"Alright, it's time for us to go!" She said as she entered. The cart was pitch black, and her voice bounced off the walls. Something felt off.

She looked around but couldn't seem to sense anything. "Hello?" She cried out.

"Gingat!?"

* * *

Glass shattered as a large fist flew into the window of a jewelry store. The entire plate had broken with that single punch, and the three hooligans that had caused it laughed as they walked in through the broken windows.

"Alright, grab any JEWELS." Sambash said as he and his cronies walked through the glass and into the store. "No pearls or gold, just jewels."

"Uh, okay boss." One of the monsters said. It was a large, muscular insectoid creature, with two large horns jutting from the top of its head. Mostly red in color, and with a heavily plated body. Its forearms were clad in leather belts, while its feet were wrapped in spiked anklets.

"Just follow the orders, idiot." The other monster said. It looked similar, except mostly blue, and with only a single horn jutting out from its forehead. A sharp spike stuck out from his back as well. It stood slightly taller than its counterpart as well, and had the reverse of the decorations, spikes on the forearms, belts on the legs.

"Torbador, Tagredor, shut it." Sambash snapped. "Seriously, I brought you back because I thought you could work together but guess I'm a goddamn idiot for thinking that!"

"Sorry!" Both of the beetle monsters said. They quickly rushed into the store and started to shatter glass with their fists.

Jewelry was picked up, and tossed all over the place, onto the floor, and into a large brown sack that they had brought along. Only jewels and gemstones went into the bag, everything else went onto the floor.

After a few minutes, everything had been ruined.

"Alright, I'd call that a good haul!" Sambash said as the three hopped out of the broken window. A heavy satchel was slung over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we got to break a lot of stuff!" Tagredor said, with a chuckle.

The three walked out into the night-lit city streets. "Now, with any luck…" Sambash whispered. "We won't have any MORE interruptions-"

"Excuse me!" A small voice called out from behind them. The three monsters froze in place, and the gradually turned around.

Behind them was a small wildcat, standing up to around Sambash's knee. She was dressed in a pink, white, and black dress, small enough to fit such a small animal. Her eyes were a bright orange, unusually, and while it was hard to make out in the middle of the night, something seemed off about her fur color.

Sambash, however, didn't care.

He quickly pulled his gun with his free hand, and aimed it at the cat, who had no reaction. "The hell are you supposed to be?"

The cat opened her mouth for a second. "I'm…" She said, thinking. "I don't know!" She finished, chipperly.

The two beetle monsters looked at each other, confused, as Sambash lowered his gun and shook his head in disbelief. "These animals get dumber by the second." He grumbled, before flicking his gun back up. "Listen, furball, you're interrupting something important, now scram before I blow a hole through your head."

Shockingly, the cat instead walked towards Sambash. "Can you help me?" She said, seeming to ignore the previous threat. "I need to find a place… but I can't remember where it is."

"Didn't you hear me!?" Sambash shouted, frustrated. "I will KILL YOU, if you don't BACK OFF!"

"HOLD IT!" A voice shouted. Several laser shots fired at the three monsters, knocking them back from the wildcat.

ZooBlue and ZooRed ran into the fight, Blue aiming her blasters at them. "Damn it!" Sambash shouted. "Can't believe we got distracted!"

"And now you're backed into a corner!" Red shouted, pulling out his sword.

"I'll get the civilian out of here, you deal with the monsters for a bit." Blue said. The fox nodded, and then quickly leaped towards the monsters, bringing his blade down.

Torbador and Tagredor quickly stepped in front of their boss and rose their arms up, crossing them in the process. The sword clanked between their massive muscles, and they, in tandem, flicked their arms forwards, launching Red backwards.

"Only way to get to the boss is to go through us!" Tagredor shouted as the two stomped forward. Red recollected himself, and then looked back at Blue for a moment.

"No, seriously, you need to get out of here!" The rabbit said to the cat.

"Why?" She asked in return, tilting her head, curious.

"Because its dangerous!" Blue said, for probably the fifth time.

"Blue!" Red shouted over. "I could use some help!"

She glanced at the cat, and then back to her partner, and then back at the civilian. She quickly rushed over, and leaped into the air, performing a jumping kick directly into Torbador, knocking the rhino beetle monster back a bit. He bumped into his brother, causing them to stumble about and then fall down.

The rabbit helped the fox back up to his feet, and the two readied their weapons.

Sambash let out an exasperated sigh, and then held up his gun. He quickly fired a few shots off, directly in the cat's direction. The shots struck at the ground around her, smoking rising up into the air.

"NO!" Blue shouted.

Red and her quickly rushed over to where the cat was. As they rushed over, Sambash quickly pulled Torbador up, who in turn helped his red brotherup. "Let's get out of here while they're distracted." Sambash ordered.

The three quickly made a run for it.

The two Zoorangers ran towards the smoke cloud as it cleared. The wildcat was standing in the middle of it, completely unharmed, and completely unphased.

"Are you alright?" Blue asked, a bit panicked.

"I think the answer to that is a 'yes'." Red said, glancing over the cat briefly. "Nothing hit her."

"What?" Blue said, surprised. "Then that means-"

The two quickly looked back, only to find that Sambash and his cronies had vanished. They both sighed. "That's the third night in a row." Red said, rubbing his paw against his forehead.

"We better see if we can catch up with him." Blue said.

"Probably going to go as well as the last three nights too."

Blue then turned to the wildcat. "You better head home, it's dangerous out at night."

"Okay!" The cat said. She watched as the two heroes ran off, and then stood in silence, alone, for a brief moment.

"Where is my home…?"

* * *

Judy let out a yawn as she got out of bed. She sat up, and looked at Nick, who was sleeping next to her. He had somehow taken away most of the blankets in his sleep, which was annoying.

The two hadn't done a good job trying to catch Sambash last night. They were up for several hours trying to hunt him and his minions down but weren't able to catch up. As such, they were tired and had terrible sleeps. Well, at least she did.

Even worse, thy still had to go to work.

She quickly slipped on a morning robe and headed out to the main room. After around a half hour of waking up, she finally felt ready to get the day started. Though, Nick still wasn't up. She took one more sip of her morning coffee before getting up off the couch and heading towards the bedroom.

Before she could make it, however, the building suddenly shook. It wasn't like an earthquake, more like something very large had bumped into it.

"What in the-?" She muttered, before the bedroom door opened up.

Nick walked out, and let out a yawn, showing off his teeth. "What the hell was that?" He said, groggily.

"I have no idea." The rabbit said. There was suddenly a knock at the door, but before either could answer it, it swung open, revealing the landlord, a very miffed looking sheep.

He let out a long snort as he stepped into apartment. "So, which one of you owns the giant robot?" He asked, glaring at Nick.

"Uh, excuse me?" Nick asked, confused. "We haven't done anything with our giant robots in a week."

The sheep quickly snapped forwards, grabbing nick by his neck and dragging him towards the window. The landlord flicked it open, and then shoved the fox's head out.

His eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of a large red thing standing out in the street. Cars were honking as the robot, on all fours, seemed to plod around carefully, actively not trying to step on any of them.

"What the-?" The fox said, before the sheep quickly dragged him back inside.

"Giant fox robot, fox superhero." The sheep said. "I've been getting complaints about that thing all morning, so you better find a way to get rid of it SOON!"

The sheep quickly stormed out of the apartment. Judy turned to give a confused look to Nick. "What the hell is happening, Nick?" She asked.

"Well, uh…" He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Somehow, ZooKitsune managed to show up without me doing anything. And it's currently outside and standing in the middle of the street."

She glared at him for a moment. "Seriously?" She said, flatly. "We have to go to work in an hour, we can't be dealing with this right now."

"Well, if we don't do something… we probably won't have a roof over our head anymore." The fox said. The rabbit let out a sigh.

A few moments later, the two were dressed in their uniforms and standing out in the middle of the street. The massive robotic fox took up nearly the entire width of the road and was blocking a number of cars. Thankfully, it had seemed like no one had gotten hurt during all of this. It had quickly noticed the two and was looking down intently at them.

"So, any ideas?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, its your giant robot, you deal with it." She said, a bit smug.

The fox wasn't sure what he expected.

He stepped forwards and looked up at the massive machine, directly into its glowing eyes. "HEY!" Nick shouted up. The fox mech quickly lowered its head to the ground, glaring at Nick, and nearly touching him with its massive metallic nose.

"Uh…" The fox let out, nervously. "Can you go back to wherever you came from now?" He asked.

The fox robot simply bumped its nose directly into the fox, knocking him to the ground. He quickly got back up. "No, seriously, I need you to go away for a bit!" Nick continued. "We can't deal with this kind of stuff right now, alright?"

The fox mech tilted its head, obviously confused. Nick let out a sigh. "Alright, this isn't working."

"Good job, hustler." Judy said, sarcastically. "But we do need to at least get him off the road before we head out."

"You hear that?" Nick shouted. "We need you to GET. OFF. THE ROAD." The fox mech glared at him for a moment, before Nick quickly pointed over to an alleyway across the street. It was probably JUST large enough to keep the robot out of the way.

It seemed to understand the motion at least… though it took him pointing at the alleyway a few more times for it to register. The robot slowly backed into the alley, its body scraping against the sides of the buildings, before it laid down, head resting on its robotic paws.

The fox let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, that's going to be a pain." He groaned, rubbing at his temples. "Not like we already don't have enough to worry about…"

"Speaking of," Judy started. "Rollcall is in thirty minutes."

"Right, we should probably get going." Nick said. It was around a 20-minute drive to the station, so they didn't have a whole lot of time left. The fox just hoped that ZooKitsune wouldn't do anything stupid while they were at work.

As the two headed off, the giant mechanical fox looked on. It quickly stood up as they rounded a corner, and then started to plod along, following them.

* * *

"Hah, look at all the loot we've gotten!" Sambash gloated as he lifted up a pile of gemstones in each of his hands.

"Its great, boss!" Tagredor said, attempting to grab one of the jewels himself. Torbador quickly slapped his hand, stopping him.

"How much more do we need for the Big Finish?" Torbador then asked. "You have a massive pile back in your quarters already, boss."

"Honestly, I don't know how many we need." Sambash said, dropping the gems, and then placing his foot on the table. "But I will still need a lot of them, and we ARE pirates, right? This is kinda our thing. Besides, need to keep the boss happy somehow."

The two monsters nodded along. However, all three were unaware as Enter walked into the room, the floating skull of Savage following behind him.

"Is he gloating about his stupid gems again?" Savage said. "I thought you got enough gems for him."

"Greed is a confusing emotion." Enter said with a sigh. "Once you have something, you never have enough of it."

"Hey, I have ears you know!" Sambash shouted over, only turning his head slightly. "I know this looks like a helmet, but it isn't."

Enter smirked as he walked farther into the room, right up next to Sambash. He felts at some of the jewels, picking up an especially red one. "Why, exactly, are you collecting these things?" The android asked. "They're cluttering the base, and you've done nothing but steal them for the last few outings."

"I have my reasons." Sambash said, removing his leg from the table. "I'm calling it 'Operation: Big Finish'."

"Ooh, an operation name, fancy." Savage joked.

"Color me interested." Enter said, dropping the gem back to the table. "What exactly is this… Big Finish?"

"Oh, its gonna be great!" Tagredor said. "We're going to go under the city, and then use the gems to reviv-"

Sambash quickly pulled out his gun and shot at Tagredor. The bullet bounced off of him but had enough impact to knock the stag beetle to the ground. The bullet quickly flew into a large lump in the wall, causing a small crack.

"Its. A. Surprise." Sambash said, glaring at the monster as his brother helped him back up. "And it's gonna be a good one, trust me."

"Secrets, secrets, secrets," Savage started. "No one trusts each other here, huh?"

Enter looked at the skull for a moment. "Well, I have some business to attend to." Enter said. "I'll let you and your material gems be for now."

"Love you too, chiphead." Sambash retorted. He looked over at the beetle monsters, and then slammed his fist down on the table. "Alright, today's the last heist." He said. "We have a pretty big one, we're going to be stealing the La Runa amber from the natural history museum."

"That sounds important!" Tagredor said, enthusiastically.

"It's the largest pure piece of amber ever found in this universe." Sambash said. "If we steal it, we'll have the ultimate conductor for our plan."

"How can a stone play music?" The stag beetle asked. His brother quickly whapped him in the face.

"You idiot, he means an energy conductor." Torbador corrected. "We'll need it to harness the energy we'll need."

"Hornhead's got it right." Sambash said. "This is the key part of the operation. Unfortunately, the place is pretty heavily guarded."

"Can't we just smash them?" Tagredor asked.

"Yeah, but not without getting attention." Sambash said. "And we already have enough of that. If the Zoorangers figure out what we're doing before we pull this off, we'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble."

"So, we're gonna rob the place tonight, when no one is around, right?" Torbador asked

"Got it." Sambash said, pointing at the monster. "So, just a few hours left until we take the gem…"

"And turn this city to dust."

* * *

While the two hadn't missed rollcall, they were immediately sent to Bogo's office for a brief chat. Nick sat in his chair, a bit impatient, and flicking his tail back and forth rapidly.

"We should be out there trying to find those crooks." He said, frustrated. "Why does Bogo even need to see us?"

"He probably wants to know our progress on the case." Judy replied. "I'm a bit nervous too, Nick, but don't worry about it too much."

He grunted in response.

The door slammed open, as Bogo walked into the office. He silently walked to his seat, and then sat down, glaring at the two officers. There was an awkward silence for a moment.

"I see you two haven't made much progress in the last few days." Bogo said. "A bunch of monster thieves go around stealing jewels, and you two, expert monster hunters, can't seem to get them."

"It's a bit more complex than that, sir." Judy started. "Last time we had to deal with something like this, the monster wasn't that strong…"

"Now we're dealing with two body-building bugs and a general." Nick finished. "This isn't exactly something we can deal with that quickly, especially when you put Wolford on another case…"

"Well, luckily for you, Wolford has been taken off that case for the moment." Bogo said. "I had expected you to do this yourself, but it looks like you'll need help, like always."

"We'll deal with them the next time they attack, we swear." Judy said, standing up on her seat. "If we have everyone on our side, it'll be easy."

"Yes, probably." Bogo said. "But, there's another thing that I need to talk to you two about."

"And that would be…?" Judy said, before glancing at Nick. Both of them were confused and a bit worried, because they had absolutely no idea what Bogo was going to bring up.

The buffalo took a deep breath. "The next time you want to bring your giant robot here, don't." He said, trying to hide his anger, and not very well at that.

"What?" The both of them let out, even more confused.

A moment later, and the two were back in the lobby, running to the door. As soon as they stepped outside, they saw the giant fox mech, sitting in the parking lot. Judy's ears drooped down, while the fox just let out another sigh.

He stepped towards the robot and let out a yell. "BAD!" He shouted. "BAD GIANT ROBOT!"

The mech's ears drooped down at this.

"What are we supposed to do with him?" Judy asked. "Hunting down Sambash is important, but if we don't find a way to get ZooKitsune somewhere out of the way, then we'll be in even more trouble."

Nick let out a groan. "Try to see if Bogo can let us go home and try to figure all this out." He asked.

"Good idea, having our own space will probably help." The rabbit said, before rushing off back into the station.

Nick looked back up at the mech, its ears still drooping. "What's going on with you?" He asked. "How did you even show up? I haven't even touched my Zoolizer since last night." He briefly looked at the device on his wrist, checking to see if there was anything in the slot, but there obviously wasn't.

The fox thought for a moment. "Hm, maybe I can try this…" He said, pulling out the red ZooTag. He quickly plugged it into the Zoolizer.

"TONDEMONAI!"

"Of course."

* * *

"Alright, Saya, think." The pink figure said, tapping on her helmet. "How hard is it to find a three-story tall space cat?" Apparently, the answer to her question was "very hard".

She had been searching all over the city for a hint of her partner, but she couldn't find anything. She had snuck around on the rooftops in order to avoid being seen, didn't want to cause too much of a fuss, though there probably would have already been a fuss if Gingat had somehow ended up in the city.

The Ranger was standing on top of a building at the moment, in fact. She had decided to take a break for a short bit, and sat down on the flat roof, legs crossed. It had been around seven or so hours since she had gotten there, and all she had done was search, resting for a bit wouldn't be a bad idea.

She sat there for a moment, before being startled by something.

"Hello!" A cheery voice said from behind her. She quickly sprung to her feet with cat-like reflexes and turned to face the voice.

It was a small wildcat, wearing a white and black dress. Not a nominally strange character… aside from the fact that her fur was entirely pink, and her eyes a piercing yellow-orange. Saya hadn't been there for that long, so this could have been a fashion statement, but it did remind her of something. Though, this was still definitely strange.

"Who are you?" She asked, politely. "And, uh, how did you get up here?"

"I don't know!" The wildcat said, presumably responding to the second question.

There was a bit of awkward silence for a moment. "You don't look like everyone else here." The wildcat said.

"I'm, uh, not from around town." Saya said.

"Oh." The cat responded, disappointed. "Then you can't help me find help?"

"Help?" Saya responded, a bit shocked. "What do you need help with?"

"Well, I think I'm supposed to be meeting someone somewhere…" The wildcat said, crossing her arms. "But I can't remember where."

"Oh, well…" The Ranger started. "I don't really know if I can help you there. Have you tried going to the police?"

"Police?" The cat said, ears popping up. "That sounds familiar…"

"I have directions to the station." Saya continued, pulling out a slip of paper. "I don't really know if I'll need them, so maybe you can take it?"

"Ooh, that'd be nice!" The cat said, clapping her paws together. Saya kneeled down and handed the paper to the cat. Written on it were several different street names, and directions to follow.

"Think you can get there yourself?" Saya asked. The cat nodded in response. "Alright, let's get you down from here."

The Ranger lifted the cat into the air, and then jumped down to the ground. She placed the cat back on the ground. "Oh, by the way," Saya started. "You wouldn't have happened to see a, say, giant cat walking around? Giant sized, maybe mechanical?"

The cat thought for a moment. "I saw a big thing like that walking around earlier." She tilted her head. "Are there a lot of those? Did you lose yours?"

"I... I did, yes." Saya answered. "Thank you for your help, I'll look around for her."

There was another awkward silence as the cat simply looked up at Saya, and then squinted. "I feel like I know something about you." She said, cryptically.

Now it was starting to get a bit creepy.

"Well, uh, you remind me of someone I know, too." She replied. "I'll tell her about it when I find her."

"Alright!" The cat said. "Hope you find your big robot friend!" She said, before running off.

That was certainly strange. Everything going on was strange, but the way the cat had acted, and suddenly appeared… It was just very strange, and a tad uncomfortable.

"I should just get going." She said, rubbing the side of her helmet. She then quickly leaped off.

* * *

"So, finally off that cheese case?" Emily joked as she elbowed the wolf right in the ribs. Her, Henry, and Max were all in the break room, with the wolf in the middle of pouring some coffee.

"Yeah, thank god for that." Max said. "I get they needed my nose, but I don't know if I'll be smelling anything BESIDES cheese for the next week…"

"Why would an otter even want to steal cheese?" Henry asked from the couch. "That's just nonsense."

"Yeah that's just stupid." Emily said as she grabbed the coffee pot and poured her own cup. She took a slow sip. "So, uh, how's everything been going?"

"Alright, I guess." Max replied. "Haven't really gotten much done lately besides work, though."

"Anything else that's been going on?" She followed. "You know, with you and Delgato?"

"Ohh, I get it." Max said, a bit unamused. "No, we haven't gotten that far, its just been short dates, you know."

"What? No, idiot." Emily snapped. "I was just wondering how your dates have gone."

"OH." Max said, ears popping up. He quickly gulped some of his coffee down. "They've been going alright, we've already been partners on the force for a while, so we know each other pretty well."

There was silence for a quick moment.

"I'm glad everyone's been taking this so well." The wolf said. "I was really worried about coming out…"

"You're our friend, man." The hyena said. "Just because you're gay doesn't change that."

"Bi." Max corrected. "I'm bi."

"Same difference."

Henry quickly got up off the sofa. "You think those two got rid of the giant fox mech yet?" He asked.

"Hopefully." Emily said. "Nobody's been able to get out of the parking lot all day because of that thing."

"Hey, don't be too mean to it." Max said. "There's probably something going on, its one of those weekly plot things."

The two looked at him.

"You're looking at me like weird stuff doesn't happen on a weekly basis."

A short while later, the three exited the break room, and started chatting as they walked to the lobby. "So, you guys are stuck on patrol for the rest of the day?" Max asked.

"Yeah, it kinda sucks." Emily said. "Wish we could and do something exciting."

"Maybe it's a good thing to have downtime for a while." Henry replied. "Don't want to get too overworked."

The three soon entered the lobby, and as they passed Clawhauser's desk, he shouted to them. "Hey, guys!" He said. The three turned to him.

"Is this about another concert?" Max asked.

"No, this is about an assignment." The cheetah said. "A few minutes ago, someone came in asking for help, but they were a bit weird. I asked Bogo what to do, and he said you three were the only ones who were free that have experience with weird."

"I mean, that's fair enough." Max said.

The three quickly headed to the witness room. Inside was sat a wildcat, with pink fur and gleaming yellow eyes. "Oh, hello!" She said as they entered. "Are you going to help me?"

"Uh, yeah, we guess?" Emily said, shrugging.

The three sat down at a table across from the wildcat. She started to explain her problem to them.

"So, I'm supposed to be finding someone somewhere in the city, but I don't know where or who." She said.

"Why did you plan a meeting with someone you don't know?" Max asked. The wildcat shrugged.

"I can't really remember anything." She said. "I woke up in a field, and just knew that I had to find someone. But other than that, I don't know anything else."

The three quickly glanced at each other. This was definitely an odd case, and that wasn't even including the cat's rather odd choice of furdye. "Uh, it's a bit hard to help when we don't know anything else." Max said. "Can you at least give us your name?"

"I don't know my name." The wildcat said.

"Of course she doesn't." Emily sighed, placing her paw on her forehead in frustration.

"Well, there goes checking the files." Max muttered.

"We could always try to get a DNA test, figure all this out from that." Henry suggested.

"Good idea." Max said, before looking at the cat. "Mind if we take some of your fur?"

Emily quickly slapped the wolf on the back of the head. "Idiota, do you know how long a DNA test takes?" She said. "If she needs to meet with someone, this is urgent! A DNA test takes a day and a half here!"

"So, what are you suggesting we do?" Max asked.

"Well, if she has amnesia, we can just take her around the city." She said. "Something might jog her memory. Hopefully."

"We don't have anything else to go on, so…" The wolf started shrugging. "You mind going on a tour of the city with us, Kat?"

"'Kat'?" Everyone else in the room said, either confused or surprised.

"Well, we need something to call her." Max said. "It seems appropriate enough. Besides, she kind of reminds me of someone from TV."

Emily let out another sigh.

* * *

The fox and rabbit had shortly returned to their apartment after the events at the station, and quickly hunkered down to come up with a plan to deal with both their problems at once.

Or more specifically, Judy was trying to solve the theft problem, Nick was trying to solve the giant robot problem.

"Got anything yet, Carrots?" Nick asked from the window as the rabbit paced around the living room.

"Its hard to come up with a plan when you don't have any details." The rabbit said, frustrated. "I just need some kind of clue to where Sambash and his creepy crawly goons are going to attack next."

She looked over at Nick, who was, in turn, looking out the window. She quickly walked over, and stared at the fox mech across the street, laying down in the alleyway.

"I feel like there's something going on with all this." Nick said, calmly, albeit sounding a bit sad. He turned to look at the rabbit. "That doesn't sound weird, does it?"

"After all we've been through, I know this has to mean something." Judy replied. There was a brief pause as the two looked out at the robot again. "Here's an idea," She started. "How about I do some research on precious gems, and you go out and try to, I dunno, talk with ZooKitsune somehow?"

"You know how unlikely that is to work?" Nick said.

"Better than you just standing here sulking."

"Fair enough."

Nick quickly headed out, putting on a coat for the cold weather. Judy plopped herself on the couch and pulled out her phone, flicking through as many articles she could find about recent gemstone discoveries.

The fox crossed the street, and walked up to the massive, eye-catching mech. Its mechanical front paws were roughly twice the size of his own body, and it towered above him, even while laying down. He hadn't really seen the fox mech since their earliest days of being superheroes.

"Hey, bud." The fox said gently, placing his paw on ZooKitsune's. "Sorry for yelling at you earlier."

The mech let out a snort through its large nose, which was visible as giant clouds of smoke. Nick quickly climbed his way up the paw, and then sat down on the hard surface.

"I wasn't trying to be mean, I was just frustrated. I just want to know what's going on." He said. "Why you just… showed up out of nowhere."

The fox mech slid its head across the ground and shot a glowing stare at the fox. It opened its mouth, letting out a metallic growl.

"No need to go there." Nick said. "I'm just trying to be friendly, alright? I don't mean that I want you to go away forever, but… I don't know how to put this right, I just want you to go back to wherever you go when we don't summon you."

The fox mech continued to glare at him, making the real fox a bit uncomfortable. "Or, just stay here until we figure out HOW to do that?" Nick quickly followed. "Not trying to be rude, don't worry."

It growled again, and Nick simply shrugged in response. "I wish you and I could talk, directly." He said with a sigh. "That would make this a lot simpler, huh?" The fox's ears jolted up. "That's it, isn't it?"

The fox mech's ears jolted up as well.

"You want to tell me something, right?" Nick said, getting a bit excited. "There's… something important that you need to tell me, but… language barriers."

The fox quickly hopped off the mech's paw as it sat up, and quickly nodded its head. "Then I just need to figure out how to do that!" Nick said, enthusiastic. His enthusiasm quickly faltered. "Uh, but I have no idea where to start looking, or what to do, so that's a problem."

The fox mech laid back down, zooming down at a pace fast enough to cause a small earthquake.

"NICK!" A voice shouted from across the street. The fox looked up, seeing Judy at the window. "I FOUND SOMETHING!"

"That's my que." Nick said. He placed a paw on the mech. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out soon enough."

ZooKitsune let out a small whimper in response.

Nick quickly rushed over to the building, and into the apartment. "Have a nice chat with your robo-fox?" Judy asked as the fox walked in.

"I think I figured something out." He said. "ZooKitsune wants to tell me something important, but he can't because he can't talk."

"So, we need to find a way to get you and him to talk." Judy said, flatly. "Uh huh. Let's focus on something a bit more manageable, first."

"You found something important?" Nick asked, as he walked over to the rabbit.

She pulled out her phone, which was displaying an article called "Massive Piece of Amber Unearthed! Largest in History!"

"This piece of amber is almost two tons, and guess where its being displayed?" Judy asked.

"Uh, Natural History Museum in this very city?"

"Bingo." She replied. "I don't know if he'll be going after it soon, but he WILL go for it at some point."

"So that's his plan." Nick said, pounding his fist into his paw. "He wants to revive the dinosaurs."

Judy opened her mouth to reply, but it hung there for a second. "You know, as far as we know, that's entirely accurate."

"Just joking around, Carrots." He said. "So, we're gonna go and guard the museum until something happens?"

"Yeah, as much as I really hate that place." The rabbit said through gritted teeth. "Seriously, how many terrible things have happened to us at that place? It's crazy!"

"How many ancient evil artifacts are there too, right?" Nick followed up, with a chuckle.

"Technically there was only one, but I get what you mean." Judy sighed. "I'll phone up the others and tell them to meet us there. You go get the cruiser ready."

"Got it, chief." The fox jokingly said, with a faux-salute. He quickly headed for the door.

"Oh, one more thing!" The rabbit said in the middle of dialing.

"Yes?"

"Can you try to get ZooKitsune to STAY here this time?"

* * *

"You remember anything yet, Kat?" Max asked the wildcat. The four were walking around the city at random, hoping for anything to jog the cat's memory. The city was large enough, and she had to have come from somewhere. Right now, they were in the middle of the shopping district.

"Not really." Kat said, bluntly.

"You know this cat, sir?" Emily asked a nearby passing moose. She pointed towards Kat, hoping for something.

"Uh, nope, never seen anything like her in my life." The moose said. "With that fur color, I would've remembered."

Emily let out a sigh as she met with the other three. "That's about seventy people asked this far." She said. "And nothing, only comments about her fur."

"The city has a population of over three million, Em, of course we're not getting anything from just seventy mammals." Henry said, a bit annoyed.

"She hasn't remembered anything from looking around, either." Max followed. "I feel like we should've gotten anything by now…"

"I don't really like this place." Kat said. "Its too crowded, too big."

"Looks like she isn't taking to the city very well." Henry replied. He quickly raised an eyebrow. "Hey, how about we take her to the forest park? She might be more at home there."

"Are you really sure that will work?" Emily said.

"Forest?" Kat quickly said, interrupting the hyena. She seemed to be excited by the word alone. "That sounds like a fun place!"

"Okay, maybe it will." The hyena said with a shrug.

Soon after, the three were back in the police cruiser, and driving over to the heavily forested park. It was a park that was kept completely natural and preserved, thanks to the fact it helped as both a calming area for certain types of mammals, and a marketable tourist trap.

Emily and Kat were sitting in the back seat of the car. "You sure you don't remember anything?" She asked the wildcat.

"Nope." She said. Emily sighed in response. "Well, actually, there was something."

Everyone's ears popped up, prepared to hear what the cat was going to say.

"I remember a train." She said. "And I remember getting off a train. That's it."

Everyone's ears dropped down in slight disappointment. "So, you remember what a train is," The bull started. "But not what a forest is?"

"Yep!"

"Well, if definitely means she came from out of town." Max said. "We just don't know WHERE she comes from, which… doesn't help."

"Do you at least know what the train looked like?" Emily asked, hopeful.

"It was…" The cat paused for a moment as she put her claw to her chin. "Very dark".

"Okay, that's not helping." Emily said.

Eventually the four arrived just outside the forested park. "WOW!" Kat shouted, looking up at the tall trees. "They're so BIG! I wish I was that big."

They headed into the forest and took in the relaxing atmosphere of the place. "I should come here more often." Max said as he sat down on the grass. "It makes me feel like I'm at home."

"I prefer more open spaces." Emily said, clearly a bit uncomfortable.

"I like places I can actually walk around in without bumping into anything." Henry said, his horns barely touching two trees next to him.

"I LOVE THIS PLACE!" Kat said as she zipped around the forest rapidly, destroying the calm. "It reminds me of my home!"

"Home?" Max said, quickly jolting to his feet. "You remember your home?"

"Uh." The cat said, pausing. "Kinda? It's a bit fuzzy, but it looks like… this place." She said. "Except there's more mountains."

"Interesting." Henry said. "That doesn't really match up with anywhere near us."

"You must come from pretty far away, huh?" Max said to the cat. "You remember anything else?"

"I remember…" She started, closing her eyes. "I remember darkness, and then bright lights. Little ones all around me. And my friends were there, and then…" Her eyes popped open, and she looked around. "That's it."

"Your friends?" Emily asked, kneeling down. "Do you remember anything about them?"

"There was… a lion, and a wolf, and… two others." She said. "Its all a blur, but I feel like something's… super duper wrong."

"That's both vague and very bad sounding." Max said. "You guys think there might be something weirder than we thought going on here?"

"When is it ever NOT weirder than we expect?" Emily said.

Max's phone started to buzz. He quickly flicked it on and answered the call. "Hey, Max, how's it going?" Judy said from the other side. "You busy right now?"

"Well, yeah, Emily, Henry and I are pretty busy with a case-"

"Oh, all three of you are there?" She said. "Saves me a few calls. What case are you on? This isn't related to the cheese thing, is it?"

"No, we'll go over what's happening later." Max said. "Why are you calling, anyway?"

"Well, I thiiink that I figured out where Sambash and his monsters are planning on attacking next… or soon." She explained. "Think you can give the case a break and come over to the natural history museum?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Max said with a shrug. "We might take a bit, but, you know, we'll be there."

"Great!" Judy said. "See you soon!"

She hung up, and the wolf looked at the other mammals. "You know, I was kind of hoping we'd get to keep NOT fighting monsters for a bit." Emily said, bluntly.

"Well, we're a team, she's our leader…" Max said. "Let's head back to the car, I'll drop Kat off at my place and we can head off."

"Ooh, what's your place like?" Kat asked excitedly as they headed towards the park's exit, clapping her paws together.

"Probably not a place you'll like." Max said. "But I need to ask you one thing."

"Please don't touch any of my toys."

* * *

"Alright, just got done talking with the curator." Judy said as she stepped out of the museum. "He says its better if we wait out here and not disturb any visitors."

"Yeah, lot of visitors." Nick said sarcastically, as he sat on the steps. The rabbit walked over and hovered over him. His ears were flat, meaning he wasn't in the best of moods.

"Guessing you're thinking about something?" She asked.

"Yeah, just about ZooKitsune, how we're going to talk to him…"

"So, you were actually serious about wanting to talk to ZooKitsune?" Judy said in disbelief.

"I am absolutely serious, yes." The fox said, crossing his arms. "I mean, we don't really have anything else to go on right now, so it's a better theory than… nothing."

"I mean, yeah, but…" She paused for a moment. "Usually I'm the one who comes up with ideas like that."

"Yeah, weird slash bad ideas are usually your thing." Nick said, causing the rabbit to roll her eyes. "But, I dunno, I felt a connection with that big guy. Might just be my imagination, but I feel like he wants to talk to me."

"He is your robot, Nick." Judy said. "Obviously you have some sort of emotional connection. You also have bigger emotional blocks than I do, so maybe that has something to do with it?"

"You think it might be worried about me?" Nick asked with a chuckle. "Why would it be worried? There's nothing bad going on right now. Aside from, you know, the obvious criminal issue."

"Mmmm hmmmm, suuuuure." Judy said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The fox let out, but he was quickly interrupted by a car horn. The two looked up to see a police cruiser, with max in the driver's seat. He waved out the window, before him and the SPD officers got out of the car.

"That was quick." Judy said.

"Police sirens help a lot." Max said. "Cut out a lot of traffic issues."

"Isn't that misconduct, or something?" Nick asked.

"Technically it is police business so… I guess not." Judy said, though she was stretching a bit. "Everyone better get ready; the monsters could be showing up soon."

A few hours passed, and the sun was starting to come down. All of the museum workers had left, and the moon was already high in the star filled sky. All five of them were bored out of their minds.

"Looks like this idea was a bust." Emily said as she got up from the steps. "And my phone's almost dead, so we better get going…"

"Just give me a bit longer, alright?" Judy said. "They're thieves, they'd steal from here at night, that's what makes sense."

"That's an understandable point," Henry started as he got up as well. "But its already nine-thirty, and we STILL have work tomorrow."

"Yeah, and I kind of have a guest over at my house." Max said, getting a bit antsy. "It's been a while, and I should probably check in…"

"We were out chasing those three until two in the morning." Nick said. "Now you get to know how we've felt the last few days."

"Oh, what feeling is that?" Laughed a sinister voice. "Lots of pain? Disappointment and anger?"

The five quickly turned to the museum's entrance way. Standing there was Sambash and his two beetle cronies, flanking him on both sides.

"Hah, I was right!" Judy said, leaping to her feet. "I knew you'd come here to steal that amber, Sambash!"

"So, what?" The biker monster said with a chuckle. "We'll just squash you and bust into the place no problem!"

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Nick said. The five quickly transformed and prepared their weapons.

"Torbador, Tagredor, crush them." Sambash ordered.

"Got it, boss!" The stag beetle said, pounding at its chest. The rhino beetle just gave an affirmative grunt, and the two rushed towards the Zoorangers.

Blue and Red leaped in first, Blue heading for Torbador and Red going for Tagredor. The rabbit leaped up and delivered a quick kick to the rhino beetle monster, causing it to stumble back, but it then fired a laser from its horn, knocking her back Red kept his distance from the stag beetle monster, and fired a few blasts from the Vickscannon. The blasts hit the monster, but it barely stopped it as it rushed forwards and scooped the fox into a crushing bear hug.

Silver, Green, and Pink leaped in next, Silver quickly dashing past both of the monsters and slashing at them with his blade. This knocked Red from Tagredor's grasp and caused Torbador to stumble before he could follow up his attack on Blue. Green and Pink rapidly fired their blasters at the two monsters.

"That was pretty reckless!" Silver shouted at the fox and rabbit.

"Guess we just want to finish this." Red said as he pulled out his sword, leaped up, and slashed at Tagredor. The monster was sent stumbling back.

Torbador quickly turned towards Silver and let out a growl. "You'll pay for that, pipsqueak."

The beetle monster quickly fired out a barrage of lasers from its horn, directly in the wolf's direction. He quickly blocked a few with his blade, but a few exploded into sparks at his feet.

Pink quickly rushed at the rhino beetle, performing a thrusting kick to the monster's back. It stumbled forward, but still seemed to be barely hurt.

"Blue, help me with a follow up!" The hyena said. The rabbit quickly leaped over, and as the monster turned around, they both unleashed rapid laser fire onto it. The shots all connected, but it barely seemed to phase the massive beast.

"Probably not how you expected that to go, huh?" Blue said nervously as the monster started to stomp towards them.

"Yeah, I was expecting more… hurting." Emily answered. "Hell is this guy made of?"

"Beetles have very tough exoskeletons!" Silver shouted over. "You'll need to hit him with something tougher!" He quickly leaped off towards the recovering Tagredor.

The wolf quickly brought his blade down on the stag beetle, who let out a roar before backhanding him. Red quickly leaped back as Tagredor approached, but Green quickly ran in and smacked the monster with his cannon. This seemed to cause some actual damage, as the monster clutched at its face.

"Something tougher, huh?" Blue said, quickly pulling out a white ZooTag. She quickly plugged it in.

"TRAINING THE WILD!  
CUTTING THE JUNGLE!  
POTSURI! ZUBARI!  
WILD AXE!"

The large axe appeared in the rabbit's paws. She quickly tossed it up into the air, and then leaped up. She grabbed the handle, and then slammed it down on the rhino beetle monster, slicing directly through its middle. Smoke bellowed off of its body as it stumbled back, this time clearly in pain.

"God, you guys are losers." Sambash said as he walked into the fight. He quickly lifted his gun up and unloaded several shots in the directions of the Zoorangers, rapidly slapping the hammer to shoot as fast as possible.

The five quickly started to dodge the flying bullets, with Blue slamming her axe into the ground to use as a makeshift shield. Some of the bullets hit Tagredor and Torbador as well, causing them to bounce off their thick carapaces and fly around even more erratically.

Green stopped from his run, and then fired a large shot from his cannon at Sambash. The biker monster was struck by it directly, having been lost in his flurry of gun fire, and was knocked to the ground.

"Boss!" Tagredor shouted. Him and his brother quickly ran over to Sambash and helped him back up to his feet, but the biker monster shoved them away immediately after.

Sambash let out a growl, and then started to shoot even more rapidly. The two beetles joined in as well, firing lasers rapidly from their horns. The four other Zoorangers continued to scatter as bullets and lasers flew, while Blue hid behind her large weapon.

"Got any ideas?!" Red shouted at their leader as he leaped up to avoid a red laser.

"Give me a sec!" The rabbit replied, glancing around, trying to formulate a plan. She quickly got up, and then kicked her axe out of the ground, catching it as it came back down. "Got it! Everyone, over here!"

"I think getting in one place will just make us easier to shoot at!" Pink shouted, as a bullet flew by, barely missing her.

"That's just something we'll have to risk!" The rabbit shouted. The five quickly gathered directly across from the three monsters.

"The hell are you idiots doing?" Sambash questioned.

"Wish we knew that ourselves!" Red replied.

Blue quickly threw her axe up into the air. "When it comes back down, everyone shoot the axe!" She ordered, pulling out her blasters. The three of the four quickly prepared their guns, while Silver quickly fumbled to set his sword to Sun Mode.

"…What?" Sambash said, a bit surprised.

The axe fell back down a few feet in front of the Zoorangers. All five of them fired at it at once, the force of the blast causing it to launch forwards at incredible speeds. It zoomed past them, causing an explosion that launched the monsters forward.

"Somehow that worked!" Blue cheered, raising her fists up.

"You just got lucky!" Sambash growled as he and his monsters got back to their feet. "Tagredor, Torbador, show these meddlers your 'brotherly love'!"

The two monsters closed in on each other, and then pressed their fists together. Their horns started to glow, before energy crackled from them. It gathered at their fists, turning green. They then flung the energy ball towards the Zoorangers, who leaped out of the way as it hit the ground. The ground burst into a massive explosion, which still managed to scatter the Zoorangers.

A massive hole had been carved out by the energy ball, rubble strewn about around it. The five beaten Zoorangers struggled to get back up as Sambash and his goons headed towards the museum.

"Now if you chumps will excuse me," Sambash started as he walked past Blue. "I have a museum to rob."

"Hold it, Barban scum!"

The three monsters turned around and were suddenly pelted with a barrage of pink energy arrows. Blue quickly scrambled to her feet thanks to this distraction and dashed off to help her friends.

"Another goddamn nuisance!?" Sambash shouted as the smoke from the projectiles cleared up. He instantly froze as he saw who had fired them.

Standing a few meters away was another Sentai Ranger. She was female, definitely, wearing an almost entirely pink and white outfit. The midsection, gloves, and boots of her outfit were entirely white, with a black zigzag design at the cuffs of the gloves and boots, with the midsection having the design circle around it until petering off at the back and cover most of her body. Her sleeves, legs, and skirt were completely pink. There was also a pink stripe on the midsection, separating another white stripe which hosted a large V-shaped symbol in the middle.

Her helmet, however, had an oval shaped visor, and a feline-like face directly above that, marked with orange eyes. Two silver spikes jutted up off the sides of the helmet, stylized to look like ears. She also had a silver mouthpiece, and two silver bits off to the sides of the helmet. There was also a holster to her hip, which held a small dagger.

Sambash let out a snort, which then turned into a laugh. "You okay, boss?" Torbador asked, worried.

"I guess it was only a matter of time before one of them showed up." Sambash said, regaining himself. He lifted his head back up and glared directly at the Sentai Ranger. "So, you come here to stop me, Gingaman?"

"I took a sacred oath to fight against you pirate goons!" The pink Ranger shouted. She drew out a weapon, shaped like a bow and arrow with two metallic parts at the end, colored pink and yellow in the middle. She pulled back on the air, and then fired out a burst of energy arrows towards Sambash.

He quickly shot the arrows out of the sky. "Go get the amber." He ordered to his minions. "I'll deal with this pest."

The two beetles turned around, preparing to head into the museum, only to be met by the Zoorangers.

"Surpriiiiiise." Red let out, before all of them drew their weapons.

Sambash stepped forwards, ignoring the sounds of fighting suddenly coming from behind him. He raised his gun towards the ranger, who in turned prepped her bow.

"GingaPink, right?" He asked. "I remember you from back when. Not as much of a pain as your red friend, but still a pain."

GingaPink quickly drew her dagger, Sambash in turn aiming his gun at her. The two started to circle around each other, looking for an opening. "You gonna say anything?" Sambash asked, gun still pointed. "No snappy retorts? No insults? I gave you a perfectly good opening."

"I, uh…" She said, a bit nervously. Before she could finish, she rushed at the monster, who quickly unloaded fire on her. She swiped the bullets away with her dagger, before leaping up and slashing down on Sambash.

The biker monster quickly raised his gun, blocking the strike. "You what?" Sambash said, starting to get irritated.

"Honestly, I don't really remember you." GingaPink said. Sambash suddenly froze at this. Seeing the opportunity, the pink Ranger quickly swatted the gun out of his hand and slashed at him several times.

Sambash stumbled back from the strikes, but simply seemed stunned. "How can you NOT remember me?" Sambash growled. "You remember my name at least, right?"

"San-Something, right?" GingaPink guessed. "Its been twenty years, a lot of things have happened between then and now."

The biker monster clutched his fists together as he started to let out an angry yell. "Your kind ruined my life multiple times over, and you just forget it!?" He screamed, utterly furious. It was a bit startling to everyone around.

The Zoorangers, who were in the middle of combat with the two larger monsters, had stopped fighting. In fact, the monsters themselves were taken aback by their normally relaxed boss suddenly bursting into a rage.

Torbador, who had his grip locked around the neck of Green, let go, and headed over to Sambash. Tagredor, who was in the midst of blocking sword swipes from Red and Silver, pushed the two aside and headed over as well.

"Boss, think about your blood pressure!" Torbador yelled, worried.

"I'll kill you all!" Sambash screamed again. "I'll make sure you remember my name during your dying breath!"

The two beetle monsters gripped onto their boss' shoulders. "Hold on, Boss!" Tagredor said. "If you go in like this, you'll get killed again!"

"GRAHHH"

"What in the world is going on?" Blue asked as the Zoorangers regrouped. They watched as GingaPink stared on, confused, as the monsters tried to hold back their leader.

"I dunno, maybe she insulted his outfit." Red joked.

Sambash broke free of the two monsters' grasp, and then rushed at GingaPink. He attempted to throw a punch at her, but he stumbled as she stepped out of the way.

"Seriously?" She said. "You could at least send Tagredor and Torbador at me."

Sambash let out a laugh. "You… remember THEM!?" He shouted. "YOU REMEMBER THEM!?"

Without warning, Sambash suddenly pulled two guns out of nowhere, and spun around. He rapidly fired at GingaPink, causing her to fly back. He then turned to the Zoorangers and prepared to unload on them.

The monster was suddenly knocked from his trance as the ground began to shake.

"What the-?"

"Oh no…" Red let out, slapping his paw against his helmet.

ZooKitsune suddenly jumped up over a building, and then crashed down in front of the museum. It glared down at Sambash, who stood there, paralyzed. It let out a roar, and then sent him flying into the museum's wall with a swat of its metallic paw.

"BOSS!" Tagredor shouted as the two beetle monsters rushed over. They quickly grabbed him from the rubble, Tagredor lifting him up onto his shoulder.

Torbador turned to the Rangers. "Your pet might have stopped Boss' plan right now, but we'll be back, even stronger than before!" The two then leaped up into the air, their backs unfolding into wings, as they took off into the sky.

"Well, that was something." Max said as they untransformed.

Judy quickly rushed over to the injured GingaPink. "Are you alright, ma'am?" She asked as she tried to help her up.

"I'm fine." GingaPink said, though with a pained groan. "I've taken worse hits than that."

A moment later, the five had helped GingaPink over to the steps of the museum. "So, you're another one of those guys from the other universe?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, I am." GingaPink said, glancing at all of them. "My name is Saya."

"You can fill us in about whatever your team did back at our apartment." Nick said.

"Alright, then lets get going-" Saya tried to say as she got up. She let out a grunt before falling back to the step. "Maybe he got me worse than I thought…"

"Max, Henry," Judy started, turning to the two. "Help us bring Saya over to ZooKitsune, we can ride back to the apartment on him."

"Actually," Max started, rubbing the back of his neck. "As much as I would love to, and I would, I kind of have a, uh, 'case' going on back at my house."

"You're the last guy I'd expect to make up an excuse to miss this." Nick said.

"It's not an excuse." Henry said. "We had to drop off a, uh… character, at Max's house before we came here."

"I'll help carry her." Emily said. "Let Max go back to his house and deal with what he needs to."

Max started to run back to his car, but quickly turned around for a moment. "I'll see you later, Pink Ranger!" He shouted.

"That wolf seems a bit odd." Saya said.

"He's a really big fan of your work." Nick followed.

* * *

A short while later, the five had arrived back at the apartment. Saya was sitting on the couch next to Judy, relaxing in order to help the pain go away. "Thank you for your hospitality." She said to the rabbit.

"Helping others is what we do." Judy replied.

"And fight monsters." Nick said from the kitchen. "We also do that."

The pink ranger let out a laugh. "All this is making me feel a bit… nostalgic." She said. "Its been years since I had to do this."

"What was your team like?" Emily asked as she leaned over the couch. "You look like you kinda had an animal motif, goin' by the helmet."

"Star Beast Sentai, Gingaman." She said. "That was our team name. We came from a civilization hidden from the rest of our world and were sworn to a family oath to protect the planet from the space pirate crew Barban. Just as our ancestors had done eons ago." She continued. "We used our elemental magic to defeat them, along with help from our Star Beasts, giant mythical animals from space.

"Whoa, whoa." Nick said as he walked back into the living room, holding a cup of coffee. "So, your world has killer robots, ninjas, alternate dimensions, mystic kung-fu, demons, magical hidden villages, AND space animals? Are you all sure you even come from the same place, because all of this seems very incongruent."

"Nick has a point." Henry said. "From everything I've heard, a lot of your world doesn't seem to match up with what others have said about it."

"I'm pretty sure it's the same world?" Saya said, tilting her head, as if she wasn't sure of it herself. "I mean, I met at least a few of the other teams you guys have met, back when we saved the world from those aliens…"

"Of course." Nick said, before sipping some of his coffee.

"You had to leave your home and go into a world you didn't recognize in order to help it?" Judy asked. "Sounds a bit similar to everything going on recently."

Saya nodded. "In a way, yeah." She said. "But that's what being a hero is about, protecting lives no matter how much they know them."

The rabbit nodded in response and fell quiet for a moment. "So, uh, you were saying something about space animals?"

"Oh, right!" Saya said. "The Star Beasts were incredible, and some of our best friends…" Saya froze for a moment, before getting back to her feet. "Oh no, I completely forgot!"

"Forgot about what?" Emily asked.

"When I came here, I brought my Star Beast, Gingat, with me." She started to explain. "But when I got here, she… vanished."

"We've handled missing mammals before." Judy said. "We can probably find her with enough effort."

"Well, you'd think that, considering she's several stories tall." Saya said. "Actually, they were our giant robot, they could shift between organic and robotic forms."

"Wait, the Star Beasts are giant robots?!" Nick said, surprised. "That just brings up MORE questions."

"Yeah, like 'how did you lose a giant cat'?" Emily followed.

"Like I said, she disappeared." Saya reiterated. "And if we don't find her… I'm afraid that something bad will happen."

Judy quickly hopped off the couch. "I know one bad thing that will happen if we don't find Gingat," She started. "We won't get the next mech upgrade, which will in turn lead to us likely losing the giant monster fight and the city being destroyed."

"That's a problem, yeah." Nick said. He quickly fell silent, and then looked over at the rabbit. "Do you think that has anything to do with…?"

"Oh, maybe." Judy said.

"What are you talking about?" Saya asked.

"Well, ever since this morning, we've been having a bit of trouble with one of our own robots." Judy explained. "The one that helped us get you back here, it hasn't really wanted to… leave."

"That's definitely a bit strange." Saya said, before thinking for a moment. "Has Nick tried talking to it?"

"I have, but it's a robot." He said. "It can't exactly talk back to me."

"Hmm…" Saya said, placing her gloved hand to her chin. "If its behaving like this, then it isn't entirely robotic, at least not emotionally. Our Star Beasts were partly robotic, but they could think and feel like us too."

"That's a decent point." Henry said. "If it were completely a machine, then it wouldn't have shown up."

"So, probably something weird going on." Emily said with a shrug.

"This is just great." Nick said with a disgruntled sigh. "We got robbers to deal with, a rogue robot, and a missing space cat. How are we supposed to juggle all that at once?"

"Well, at the very least, the monsters probably won't be doing anything until Sambash calms down…" Judy started, before being interrupted.

"Sambash, that was it!" Saya shouted. "I had it on the tip of my tongue!"

"Uh, well, I say we can handle things until the next attack." The rabbit continued. "We just need to split things up a bit. I'll stay here and keep on alert, Nick can go and try to talk to ZooKitsune, and then Em, Henry, and Saya can go and track down Gingat."

"Oh, so you're going to stay here and relax while all of us go and do important things." Nick said, sarcastically.

"I'm going to call into Clawhauser and tell him to keep an alert on anything weird, then we can pre-empt the theft if they get spotted." She explained. "And while he's doing that, I'll try to figure out what he's planning on doing with the amber." Judy then shot a smug grin at the fox.

"Still less work than the rest of us." Emily muttered, before the rabbit shot a glare at her.

"Well, let's head out Ms. Saya." Henry said. "We have a lot of city to cover."

Saya nodded, and the three quickly headed out, leaving Judy and Nick alone. "How exactly am I supposed to talk to ZooKitsune?" The fox asked. "I already tried, and it didn't work out that great…"

"I have no idea." Judy said, patting the fox on the back. "But you have to try something. Or else…"

"Or else the landlord will get angry, yeah yeah." Nick said.

"That's a bigger problem than it seems, Nick."

"Trust me, I know."

* * *

A chair flew through the darkened cavern, crashing into the cave walls and shattering. A loud growl uttered from the opposite direction. It was an incredibly pissed off Sambash, attempting to let his anger out.

"How the hell can she not remember ME!?" He shouted, before flinging another chair through the air. "I'm the goddamn frontman of Barban! I'm their fuckin' intergalactic MASCOT!"

"Boss, if I may say something…" Torbador said, trying to get the attention of the raging Sambash. "Maybe she doesn't remember you because you got defeated first?"

"Yeah, you were picked at random, weren't you?" Tagredor followed.

Sambash quickly opened fire at the two causing them to fall to the ground. "Don't you DARE remind me of that embarrassment!" He yelled, stomping over to the two beetles.

"S-sorry!" They both stammered as they got up.

The three were unaware of Enter and Savage looking in from a nearby entrance. "Look at those idiots." Savage laughed. "He should really focus that anger into something productive, like killing the Zoorangers."

Silently, Enter walked into the room, the floating skull following behind him. "What the hell do you want, chiphead?" Sambash asked.

"Just to offer some advice." Enter replied.

"Advice?" Sambash said, surprised. "What kind?"

Enter walked over to the two beetle monsters. "Well, you have two powerful monsters here already," He started. "But imagine what you could do with two Chaos monsters."

"Hah, like I didn't think of that already." Sambash scoffed. He then paused for a moment, looking a bit unsteady. "Keep goin'."

"Your current emotional state is clearly not well enough to get the jewel, and you're just slightly under the amount of Chaos Energy needed for two badges…" Enter said.

"So, you're saying I should get those two bozos to cause some unwarranted destruction, and then destroy the whole place with both of them at max strength?" Sambash asked. Enter nodded in response.

"I like it."

The biker monster then went over and picked one of the chairs back up and sat on it. "Maybe I need a break anyway. Been busy the last while."

"Yeah, that's it boss." Torbador said. "You relax, we'll go cause a ruckus."

"Maybe that will help you feel better!" Tagredor followed.

"Get the fuck out of here, you're just making me angrier."

The two beetle monsters rushed off through the exit, while Enter walked off into the tunnel hallways. "Hell are you helping him for?" Savage whispered angrily. "This whole thing's gonna go up in flames if anybody but us defeats the Zoorangers!"

Enter chuckled, while looking at the device on his wrist. "I just need to perform an experiment." He said. "An odd thing happened a while ago, and I feel it might be useful to our plan."

"You and your long cons." Savage growled. "Can't we just go and get this over with? We're strong enough!"

"If we do this wrong we're even deader than we already are." Enter said, calmly. "So follow along with what the Omnipotence is saying."

"Ugh, fine." Savage growled. "But we better pull this off soon."

"We'll do it when everything is set." Enter said. "Which is… sooner than one would expect…"

* * *

"Alright, so I know we've had some difficulties in the past," Nick started. "But I really need you to talk to me. We need to sort this all out, alright?"

The giant robotic fox leaned down, glaring at the real fox. It let out a metallic noise, and then tapped its paw to the ground.

"Alright, totally don't understand what that means." Nick said, moving in closer to the mech. "Can't you just give me a clue? Like, anything would help at this point."

The fox mech quickly tapped Nick with its nose, knocking him back. "I know you want to tell me something, but WHAT do you want to tell me?" Nick shouted. "There isn't that much that you're telling me by just hitting me!"

The fox mech shook its head in response.

"Okay, I understood that." Nick responded. His ears popped up. "Alright, I know what we can do!" He said, tail twitching. "We'll do gestures! I'll ask a yes or no question, you nod or shake your head if you understand. Understand?"

The fox mech nodded.

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere." The fox thought for a moment. "Alright, lets try to clarify something first. You ARE here to talk to me, right? I'm not getting that wrong?"

A nod.

"And you need to tell me something important?"

Another nod.

"Alright, something important…" Nick muttered to himself. What would a robot know that would be important? The only thing he could think of was some kind of malfunction. "Is this something about ZooRobo? Maybe some kind of… internal thing?"

The mech shook its head.

"Oh… kay." Nick muttered. Just as he thought he was actually getting somewhere. "Is this something related to… the villains? Did you get some info on them, somehow?"

Another no.

"Not that either…" He continued to think for a moment. "I have no idea what you want to talk to me about." He said, sounding a bit defeated. "I mean, what else would be that important?"

Again, the mech nudged Nick with its large metal nose.

"Okay, stop that." He said, before his phone started to ring. "Carrots?" He said as he answered it.

"Yeah," The rabbit started. "Ben found some info on the Growler feed. Those two beetle monsters were seen earlier… without their boss."

"That's weird." He replied. "Think they're up to something?"

"Its entirely possible." She said. "I'll call up everyone else and we'll head out to stop whatever they're planning."

"Terrible timing, I was about to have a breakthrough with the big guy out here." Nick sighed. "Guess it can't be helped, though."

He gave one last turn to the robot. "You, stay here, no interfering this time, got it?" The mech lowered its head, and the fox headed off.

As Nick ran off, the mech let out a metallic whimper, and shook its head again.

* * *

Max opened the door to his house, bracing for the worst. He let out a sigh of relief as everything seemed to be in place.

"Kat, I'm back!" He called out as he stepped through the door. "Sorry it took me so long, traffic was a nightmare." There wasn't any response. "Kat?" He said again, hoping for something. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to leave a mentally damaged individual at his house, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice.

The wolf started to check around the house, going into every room and making a quick look around to check that the wildcat wasn't hiding anywhere. Eventually he found her, in a place he didn't really expect.

It was his toy- er, collection room, where he had stored all of his figures from over the years. The pink-furred cat was sitting in the middle of a pile of his toys, which it seemed she had randomly plucked from the shelves that she could reach.

"Seriously?" The wolf exasperatedly said as he walked in. "I told you not to touch my stuff!"

He started to pick some of the figures up, but then realized that she hadn't reacted at all. "You alright?" Max asked as he put some of the toys back on the shelves. He looked over at her, and noticed that she was holding a figure, and staring at it in silence.

It was the Galaxy Megazord from Zoo Rangers Lost Galaxy. It was very old at this point. The wolf bent down next to the cat and tried to get her attention.

"You like that toy?" He asked. "Be careful with it, it's really valuable… to me, at least."

"I've seen this before." Kat muttered, playing with the left arm. The wolf was shocked by this, another of her memories seemed to have surfaced. Now was the perfect time to try and solve this mystery.

"You've seen it before?" Max said, more intense. "Do you remember where you saw it? A store, a room, anywhere?"

"I don't know." She replied, her voice more subdued than it had been before. "I've been looking at it for hours, but I can't place it. It feels… close."

"Hm." Max said, standing up. "So, you've seen the toy before… or maybe just the design…?" He muttered to himself. He glanced back down at the cat. "Do you remember watching any TV, anything like that?"

Kat shook her head in response.

The wolf let out a sigh. "Help me put some of that stuff back, and we can get back to trying to figure out who you are." He said, picking up a few more of the figures on the ground.

Kat nodded slowly, and then placed the Megazord back on the shelf, where she had gotten it from. The two went downstairs shortly after.

"You don't remember anything else?" Max asked as he drank some coffee.

"Not really." Kat said, seated on the couch.

"I'll help you find out what happened, don't worry." Max said, gently. "That's what I do."

"You remind me of someone." Kat said, though she sounded a bit unsure of her own words. "But I can't remember…"

Suddenly, Max's phone started to ring. He quickly answered it.

"Hey, Max." Judy said on the other side. "How's everything going?"

"Fine, still trying to work on this case." He explained. "Any updates on the situation?"

"Yeah," She said. "The two beetle guys were spotted downtown. I'll send you the location and we can meet up, hopefully before anything too bad happens."

The wolf nodded. "I'll meet you there." He said, before hanging up. He looked over at Kat, who was looking back at him. "Uh, I have to go do some… police work. Sorry, but I'm gonna have to-"

"I wanna go with you!" Kat said, climbing to the top of the couch. "I don't want to be left alone again…"

Max opened his mouth to reject the offer, but it just hung there for a second. He then let out a sigh, he was such a pushover. "Alright, you can come with me, but you have to stay in the car once we get there. Its too dangerous for someone like you."

Kat nodded as her tail flicked. "I can't wait to see what police do!" She said.

"I, uh… yeah, sure."

* * *

Emily, Henry, and Saya walked through the downtown streets, looking for something, anything, that could point towards the direction of the Star Beast. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, nothing had come up.

"How does nobody have any information on a five-story tall cat?" Emily growled, frustrated. "Like, come on, its like missing one of those giant robot fights, you'd think that would be impossible."

"I don't know." Saya said with a sigh. "I have no idea where she could have gone, I just wish I had some kind of clue…"

Henry looked at the hyena and the human, who were both obviously frustrated. "How about we take a break?" The bull suggested.

"Probably a good idea." Saya replied. The three quickly moved towards a bench, Emily and Saya sitting on it while Henry stood behind it.

"This city is very nice." Saya said. "It's a lot nicer than our world is."

"We haven't really heard anything about your world." Emily said, leaning back into the bench. "We get vague references, but nothing actually interesting."

"I would love to learn about this alternate world." Henry said. "Alternate timelines were only a theory, but now I have contact with someone from one, it would be nice to learn the differences."

"Its actually not that different." Saya said. "We have our cities, our cars, our own politics and media… in fact, some of the media here is, uh, very similar to what we have at home. But there's one particular thing I've noticed that's different…"

"What would that be?" Emily asked.

"The air is a lot cleaner." She said. "In my world, we pump smoke into the air without any real regard for the environment, which has harmed it to dangerous levels. I want to know how you guys keep this massive place so clean."

"Well, we used to use gasoline, coal, and oil around a century ago." Henry started to explain. "But then we switched over to electric, solar, and wind when the war ended, and the world leaders realized how much damage it had caused."

"Yeah, they're still renovating parts of the city after that decision." Emily followed. "The only mammals that can tell you how everything was back then are really old now."

"Interesting." Saya said. "Its funny how our worlds can be so similar in a lot of ways, but then be so different in smaller ways."

"I know, right?" Henry said. "I'm assuming that you guys didn't have a war like we did-"

Before the bull could continue, Emily's cellphone started to ring. She answered it, Judy appearing on the screen. "Oh, what's up Jude?" She greeted.

"Monster attack downtown." The rabbit said, bluntly. She seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, as she quickly set the phone down and rushed off camera. "The beetle monsters, minus their boss, were spotted around there." She finished from off camera.

"Alright, we're downtown already so we can probably-"

"Actually, I want you all to continue looking for Gingat." Judy said as she entered back into the camera's view. She was wearing a coat. "Like I said earlier, there could be a lot of problems if we don't find her, and I think Nick, Max, and I can take them without Sambash there-"

"OK." Emily said with a sigh. "We'll just keep at what we were doing, totally not going to be pointless."

Saya quickly stood up. "Sorry, Judy." She said. "But I'm going to request that we join up with you three."

Judy picked up the phone, looking a bit curious at the response.

"We're not having any luck getting anywhere near close to finding Gingat." Saya continued. "And I can't just go on my way with the knowledge that innocent lives could be hurt, and even worse that I could have protected them. We're going to be going, no matter your orders."

The rabbit smiled. "Man, you guys are so cool." She said. "But you just had to tell me you weren't having any luck, there's absolutely no issue with you coming to fight. I was just trying to think practical."

"Oh…" Saya said, rubbing the back of her head. "Right, got you. We'll meet up with you in a bit."

"Alright, sending the location… You guys try to intercept them. See you soon." The rabbit quickly hung up.

"Alright!" Emily said. "I was going crazy with all the walking we've been doing all day."

"What have you two been doing?" Saya asked, inquisitively.

"Been trying to help out this… strange mammal that showed up and asked us for help." Henry explained. "Its not a big deal, we have Max taking care of her right now."

"Hmmm…" Saya said, thinking about something. "Alright, let's get going."

* * *

Lasers spewed forth from the two monsters, firing directly into the buildings and roads around them. Explosions erupted as helpless innocent mammals ran off in terror. "Time to build up some of that Chaos Energy." Torbador said as the remaining mammals vanished from sight.

"Alright!" Tagredor cheered, before pausing. "…Uh, how are we supposed to do that?"

Torbador slapped his younger brother in the back. "We just need to destroy things, cause chaos. Its in the name, you moron."

"Oh, right."

Tagredor quickly stomped over to a nearby building, and winded up a punch. He slammed his fist directly into the wall, causing it to shatter, and for a part fo the building to start slumping down. It quickly crumbled to rubble as he walked off.

"Effective, but crude, little bro." Torbador said, pulling out a large but otherwise normal looking sledgehammer. "Let me show you how destruction is really done."

The rhino beetle slammed to hammer into the ground, causing large cracks to sprout off from where it hit. Steam started to burst from the cracks, before the ground partly collapsed in on itself.

"Stop, Barban!" Someone shouted out. The two monsters quickly turned around to spot GingaPink, alongside the pink and green SPD Officers.

"We're here to stop your destruction!" GingaPink said.

The two monsters laughed in response. "You couldn't even stop us when all six of you were together," Torbador stated. "How do you expect to defeat us with just three of you wimps?"

"We might not be able to BEAT you…" Pink started, holding up her blaster. "But we sure as hell can STOP you."

Quickly, the hyena and bull unloaded their fire on the two monsters, causing explosions to burst around them. GingaPink quickly followed, dashing through the smoke and leaping into the air, directly over Tagredor.

She thrust herself downwards, and then slashed at the monster's face with her hands. The stag beetle monster grunted in pain, before GingaPink unleashed a kick that knocked the monster back.

Torbador noticed, and immediately attempted to bring the sledgehammer down onto GingaPink. She dodged out of the way, before thrusting her hand into the monster's chest, knocking him back. The smoke quickly cleared after this.

Torbador then found himself caught by surprise, as Green quickly whapped him in the face with his cannon. Pink then dashed in, making a few running shots at the rhino beetle before leaping up and delivering a quick kick to the recovering Tagredor's face.

"You're just getting lucky!" Torbador grumbled. "But prepare to face our ultimate power once more!"

The two beetle monsters regrouped quickly, and then pounded their fists together, preparing their energy attack once again. Before they could finish, however, a fireball flew in from above, striking them and knocking them out of the attack.

Red and Blue, in their Solar and Lunar forms, fell from above, crashing into the street triumphantly.

"Nice, took you two a lot less time to get here than I thought it would." Pink said.

The four mammals and the hero from another world struck a pose as the two monsters recovered from the strike. "These guys are being a real pain!" Tagredor said, punching his palm. "I think we should use THOSE, bro!"

"A good idea, for once." Torbador said, pulling out a handful of golden coins. He tossed them into the air, and a small army of Yartots fell shortly after. Torbador then stepped forward. "Now we'll show you not to mess with the beetle bros.!" He brought his sledgehammer up and struck the ground. A crack formed and moved under the Yartots and towards the Zoorangers and company.

The five quickly leaped out of the way as the crack reached them, and a large chunk of the concrete collapsed. "We need to stop these guys before they cause any more damage to this small block!" Blue said. "Em, Henry, deal with those footsoldiers, we'll handle the monsters!"

"Do you think there's a reason why we keep getting assigned to small fry duty?" Pink asked her bull friend. He shook his head in response, before they both raced into the crowd of pirate monsters.

"Bet I can deal with that dumb one." Red said to himself as he eyed Tagredor. The fox leaped towards Tagredor and extended his staff towards the monster. It struck the stag beetle in the chest, before the monster simply let out a small grunt and grabbed onto the staff.

With his grip on the staff, he quickly started to slam the fox into the ground rapidly. The bug monster let out a laugh as he lifted the fox back into the air. "How do you like that, vertebrae?" The monster taunted.

"I actually don't really like my bugs mashed," Red said, a bit weakly. "I actually prefer them broiled."

The monster let out a confused grunt as he looked back down at the staff. A flame was starting to flicker at the edge, before it suddenly burst into a blast of fire, knocking the beetle back while keeping Red in the air. The fox then spun around, flinging several more fireballs at the monster, before he landed back on the ground.

Blue and GingaPink headed for Torbador. "I don't remember these guys being this tough." GingaPink said.

"Well, let's just show them how much stronger we are!" Blue replied. The two rushed forwards, GingaPink drawing her blade, and leaped as they tried to attack the rhino beetle. He responded by smashing them both with his hammer, knocking them both to the ground.

The rabbit recollected herself. "Okay, that didn't go well." She muttered.

"I think I have an idea." GingaPink said as she helped the rabbit up. "We just need to hit him with something stronger."

"Well, I'm already in my super form, so I'm at my strongest, so…"

"Let me rephrase that." GingaPink said, before she pulled out a large object. It was a large, cylindrical object, silver and pink on either side, but connected with a pink handle in the middle. It looked like a large baton of some kind and was at least half the size of GingaPink herself. "I'M going to hit him with something stronger! Beast Attack Rod!"

She twirled the large weapon around on its handle, before dashing forward and striking at Torbador. It and the sledgehammer clashed. Seeing a chance, Blue dashed forwards and jumped in between the two, striking at the monster with her blades. This caused the rhino beetle to stumble back and allowed GingaPink to strike him directly in the face with the large weapon.

The beetle monster was flung back by the attack and rolled across the ground. As he got up, GingaPink pushed the two ends of the rod weapon inwards, shrinking it down slightly. She then slung it onto her shoulder and unleashed a flurry of pink energy blasts from the hole on one side.

"Wow, that thing's awesome!" Blue said, surprised.

"Oh, you haven't even seen the half of it!" GingaPink replied with a laugh.

The beetle monster let out a roar as the smoke cleared. "You think that little thing would be enough to take me out!?" He growled as he stomped towards the two.

"I mean, honestly, not really." GingaPink said.

The monster approached them but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of screeching tires. Everyone, including the Yartots, turned to look over at a car. Max quickly got out of the driver's seat, before whispering something to someone inside.

He then ran into the fight without a word, quickly transforming into ZooSilver, and then further shifting into his Rampage Mode. The jetpack turned on, bursting him through the air as he instantly sliced through the Yartots in a single motion, causing them all to burst into sand.

"I guess that's why they stopped using those guys so often." Red muttered to himself.

Silver then took off directly into the sky, unleashing a shower of laser blasts down below… nearly hitting his teammates as well as the monsters. He then landed back down and struck a pose.

"Yeesh, don't have to go that far for a big entrance." Pink scoffed, trying to ignore a large scorchmark right next to where she was standing.

"Oh, gosh, sorry!" Silver said. "Just trying to make this cool for someone in the audience."

"Hah, looks like all six of you punks are here!" Tagredor said. "Let's finish them off, bro!"

"Hold off for a second, little bro." Torbador said. "We didn't come here to beat them, remember? We just need to do a bit more, and then…"

The rhino beetle monster quickly unleashed a flurry of lasers from his horn, firing it seemingly randomly into nearby buildings, the ground, and the Rangers. Silver quickly dashed forwards and delivered a punch with his large claw directly to the rhino beetle, knocking him out of the attack. The wolf quickly spun around and unloaded a laser blast from his arm cannon, this time directly at Tagredor. The monster was flung back by the blast, directly into the rubble it had created earlier.

"Nice show stealing." Red said sarcastically.

"Hey, I just got here, I had to do SOMETHING cool!"

Torbador let out an angered grunt. "Alright, I think that's enough." He muttered, before unfurling his wings. He quickly fluttered over to his unconscious brother, and then lifted him off.

The Rangers watched as the monsters flew away. "So, what was that all about?" Max asked as he untransformed, alongside the rest of his teammates.

"Wish we knew." Nick said with a shrug. "Just seemed like they were destroying things."

"Maybe it was a diversion?" Emily suggested. "Maybe Sambash is attacking the museum right now!"

"No, then we would have gotten an alert." Judy said. "That was just… strange."

"Wowee!" Yelled a chipper voice from behind them. The six turned around to see Kat, running up to them. "That was really cool!" She said.

"Hey, you're that cat from earlier." Saya said. "I guess you found your way to the police station, huh?"

"I sure did!" Kat said. "And I met Max there, he's been helping me out."

"Oh, is this your 'case'?" Nick said with a chuckle.

"Its not very funny, Nick." Max said, crossing his arms. "Kat here lost her memory, and Em, Henry, and I were trying to help her get them back."

"Lotta go we did there." Emily muttered.

"Wait, you know Ms. GingaPink?" Max said, catching up to what Kat had said.

"We met this morning, when I first arrived." Saya said. "I gave her directions to the police station. Also don't call me that."

"Saya was super nice!" Kat said. "She reminds me of someone, but I can't remember who…"

Judy looked back and forth at the cat and the human. "Hmm." She let out. "We're heading back to the apartment now." She said. "Max, you and Kat are coming with us too."

"Uh, okay." Max said. "You think you can solve her problem?"

"I'm not sure… But I feel like I might."

* * *

Tagredor was quickly flung through the entrance to the base, crashing on the ground with a thud. Torbador quickly flew in after and landed back on the ground. "Boss, we're back!" He said as Tagredor got back up.

"Well you two took your sweet time on that." Sambash said from a nearby chair. "At least you managed to get enough energy out of that. Weirdest thing, it had a major spike after you finished fighting the Zoorangers. Probably not important."

"Wait, you watched us?" Tagredor asked, surprised.

"Yeah, this table thing has a TV on it." Sambash clarified. "We used it like, once, because we have better things to do usually."

"The upgrades, boss." Torbador reminded him.

"Right!" Sambash said as he got up from the chair, holding two Chaos Badges. "Two supercharged monsters, this'll give those furry freaks a good run for their money!"

He quickly chucked one of the Chaos Badges at Tagredor, and then the other at Torbador. They both plunged into their chests, and then were quickly absorbed. "HRRGAH! This feels incredible!" Tagredor roared as he started to glow a bright red.

"With this power, no one can stop us!" Torbador yelled triumphantly as he instead started to glow blue

However, something strange happened soon after. The two turned completely red and blue, and then started to slowly slide together. As their energies came in contact, the energy started to turn purple "What the hell is happening?" Sambash said, confused.

The energy continued to fuse together, now forming into a single shape. It had a similar shape to the brothers, but almost fusing their stances together, making it large and bulky, but still standing tall. Its arms were proportionately large as well, and the armbands now had a mix of the spikes and leather straps. The same went for the legs, which bulked up as well in order to match the new monster's height.

The monster's head seemed to mix the two brothers' features as well, combining the single horn of the rhino beetle, which pointed up and forward, more pronounced, with the pincers of a stag. The monster's shoulders mostly seemed similar to Torbador's, but now with three spikes protruding from the tops of them.

The energy faded, revealing the monster in full. It retained the brown and yellow coloring that the brothers had, but instead of red or blue, it was now marked mostly with purple. Its face combined the mad grin of Tagredor with the cruel eyes of Torbador. As a final change, two smaller arms burst from the monster's sides, looking similar to its larger arms, including the leather bands.

"TORBAGREDOR!" The monster roared, shaking the cave. The new creature was nearly double Sambash's height and left him speechless.

"Damn." He said. "Didn't expect that."

"Alright, boss." The new combined beetle monster said. "Let's go take that amber and destroy this city!"

Sambash quickly shook off his surprise. "Yeah, and with a monster like you, no one can defeat us!"

The two quickly left, leaving behind something neither was aware of. Enter stepped out from a hallway, giving a light chuckle.

"Tres bien." He said to himself. "Looks like it wasn't a fluke after all."

"What are you talking about?" The skull of Savage said.

"Remember the night you gained your first body?" The android asked. "Remember the monster there?"

"The thing that looked like a fox and a rabbit?" Savage said.

"That was a fusion of two different monsters." Enter continued. "I wasn't sure if that was something long managed to pull off, or if it was a side effect of the Chaos Badges… but the latter seems most likely."

"I don't get what that has to do with anything." Savage said.

Enter wagged his finger back and forth in front of the skull's face. "It will be absolutely invaluable, trust me."

* * *

The six heroes, and their guest, had arrived back at the apartment only a short while after the fight. Four of the six sat around the couch, with Kat standing by the window and gazing out of it curiously. At the moment, Judy and Saya were locked up in the bedroom, having a conversation that nobody else was allowed to hear.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Emily asked as she leaned forward over the back of the couch.

"Probably something about all the weirdness going on." Nick said. He was sat on the couch. "I mean, today's been really crazy."

"Yeah, and not just for you." Max said, also from the couch. "I really want to help Kat, but… nothing about this is really making sense. She said she recognized one of my Zoo Rangers toys, which is impossible since she seems too young to have been around when the series was airing."

"Have you thought it over?" Henry asked from behind the couch. "There's a lot more possibilities to why she could be remembering it."

"I asked her everything that… made sense." Max followed.

Max continued to talk, and Nick zoned out for a moment as he focused on Kat. She was nearly leaning out the window, attempting to look at something. He leaned over to Max and whispered. "She probably shouldn't be doing that, right?"

"What?" Max said, confused, before glancing over at Kat. He let out a yelp before rushing over and pulling the wildcat back from the window. "That's really dangerous, if you fell out the window you could've died."

"Hey!" She yelled, breaking from the wolf's grasp. "You just interrupted us. That was really RUDE, Max."

"Oh, sorry, I- wait, 'us'?"

"I was talking to the big fox over there." Kat said, pointing out the window. At that, Nick quickly got up and ran over.

"Big fox, you mean, like a big… robot fox?" He asked her. The wildcat nodded. The fox quickly gripped her shoulders. "Did he say anything? Anything important?"

"We were just talking about how nice the sky is." Kat said. "She never really gets to see it, usually only when its dark."

"That's definitely weird." Emily muttered as she got up from her slouch. "So, Kat can just talk to robots?"

"You did talk to it, right?" Nick asked. "You're not just imagining it?"

The wildcat shook her head. "It was all really clear."

"What's going on?" Judy asked, confused, as she came out of the bedroom with Saya.

"I think we just hit a bombshell." Emily said.

"Kat says that she was talking to ZooKitsune." Nick followed.

Judy looked at Saya. "You think…?" She asked.

The Sentai Ranger rubbed her helmet. "It does make it a bit more… obvious."

"You gonna tell us what you two were talking about, or are you just going to stay cryptic?" Emily asked, frustrated.

"Well, Judy came up with a theory about something that's been going on, and if Kat was talking to another robot, then it might prove it…" Saya said.

Before either of them could continue, Judy's phone started to ring. "Uh oh…" She muttered, before answering it. Clawhauser appeared on the screen. "Hey Ben, got some monster news for us?"

"Yeah, I do." The cheetah replied. "Two monsters were seen heading in the direction of the museum."

"Must be Sambash trying to steal that amber again." The rabbit said. "But only two monsters…?"

"Guess the big guy is too scared to show his face again." Nick joked. "Just send the henchmen in, don't have to deal with anything."

"No, one of the monsters matches up with Sambash's description." Clawhauser said. "But the second one… it looks… scary."

"Hmm." The rabbit let out as she started to tap her foot. "Thanks for the info, Ben, see you later." She quickly hung up and placed the phone on the coffee table. "Definitely something weird going on."

"Doesn't matter what's going on," Saya started. "We need to go and stop him before he gets that amber."

"Alright," Nick said, clapping his paws together. "Let's head out-"

"Not you, Nick." Judy said. "You're staying here, and getting help from Kat?"

"What?" The fox let out.

"Ooh, I get to help someone?" Kat said, cheerfully. "With what?"

"You're going to help Nick talk to the big fox outside." Judy explained. "As soon as you get that figured out, meet us at the museum."

The fox let out a sigh and crossed his arms as the rest of the heroes left. He knew this was important, but it was starting to get a bit irritating.

"Alright, Dye Accident, lets get going."

"Dye accident?" Kat replied, confused.

"It's… It's a nickname."

"But isn't Nick your name?"

The fox let out a sigh. "Lets just go."

* * *

The massive beetle monster followed behind the much smaller biker monster as they strode into the museum's courtyard. "Alright, big guy, let's get this done with."

The monster stomped towards the museum's entrance and pulled back its fist. He launched a heavy punch, knocking the wall and doors away and leaving a large hole in the front.

"Heh, nice job." Sambash said as he walked into the hall. He glanced around, attempting to spot the amber. "Now, where the hell is that thing…?"

"Nowhere near your dirty mitts, Barban!"

Sambash let out a sigh and turned around alongside the monster. The Zoorangers, featuring GingaPink, had appeared in the courtyard.

"Still can't remember my name, Gingaman?" Sambash said with some restrained anger.

"Oh, I remember your name, Sambash," GingaPink started as she stepped forwards. "But you don't deserve to be called by any name."

Sambash growled. "Handle them, Torbagredor."

"Yes, boss." The monster said as it stomped towards them. It towered all five of them, including Green.

"You know, Ben was right." Pink said. "That thing is definitely scary."

"See you noticed my big friend here!" Sambash said, twirling his gun around. "He's got the strength of two Chaos monsters, so good luck taking him down!"

Blue's ears twitched. "Two Chaos monsters…?"

The monster let out a growl, before energy started to appear between its four horns. It then launched out a purple laser beam, which struck into the ground and started to dash towards the Rangers. The five quickly scattered as the beam reached them, before it started to follow Blue's trail.

"We'll get him off your tail!" Silver shouted as he pulled out his blade. Him and Pink gathered, and then proceeded to fire fireballs and lasers at the monster. It quickly raised its arm, protecting itself from the blasts.

"His armor's too thick!" Pink shouted, frustrated.

"Then let me handle it." Green said as he stepped forward. He aimed his cannon at the monster, and then rapidly fired several shots. He attempted to fire at the monster's horn, but it quickly lifted its arm to block the shots. It did, however, let out a few grunts of pain.

Blue, with the laser still following her, quickly dashed over to GingaPink. "Saya, you have to go after Sambash!" She said as she zipped by.

"I can't just leave you guys to fight this… thing." GingaPink said as the laser passed by her.

"We have everything under control!" The rabbit assured her as she ran by, this time in the opposite direction. "But if he gets his paws on that amber, who knows what he'll do!"

"…Alright, I got it." She said. "But let me try something first."

She quickly leaped into the air, avoiding the laser, and landed next to Green. "Hey, I have an idea." She said to the bull. The Gingaman quickly pulled out the Beast Attack Rod, in its staff mode. "Strike the horn while I'm distracting him, got it?"

The bull nodded. "Good plan."

GingaPink quickly leaped over and struck at the monster's leg. It let out a yell of pain before attempting to kick at her. The feline warrior quickly backflipped back, and then shifted the rod into its bazooka mode. She fired a few rounds at the monster's body.

The beetle monster attempted to strike at the Sentai Ranger, leaving its horn open for Green to fire at. "Wait!" Silver said before he could fire. "Let me and Em join in. Just in case."

"More power never hurts." Pink said.

"Alright, then fire already!" Green shouted. The three fired their weapons simultaneously, all three hitting the horn and causing an explosion.

The beam stopped as it let out a roar of pain. GingaPink gave the three a nod, and then quickly ran off to the large hole in the museum.

"Alright!" Blue said as she gathered with her teammates. "Let's really show this big lug what we're capable of!"

The four drew their weapons as Torbagredor let out another deep growl and stomped forwards.

* * *

The fox and the wildcat stood in front of the large mechanical fox, which was still sitting in its alleyway.

"Just checking, but you're certain you can talk to it?" Nick asked.

Kat nodded in response. "I'll tell you what she says next."

ZooKitsune then let out a mechanical whine. "She just said 'I'm glad you're here to help us'." Kat said.

"And you're absolutely certain that's what it said?" Nick asked, yet again. The robot fox stomped its paw down in front of him and let out a burst of steam from its nose. It looked incredibly angry, and the fox was not prepared for the anger of something one-hundred times his size. "Okay, okay, she can hear you, I got it."

Nick looked at the wildcat for a moment. "How exactly are you able to talk to it?" He asked, glancing back up at the massive robot fox.

"I dunno, just can." She replied with a shrug. "I'm guessing you can't?"

"No, that's a problem we've been having all day." The fox continued. "ZooKitsune showed up, and it wants to tell me something, but its also causing us some trouble since its… really big."

"You keep calling her an 'It'." Kat said.

"It's a robot, how else am I supposed to refer to it?"

"She's not just a robot." Kat said. "She's a living thing. If she wasn't, then how would I be able to talk to her?"

"I…" Nick paused for a moment, thinking about something. He then turned back to ZooKitsune. "I'm sorry for calling you an 'It'."

ZooKitsune leaned down, and gently bumped the top of the fox's head with the tip of its nose.

"Alright, lets get this whole thing over with so I can go to the fight." Nick started. "Translate what she's saying, Kat!"

Kat looked up as the mecha let out another metallic whine. "I can't." She said.

"Excuse me?"

"She said that me just translating what she wants to tell you would be pointless." The wildcat continued. "You need to talk to her yourself. Sorry."

"Seriously?" Nick said, exasperatedly. He quickly ran his paw across his snout.

"I can still help you!" Kat said. "I can help you learn how to talk to her!"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" The fox asked.

"You've already started by acknowledging that she's a thinking thing!" Kat said, grabbing onto the fox's arm. "You just have to go further! You need to talk to her soul!"

"Uh huh." Nick said, pulling his arm away. "How do I do that?"

"Well, I think we should start by getting you two closer together." Kat said.

"Closer, huh?" Nick said, thinking for a moment. "I think I know how to do that."

* * *

Blue drew her dual daggers, and then leaped forward, the other Zoorangers following behind her, their weapons drawn as well. The rabbit dashed underneath the monster's legs, rapidly slashing at them… to no effect.

Silver and Pink moved to the monster's sides and unleashed their attacks there. Silver swiped with his sword, while Pink fired her blaster. Still nothing happened.

Finally, Green ran forwards and jumped up, slamming his cannon into the monster's stomach. He bounced off and fell to the ground.

"Idiots." The monster boomed. "I have double the carapace as my previous forms, none of your attacks can even scratch me!"

"Not even this one!?" Blue shouted from behind the monster as she quickly plugged in a white ZooTag. The Wild Axe suddenly appeared in her paws, before she leaped forwards and slashed at the monster's leg with it. It had seemed to cut through, but the monster didn't react at all. Instead, it simply kicked the rabbit away.

Energy started to gather in its horn, before it started to blast purple energy blasts at the mammals surrounding it.

The four quickly dodged the rapid-fire blasts, the earth bursting up into the air as they struck the ground.

"Uh, I think we're in some trouble!" Silver said as he leaped out of the way of another blast. "How are we supposed to defeat a monster we can't hurt?"

"Why don't you just go into your super forms?" Pink suggested. "That could probably beat this thing!"

"I can't go into the super mode unless Red is here!" Blue said. "But Silver, you can probably do it, right?"

"Uh, I can try!"

Silver quickly transformed into his Rampage mode after dodging another blast. He flew up into the air and prepared to strike with his claw. He burst forwards at incredible speeds, scratching his claw against the monster's side. This managed to leave an actual, visible wound… unfortunately, the monster still didn't react.

"What?" Silver let out, confused. "You should be in a lot of pain right now!"

Without a word, the monster smacked Silver to the ground with one of his gigantic arms, creating a wolf shaped crater in the pavement.

Silver let out a groan as the other Zoorangers looked on. "Seriously!?" Pink shouted.

Meanwhile, in the museum itself, GingaPink was chasing after Sambash. He had lead her directly into the museum's mineral section, which was dimly lit, with glimmers of precious stones and crystals to light it up slightly.

"Sambash!" GingaPink shouted as she looked around the area. "Where are you!?"

"Over here!" The pirate shouted from across the hall. She turned to him and saw that he was holding the massive chunk of amber in his hand and a gun in the other.

"Put the amber and the gun down." GingaPink said, quickly aiming her bow at him.

Sambash laughed. "Have you figured out what I'm planning to do with this yet?" He said, tossing the amber up and then catching it.

"…Not really." GingaPink said. "I've had a lot of things going on, your thieving isn't high on my priorities list."

Sambash growled. "Whatever. At least you remembered my goddamn name."

"You know how petulant you sound when you complain about that?" GingaPink said, not moving her bow away from him. "Its been twenty years, of course I needed to jog my memory about you. You were the first general we beat, and none of us besides Red were even there when you died."

Sambash let out another growl, before pointing his gun directly at her. He fired off multiple shots, and in return GingaPink fired several bolts from her bow. The bullets and energy bolts collided in the air, creating a large explosion.

GingaPink ran towards Sambash as the smoke cleared, pulling out her dagger. She struck at the monster with the blade, but he blocked it with his gun. He quickly pushed her back before pushing the gun directly into her stomach.

However, the cat warrior quickly performed a flip, knocking Sambash back and to the ground. In the process, he dropped the amber, causing it to slide across the smooth museum floor. As GingaPink finished the flip, she pulled out her bow and fired several more shots at the biker monster as he attempted to get up.

The bolts struck, knocking Sambash back. He let out an angry grunt as he glanced around. "Looks like I'm gonna have to get serious here." He muttered as he pulled out a second gun.

"You ever see my gun tricks?" The biker monster suddenly asked.

GingaPink froze for a moment. "…What?"

"Here's an example!" Sambash started as he spun the two guns around. He quickly crossed his arms, both of them pointing forwards, and then fired a shot from both of his guns. The bullets flew, seemingly going directly passed GingaPink.

"Okay, that was-" She started before being interrupted. Sambash quickly rushed forwards and kicked the distracted Gingaman, launching her back. As she fell back, the two bullets he had previously fired bounced off nearby walls, aiming them right towards where GingaPink now was.

The two bullets struck her, causing a mass of sparks to erupt. Sambash quickly scooped up the chunk of amber and headed towards the exit.

"Augh, didn't think he'd be that clever." GingaPink admitted to herself. She quickly chased after the Barban boss, back out into the courtyard.

Things still weren't going well. After the time she had been in there, Torbagredor only had a few scratches, and didn't even seem to be slowing down. The Zoorangers themselves were starting to get a bit tired from the fight.

"You guys alright!?" GingaPink shouted out.

"We're… just fine." Blue said, obviously out of breath. She quickly leaped back as the monster attempted to swing one of its massive arms at her, just barely missing.

"Fine except for the fact we can't hurt this guy!" Pink followed up.

"Yo, big guy!" Sambash yelled. GingaPink turned towards him, the monster was standing a decent way from the battle, with the amber still over his arm. "I got the amber, we can get out of here!"

"Not until I squash these guys!" Torbagredor roared. "Watch me take care of 'em, boss!"

Sambash chuckled. "Fine, looks like you're doing well on your own!" He said, before twirling his gun around. "Let me join in on the fun!"

He quickly unloaded a few shots around the battleground, directly at the Rangers' feet. "This is getting insane!" Silver yelled as he flew up into the air. "Nothing we're doing is even making this guy flinch!"

"I know!" Blue shouted desperately as she dodged a few bullets. "Without Red here, we can't get to our full strength… I need to call him up, cover me!" She quickly ordered.

"No you don't, little rat…" Sambash started, pointing his gun at the rabbit. A sudden bolt of pink energy flew into view, and struck the gun right out of his hand. "What-!?"

He glanced over to GingaPink, who gave a sly wave.

"Damn you, Gingaman…" The monster muttered as he walked over to pick the gun up. He looked at the amber in his hands as he picked the weapon up. "…But when I'm done here, I'll finally get my revenge!"

* * *

"Can't get much closer to the robot than being inside it!" Nick said as he dropped down through ZooKitsune's cockpit entrance. He glanced back up at Kat, who was looking down into it. "Need some help?"

She shook her head. "No thanks, I can handle this." She replied. She then jumped into the cockpit, landing on her feet gracefully.

"Just like a cat." Nick chuckled. He then glanced around the cockpit, before hopping into the control seat. "Alright, so we're as absolutely close as we can get to ZooKitsune." He continued. "Now what?"

"Wow!" Kat said, seemingly ignoring the fox as she glanced around the room. "This place is so cool! Is this what its like to BE in one of these big robots?"

"You've seen these robots before?" He asked.

"Not these ones." She replied. "But I remember something like them… kinda."

"Well, we can figure that out later, we've got other things to worry about." Nick said. "How do I talk to her?"

"Oh, right." She said, before placing a paw on Nick's arm. "You need to concentrate, clear your mind."

"Alright." Nick said, before attempting to do that. "Wait, how do you know how to do this stuff, anyway?"

"Like I said, I just can." She said. "Its like… I dunno, I have some kind of connection. Now, get back to concentrating."

"Sorry." The fox muttered. He shut his eyes and tried to empty his mind.

"You need to do this too." Kat whispered to ZooKitsune. "Your minds should be able to link together, and then you'll be able to talk."

It felt like ten minutes had passed for Nick. It was hard to keep his mind empty. He was worried about a lot of things at the moment. His friends, mostly. Where they alright without them? How would he know if they weren't?

He then abruptly let out a loud yipe as pain shot through him.

"I said clear your mind!" Kat said, pulling at the fox's ears. "I know you're thinking about things, you keep making faces."

"Jeeze…" Nick said as she let go. He rubbed his ear, and then tried to concentrate again.

He breathed, in and out. In and out. He tried to focus on nothing but the blackness of his own eyelids. Eventually, something would have to click, right?

More minutes passed, and nothing seemed to happen. He let out a sigh. "Kat, this isn't working." He said as he opened his eyes. "Maybe we need to-"

He paused as he looked around. He was now suddenly in the middle of a red void, filled with red smoke.

"Ugh, finally, you're awake." Said a female voice. It was both unfamiliar, and… familiar.

"What!?" Nick said, starting to panic a bit. He glanced around and couldn't see anyone. "Who said that?"

"Me, duh." Said a figure as it stepped out of the shadows. It was ZooKitsune, only around the same size as Nick, though still on all fours.

"Oh." Nick said as the two locked eyes. "You're shorter than I expected."

"Hah hah." The mech said. "This is just a mental projection, would you have really liked it if I showed up and was five stories tall?"

"Point." The fox said. He was genuinely shocked at how… quick-witted this mech was. "So, you… you wanted to tell me something, right?"

"Actually, first I want to congratulate you on doing this." The mech said in response. "You managed to get help from a complete stranger without ever doubting her."

"I… huh, I did." Nick muttered. He was usually not that trusting towards others… especially if it was someone who could've very easily stabbed him in the back.

"You also had the strength to do this yourself, even with a bit of help." ZooKitsune continued. "You used your own mind to lock with mine, and that shows a lot of strength. I also appreciated how quickly you thought of me as a living creature."

"I mean, I know how something like that feels." He said with a sigh. "But, what's the important message you want to tell me?"

"Well, that was part of it." ZooKitsune continued. "I have a mental link with you, and I can tell you've been a bit down and out recently. I wanted to tell you that there's nothing that you should worry about. You're at the absolute best you've ever been, and you shouldn't want to give that up."

"…Thanks." Nick said. That was definitely something he needed to here after some recent events. "But… is that it?"

"Hah, I wouldn't have made a big stink about this if I didn't have something else." ZooKitsune said. "So, me and the mecha-rabbit are born from this planet's energy. We have a sort of direct connection with it. But, recently… something's been… messing with that connection."

"What kind of 'something?" Nick asked.

"Something more powerful than anything else you or I have seen." ZooKitsune continued. "I think it might be… the true evil force behind all this."

"The Omnipotence." Nick said to himself. "So, he's doing something to the planet, then?"

"No." She replied. "This energy was ALWAYS here. Its far older than even our own. Whatever the Omnipotence is, its something that has always been connected to the planet. And it might be something connected to you."

"What?" Nick sputtered out. "H-how…?"

"In the energy that I sensed, there was something similar to your energy." ZooKitsune explained. "I don't know how, but it was strange."

There was a brief pause as Nick reflected on this. "You need to go now." The mech said. "Please, be careful."

"Wait, I need to ask you something before I go." Nick said.

"Why did you choose that voice?"

The mech glared back at him, before everything suddenly went black.

Suddenly, Nick opened his eyes again and jolted up. He looked around rapidly, before letting out a sigh of relief. He was back in the cockpit.

"Did you talk to her?" Kat asked as she helped him out of the seat.

"Yeah, I did." He said.

"What did you learn?"

"Uh, a lot of personal stuff." He said. "Inner-strength lessons, you know."

"That was it?" Kat said, sounding a bit disappointed. Nick just nodded in response.

Right after another brief silence, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. "NICK!" Judy yelled from the other side of the phone. She was in her Zooranger form at this moment.

"Hey, Carrots, how's everything going over there?" He asked.

"Terrible!" She said. "The monster's too strong to beat with just the five of us, you need to get over here ASAP!"

"Alright, I'll be over there in a moment." He said, before being interrupted by the rabbit.

"Did you manage to talk to ZooKitsune?"

"I did, I think it went well." He said. "Not really the time or place to ask about that, though."

"Fair enough."

The fox quickly hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pockets. He then placed a paw on the control panel. "You ready to go, girl? We have to get to the museum."

There was a rumbling as the mech started to move. It quickly broke out into a dash, heading directly for the museum.

* * *

A few minutes had passed since Blue had called up her partner. She had leaped back into the fight and attempted to do any damage to the giant beetle monster, but like all previous attempts, nothing was seeming to wear the monster out.

GingaPink shot several bolts from her bow, directly into the monster's back. Torbagredor quickly spun around, attempting to hit her with his massive fist, but she backflipped out of the way.

Pink and Green then followed up, firing more shots into the monster's back. Keeping it distracted for as long as possible was their best chance of getting out of this at the moment. Silver then followed up as the monster turned around to blast the two with its laser horn, swooping in and deflecting the laser blasts with his large claw weapon, and finally following up with a few shots from his gun arm directly at the monster's face.

Blue then dashed under the monster and attempted to slash at its feet as it stomped forwards to try and attack Silver. At this point, there were deep cuts in the feet, but not enough to really do any damage… though they were starting to annoy the bug.

"How long until Nick gets here!?" Pink shouted as she fired a few more shots.

"I dunno, it could take him a long while!" Blue responded as she slashed at the monster's feet again. "Depends on how he's travelling!"

Sambash, however, watched on, seated on the large piece of amber. He occasionally fired a few shots to annoy the Zoorangers, but it was starting to get boring.

"Man, they sure are good at dodging him." He muttered. "But I really can't handle stalemates, I hope something interesting happens soon."

As he finished saying that, the ground started to shake. Everyone froze as it happened. It stopped, and then shook again. And then again, this time stronger. The biker monster stood up and looked into the distance.

"Aw, shit."

ZooKitsune leaped into the front of the museum, tearing through the ground as it did. It quickly lowered its head, letting a red figure leap out. It was Red, already in his transformed state.

"Cavalry's arrived!" He yelled as he hit the ground.

"That was faster than I thought!" Blue said, elbowing the fox in the side. She then pulled out her moon-shaped ZooTag. "Ready to go?"

"Absolutely."

The two then transformed into their Solar and Lunar forms, brandishing their weapons as they struck a pose. Silver quickly flew in and joined in on the pose.

"Nice, now we can DEFINITELY take this guy down!" Silver stated.

"Hang on!" GingaPink said as she ran up to them. "Have room for one more?"

"Excuse me?" Red said, a bit confused. GingaPink just gave a giggle.

"ROAR, GALACTIC LIGHT!"

She then quickly pulled out her sword, revealing the full blade. She then clawed at the ground for a moment, before raising the sword to the sky. She then thrust her arm up while pulling the sword down, and then clenched it into a fist.

A golden light started to cover her, moving to her upper arm where it formed a gold armlet punctuated by a bright green gem. The energy then formed around her waist, transforming into a golden belt with a green V marked on it. In addition, she gained a claw-like weapon on her left hand, colored pink and with various golden markings. Finally, her sword itself changed, the blade becoming longer and thinner, and gaining an ornate golden hilt embedded with red and green gems. It had also gained two bracers, one going down and covering the hand, and the other on the opposite side going up. The final decoration was a carving of Gingat's face in the center of the blade.

"RADIANT BEAST ARMOR!"

Unbeknownst to the four, a small wildcat was climbing out of the large robot at the moment. As she saw the Gingaman enter her super form, memories started to flood back.

"Wow, that's incredible!" Silver said, admiring the Ranger.

"Did you three really think you're the only one who gets a super form?" GingaPink said, tilting her head.

"I mean, we haven't seen it from anyone else, so…" Blue started.

"So, she gets to have an upgrade and we don't." Pink scoffed. "How come we're always left behind?"

"I don't know, Em." Green said. "Wanna sit back and watch them beat him up?"

"Oh, definitely."

The four powered-up Rangers rushed forwards, preparing to attack Torbagredor. Blue leaped up and dashed through the air, cutting right through the monster with her blades. Red quickly followed up by extending his rod weapon and jabbing the monster rapidly in the face as he was caught off guard.

Silver and GingaPink went next, the feline-themed warrior rapidly slicing at the monster's legs as Red finished his assault. Silver, meanwhile, flew up into the air and then rapidly fired down beams from his gun arm, making them rain down on the monster.

The combined beetle monster gave out an annoyed grunt, before letting out a roar, which knocked the three grounded Rangers off their feet, and the airborne Ranger out of the sky. The monster then fired out a laser beam from its horns, spinning around in order to sweep the Rangers away.

Blue, Rad, and GingaPink jumped out of the way of the beam, while Silver hit the ground after Torbagredor had swept past where he landed. The wolf quickly got back up to his feet, and then flew directly into the monster's back, delivering a powerful punch with his claw arm, launching it forward and to the ground.

The monster tried to push itself up but was quickly met with a kick to the face from Blue. This barely seemed to phase it, as it continued to get back to its feet. "What the hell is this guy made of?" Red asked, before firing a flurry of fireballs into the monster's back.

"Even in our super modes, we've only managed to make a few dents!" Silver said. "We need to figure out some way to hurt this thing!"

Blue quickly glanced at the monster. "Alright, I need you guys to back me up on something!" She said. "Saya, you're with me!"

GingaPink tilted her head, before running over to the rabbit. "What exactly do you have in mind?"

"Have your sword ready?" Blue asked.

"Uh, yeah." GingaPink replied. "What does that-"

"Just follow my lead!" Blue finished, scraping her blades together.

She then dashed forwards, GingaPink quickly running after her. The rabbit leaped up and slashed at the monster's side. "You take the other side!" Blue shouted at GingaPink. "Red, Silver, distract him for us!"

"Got it!" Silver said.

"What's she even trying to do?" Red asked as he watched GingaPink jump up and slice at the opposite side of the monster.

"I dunno, but Blue usually has something planned." Silver replied. "So, we should probably follow along."

Red nodded, and the two proceeded to fire at the monster. It let out another growl as it turned to the two other Rangers, leaving Blue and GingaPink alone for the moment.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do now." Blue started. "We just need to cut him on the front and on the back. I'll take the front, you take the back."

"We'll need to get really lucky to land anything on him." GingaPink replied. "Especially if we want to hurt him."

"Well, right now, I don't want to hurt him." Blue said. "Now, let's go! Leave as big a scratch on him as you can!"

Blue then dashed forwards again, sliding under the monster's legs, and then launching herself up with her strong legs. She pulled out her sword and tried to dig it into the monster's carapace as deep as she could. The strength of her jump launched her directly up to the monster's face, which she kicked off of.

Behind the monster, GingaPink had already followed. Without Blue's powerful rabbit legs, she was going to have to do something else to get a good slice in on the monster. She jumped up, and clawed into the monster's back, flinging herself up part of the monster's back. As she reached the top of the monster, she backflipped, and then slammed her sword down, slicing through the middle of the beast's back and to the ground.

The monster let out a roar, this time in pain. "Alright, we got him!" Blue said as everyone gathered near her. "Alright, time for the next phase. Let's just hope we're lucky."

"Lucky about what?" GingaPink asked. To the surprise of everyone, Blue transformed back to her basic Ranger form, in turn causing Red to do the same thing.

"Hey, what gives?" Red said, shocked. "How are we supposed to beat him without our super forms?"

"Saya, give me that crossbow weapon!" Blue said as she twirled her own daggers in her paws.

"Uh, why do you-" She was interrupted as the two pairs of weapons started to glow. Blue gave a nod, and then tossed her blades into the air. The Gingaman followed, tossing the crossbow into the air as well. The three weapons merged together, and then formed into something completely new.

It was a long ribbon-like whip. The handle was simple, being pink and having a standard looking guard on it. The whip itself was flat like a ribbon and alternated between dark pink and light squares along its length. At the end of the ribbon was a large, claw shaped blade, similar to the shape of the crossbow that made up part of it.

"Alright, this is even better than I thought!" Blue said. "Let's call it… the Galactic Claw Whip!"

"How is a whip going to help us?" Red asked, a bit annoyed and confused.

"See those markings that we made on Torbagredor?" Blue asked, pointing at the monster. Red looked over, seeing the large markings that had been cut into the monster's chest. Its sides also had large cuts in them as well, and in both cuts, flesh could be seen.

"Oh, I get it!" Silver said. "She's going to use the whip's claw to dig into the monster's skin, and then use that to weaken it!"

"Got it!" Blue replied. "And once its weakened enough, we can finish it off!"

"That's a really roundabout way of doing this." The pink armored hyena said from afar. "Could've just used the swords."

"With the whip's added length, using it cuts out all the danger of trying to get in close with a blade." Green replied to Pink.

Blue quickly stepped forward and lashed the whip forward. The ribbon extended out well past its previous length, and struck Torbagredor right in the chest scar, plunging directly into its flesh. The monster let out a roar.

The rabbit then pulled the whip back, causing it to retract. She made a quick motion with her paw, signalling the others to attack. Red readied his blade as he rushed in along with Silver and GingaPink.

"You two don't get to sit this one out!" Blue shouted over to the SPD officers.

"Well, it was a nice break while it lasted." Pink said as she got up. The two prepared their blasters.

"This didn't work before, don't expect it to work again!" The beetle monster roared. "I'll crush you flat!"

"Not this time!" Blue said as she lashed the whip forward again. It extended out and wrapped itself around Torbagredor's leg. She then gave a quick pull, causing the monster to fall onto its back. "Alright guys, attack the weak spots!"

Silver started to slash at the large cut on the monster's side, while Green and Pink fired their weapons at the cut on the opposite side. Red and GingaPink leaped up onto the monster's chest and plunged their swords into the wound. The combined pain caused the beetle monster to let out a roar, knocking all of them away.

The Rangers all gathered as the monster got back to its feet. "Alright, I say its time we finish this guy." GingaPink said.

"That means its time for the super finisher!" Blue declared. "Ready to go, Saya?"

GingaPink nodded. Blue then lashed the whip forwards, plunging it back into the monster's chest. Saya then hopped up onto the rope, balancing carefully. The whip suddenly straightened out, looking like it was about to snap.

"Galactic Launcher, Ginga Edition!" Blue said, before the whip suddenly pulled itself in, launching the two towards the giant monster. They were flung at incredibly high speeds and performed a double kick which seemed to go right through the monster. Torbagredor let out a roar of pain, before exploding into a massive cloud of fire.

"Nice!" Blue said, hopping up to give GingaPink a high five. The Rangers then watched as the smoke cleared, revealing two unconscious wolves, one grey and one white.

The six then turned back to Sambash who was still sitting on the amber piece, near the edge of the museum. "Well, looks like you beat him." The biker monster said as he stood up and picked the amber back up. "Shame, was hoping he'd smash you guys up some more, but we can't have everything."

"Give it up, Barban." GingaPink said, threateningly. "Give back the amber, and we'll let you go."

"Oh, sure." Sambash said. He then quickly raised a finger. "But aren't you guys forgetting something?"

A sudden red blur sped through the air, which was then followed by another similar red blur. The six Rangers watched as the blurs combined and then burst into a massive red explosion, reforming Torbagredor in the distance, now even more giant and with no wounds.

"Oh, damn it." Red muttered as the monster let out a roar.

"What's it gonna be, Zoorangers?" Sambash started. "Take me down and get the amber, or beat the giant monster and save the city? Either way, I win."

Blue glared at the monster for a moment. "Emily, Henry, go get those two wolves somewhere safe, we're gonna go finish that monster off."

"Come on, we can take Sam-" Pink started, before Blue turned to glare at her. "Alright, fine."

"We can't seriously be letting him go." Red said as he watched Sambash walk off.

"We can stop him later, we need to deal with this NOW." Blue said. She then turned to GingaPink. She held up the new whip weapon, which started to glow and then separated into Blue's blades and GingaPink's crossbow, alongside a new pink ZooTag. "Take your weapon. Go talk to Kat, see if she's remembered anything yet."

GingaPink gave a nod, and took the crossbow out of the rabbit's paws..

"She's over there." Red said in response, pointing over to ZooKitsune. "Alright, Blue, call up your mech and we can get this over with."

"Hey, don't leave me out of this!" Silver followed.

The two quickly summoned up ZooSagi and ZooKami. The fox and rabbit mechs fused together into ZooRobo, while the wolf mech quickly transformed into ZooOkami, both of them crashing into the ground outside the city.

Sambash looked on as he walked off, giving a light chuckle.

The monster let out a roar as it charged at the two mechs. They quickly held the monster back with their bodies, keeping it from getting any closer to the city. After a moment, Torbagredor pushed the two mechs back with enough force to knock both of them to the ground.

"Yikes, this guy is still strong!" Red said as both of the mechs got up.

"Well, that just means we have to put more muscle into it!" Blue replied. The two mechs stomped forwards, swords drawn, and started to slash at the monster.

Unfortunately, barely any damage seemed to have been caused, as the monster smacked ZooOkami back with a single punch.

"I think we should fuse together!" Silver said. "We might be able to take him on then."

"Just hold on." Blue ordered. "We just need to hold out for a tiny bit longer."

"Uh, okay." Red said. "You got something planned?"

"You know it."

The monster let out another roar, before it shot a laser burst from its horns. The lasers struck at the two mecha's feet, causing smoke and sparks to erupt. In response, ZooOkami stomped forwards, preparing to attack with its blade.

As the mech lifted its blade up to swing it at the monster, the beetle quickly gripped onto its metallic arm with one of its own massive arms. It then grabbed the other arm, and lifted the mech into the air, before throwing it off into the field.

The mecha crashed and rolled across the ground. "Uggh…" Silver let out as it finally stopped. "I'm not feeling that great right now…"

The monster then proceeded to stomp towards the red and blue mecha, preparing to attack.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Saya was looking for the mysterious pink wildcat. After a bit of searching, she had found the cat sitting out in front of the museum's gates. She was huddled up by the stone gates, ears drooping.

"Are you alright?" Saya asked, kneeling down.

"I remembered everything once you transformed." She said.

Saya paused, and then sat down next to the cat. "Me and Judy had assumed that something like that would trigger it." She said. "I suppose are assumptions were right."

"For what its worth, I had a lot of fun down here." The wildcat said with a chuckle. "I liked to talk, to look someone else in the eyes, to have someone really care about me."

"I've always cared about you." Saya said, patting the cat on the head. "You know that."

The cat giggled. "I know, but I felt like I was treated like a normal animal, and not some kind of super hero." She continued. "It was nice to experience what life is like for you, Saya, even if it was just one day."

The cat stood up, and looked off into the horizon, watching the beetle monster and giant mech fight. "They're going to need our help." Saya said as she stood up as well.

"I know." The wildcat said with a sigh. She then turned to look at the Gingaman. "When all this is done, can you tell Nick that I'm proud of him, and Max that I'll miss him?"

Saya nodded.

The cat took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a moment, they burst open, now completely orange. She then started to glow with a pink energy, before suddenly flying off into the sky. This was quickly followed by a spectacular pink explosion, and a much larger figure falling down.

A massive wildcat crashed into the ground, planted on all fours and covered in pink fur. It had glowing orange eyes, and paler pink skin. Unlike other giant objects used by Sentai Rangers, this one seemed to be mostly organic. The massive cat let out a growl, before GingaPink leaped up onto it.

"Alright, Gingat, let's go teach Barban a lesson!" GingaPink yelled. The cat then charged forwards, bounding through the city until it reached the outskirts.

"What was that?" Emily asked, her and Henry having just caught the entire event.

"Uh, don't ask me." Henry said with a sigh and a shrug.

The massive cat leaped into the field as ZooRobo and Torbagredor locked themselves in combat, the robot's blade to the monster's wrist. Gingat let out a roar as it leaped forward and tackled the monster in the side, knocking it down.

"Yes!" Blue shouted, pumping her fist.

"What the heck is that?" Red asked. "Looks like a big pink, rat."

"That's Gingat." Blue said. "You know, the robot we were looking for earlier?"

The fox paused for a moment. "Wait, why did it just show up now?" He asked, confused.

"We can talk about that later." Blue said. "Right now, we're gonna combine and beat the crud out of this guy!"

Gingat suddenly started to glow, and then transformed into a glowing ball of light. It flew at ZooRobo and merged into it. Inside, the cockpits shifted around as a third one rose up from below. The new platform was pink and had a large silver and pink cylindrical station on it, which in turn had a large silver spike jutting up from its middle. GingaPink stood in front of it, and then glanced around.

"Hey, you got anything there that could maybe plug into a slot on your thing?" Red asked.

"Uhh." The feline warrior said. She pulled out a small, pink, rectangular object, and spotted a hole that matched it on the cylinder. "Yeah, I think I do!" She quickly plugged the ZooTag in.

"GIN GA GIN GIN!  
FASTER THAN LIGHT!  
KIRA KIRA VICTORY!  
ZOONEKO!"

A new mech suddenly materialized. This one was feline shaped, and entirely pink. It was far more mechanical looking than Gingat had previously been, matching with the other mechs that they had gotten. It had the large ears that Gingat had previously had but was more svelte and looked more agile.

It let out a growl, before dashing forwards at the monster as it got back up, seemingly cutting right through it. The beetle monster fell back to the ground, groaning in pain as the cat mech reappeared behind him. It then leaped up into the air, and suddenly split in two. ZooRobo started to shift around as the new mech flew towards it.

The insides of the mech's body folded out to reveal panels that unfurled to reveal a large cat head. The two halves of the body then started to fold around each other, legs crunching into the hollowed-out section. Panels started to fold over the two chunks, turning them into arms, ending with what was previously the cat's head as hands.

The arms and chest piece connected, the later of which quickly opened up to reveal a pink facemask resembling a knight's helmet, complete with a pink plume. The mech smashed its fists together and then struck a pose.

"ZOOROBO, NEKO MODE!"

"You think something like that is going to be enough to beat me!?" The monster roared. "You couldn't even defeat me with your weapons, and you think you can beat me just by punching me!?"

"Yeah, I think its pretty safe to say we can." Blue said.

The monster was shocked by the response, and unable to reply. It let out a roar, and then charged forwards, aiming to pummel the mecha.

Just as it tried to throw a punch at the mech, ZooRobo ducked under the punch and quickly moved to the side, causing the monster to miss. Torbagredor was left confused and open for attack. The mech quickly jabbed its fists forward, punching at the monster's sides with incredible speed.

After just a moment of punching, there was a loud crack, and the beetle monster let out a screech of pain as it stumbled backwards. It inspected its side, noticing that a large crack had formed in its carapace.

"What!? How could this-!?" The monster said in disbelief. "How could you do this to me!?"

"Looks like he needs to PUNCH in more often!" Red joked.

"Speaking of punching in, how about we punch out?" GingaPink said, cracking her knuckles.

The mech dashed forwards and uppercut the monster in the chin. It then followed by unleashing a barrage of lightning fast punches as soon as the monster went into the air. It then punched with both fists, launching the beetle up even more.

"METEOR GALACTIC PUNCH!"

The mech rushed forwards, and then launched itself into the air with an uppercut. It grazed past the airborne monster, causing it to spin around. As ZooRobo passed, it kicked off the monster, launching the beetle back to the ground and sending itself up more. It then raised its fist, gathering pink energy in them, before flying downwards. It collided with the monster, causing a massive explosion to erupt.

Left standing was ZooRobo, who struck a pose.

"Nature, protected!"

* * *

"So, wait, Kat was actually the Gingat we were looking for the whole time?" Max asked as the six waited in the outskirts of the city. The massive Gingat sat patiently, looking up towards the stars.

"Yeah, me and Saya guessed earlier that something like that was happening." Judy said. "We didn't want to tell you guys because it would have gotten weird."

"Fair enough." Nick said. "But… how did that even happen to her? You can't just lose that much weight in a single interdimensional travel, right?"

"It could have something to do with the dimensional transit." Henry started. "We've only seen the Rangers from the other world bring inorganic objects over, and Gingat there is partially organic, right?"

"Yeah, she has an armored mechanical form." Saya said. "But we only use it when me and my team combine our Star Beasts."

"What if the transfer caused some kind of disruption in reality that caused her to transform like that?" Henry suggested.

"I've seen things like that in comic books and stuff." Max said. "Everything's pretty strange lately, so that could be likely."

"Wait, so does that mean that you guys would transform if you got brought here without your suits?" Emily asked Saya.

"…Listen, I have no idea, and I don't really want to know." The Gingaman responded.

A whistle sounded in the air, and the six turned to look up at the stars. The Rainbow Line had arrived and stopped in front of them. It had a massive box cart on it. The door on the passenger cart slid open, which was then followed by a massive grate sliding up on the box cart.

"I guess this is goodbye." Saya said to the others. She turned to look at Max. "Gingat wanted me to tell you that she liked how nice you treated her."

"R-really?" The wolf said, shocked. "Can you tell her… thanks?"

"I think she can hear you." Saya said with a giggle. She then turned to Nick. "And she wanted to tell you that she's proud of what you did today."

"Uh, yeah." The fox let out. "I appreciated her help."

Saya and Gingat headed for the train. She gave a quick wave to the five as the door closed, while Gingat let out a meow.

The train sped off into the night sky, and then vanished with a flash of light.

"We're gonna head back home now." Emily said, sounding tired. "Today was exhausting."

"I'm heading back too." Max said. "See you two tomorrow."

The three headed off, leaving the fox and rabbit behind in the field. "So, you managed to talk to ZooKitsune, right?" Judy asked as she turned to the fox. "What did it tell you?"

"Uh, mostly just self assuring statements." Nick said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Judy gave him an odd look. "But it said something about our big bad." He quickly added.

"Really?" She said, surprised. "How does a mech know about our villain?"

"Something about being connected to the planet's energy." Nick said. "I dunno, but the interesting part is that our bad guy ISN'T from another universe!"

"What!?"

"Yeah, apparently whatever is behind this has been from our world this entire time!" The fox continued.

"That raises a LOT of questions." The rabbit said, placing her paw to her chin. "How could something powerful enough to break through dimensions have existed here without anyone noticing…? Did it say anything else?"

"Well, she…" The fox paused in thought for a moment. "No, didn't say anything else."

"But you just started to-"

"I remembered wrong." He said. "I know nothing else."

"Alright." The rabbit said with a shrug. "I'm gonna have to do some serious investigating when we get home…"

The fox let out a sigh. Hopefully the other detail that he was told had nothing to do with this.

* * *

Yogostein sifted through a large pile of gemstones on the table. He let out a grumble as he lifted up what looked like a pearl. "Bah, idiot Sambash…" He muttered as he examined it. "'Oh, I only need real gems, can you sort the fake ones out for me?'" He continued in a whiny voice. "Should have said that earlier, I could have come up with something to help!"

He wouldn't have been as upset if it wasn't three in the morning and he wasn't even halfway through the pile.

He looked at the pearl very closely. "Fake." He said, before tossing it behind him. A much larger pile of gems laid behind the mechanical monster, consisting only of fake gemstones. Very profitable if they sold them on the black market, but otherwise worthless to Sambash's big plan. The pearl bounced off a large lump in the wall before falling into the pile.

"Gotta say though, guy can come up with a showstopping plan when he sets his mind to it." Yogostein said. "Hope he can actually pull it off!"

Yogostein pulled out a large sapphire and looked at it. "Definitely real." He said after only a moment. He pushed it over to a much smaller pile. Next was a large chunk of diamond. "Fake." He said almost instantly. "How do you fake a big chunk like this?"

He tossed it behind him, where it hit the large lump. The size of the fake diamond caused the wall to crack. Yogostein was unaware of this and was shocked as something crashed down behind him.

"What the hell?" The robot said as he turned around. His jaw dropped as he saw what had fallen.

A golden figure, emitting a large amount of light.

The figure got to its feet as its stretched its arms and neck. "Took long enough." It said, before turning to Yogostein.

"L-L-L-L-L-L-L…" The robot stammered.

The figure let out a laugh as it stepped forwards. "Let me finish that for you."

"Long is back."


End file.
